Aeva Technologies Inc Stock

Thank you. and a member of our team will be happy to help you. Good day. My name is Stephanie and I'll be your conference facilitator. I would like to welcome everyone to today's AVA Technologies second quarter 2026 earnings conference call. During the opening remarks, all participants will be in a listen-only mode. Following the opening remarks, we will conduct a question and answer session. As a reminder, today's conference is being recorded and simultaneously webcast. I would like to now turn the call over to Andrew Fung, Senior Director of Investor Relations and Corporate Development.

Andrew, please go ahead.

Thank you, and welcome everyone to AVA's second quarter 2026 earnings conference call. Joining on the call today are Soroush Salahian, Ava's co-founder and CEO, and Saurabh Sinha, Ava's CFO. Ahead of this call, we issued our second quarter 2026 press release and presentation, which we will refer to today and can be found on our investor relations website at investors.ava.com. Please note that on this call, we will be making forward-looking statements based on current expectations and assumptions, which are subject to risks and uncertainties. These statements reflect our views only as of today and should not be relied upon as representative of our views as of any subsequent date. These statements are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations. For further discussion of the material risks and other important factors that could affect our financial results, Please refer to our filings with the SEC, including our most recent Form 10-Q and Form 10-K.

In addition, during today's call, we will discuss non-GAAP financial measures, which we believe are useful as supplemental measures of AVIS performance. These non-GAAP measures should be considered in addition to, and not as a substitute for, or in isolation from GAAP results. A webcast replay of this call will be available on our company website under the investor relations link.

And with that, let me turn the call over to Suresh. Thanks, Andrew, and good afternoon, everyone. Q2 was another strong quarter at Ava. We continue to build on our leadership position with more milestones delivered to our customers and partners and important expansion into new areas leveraging our same core technology developed in the last decade. In particular, we announced today our entrance into a very exciting new market beyond sensing applications that I will talk more about in a bit. Reflecting our commercial momentum, we achieved another strong revenue quarter with continued strong sensor shipments and NRE higher than the previous year. With demand for AVOS technology continuing to grow, we are progressing on the targets we set this year to scale our manufacturing.

And we are working on ramping across our supply chain from our CM partners to foundries and component suppliers to support higher volumes to meet demand. We also strengthened our balance sheet in June with a fall-on equity offering that brought our total available liquidity to over $300 million at the end of Q2. We believe this further differentiates and positions AVA to support our current customers to commercial deployment and expand our commercial traction across the board. I would now like to highlight recent achievements and business developments. First, we are excited to announce the launch of the AVA Optical Connectivity business, which is our expansion to a new market that leverages AVA's high optical power source and silicon photonics technology to enable next generation AI data centers. AVA has spent the past decade developing and proving out our proprietary laser-based technology for the automotive and industrial applications. Because our technology is built on the same foundational technology used in the telecom industry, it uniquely positions AVA to repurpose it without significant development to pursue the massive data center market opportunity as the major AI compute companies like NVIDIA, AMD, and Hyperscale, such as Amazon, Microsoft, Google, in addition to optical connectivity, where we believe AVA can provide differentiated solutions to achieve the increasing performance, power efficiency, and scalability requirements for AI data centers.

Earlier this year, we published a paper detailing the industry-leading performance of AVA's high-power optical source technology. Since then, we have moved quickly to meet growing interest from leaders in AI infrastructure and AVA's capabilities. In just a few short months, we have been working with a number of AI chip companies and optical solution providers to hyperscalers to validate some of those capabilities and the results so far have been very encouraging. We have been able to demonstrate how AVOS technology can deliver across stringent key metrics, required high optical power, low noise, reliability, and power efficiency in a scalable solution to address the rapidly growing bandwidth and power demands of multiple next-generation AI data center architectures, including near-packaged optics and co-packaged optics, or CPO. And I am thrilled to share today that we have just signed a key joint development agreement with a leading provider of high-speed optical engines to integrate AVUS technology into a near-packaged optic solution for a major hyperscaler with planned commercial deployments as soon as feasible with the potential to start initial volumes in 2027 and ramping in 2028. This is a significant validation of the performance, maturity, and scalability of Ava's technology, and we believe it will advance the business we are launching today, including our other ongoing engagements across the industry. The potential scale for this market is large, and we believe a deployment like with this deal, once qualified at the hyperscaler, has the potential to exceed multiple millions of units annually. revenues in the multiple hundreds of millions of dollars per year.

To support the significant potential for optical connectivity, we plan to leverage Ava's existing manufacturing and foundry supply chain for volume production. We've also established a dedicated team with Pradeep Srinivasan, AVA's VP of Photonics, taking an expanded role as Senior VP of Optical Connectivity. Pradeep has been instrumental in developing and industrializing AVA's silicon photonics IP, and together with the team will enable AVA to accelerate the development, deployment, and adoption of optical connectivity. With our technology team and the growing commercial interest, we are very excited about the future of optical connectivity and plan to share more updates on this as we progress. Now, moving to automotive. We also made really good progress across our key automotive programs this past quarter. On Diamond Truck, we continue to scale shipments of production intent at the sensors to the OEM for their AV stack validation ahead of series production. Importantly, we have begun manufacturing at our fully automated assembly line at Jabil in North America. major milestone towards Ava's readiness and ability to scale manufacturing for automotive and others, including Diamond Trucks Production Program.

In passenger vehicles, we've also progressed on milestones with the delivery of our Atlas Ultra systems and continued integration work for joint stack development with a top 10 European passenger OEM production program, as well as with NVIDIA on the Drive Hyperion platform. Our collaboration with Bendex has also progressed to a critical next stage. BANDEX has selected to use AVA's 4D LIDAR and perception software and integrate them into its next generation ADAS series production system for key added safety functionality for trucks, such as collision mitigation across a broader range of scenarios and nighttime driving. Bendex is the leader in commercial vehicle ADAS. Its current Bendex Fusion, which is a vision and radar based system, is the market leading collision mitigation and active safety solution in North America. It is available on most of the 300,000 Class A trucks that are sold annually in North America alone. And with Bendix having the goal to make its next generation ADAS system standard future for the flagship models of their major OEMs, names like PACCAR or International, this selection not only highlights how the industry continues to adopt LiDAR to improve performance, but it's also also a strong validation of the manufacturability and the cost-effectiveness of AVA solutions in level 2 plus ADAS applications, where LIDAR has traditionally not penetrated yet.

Now turning to factory automation, we reached an important milestone with another customer launch of Aver product, our EVE sensor. This quarter, SICK-AG, one of the largest industrial sensor providers globally, commercially launched its first industrial sensor using AVA's EVE precision sensing system. This is part of our long-term strategic collaboration with SICK to leverage AVA's advantages, such as immunity to ambient light and sensor-to-sensor interference, to deliver more precise and reliable measurements across a broader range of environments at scale. In addition to SICK, we continue to see strong interest for our precision technology from leaders in manufacturing and factory automation and are working towards converting these engagements to commercial awards in the near term. Separately, in defense, we continue to support Forterra's Autonomous Ground Vehicle, or AGB, programs as they transition from time of flight to AVA's 40 LIDAR for long-range and velocity detection. as well as for vehicle positioning and stealth operational capability in GPS-denied environments. This quarter, we also progressed on other opportunities with major defense companies and organizations beyond ground applications, including, for example, on aerial autonomy. forward to sharing more on these in the coming months. And last but not least, in smart infrastructure, we continue to seek good traction with the recently introduced Ava City OS, our AI-powered platform for real-time intelligent traffic management.

