AEye (NASDAQ:LIDR) released first-quarter financial results and hosted an earnings call on Wednesday. Read the complete transcript below.
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Summary
AEye reported a 60% increase in quarterly revenue year-over-year, driven by its software-defined architecture and long-range sensing capabilities.
The company’s revenue-generating customer count increased from 16 to 21, with significant growth in issued quotes and active engagements, particularly in automotive, trucking, defense, and infrastructure sectors.
AEye’s first-quarter GAAP net loss was $8.3 million, primarily due to higher stock-based compensation and professional fees, with a cash burn of $9.2 million.
The company reaffirmed its 2026 full-year cash burn target of $30 to $35 million, emphasizing its capital-efficient model supported by partnerships rather than owned infrastructure.
AEye’s strategic partnerships with Nvidia, Syntec, and others are strengthening its market position, particularly in defense, automotive, and infrastructure markets.
Management highlighted the importance of providing end-to-end perception solutions rather than just sensors, which aligns with customer demand for integrated capabilities.
The company is optimistic about future growth, with expectations of a revenue inflection in the second half of 2026 as customer engagements convert into program commitments.
Full Transcript
OPERATOR
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. My name is Joyce and I will be your conference operator today. At this time I would like to welcome you to AEye’s first quarter 2026 earnings call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker’s remarks, there will be a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question at that time, please press star key, then the number one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, press star key, the number one again. Thank you. I would like to turn the conference over.
Keen Olson (Investor Relations Manager)
Good afternoon and thank you for joining AEye’s first quarter 2026 earnings call. I’m Keen Olson, investor relations manager for AEye, and with me today are Matt Fish, Chief Executive Officer and Connor Tierney, Chief Financial Officer. Earlier today, AEye announced its financial Results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2026. A copy of the press release is available in the Investor Relations section of the company’s website. Before we begin, today’s discussion may include forward looking statements as defined in the securities laws and regulations of the United States with reference to future events, operating results or performance and are based on our current expectations and assumptions. Any forward looking statements are subject to inherent risks, uncertainties and changes in circumstances. Our actual results may differ materially from those contemplated by these forward looking statements. You can find more information about the risks, uncertainties and other factors in the reports. AEye files from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including in a most recent periodic report. The statements to be made are as of today only and AEye does not intend to update any forward looking statements regardless of any new information, future developments or otherwise, except as may be required by law. In addition, we will be discussing non-GAAP financial measures on this call which we believe are relevant in assessing the financial performance of the business. These measures are presented as supplemental information only and should not be considered a substitute for financial information presented in accordance with GAAP. You can find reconciliations of these metrics to the most directly comparable GAAP measures within the press release. Now let me pass the call over to Matt.
Matt Fish (Chief Executive Officer)
Thank you Keen and thank you all for joining our first quarter 2026 earnings call. The quarter unfolded exactly as planned. Steady execution, no surprises, and a commercial pipeline that continued to grow. Our ecosystem partnerships and manufacturing capability remain strong and we now have more commercial engagement than at any point in our history. Our funnel continues to be the best barometer to benchmark our progress as revenue tends to be a lagging indicator. As of today, our revenue generating customer count has grown from 16 to 21 since our last earnings call. I’m also pleased to report that both our issued quotes and active engagements have increased by nearly 40% quarter over quarter. These leading indicators New technical engagements, inbound RFIs and PoC activity across automotive, trucking, defense, rail infrastructure and Intelligent Transportation Systems are all moving in the right direction. These indicators are the data that investors should focus on to understand where we are headed. Quarterly revenue is up almost 60% year over year. This meaningful growth is driven by our software defined architecture and long range sensing performance and reflects the strong pipeline activity building behind it. AEye’s technology gives machines vision, the foundation of physical AEye and the prerequisite for every intelligent autonomous system being built. Today the market is potentially very large and is accelerating. Barclays projects the physical AEye market opportunity should reach as much as $1 trillion by 2035 and LiDAR is the enabling layer that makes it real. AEye software defined architecture positions us at the core of that ecosystem and the LiDAR sector’s ongoing consolidation has only strengthened our relative position. AEye is on stronger footing coming out of that consolidation than going in Better capitalized, leaner in structure and with a commercial pipeline that continues to expand, automotive industry appears to be squarely shifting toward AI driven safety and software defined vehicle architectures and we believe long range LIDAR is becoming essential to that architecture. Not optional. Apollo offers best in class detection range when operating behind a windshield and is the only sensor we know of to be customer proven to reliably detect objects at distances of up to 1km. Our OEM engagement has increased driven by recent robotaxi investment announcements, growing trade policy implications and supply chain resilience concerns. With OEMs in the passenger vehicle segment actively seeking domestically sourced alternatives. AI’s manufacturing partnership directly addresses that demand. Multiple new RFIs horizons you won across both passenger and commercial vehicle segments and OEMs have begun to reengage as L3 and L4 roadmaps are being reactivated and expanded in ground mobility. Evaluations by autonomous trucking companies are deepening. Multiple companies have programs underway and we are now shipping sensors into those evaluations. Apollo should be well suited to serve this expanding addressable market in transportation and infrastructure. Optus is now live at an active intersection in California in partnership with FlashEye and BlueBand. Additional US Smart intersection deployments are in progress. Our APAC expansion strategy is also progressing. An Australian S POC has advanced into a discussion of commercial