QuantumScape (NYSE:QS) reported first-quarter financial results on Wednesday. The transcript from the company’s first-quarter earnings call has been provided below.
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Summary
QuantumScape completed the installation of its Eagle Line production facility, commencing operations to produce QSC5 cells and plans to ramp up production in Q2 to support customer programs.
The company is working closely with major automotive players like Volkswagen and other top global OEMs, progressing through joint development agreements and field testing.
QuantumScape recorded its first customer billings from ecosystem partners, reflecting the strength of its capital-light business model and a growing interest in its technology.
The company is exploring new markets including AI data centers and defense, leveraging its solid-state battery technology’s superior energy density and safety.
Financially, QuantumScape reported a GAAP net loss of $100.8 million and an adjusted EBITDA loss of $63.2 million for Q1 2026, with customer billings at $11 million, and maintains strong liquidity at $904.7 million.
Management reiterated full-year guidance for adjusted EBITDA loss between $250 million and $275 million and capital expenditures between $40 million and $60 million.
Full Transcript
OPERATOR
Good day and welcome to QuantumScape’s first quarter 2026 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in listen only mode. After the speaker’s presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during this session, you’ll need to press Star one on your telephone. If your question has been answered and you’d like to remove yourself from the queue, simply press star 11 again. As a reminder, today’s program is being recorded. And now I’d like to introduce your host for today’s program, Sam Kamara, QuantumScape senior director Investor Relations. Please go ahead, sir.
Sam Kamara (Senior Director in Investor Relations)
Thank you operator. Good afternoon and thank you to everyone for joining QuantumScape’s first quarter 2026 earnings call. To supplement today’s discussion, please go to our Investor relations website at ir.quantumscape.com to view our shareholder letter. Before we begin, I want to call your attention to the safe harbor provision for Forward looking Statements that is posted on our website as part of our quarterly update. Forward looking statements generally relate to future events, future technology progress, or future financial or operating performance. Our expectations and beliefs regarding these matters may not materialize. Actual results and financial periods are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected. There are risk factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from the content of our forward looking statements for the reasons that we cite in our share of the letter form 10K and other SEC filings, including uncertainties posed by the difficulty in predicting future outcomes. Joining us today will be QuantumScape CEO Dr. Seva Sivaram and our CFO Kevin Hetrick. With that, I’d like to turn the call over to Siva.
Siva Sivaram
Thank you, Sam. First, an update on our Eagle Line. This is our highly automated pilot production line to demonstrate scalable production of our solid state lithium metal battery technology. In Q1, we completed installation of the Eagle Line and commenced startup operations. We are producing initial volumes of QSC5 cells and we have been working to continuously improve all aspects of Eagle Line functionality such as equipment, uptime line, throughput control systems and process stability. We’ve been integrating advanced AI models into the Eagle Line and we have seen substantive progress on cell quality and reliability. We believe that the increased production capacity of the Eagle Line will help drive a virtuous cycle of higher data volume, more rapid learning cycles and enhanced quality. In Q2, we plan to ramp QSC5 cell production to support customer programs across automotive and other applications. Development work for EV applications remains our core focus and our largest source of customer billings. We continue to work closely with the Volkswagen Group’s PowerCo as we advance through the phases of our automotive commercialization roadmap. The next phase is field testing. Cells from the Eagle line will be put through a demanding set of real world test conditions and that customer feedback will be used to learn and iterate. Beyond our work With Volkswagen in Q1 we shipped cells to an automotive Joint Development Agreement (JDA) partner for testing. We continue to work through our two Joint Development Agreement (JDA)’s with top 10 global automotive OEMs to bring our solid state lithium metal technology into their vehicle programs. In addition, this quarter we successfully completed our technology evaluation with another top 10 global automotive OEM customer. Their engineers performed hands on testing of our technology and ran competitive benchmarks against other solid state technology approaches. With the success of this effort, we are moving into the next phase of this engagement joint development activities with the ultimate goal of deploying QS technology in their automotive and other applications. Next, an update on our QS ecosystem. This is the cornerstone of our capital light business model. By teaming up with world class companies across the value chain, we can bring our technology to global scale faster and more efficiently. These alliances are a force multiplier for our commercialization efforts as we distribute our technology know how to trusted partners. We continue to work closely with both Maratha Manufacturing and Corning on scaling up production of our solid ceramic separator using our groundbreaking COBRA process to build a new global value chain necessary for GWh scale production of QS technology. Our ecosystem partners are also investing in QS proprietary hardware and systems to produce our ceramic separator. We see this as a clear sign of their commitment to our ecosystem as well as a source of customer billings. In Q1 we recorded our first customer billings from our ecosystem. Next, a word on new markets. We believe our high performance solid state design has compelling attributes to address the evolving energy storage needs of AI data centers. Where conventional lithium ion technology faces safety and performance limitations driven by massive compute demand. Data centers are transitioning to 800 volt DC designs and adopting power systems architecture and technology from the electric vehicle industry. We see this as a natural fit for our no compromise solid state battery in rack. Energy storage and power delivery is a large and fast growing market and the higher energy density of our battery technology can enable increased compute density for AI factories. In addition, we have seen strong customer interest in our battery technology from global players in the military, aerospace and government sectors. Our battery technology unlocks step change improvements in both energy density and power simultaneously. Combined with the superior safety of our solid state design. This is a highly attractive combination for these advanced applications. Our anode free architecture also has supply chain benefits for these customers. Conventional lithium ion batteries require graphite that is almost exclusively sourced from China. In contrast, our battery design is graphite free, eliminating a major pain point for defense applications. To conclude, I want to take a moment to look at the big picture. The world’s energy system is experiencing rapid change. The way we produce, store and use energy is undergoing a once in a century transformation from electric vehicles and AI data centers to grid storage, drones and aerospace, the future of the world economy is being built on electrification. Electrotech. To give just one example, the speed of change and growth in the AI data center market is breathtaking. The technology of the past is struggling to keep up and innovations in energy storage are essential to this transformational change. Thanks to our years of careful planning, consistent execution and constancy of vision, QS is in the middle of this electrotech story. From geopolitical disruptions to the energy system and supply chain risks for critical materials to the explosive growth of electrification across the world economy, the tailwinds for our technology have never been stronger. We believe we have the differentiated technology, world class team, ecosystem partners and customer relationships to capitalize on this revolution even as we tackle the challenges still ahead. Our dedicated team is motivated by a market opportunity that is global in scale and growing every day. We look forward to updating you on our progress over the months to come. With that, I’ll turn things over to Kevin for a word on our financial outlook.
Kevin Hetrick (Chief Financial Officer)
Thank you. Siva GAAP operating expenses and GAAP net loss in Q1 were 109.2 million and 100.8 million respectively. Adjusted EBITDA loss was 63.2 million in Q1 in line with expectations for full year 2026. We reiterate our adjusted EBITDA loss guidance of between 250 million and 275 million. A table reconciling GAAP …
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