Following our first large-scale deployment in the Atlanta, Georgia area, the City of Fargo and North Dakota selected us to deploy CityOS to improve roadway safety and traffic management, leveraging 40 LIDAR's ability to operate in inclement weather such as snow, fog, and rain, and all lighting conditions. AVA's ITS team is also active with other DOTs and municipalities, and we believe that our differentiated solution will continue to penetrate for additional deployments. So in summary, we achieved a lot this past quarter, and our differentiated technology and balance sheet positioned us to further solidify a leadership position in the industry as we execute on our commercial momentum. Now, before I turn the call to Saurabh to walk through our Q2 financial results, I wanted to say a few words on the CFO transition we announced today. Saurabh, who joined Ava six years ago as our CFO, will be moving on in September to pursue a new opportunity outside the sensing industry. I want to personally thank him for his many contributions to Ava, including his role in helping to take the company from early public stage to where we are today. And we wish him all the best on his next role.

We have already initiated a search for a permanent successor, which will be announced separately once complete. In the interim, Rupesh Maheshwari, our VP Corporate Controller, will step in as interim CFO. Rupesh brings more than 20 years of accounting and finance leadership experience at large and growing technology companies and will work alongside alongside Surob to ensure a successful and seamless transition. With that, let me now turn the call over to Surob.

Thank you, Srooj, for your kind words. And good afternoon, everyone. Now on to Ava's Q2 results. As demand for our unique technology continues to grow, Ava's financials also reflect the building momentum of the business. our expansion to an exciting new market opportunity, and the continued financial discipline as we execute on our plan. Revenue was 6.1 million in Q2, driven by continued strong product shipments and contribution from NRE as we delivered sensors and achieved milestones with a growing group of customers. Non-GAAP operating loss was 26 million this quarter, which is close to prior year levels and reflects our target to maintain operating expenses at similar levels to up slightly year over year, while continuing to scale the business. Due to gross cash use, which we define as operating cash flow, less capital expenditure was 31.4 million. In June, we raised gross proceeds of 115 million in a follow-on equity offering.

This brought a total available liquidity at the end of Q2 to 302.9 million. With this liquidity position and our differentiated technology, we believe Ava is uniquely positioned in the industry to continue building our momentum, including into exciting new markets such as optical connectivity and meet more of the growing demand for Ava's technology. And finally, as this will be my last earnings call at Ava, I wanted to say that it has truly been an honor to serve as Ava's CFO over the past six years. I am very proud of what we have built as a team, and I look forward to following the growing momentum and continued success of the company.

Let me now turn it back to Soroush for his closing remarks. Thank you, Sourabh. In closing, I'd like to thank the Ava team for delivering on our key achievements in Q2. Ava's unified perception platform continues to gain the trust of a growing list of leaders across multiple markets. Our ability to launch optical connectivity and realize commercial traction so quickly is indication of the scalability of our technology and the execution of our team. As we continue to expand, we remain laser focused on the objectives we set out at the beginning of this year. Achieve milestones on existing programs while adding new wins, scaling manufacturing to support increasing demand, and maintaining financial discipline as we grow. We have made strong progress on the first half of the year and are well positioned to deliver on these objectives in 2026.

With that, let's now turn to Q&A. interest of time, we do ask that you please limit yourself to one question. And once again, that's star 1 to ask a question. And we'll take our first question from Colin Rush with Oppenheimer and Company. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Thanks so much guys and Saurabh, congratulations on the transition. Gus, can you talk about with this development agreement what the key technical hurdles are that you're going to be addressing here over the next 12 to 18 months to really get ready for commercial ramp?.

Yes, Colin, this is Suresh. Happy to answer that. So obviously this is, you know, I would say amazing. major customer went for us here and you know, rapid progress. I would call it lightning speed in the past few months for us to get to here. I think the key focus has been for us first showing that we have the capability and working and validating that with actual customers including the chip companies as well as hyperscalers that I mentioned in the call. And we have been engaged with the key players in this period as well. So key for us is we see a massive opportunity using the same core technology in terms of what we call high power optical resources, using our laser-based solutions, as well as our silicon tectonics technology, that we have spent the past 10 years, past decade developing and really proving it out for automotive, industrial, and those applications. So now we're leveraging this to launch this new business. of connectivity for an integration of the solution into the hyperscaler and data center environment.

And key focus for us is, you know, we've seen the feedback really very encouraging because the validation is there. We have a ton of data on reliability and field testing. And importantly, we have a a different approach and I can get into this a little bit more later, but the approach allows us to effectively provide and meet the very strict requirements, providing high optical power, low noise, reliability, efficiency and importantly scalability to really meet what needs to be done. So the key focus, what I'm trying to get to is, the technology is proven. Obviously we have to do some development to make sure, for example, with this customer and this joint development, that the solution and our high power sources and photonic solution, integrate properly so you know some some joint development integration work together on that and And we're doing that as fast as possible because the hyperscale wants to deploy this immediately. And with that, we go into the qualification and once qualified, then this is going to go into scale. And the timing here, I mean, I mentioned on the call briefly is in the next number of months, next few months here, we're doing these activities, this joint integration, then we'll do the qualification.

But the goal and what the hybrid scaler wants to do is as early as second half, next year, 27, to start the initial deployments and then from there scale up into production for 28. So that's kind of the short answer. And the potential obviously here is massive because this is a very top three or four hyperscaler with millions and millions of units.

there is going and can I just pick up on that that last comment there you know certainly you know that that volume of units is substantially more than you would have been able to produce in your other end markets and I'm just curious about the potential impact on cost structure for you guys in terms of being able to reduce cost and pass that on or drive market share and some of your other applications and the capacity of your partners to help you scale up to those volumes.

Yes, absolutely. I think this is a crucial point, right? Because, What we have done with the product here is focus on solutions at the chip level that are very cost effective. As a matter of fact, when you look at kind of what's out there, A lot of the focus has so far been on using, investing heavily in the laser sources to achieve high power. And without going into too much of the technical details, to do that, there are certain trade-offs you have to make. The size of the dies get bigger, we need to align multiple of these to get a number of wavelengths or a lot of power out. You know, these things get, larger more alignment is needed all this impacted in the day the yields which hits the cost and as well as the repeatable scalability of the solution I Our approach is quite different. That allows us in a way to have smaller size dyes and ability to actually provide high-power optical way without having to have as many let's say chips per the solution. And we see that that allows for much higher yield, much higher repeatability and reliability as well.

So that's, I think one of the, the key differentiations for us. Obviously, as we go into millions, the cost structure already said, we have existing foundries. That's where our focus is next, is on the foundries, on manufacturing partners to scale the volume. And these foundries already are very capable. And we have secured some of the capacity we already need to deploy in the market and are working to increase that given this massive pull in potential with this new deal that we have. So that's going to be going to be the focus and it absolutely costs already are at a very competitive way, given what I mentioned. But we, of course, going to be using that economy as well. scale to also then drive down the cost and really help with the next generation of sensing side as well for all of our other products.