terms. In Korea, we recently concluded a successful customer roadshow engaging with more than 10 OEMs across its rail and mobility sectors. Our business partnership with AEye Technology, Inc. in China remains strong and we have four additional customers now evaluating our Apollo LIDAR product in Defense, active shipments continue with an existing US Contractor for UAV wire detection. Repeat business is emerging within that account and Apollo is being evaluated for additional applications including UGV and Counter UAV with an expectation of multiple new RFQs. A significant development this quarter is our new commercial relationship with Syntech, a global defense systems company with established ties to meeting defense Primes. Syntechh is actively promoting Apollo to its customers and initial shipments are already underway. This partnership has the potential to unlock international defense and aviation markets outside of the United States, meaningfully expanding our addressable pipeline while complementing the domestic engagements we have already built. What drives Selection across all of these verticals is consistent AI’s proven and reliable 1km detection range with unlimited software driven adjustability. That flexibility is paying dividends. For example, a Defense customer that initially engaged us for a single UAV wire detection application is now evaluating Apollo across three separate use cases without any change to the hardware they have already deployed in the field. This is a key differentiation factor that drives customers to select AI Stratos, the newest addition to our product lineup extends our capability up to 1.5 km of detection range with 500 meter performance behind a windshield at a disruptive price point through our manufacturing partnership with light on AI supply chain is globally diversified providing the flexibility and resilience to navigate geopolitical risk and shifting trade policies that we believe our peers cannot match. Our tech stack is derived from off the shelf telecom components which allows us to compete on cost while delivering the mass manufacturability and high performance our customers require. We continue to build on our partnership with Nvidia as it is the cornerstone of our automotive and industrial market positioning. Apollo is validated on Drive AGX Orin and has been demonstrated on Drive AGX4, Nvidia’s next generation centralized Automotive compute platform In March we joined the Nvidia Halos AI Systems Inspection Lab, the world’s first ANAB accredited AI systems inspection lab. ANAB accreditation is generally viewed by OEMs as a critical marker of confidence, reliability and quality assurance within their supply chain. Our Optus platform, powered by Nvidia Jetson Orin, extends our reach into infrastructure and industrial markets via our diversified software ecosystem. We are giving infrastructure and industrial customers a ready made path into physical AI without having to build perception capability from scratch. I will now turn the call over to Connor to review our first quarter result.
Connor Tierney (Chief Financial Officer)
Thank you Matt. Our strong commercial momentum is broad based showing up across or full addressable market rather than any single vertical. Our active customer base now spans defence, intelligent transportation, rail and logistics and security. A level of diversification we did not have a year ago. And the quality of that growth matters as much as the breadth. We are also seeing a growing pattern of repeat business across the customer base, a meaningful signal of product market fit and a direct validation of the performance advantages of or architecture. Our commercial progress is beginning to attract broader institutional attention. We added new sell-side analyst coverage this quarter and we are seeing a meaningful increase in both sell side and buy side interactions. An external signal that the commercial activity we have been describing is registering with the investment community. The revenue ramp is in its early stages, but the underlying metrics building behind it give us confidence in the trajectory ahead. Before I move to the financials, I want to spend a minute on what we are increasingly hearing from customers in my role bridging the financial and commercial sides of the business. This has become one of the most important strategic aspects investors are interested in right now. Customers today are not buying a sensor, they are buying a solution. The question they are asking is no longer whose lidar has the best spec sheet, it’s who can help me deliver the end to end perception capability that my application needs faster and with less integration risk. That shift is showing up in nearly every RFI and RFQ we see. A customer in the security industry recently put it to us bluntly, they don’t want to buy from a hardware company, they want to buy from the front end solution provider that integrates everything. That dynamic applies across all of or target markets and it is exactly the model AI has built. Financially the implication is meaningful. We do not need to absorb the cost or balance sheet impact of acquiring or building those capabilities orselves to deliver a complete perception solution, a real efficiency advantage as we scale. The proof is in the deal flow. We are seeing a healthy uptick in customer demand for a full end to end physical AI solution, not just a standalone sensor. We have been able to assemble those solutions through or partner ecosystem with a speed and breadth that we believe or peers, constrained by what they own internally cannot match. And as or recent customer additions illustrate, this model is working meaningful. New programs in defence infrastructure and adjacent mobility have come to us through or alongside or partners. Moving on to Financials. The first quarter 2026 revenue was $101,000 up almost 60% compared to $64,000 in Q1 2025 and up slightly versus Q4 2025 first quarter GAAP operating expenses were $8.9 million compared to $8.3 million in Q4 2025, reflecting higher stock based compensation and professional fees alongside continued investment in go-to-market and deployment execution. First quarter non GAAP operating expenses were $7.4 million, slightly lower than $7.5 million in Q4 2025, primarily due to lower payroll costs partially offset by increased professional fees. We reported a GAAP net loss of $8.3 million or $0.18 per share in the first quarter compared to a GAAP net loss of $7.3 million or $0.17 per share in Q4 2025. The increase was primarily driven by higher stock based compensation and professional fees, partially offset by lower personnel costs. On a non GAAP basis, or net loss was $6.7 million or $0.15 per share, essentially flat compared to a non GAAP net loss of $6.8 million or $0.15 per share in Q4 2025. First quarter cash burn was $9.2 million up from $7.5 million in Q4 2025, primarily reflecting Q1 seasonality. Our manufacturing model, built on Tier 1 partnerships rather than owned infrastructure, continues to keep or cash burn among the lowest in the sector. We ended the first quarter with cash cash equivalents and marketable securities of approximately $77.2 …
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