Solid Power, Inc. Q4 FY2025 earnings call

• In 2025, made progress in electrolyte sampling with demand from existing and new customers, announced a joint evaluation agreement with Samsung SDI and BMW, and provided electrolyte to SDI. - Advanced electrolyte development road map with completion of ordering long lead equipment and detailed design for continuous electrolyte production pilot line, expected to be installed and commissioned by end of 2026. - Continued execution under agreements with SK On, completed factory acceptance testing and near completion of site acceptance testing at SK On's facility. - Deepened understanding of electrolyte performance, identified process engineering and electrolyte improvements, and tailored electrolyte to customer specs. - Demonstrated cells and solid-state battery technology in a BMW i7 test vehicle in May 2025. - In 2026, intends to strengthen relationships with partners, continue electrolyte sampling with Samsung SDI, complete site acceptance testing of SK On line in first quarter, commission continuous electrolyte production line by end of 2026, pursue potential partnership for commercial scale electrolyte production in Korea, enhance electrolyte product competitiveness using Electrolyte Innovation Center, and remain fiscally disciplined with strong balance sheet.

In 2025, Solid Power delivered revenue of $21.7 million, an increase of $1.6 million compared to 2024. Operating expenses were $122.6 million, resulting in an operating loss of $100.8 million and a net loss of $93.4 million or $0.51 per share. Capital expenditures in 2025 totaled $10.2 million. As of December 31, 2025, total liquidity was $336.5 million, an increase of $9 million from year-end 2024. During the fourth quarter, $56 million of net proceeds were raised under the ATM program, bringing total 2025 net proceeds from the ATM to $88.8 million. For 2026, cash investment is expected to be in the range of $85 million to $100 million.

• 2026 cash investment is expected to be in the range of $85 million to $100 million. - Expect to commission continuous electrolyte production line by end of 2026, designed to expand annual electrolyte production capacity to up to 75 metric tons. - In 2026, intend to pursue potential partnership for commercial scale electrolyte production in Korea, evaluating partners with process capabilities and capital. - Successfully completed a $130 million registered direct offering which strengthened liquidity and strategic flexibility.

Q: Could you talk a little bit about your cycle times and evolving the manufacturing process at this point? And what other levers you have within the platform to continue to accelerate some of that development?

A: We've run a variety of batch sizes, which will directly affect the cycle times. We have a very rapid turnaround in our electrolyte innovation center. In that center, we do 2 kilograms or less depending on what the customer request is but we can turn those batches in days. When we look to the larger batch sizes, and we typically run between 40 and 50 kilograms in our current SP2 batch facility, and the cycle times on those run approximately a week, again, depending on batch size and the specific parameters that we're trying to control.

Q: As you look at the different form factors that could deploy the technology at the cell level, could you talk a little bit about efforts that you're seeing on the horizon and interest that you're seeing from incremental customers to diversify some of the form factors you're working on?

A: But quite honestly, we haven't seen a great diversification yet, although we could envision as some of these newer segments beyond EV are considering all solid-state batteries that they could take prismatic format or others. Right now, it's primarily pouch across all of our engagements with primarily EV customers.

Q: I guess if you're talking about -- I just want to make sure I heard you right, the SK On pilot line is up and running by the end of 2026. And what is that -- how should we think about '27 and '28 as sort of we hear more about ASSB batteries in these vehicles and sort of not in the United States part of the world, but other parts of the world. I guess should we think of '27 as a jumping off point? And if we do think of '27 as a jumping off point, against the burn that you kind of guided to for this year, should we think about you guys as having enough capital to get to that jumping off point? Or is there still too involved in here to sort of have certainty around that?

A: SK On has specifically -- when they did their ribbon cutting at the pilot facility last year stated that they wanted to have SOP for their batteries in 2029 and that's a 1-year pull-in from prior public statements around ASSBs. So I would envision -- I'll let SK On talk to the details, but just knowing what we know about the time and takes to get from where we are to 2029, I would expect 2027 to be, again, a strong development year at the cell level and then probably '28 being more mature leading up to the SOP in '29. And in terms of our runway, you have seen us shore this up. We did give guidance for this upcoming year of $85 million to $100 million in terms of cash investment. And then if you look at where our ending liquidity is plus with our proceeds from the RDO, we think we're well positioned to be able to work with our partners and be sufficient on that, but we are continually looking at our runway and ensuring that we can be there for our partners.

Q: Looking at the pilot line and the strengthened balance sheet, are you able to leverage the balance sheet at all to kind of accelerate the time line for the line? Or is it less dependent on capital availability.

A: I believe we are in a good position in our balance sheet that if there were to be an opportunity that would allow us to shorten the time line to be able to be in commercial production. We certainly are there. We can make those long-term investments at this point in time. Obviously, we will continue to be opportunistic in the capital markets and as well, focus on our own cash burn so that we should be in a good place. For clarity's sake, though, the line is installed in SK On's facility in Korea, and they will begin running that line by themselves largely with our just support once SAT is completed. So any additional capital improvements or those sort of things will be their responsibility for that line. But as Linda said, if there's something that we could do to assist, we'll certainly consider that moving forward because of the strength of our balance sheet.

Q: Just on existing partnerships, can you just touch on any upcoming milestones you might keep an eye out for as those processes move forward this year?

A: I think we've established through the announcement last fall with BMW and SDI, our preferred approach moving forward to expand these partnerships where we are dealing directly with the OEMs to create the demand in the platforms, but then really have the Tier 1 battery partners step in and provide the batteries with us providing the material and some of the expertise to achieve performance targets. So that's our preferred model going forward, and we would like to duplicate that in other areas as we move forward. I would also, though, point to the comments earlier in the prepared remarks, and that is around our intention to explore potential JV partnerships around the electrolyte manufacturing in Korea with a target of a 500 metric ton annually capacity through a partnership with Solid Power bringing the technical expertise, the IP, the process knowledge and then relying on the partner from a manufacturing and capital standpoint. So that would be the other partnership that I would point to for 2026. I look for some developments there as we move through the year.