Thanks so much, guys. Thank you. And as a quick reminder, if you'd like to ask a question, please press star 1 now. Our next question will come from Matthew Picouli with Canaccord Genuity. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

Hi guys, congrats again on a great quarter and best of lucks Rob. Maybe just to continue on to Colin's question. just give us a little detail around, you know, what you expect the revenue model to be for the optical connectivity business? You know, how should we think about it from an ASP perspective? And, you know, some details around that would be appreciated.

Yes, I'm happy to answer that. So at a high level, I would say I mentioned on the call, obviously we just signed this deal and we were very excited about it. And the key focus here is we see the potential for ramp up starting in 27, you know, the back half, second half of 27 and then wrapping into 20. the way we see this, the volume forecast from the hyperscaler is quite massive, right? And, you know, in a short answer, I think whatever supply that we can provide, I think we have opportunity to sell it. That's what I would say. But what that means is the expectation is this ramping, you know, from the start into 20. with minimum of millions of units that, you know, go in production. And we're talking about multiple units. And that would result, translate into multiple hundreds of millions of dollars of revenue. Both of these figures are annual.

So multiple millions of units annually and multiple hundreds of millions of dollars annually revenue-wise, opportunity-wise. So that's why it's a massive opportunity. I think the key for us is being able to do that without a ton of significant revenue development or reconfiguration is where we see the ROI as being quite interesting for the company and why we're launching this new business. So that also should give you a rough sense, obviously, on the ASPs, but that's where I would solve in terms of the numbers.

Great, thank you. And then maybe just to switch gears, you know, you've made a lot of progress with Bendix. If you could just give us a little more color around, you know, what that program will look like, the content per vehicle, what the ASPs are, to the extent that you can share, we'd appreciate that.

Yes, sure. So you're right. I mean, I think the team has been firing on multiple cylinders. I think automotive is progressing really well as well, not only executing our existing programs, trucking down the truck, top 10 European passenger, but also we are making additional traction with a new opportunity. So Bendex is the market leader for commercial vehicle ADAS technology. And we have been working with it for some time. We have now advanced into a critical next phase, which effectively they have selected us for leveraging our 40 LiDAR to provide new functionality for level two plus ADAS on commercial vehicles. These functionalities will specifically are aimed to enable new types of emergency breakings like passenger emergency braking or nighttime driving and such. So just better functionality for the end customer.

And Bendex is part of the large tier one, and it's a market leader in North America for ADAS solutions. There's about 300,000 class A trucks, and with their Bendex fusion system, which today so far has been vision and radar based, they have a majority market share on that and a lot of their customers already use their product on their flagship vehicle models as standard any other customers are the likes of paccar navistar international and all that where they are shipping in volume already for many many years so there i think the opportunity for us is a significant one. It uses the same exact sensing product atlas for antennas for trucking with Daimler. We're going to be using the same exact automated line in JABL and just using that capacity and economy scale to then ship that product in there. And from obviously content per vehicle, I would say this is think of it as it's somewhere similar between. It's a product between a passenger to a commercial vehicle product, so it's not going to be thousands of dollars, but it's also not very, very small. So part of that is because we're helping to augment the system and with the aim to actually replace not just, you know, add a new sensor, but also replace other modalities between radar and camera.

So that's kind of what we see. And I think BANDEX, just so you know, also is targeting to make this as a standard technology feature for the factional yams in terms of the ADAS functionality for the next solution.

Thank you. We'll take our next question from Joe Moore with Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

Yes, thank you. Kind of wondering on this optical connectivity, you know, when you talk about starting a group around optical connectivity, like how much resource do you want to put into this? Is this a, you know, a major pivot for the company, do you think? I know you're going to continue to invest in your automotive and industrial businesses, but just, you know, do you need to scale up?.

scale up R&D around this opportunity given the size of it? Hey, Joe. Yes, this is Suresh. Happy to answer that. I think obviously this is an important launch and investment for us, but I think the key here is we're really reusing, as I mentioned, all the core components we have already developed in the silicon photonics and the high-power sources, and also our manufacturing partners and capabilities we have already established. established with our foundries, with our CMs, folks that are actually due to module assembly. So we're going to be leveraging a lot of the work that's already been done and all the investments that have already been done. So that means we don't need to invest a ton of capital and also importantly, a lot of development resources and time to go and make something complete from scratch. That's why I think we are able to move very quickly. So that's number one. Number two, I think from a resource standpoint, investment standpoint, of course, you know, this is – we are serious about this.

We are going to be investing some, and we are hiring in this area. I think obviously with MENA's leadership as well as with Pradeep now being promoted, I have full confidence in the team to now go and – execute on this and scale up this business. And we're going to be making sure that we help that. And with this team, we're going to have resources that are dedicated. So we also make sure that we have both keep the focus and priority on the existing programs and automotive with the top 10 passenger OEM with Daimler, but also have, you know, separate basically resources that can work on the software connectivity so that we don't distract or lose focus on the other side. So short answer, yes, we will invest. It won't be massive amounts, but also we're going to take it seriously.

Great, thank you. And is there a difference in content between NPO and CPO as you migrate the technologies?.

Yes, that's a good question, Joe. I think – so the way we think about this is we're forming this team and this group to – generate product and solutions for optical connectivity in general. There's going to be combination of optical sources, including, you know, optical laser sources, on-chip integrated sources, as well as over time looking at additional capabilities with called ELSFBs, external laser small form factor plugables. And I think that those have always been massive opportunities, different levels of ASPs and and we're very excited about that. So I think this is an area where Both of these for near package optics and core package optics actually use the exact same core tech and source that we have developed in some of the silicon photonics with some additional integration that we need to do on the back end of it. So that's why we're able to use the same. And with this deal that we have, obviously intention initially in your package optics, but also working on other things.

for core package and others as well. Thank you. We'll take our next question from Casey Ryan with Amerix. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

Hi, gentlemen. First time for me, but very exciting series of updates. Um, Can I just ask you in the defense space, do you see that as being a market for just new and newly developed platforms or do you see some sort of larger retrofit and current weapons platforms or vehicle platforms?.

that could all be enabled with self-driving features? Yes, happy to answer that. I think we see actually across the board both. We are working already with companies like Fortera that have embedded ground vehicles on the ground. Some of those are retrofits, right? Which is basically taking a vehicle and retrofit them with a autonomy kit. That autonomy kit includes three or four AVA lidars for 360 degree coverage. I think there we're making a lot of good progress. Very excited about that. You know, vehicles are already being deployed to the military.

They're already starting to be commissioned and used, which is, I think, pretty fast for the defense space, given we just announced this beginning of the year. And, you know, that has resulted, because of some of the advantages we have, We talked about this besides velocity sensing, long range, but also ability to see, operate in GPS-AI environments, but also not have any issues with night vision goggles. So no interference with that, like compared to what they've been using so far or prior to us, we are seeing some additional traction in others. And I think both on the ground, but also specific some of the applications in the aerial space that the team is working on. And I think I'm also excited about that, which I think could result into more meaningful opportunities to piggyback on this. So it's not going to be a one-off thing. So we are seeing that demand for defense to also grow.

