AEye, Inc. Q4 FY2025 earnings call

2025 marked an important year for AI in building the foundation for commercial scale. It expanded customer base, increased engagement activity, and delivered revenue growth. The company strengthened its balance sheet, ending the year with nearly $87 million in cash. It launched multiple products like Optis and Stratos. Expanded into various markets including non-automotive, with opportunities in defense, aviation, transportation, and infrastructure. CES 2026 generated over 130 high-quality leads. Apollo and Stratos are built around a 1550 nanometer architecture. Partnership with NVIDIA deepened. Ended the year with $86.5 million in cash, fully repaid the 2025 convertible note and eliminated legacy warrants, making the company virtually debt-free. Fourth quarter GAAP operating expenses were $8.3 million, non-GAAP operating expenses were $7.5 million. GAAP net loss was $7.3 million, non-GAAP net loss was $6.8 million. Cash burn outlook for 2026 is within the range of $30 to $35 million.

Expect full-year 2026 cash burn to be between $30 and $35 million. Anticipate increasing momentum towards a revenue generation inflection point as technical engagements translate into volume commitments and revenue ramp.

Q: Can you talk about the big jump in your customer base this quarter and your pipeline?

A: The 16 active customer number reflects growing activity in the non-automotive pipeline. There's a sizable jump in outbound proposals to customers, with interest broad across market segments and more customers and paid POC projects expected.

Q: Are there any new developments on the Davidian partnership and how it adds value?

A: The relationship with NVIDIA continues to deepen. At CES, Apollo was shown integrated with NVIDIA's Thor platform, and the company joined the Halos AI lab, which increases momentum and commitment to quality, safety, and readiness required for automotive.

Q: Can you talk about the pull-through from CES on LIDAR?

A: CES was incredibly positive. There was a huge spike in interest in automotive OEM passenger vehicle and trucking markets. OEMs asked about readiness for mass manufacturability, and the partnership with Light On struck a positive chord.

Q: What kind of CapEx range are you modeling for 2026?

A: It should be relatively low, probably at least under the million-dollar range due to the company's capital-light business model.

Q: Can you give us some idea of the percentage split between hardware and software and how that may change over time?

A: Predominantly hardware-based right now, but starting to shift into the software piece with Optus. Vast majority of revenue is still hardware revenue, but there's opportunity to upsell for customization.

Q: What application or application sets does the partnership with NVIDIA on the Halos ecosystem address?

A: It's targeted at the automotive space, bolstering commitment to robustness, functional safety, resiliency, and reliability in the automotive space, positioned under the broader umbrella of Hyperion.

Q: Can you quantify the $30 million global transport win?

A: The process is stretched out over 2 - 3 years due to the newness of the technology. Expect back half of 2026 to do initial deployments, and some contribution in 2027.

Q: Were any of the customers gained related to Optus and Stratos in 2025 and what about milestones for 2026?

A: Numbers include Optus. Stratos is in the early stages, with opportunities in defense, locomotive, etc., and expected to expand later in 2026 and into next year.

Q: Do you see the automotive LIDAR interest benefiting you?

A: Interest has jumped, with two RFIs inbound, and the technology is agnostic for different levels like L3, L4.

Q: Are there opportunities with the new long-range product in trucking, rail, etc.?

A: There's demand for medium-range LIDAR in trucking, and Apollo is a good fit for such applications.

Q: What are your thoughts about other people in the LiDAR space combining cameras with their solutions?

A: Focused on building great LIDAR that unlocks new use cases and visibility that camera doesn't provide