So, and as we are, you know, locking those down, we'll also be sharing that.

in the coming months. Okay. Yes, terrific. That's helpful color on that space. And I just wanted to ask, like, I understand that Class 8 for trucking is where probably the biggest CapEx dollars are and the most road miles are spent. But I'm just wondering, you know, we are seeing some autonomy and progress in the sort of class six and seven and sort of lower classes. Do you think Ava has a place in those markets as well? I assume the answer is yes, but I'd be curious if that sort of looks different than what class eight offers. Yes.

Yes, I think we have. Obviously we're engaged in multiple programs and opportunities, not specific only to class A, different kinds of vehicles and different classes. And the way that that you know I would think about it is. It's a common platform. It's being used for whatever you need to do autonomy, and if you need to do autonomy in a bigger vehicle or smaller vehicle once you know you have something that's qualified, especially with like large players that kind of set the industry standard like Daimler truck or I think that allows us to also get these other programs. So the team is working with others. Some of them include for things around you know, on road, but also off road or yard sale or things like that, yard environments. So those not all have the same class of vehicles. So that's... the way I would look at it.

Obviously, when we first got into autonomy, it was initially about long-range sensing and velocity, but for us, as we have gotten the automotive capability and proven technology and product out, we are seeing more demand from others as well, which I think is just going to be tucked into the programs.

Thank you. We'll take our next question from Richard Shannon with Craig Hallam. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

Great guys, thanks for letting me ask a couple questions. And first off, just love to say, so Rob, congratulations on your new job. We're going to miss you. It's been good working with you for the last five years. I jumped on the call late here, so apologies if I'm completely repeating a prior question here, but the JDA you signed with an optical connectivity is very interesting to me. And I guess I'd love to understand, since you phrase this as a JDA, what needs to happen here in order to be fully qualified and to hit the timeframes by which you're expecting to deploy in the second half of 27? And then also, following on one of the questions I did hear, is this solution expected to be in ELSFP format or something more component-enabled?.

nature? Yes, Richard, having to answer that, we talked a little bit about it, but I can I can expand a bit on it so. YOU KNOW, WITH THE SOLUTION WE HAVE WITH OFF-TO-COMMUNICATIVITY AND THIS DEAL IS OBVIOUSLY A MASSIVE DEAL AND OPPORTUNITY FOR US. WE'RE VERY EXCITED ABOUT IT. WE'VE MOVED AT LIGHTNING SPEED HERE. I think the key effort here really is we're going to be working together on integrating our core optical technology, including hyperoptical sources and platonic technology into this optical engine. That's going to be going to the hyperscaler. And the capabilities really is around obviously see, you know, data transfer, optical data transfer, specifically for near-package optics. So, that's kind of the first application where we see there's a lot of volume that's being allocated, and I think that's why we see also near-term opportunity being quite interesting.

Did I? The hyperscaler wants to go as fast as possible, so the effort here is working together with the chips and the integrated solution and the optical engine, qualifying that with the hyperscaler in the next number of months with the goal that by second half of next year, release and initial volumes going into 2028 for production ramp so that's kind of what we what we are pushing for now and you know the team is already keeping the efforts up and I think importantly we're going to be using the core technology and the chips that we have without making a ton of changes and that's something that's important and crucial in our ability to move faster. So that's part of the JDA is integrating that in that way to make that happen.

Okay, fair enough. Hey, a follow-on question on the topic of SICK here. Sounds like they had a first product launch here. We'd love to get a sense of the overall contribution that you expect with them over time. I would assume that we're going to see more product launches from them in the future. If you could just characterize how we should kind of look for them over the medium to long term.

Thank you. Yes, happy to answer that. So SIG obviously has been a strategic partner of ours in collaboration. in the past number of years. And we're very pleased to see that this is resulting into actual product launches and portfolios. SICK is already releasing the first product using our EVE sensors with the 1D, which is basically the distance sensing, displacement sensing. And the feedback so far has been very promising from the end customers. And we do expect that over time to scale in the next 12 to 18 months, both additional volumes. But also, as you mentioned, we have been working on other products together, which will help to replace some of the other things, like, you know, things that measure speed. for example, encoders, different types of measurement devices, and there are actually portfolio products that SICK has that we are also working to use, leveraging the same exact sensor, EVE Suite, but in a different configuration, what we call 1V, which is measuring velocity.

That's also the other piece that we're working together on and we hope that that's going to be maybe one of the follow-ons as we are wrapping up and wanting to look out for. Separately from that, we are engaged also with others in the space that have shown a lot of interest. And I think that is going to help to create, I think, a nice segment for us. So as we were able to talk more about that, we will.

do so in the near term as well. Thank you. This concludes our question and answer session and today's meeting. We appreciate your time and participation. You may now disconnect.

This live transcript is auto-generated without human intervention or review.

[Call has ended.]

Good day. My name is Chloe, and I will be your conference facilitator. I would like to welcome everyone to Aeva Technologies First Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, today's conference call is being recorded and simultaneously webcast.

I would now like to turn the call over to Andrew Fung, Senior Director of Investor Relations and Corporate Development. Andrew, please go ahead.

Thank you, and welcome, everyone, to Aeva's first quarter 2026 earnings conference call.

Joining on the call today are Soroush Salehian, Aeva's Co-Founder and CEO; and Saurabh Sinha, Aeva's CFO.

Ahead of this call, we issued our first quarter 2026 press release and presentation, which we will refer to today and can be found on our Investor Relations website at investors.aeva.com. Please note that on this call, we will be making forward-looking statements based on current expectations and assumptions, which are subject to risks and uncertainties. These statements reflect our views only as of today and should not be relied upon as representative of our views as of any subsequent date.

These statements are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations. For a further discussion of the material risks and other important factors that could affect our financial results, please refer to our filings with the SEC, including our most recent Form 10-Q and Form 10-K.

In addition, during today's call, we will discuss non-GAAP financial measures, which we believe are useful as supplemental measures of Aeva's performance. These non-GAAP measures should be considered in addition to and not as a substitute for or in isolation from GAAP results. The webcast replay of this call will be available on our company website under the Investor Relations link.

And with that, let me turn the call over to Soroush.

Thanks, Andrew, and good afternoon, everyone. Q1 was a strong quarter at Aeva, where we achieved another new quarterly revenue record as we continued executing on our growing commercial momentum. With the rise of physical AI and more industries looking to leverage new levels of perception, Aeva is uniquely positioned with our FMCW LiDAR on-chip technology to tap into a broader and more diverse range of applications than what is possible with conventional LiDAR.

This quarter, it was especially exciting to see our commercial momentum progressing and expanding to more real-world deployments. This is not only helping drive our strong revenue trajectory, but we believe also further positions Aeva to continue our commercial growth with a growing list of customers. In automotive, we achieved important milestones with our customers on their path towards commercialization and production. With Daimler Truck, we began deliveries of our production-intent Atlas product, which highlights the maturity of Aeva's technology and is a critical step for the OEM's work towards series production.

And in passenger vehicles, we successfully integrated first Atlas Ultra sensors in the top European OEM's development vehicles and are jointly working on the AV stack development with this passenger OEM. Outside of automotive, we are growing in defense across multiple fronts, including expansion with Forterra to use Aeva's technology in a second autonomous ground vehicle as they look to leverage our long-range and velocity measurements and notably our wavelength undetectability by night vision systems.

We're also seeing interest in other applications in defense, such as drones for further expansion. In smart infrastructure, we recently unveiled Aeva CityOS, our AI-powered platform for real-time intelligent traffic management. Reception has been very positive, and we have already won our first large-scale deployment in Georgia. And on factory automation, we are seeing growing momentum with multiple customers. Our multiyear collaboration with Nikon is entering its next phase of commercial deployment with Nikon recently launching its next-generation robotic inspection laser radar system called APDIS MV5, which is powered by our Eve high-precision technology.

This is part of a multiyear production agreement to use Aeva's technology for automated inspection in factories for automotive, aerospace and energy industries. Beyond all of this, we continue to advance on new opportunities to use our technology platform across multiple physical AI applications. Our focus remains on delivering on existing programs, further solidifying a leadership position with additional wins and scaling manufacturing to support the expanding demand for Aeva's differentiated technology.

Now let's dive more into Aeva's recent business developments. Starting first with Daimler Truck. As the exclusive long-range LiDAR supplier and primary detection sensor for Daimler Truck's production program, Aeva played a critical role in bringing their highway Level 4 solution to market. And we continue to work very closely with Daimler Truck as well as with Torc, which are developing the AV stack.

The start of Atlas C-sample deliveries to Daimler Truck this past quarter marks a major step forward on the OEM's path to commercialization. This is our production-intent sensor for Daimler Truck's series production trucks and will be used by the OEM to finalize the AV stack validation and operation ahead of their target launch in 2027 and the following production ramp-up. For Aeva, it also represents a major achievement that demonstrates the maturity and readiness of our technology for mass scale automotive-grade deployments. We are on track to scale deliveries of our Atlas sensors to Daimler Truck over the course of this year, which will support the OEM's vehicle fleet rollout and additional milestones ahead of series production.

Moving now to the latest development in automotive with the global top 10 passenger OEM based in Europe and other automotive engagements. First, on the top European passenger OEM program, where we are the exclusive LiDAR supplier globally outside of China for the OEM's next-generation Level 3 production program. We have been collaborating closely with both the OEM and the OEM's AV stack provider and in the past quarter, began integration of Atlas Ultra in the OEM's development vehicles. This has been going on track and will be used to jointly develop and mature the AV stack.

We expect to deliver additional sensors this year to support the OEM's ongoing development and fleet rollout ahead of target start of production in 2028. The top European passenger OEM selection of Aeva for its large-scale Level 3 program continues to serve as a strong vote of confidence in our technology and our growing maturity to the rest of the automotive industry. We are encouraged by our ongoing engagements and over Q1, continue to grow our pipeline. This includes our progress on the development program with a global top 5 passenger OEM that we announced last quarter.

The work is focused on the configuration, integration and validation of our Atlas Ultra sensors for the OEM's next-generation global vehicle platform. We have successfully completed the initial set of milestones and we'll continue working with this OEM towards the next-generation vehicle program.

Separately, we have kicked off our collaboration with NVIDIA following their selection of Aeva as the reference sensor for the DRIVE Hyperion platform. Aeva is the reference LiDAR sensor globally outside of China, which has the potential to effectively make Aeva a core LiDAR supplier to many leading passenger and commercial vehicle OEMs using the NVIDIA platform globally.

As part of this, we are working together on one common platform comprising of the same sensor suite, meaning one common set of cameras, radars, LiDARs and NVIDIA compute and autonomy software to offer to these leading OEMs and AV players. And in the past quarter, our teams have made good progress on the integration of our FMCW technology into DRIVE Hyperion stack, including working together to implement our velocity data path in the DRIVE Hyperion platform.

So in summary, we continue to advance on multiple automotive engagements, including other passenger programs and high-volume ADAS Level 2 for commercial vehicles. We continue to believe that Aeva is well positioned to secure additional wins given our differentiated performance, balance sheet and commercial momentum, bringing further validation of Aeva's capability and maturity.

Switching gears to other physical AI applications. Aeva is quickly expanding in defense with Forterra, a leading provider of autonomous ground systems for defense and other complex operational environments. Since announcing our win with Forterra last quarter, I'm pleased to share that Forterra is expanding use of Aeva 4D LiDAR to its newest autonomous ground vehicle called MESA.

MESA integrates 4 Atlas sensors for surround view and leverages our long-range and velocity detection, vehicle positioning and stealth operational capability in GPS-denied environments. Beyond the growing demand for AGVs, we're seeing new interest in drones and working on opportunities to expand further with existing customers as well as new engagements with defense companies and organizations on both autonomy applications.

Over the past quarter, we have also been expanding deeper into the smart infrastructure market, particularly around Intelligent Transportation Systems or ITS. This is a growing market opportunity as municipalities across the country look to modernize infrastructure to be safer and more efficient.

In just the U.S. alone, there are around 15 million intersections and more than 300,000 traffic signals. This is why we launched Aeva CityOS, a full stack intelligent traffic solution that combines 4D LiDAR with edge AI processing and analytics in collaboration with our partners. Compared to traditional ITS solutions, which rely on cameras, radar or inductive loop sensors, CityOS leverages the advantages of Aeva's 4D LiDAR to enable operation in all lighting conditions and deliver more advanced detection while preserving privacy.

We are very encouraged that CityOS is quickly gaining traction with DOTs and municipalities across the U.S. We have already secured our first large-scale deployment in Georgia with an expansion to 30 additional intersections in the Greater Atlanta area. This expansion comes after a successful initial rollout across multiple intersections surrounding Centennial Olympic Park and others. The area is one of Atlanta's busiest pedestrian corridors where we believe CityOS can help improve roadway safety and traffic operations.

Aeva's ITS team is also actively working with other programs and municipalities on new opportunities, and we believe that our differentiated solution will drive additional deployments over the course of this year. In precision sensing, we are incredibly excited to see Nikon's first commercial laser radar product powered by our Eve precision sensing platform. With Aeva, Nikon's next-generation APDIS laser radar system is capable of faster measurements in a smaller, more flexible size, which enables Nikon's major automotive OEM customers, aerospace and energy production partners to shorten production times, cut costs and improve quality for volume production.

This product is the start of a multiyear production agreement to use Aeva's technology in Nikon's products. More broadly, the flexibility of our Eve precision technology is driving new interest to use Aeva across manufacturing and factory automation for a diverse set of industries from automotive to energy production and semi-capital equipment manufacturing. We are engaged with multiple customers on additional opportunities and working towards converting those to design wins as we expand in precision.

With that, let me turn the call over to Saurabh, who will discuss our Q1 financial results.

Thank you, Soroush, and good afternoon, everyone. Consistent with how Aeva is delivering on our commercial objectives, our Q1 financial results also reflect our growing momentum. This includes achieving a new record revenue quarter of $6.3 million in Q1, which represents an increase of around 90% year-over-year, driven by scaling sensor shipments across multiple markets and progression on development milestones for major customers.

The non-GAAP operating loss was $25.8 million in Q1, which is about flat year-over-year and highlights our ability to maintain operating expenses at similar levels versus the prior year while continuing to scale the business. Gross cash use, which we define as operating cash flow less CapEx, was $28.1 million in the quarter. Our total available liquidity at the end of Q1 was $224.5 million, which consists of $99.5 million in cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities and $125 million in an undrawn facility that is fully available to draw at management's sole discretion.

We continue to believe that our performance and liquidity position differentiates us from peers and together with our ongoing financial discipline enables Aeva to support ongoing programs as well as secure new wins.

With that, I will turn the call back to Soroush for closing remarks.

Thank you, Saurabh. In closing, I am really proud of how Aeva is expanding its leadership position with increasing real-world deployments of our unique perception platform across a wide range of industries. Looking ahead, as we continue to see growing commercial momentum and an increasing list of opportunities to pursue, we are keenly focused on execution, both with existing programs and new engagements, while also scaling our manufacturing to support more customers and the increasing demand for our products and differentiated technology platform.

And with that, let's now turn to Q&A.

[Operator Instructions] And we'll take our first question from Colin Rusch with Oppenheimer & Co.

Guys, can you just give us an update on the progress with SOA and CPO solutions for data center? We continue to see data management and transport expense ramping pretty aggressively for all applications. Just want to see where you're at from a commercialization perspective with that and how we can think about that coming to market over the next few years.

Colin, this is Soroush. Yes, happy to answer that. So obviously, the data center market is a massive market and a number of opportunities. I think maybe just a quick background here. I mean, as most of us know, the first wave of the AI data center market really started with all the semiconductor companies and the GPU and compute processing driven by faster compute needs. And the second wave and bottleneck arose from memory and high bandwidth storage, right?

And I think as we're now going to higher and higher speeds, what's become clear is that there's a certain limitation on how much we can transfer data between data centers and racks. And I think this next bottleneck really is going to be relying heavily on optical interconnects because that's where copper hits a physical limit to transfer data center -- data within data centers.

So I think this is obviously a significant, I think, next wave that's coming on. It's a massive opportunity. And why this is relevant for Aeva, I guess, as we mentioned, is because we've spent the past decade creating and perfecting some of the best high-power sources and proprietary silicon photonics technology and making it so that it works to meet the harsh requirements for automotive, right?

And we did it because it simply did not exist. And I think what we are seeing now is those components, our proprietary technology for high-power sources and silicon photonics has a significant advantage potentially for both performance and cost efficiency compared to what's on the market. So we're seeing some strong -- very strong interest for high-power sources and silicon photonics from some of the big players in the space, from folks that are making the GPUs like the obvious NVIDIA and AMD to some of the hyperscalers, Amazon, Meta, others.

And I think Aeva has a unique technology there in how we do those sources and the silicon photonics. We are looking now to take those investments we've made in the past number of years and apply it to the CPO market. But I think initial data is really promising on the performance of those high-power sources. And we're looking to apply that as we can talk more about this in the next years, we will. And -- but I think it's overall a massive opportunity for us where we are definitely going to be taking advantage of.

Perfect. And then just moving on to other physical AI applications. We're seeing factories as a prime target for optimization. Given the fact that you've got a couple of partners and started delivering with Nikon now, can you talk about the potential acceleration in that market segment with metrology solutions and how we should think about new build versus retrofit applications for the sensors?

Yes. Yes, happy to. I think in general, we are seeing for the industrial market and general physical AI significant demand across multiple segments for us. I mean, as you saw in the earnings today, it's not just about automotive right now where we are seeing significant traction, but in the other physical AI, including both in the industrial market for Eve sensing. We have now the first commercial product of Nikon coming online into the real world and shipping.

Nikon already does [ $300 million ] in just robotic inspection and metrology alone, and we obviously, we're taking higher ASPs there than automotive with the mix of volumes. But also, we're seeing interest and demand from others importantly in the Eve sensing market for, for example, semi-capital equipment manufacturing, where there's significant investments.

It kind of relates back to some of the infrastructure on the AI side we talked about. But folks are using our sensors already in some of those semi-cap factories for various things, wafer measurements, quality control, all that. So I think that opportunity is definitely picking up. We're already shipping in the 1,000-plus type of sensors in the Eve side. There is orders coming in for that as well with a much higher volume. So this is definitely an area that we're going to continue to grow.

And then separately, on the other side of physical AI, I guess, on the ITS and smart infrastructure, we're seeing growing demand for CityOS. Within the past quarter, we've already had some wins. We are starting to deploy some of the large-scale deployments in Georgia. So multiple segments. And of course, defense is the other one that we're seeing double-digit growth pretty quickly there. So we're excited by all the progress. All that means, though, obviously, we're focused on scaling and manufacturing in the next phase as we bring up the products to [ massive ].

We'll move next to Suji Desilva with ROTH Capital.

Soroush, Saurabh, congratulations on the progress here. Just with getting closer on the auto -- passenger auto OEM and moving toward working on the software and the stack development, I'm just reminded earlier in the auto industry where there was challenges of the software development between the auto OEM and large programs, maybe Volkswagen and CARIAD, those kind of concepts. I'm just curious how you think it's happening differently now that's going to be more likely to hit production schedules and move forward versus having challenges? Any color there would be helpful.

Yes. Suji, happy to answer. So obviously, on automotive, we are firing on multiple cylinders, right? We -- within commercial vehicles, we shipped our Atlas C-samples to Daimler Truck. We just announced that today. It's a critical milestone for the industry because these are the production-intent sensors and products. And I think it's going to be one of the first OEMs that we use for redundant chassis with production-intent hardware and sensors for the AV stack.

On the passenger car side, in the last quarter, obviously, we just announced the win with a top 10 European OEM, top 10 global OEM, which is based in Europe. And we have made very good progress across the teams. We are working together with them and one of the AV stack partners. We've delivered the first Atlas Ultra samples for integration. I think the key right now is in the next number of months, we're going to be working together on implementing the sensor data into the stack and also doing fleet operations, fleet runs on the vehicles.

And I think all that is pointing to the program being really progressing well on track. If you also look at the time line, we're not that far away from SOP, right? By 2028, the time line target is in the SOP, and we're progressing all pretty well to that. So it's kind of around the corner. So the teams are working very intensely together with on-site support and multi -- multiple times weekly engagement.

So that -- all that, I think, is progressing good. On the pipeline side, we are also seeing growing interest on the pipeline with both passenger when we talk about the top 5, but also on commercial vehicles and on ADAS applications, not only Level 3 autonomy, but also high-volume ADAS Level 2 as well.

That's great. And then my other question, Soroush, is on the defense market and drones. Defense market, curious your go-to-market strategy. You partners there. Are you a subcon? How are you tapping that opportunity? And then specifically on drones, it sounds like it's a very interesting opportunity, but I'm curious, does the Aeva product translate to the flying vehicle drone market easily? Or are there kind of changes that we made? Any color there would be helpful.

Yes. So I think in defense it's definitely an area that we're seeing significant growth in demand in the market. I think in the past consecutive 2 quarters since we announced even our first win in defense, defense has been a significant contributor of our shipments and also revenues, some of them double-digit percentage of product revenues. And I think Forterra is obviously one customer, our first win in there, and we talked about that they're expanding on multiple vehicle platforms.

These are more ground vehicles or AGVs, where we have significant advantage with our technology as well as our wavelength compared to time of flight. That's why this is accelerating pretty quickly. If you recall, this kind of moved on from obviously, engagements and then to win to shipments and deployments with a matter of less than 60 days or so. So it's moving pretty quickly.

But beyond that, as you mentioned, this is obviously not the only area in defense. We are acting as the Tier 1 supplier to these defense companies and innovators. So obviously, we're not the prime, but we are the tier supplier to them. But we are seeing significant interest and growth also in the drones applications. We already have some engagements there. Our technology with this long-range has some significant advantages and the velocity with the fact that also it's stealth in terms of detectability by night vision.

So we are seeing that, and we are having some engagements with some of the, I would say, larger prime organizations that have significant investment and budget for drones application. So as we can, also talk about that, we will.

We'll move next to Matthew Paciulli with Canaccord Genuity.

Congrats on another great quarter. Maybe just to start, I think on the last call, you guys had mentioned 4 commercial wins in 2026 you were targeting. Is it safe to assume that CityOS is one of those wins? And could you just provide us an update on how those conversations are going?

Yes, Matt, happy to. So I mean, to be honest, we have had multiple wins since the beginning of the year. I think the way also how we count that matters for us, with Forterra as the first win in defense. If you look at also NVIDIA and CityOS, we have had multiple wins. We are counting right now, I think, Forterra and NVIDIA on that. And so we're already ahead of track in terms of the 4 goals. And that was obviously aggressive because it was 100% or double from last year, I think, in terms of the targets for goals, but we're well ahead of the schedule. And I think more importantly, as we are growing and maturing also as a company, we see that it's going to be less about just the number of wins.

Of course, these are targets we set for this quarter, but really responding to the growing demand across multiple segments and focusing on those main leaders with high volume and near-term potential as well to expand that. But I think we are overall progressing very well on track on the 4 targets we have.

Great. I appreciate the clarity there. And maybe just as a follow-up, on CityOS, appreciate the commentary on just the market size behind that. Do you guys kind of foresee any potential bottlenecks associated with getting this product out globally? It seems like it could be very dependent on kind of time lines and funding of municipalities and such. If you could just provide some color as to how those deployments are going and how those time lines and sales cycles work?

Yes, happy to. I think as a data point, as a time line, we started entering this market really towards the end of last year. And it's only been a few months since that time frame with the team that we have brought on and the ecosystem capabilities that we have, we've been able to introduce this new solution, which is importantly a total solution.

It's a comprehensive solution, not just LiDAR, it's sensors, compute and perception software and analytics software, working together with our partners to deploy that. And obviously, ASPs there for the solution is much, much higher than automotive. So I think in the span of a few months, we've had multiple wins there.

We talked about already our first win with Georgia and deployments. It's one of the first large-scale deployments in the state, over 30 intersections, which is significant. But also the team is continuing to grow this, I think, fairly quickly in the space. And part of it is because of the experience and the conversations that have been happening for some time.

The other part is there is this growing interest and demand from both at the state level and at municipalities level to modernize traffic management and traffic flow. These are things that have been around for a number of years with very basic technologies like inductive loops in the ground to detect vehicles. So obviously, that's very ripe with better perception of sensing right now, and there's significant, I think, budgets and resources allocated for that.

So from a timing standpoint, we're seeing that already. And right now, our focus you asked about internationally is in the U.S. Obviously, each country has different rules and regulations. So over time, I think we may expand into other areas. But U.S. alone has over 15 million intersections and 300,000 signalized traffic signals today. And you do the math, these are multibillion-dollar opportunities, and that's why it's one that we are going after. So we do expect that it's going to continue to contribute also to our growth in the near term as well.

We'll move next to Richard Shannon with Craig-Hallum. Richard, you may need to check the mute function on your device.

How's that? Is that working now?

Yes.

We can hear you.

Okay. Sorry about that. I wasn't on mute, but just glad it's working now. Thanks guys for letting me ask a couple of questions here. My first one, Soroush, is regarding -- kind of similar questions here regarding both the top 10 OEM for which you have a win in the top 5, which I guess I'd characterize it as an advanced engagement here. But I'd love to get a sense from you what to expect from announcements and updates in the next couple of earnings calls here, either in terms of finalizing designs and hearing about forecast with the top 10 OEM or getting to and announcing a win with the top 10 OEM. Just want to get a sense of what we should hear in the future.

Yes, yes, happy to talk about that, Richard. So obviously, on the top 10 OEM, this is a production program that we have already won, and we have already started the first phase of development there that's been going -- progressing very well. I think in terms of what's coming down, I think -- I guess, as I mentioned a bit earlier, the key focus right now is enabling the OEM and the AV partner to go and build the fleet with the full AV stack, including the FMCW technology and do the validation across different regions and make sure that all the KPIs are met and get that ready for launch.

And we don't have -- it's a short kind of time frame between now and 2028. So it's in automotive world, that's pretty much lightening speed. So that's moving pretty quickly. I think in terms of what to expect, obviously, as we make those progress, I think, into those milestones for the fleets, and we can talk about that, we will. And I think at some point, that's expected in the next number of months that's coming online actually. So that's important.

And then on the other opportunities, top 5 and others, we are engaged. Obviously, we delivered on top 5, the Atlas Ultra sensors as well. And we're working through the integration and the validation and testing. I think there, obviously, that's not one program yet, and we have to see how that progresses with the final decisions towards RFQ, but we're working towards the next-generation vehicle.

But we're also, beyond these are engaged in multiple other Level 3 automated driving, but also ADAS, which is really Level 2, which typically LiDAR doesn't really penetrate, where we see some interesting opportunities where these will be very high-volume opportunities across passenger and commercial vehicles. So multiple OEMs, they are engaged.

Some are in the RFI and some more on the RFQ, but we expect that in the next few months, some of those will make decisions as well. So -- and we are feeling good and well positioned. And I think our goal is that, obviously, as part of our goals for the 4 wins this year that we have automotive wins included in that.

So that's what we also expect that at least additional win in automotive for hopefully, the rest of this year that's come online. And I think overall, all indications have been pretty positive for the developments we have had so far.

Okay. To your last comments there, Soroush, you mentioned this briefly in the press release as well here about looking at L3 or even ADAS Level 2 here, which is interesting because you typically talked about and seem to be targeting more advanced levels of autonomy. And you typically, I think, have talked about a bit of a higher ASP than what other solutions might offer here. So being able to hit that pricing envelope is pretty interesting there. So I'd love to get a sense of whether you see the pricing looking attractive for you? And any way that you would characterize or quantify the number of programs you're looking at for the kind of these lower levels of autonomy?

Yes, sure. I think you're definitely spot on there, Richard. I think in this space, Level 2 and ADAS typically and historically has been enabled more by vision and maybe radar solutions. I think one of the advantages as we have, obviously, is we kind of have a laser radar product, right?

So it's -- we call it 4D LiDAR, so with additional velocity. I think we have multiple engagements there on the ADAS side. What I'm excited by is the fact that our solution beyond just price, which is I think is an important piece. And as we are getting into towards the automated production, we have always said that our economies of scale will enable us to go after higher volume markets and lower level ADAS is part of that.

So I think from a price point structure standpoint, it's definitely made possible by our investments we have made on the core technology, our core vision as well as Atlas and Ultra lines. But I think we see that both on commercial vehicles and passenger. And I think at least between the programs that we have, I expect one of those to make the decisions this year coming up.

So I think those are -- would be for, basically, think of it as more advanced automatic emergency braking, scenarios where cameras suffer like nighttime, pedestrians, automatic braking. And typically, those are higher volumes in the 100,000-plus type run rate that we talk about.

And we've reached the end of our Q&A session for today's event. Thank you. This brings us to the end of today's meeting. We appreciate your time and participation. You may now disconnect.

Good day. My name is Stephanie, and I will be your conference facilitator. I would like to welcome everyone to Aeva Technologies Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2025 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, today's conference is being recorded and simultaneously webcast. I would like to now turn the call over to Andrew Fung, Senior Director of Investor Relations and Corporate Development. Andrew, please go ahead.

Thank you, and welcome, everyone, to Aeva's Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2025 Earnings Conference Call. Joining on the call today are Soroush Salehian, Aeva's Co-Founder and CEO; and Saurabh Sinha, Aeva's CFO.

Ahead of this call, we issued our fourth quarter and full year 2025 press release and presentation, which we will refer to today and can be found on our Investor Relations website at investors.aeva.com.

Please note that on this call we will be making forward-looking statements based on current expectations and assumptions, which are subject to risks and uncertainties. These statements reflect our views only as of today and should not be relied upon as representative of our views as of any subsequent date. These statements are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations. For a further discussion of the material risks and other important factors that could affect our financial results, please refer to our filings with the SEC, including our most recent Form 10-Q and Form 10-K.

In addition, during today's call, we will discuss non-GAAP financial measures, which we believe are useful as supplemental measures of Aeva's performance. These non-GAAP measures should be considered in addition to and not as a substitute for or in isolation from GAAP results. The webcast replay of this call will be available on our company's website under the Investor Relations link.

And with that, let me turn the call over to Soroush.

Thanks, Andrew, and good afternoon, everyone. 2025 was a transformational year at Aeva. In an evolving industry, we significantly solidified our leadership position with more customers adopting our unique perception platform and industry leaders partnering with us to further accelerate our momentum. And coming out of one of our best CESs to date this past January, Aeva is building on that momentum and off to a very strong start in 2026.

We see a growing number of exciting opportunities to pursue this year and are focused on aligning supply to respond to the rapidly increasing demand for Aeva's suite of perception solutions. This will build on 2025's significant accomplishments. One of the biggest is our first major passenger vehicle production program award. This is from a top European passenger OEM long known as a leader in the automotive industry with a strong track record of bringing industry-defining capabilities to market at mass volume. Aeva will be the exclusive LiDAR supplier to this OEM globally outside of China.

In addition, NVIDIA also selected Aeva as the reference LiDAR sensor for its DRIVE Hyperion development platform, which is being adopted by an expanding number of major OEMs to bring Level 3 and higher automation to their production vehicles. This is another major validation for the need for LiDAR from one of the leaders in the industry.

As the core LiDAR sensor on the platform, NVIDIA will incorporate our unique 4D data to enable OEM development, validation and simulation, which we believe could further accelerate the adoption of Aeva's perception platform across the automotive industry.

We also continue to deliver on milestones for existing production customers, such as Daimler Truck. With Daimler Truck, we successfully completed on-road validation of our Atlas B-samples and are on schedule to deliver final C-samples this year. As the exclusive long-range LiDAR supplier and primary detection sensor for Daimler Truck's autonomous production trucks, we are excited to continue supporting the progress towards commercialization.

To advance a growing number of opportunities beyond just automotive, we formed a strategic collaboration with LG Innotek to bring 4D LiDAR to a broad range of physical AI applications, where LG Innotek is already a major player with significant global scale. The goal of our partnership is to leverage each other's strengths to accelerate deployment of Aeva's 4D LiDAR across multiple markets. As part of this, LG Innotek is investing up to $50 million in Aeva through a combination of an equity stake, nondilutive investment for new joint products for physical AI and capital investments to bring production capacity online for our next generation of products.

Since forming the partnership last May, we have made quick progress on a number of fronts, including joint development of Omni, the new 360-degree product that we unveiled at CES last month. This is in addition to Aeva's line of Eve precision sensors designed for micron-level accuracy in factory automation applications. Shipments of these sensors began in late 2025 to our initial customers such as SICK and are on track to ramp up this year.

I am pleased to say that Aeva's financials also reflect our building momentum. We doubled our revenue in 2025 to a new record for the company, driven by increasing sensor shipments and expanding applications. To better position Aeva to meet this growing demand, we bolstered our balance sheet by approximately $150 million with leading partners, LG Innotek and Apollo. With one of the strongest balance sheets in the industry and expanding interest for our differentiated technology, we look forward to another exciting year in 2026.

Now let's dig a bit more into recent business developments. Starting first with our global production program award from a top European passenger OEM. This is the OEM we have been working on a development program with over the course of 2025 and previously referred to as a global top 10 passenger OEM. The award is significant for a couple of reasons. First, in scale, the OEM sees Level 3 capabilities as a key differentiator for its next-generation vehicles and is developing a standardized automated driving platform for broad deployment globally across multiple vehicle model lines and not just the top-end models. Aeva will act as the exclusive Tier 1 suppliers globally outside of China through the middle of next decade with a target SOP in 2028.

Second, this win marks the first major passenger OEM transitioning from Time-of-Flight to FMCW. This OEM has extensive experience with Time-of-Flight LiDAR, including an initial rollout of limited Level 3 capabilities. The OEM selected Aeva for its next generation following extensive evaluation of other solutions and Aeva's ability to help the OEM achieve key use cases needed to safely enable Level 3 on a broader scale.

Given this OEM's reputation as an industry leader in bringing new features and capabilities to the automotive market at mass volume, we believe their selection of Aeva is a tremendous vote of confidence in the superior performance and scalability of our differentiated technology. We expect this to deepen our engagements with other major OEMs and potentially drive other OEMs also considering our perception technology to make a similar decision.

With our growing pipeline and deepening engagements, I'm happy to share that a new global top 5 passenger OEM has selected Aeva for a development program focused on the configuration, integration and validation of our Atlas Ultra sensor for their next-generation global production vehicle platform. The OEM selected Aeva for the development program after extensive experience with Time-of-Flight LiDAR and a growing appreciation that our unique performance helps address key use cases critical to enabling higher levels of automation and at scale. We believe that Aeva is well positioned given our differentiated performance, balance sheet and commercial momentum with more leading OEMs awarding Aeva as well.

Another example of our growing momentum is NVIDIA selecting Aeva 4D LiDAR as the reference LiDAR sensor for its DRIVE Hyperion platform. NVIDIA is one of the top leaders in autonomous vehicles and works with some of the biggest OEMs and industry players such as Mercedes-Benz, Stellantis, Uber and others. DRIVE Hyperion provides a common platform for integrated sensor and compute designed for real-world autonomous driving applications. The same architecture consisting of a common suite of LiDAR, radar and cameras can support a wide range of vehicle types from passenger vehicles, robotaxis and delivery fleets across multiple configurations.

We believe NVIDIA's selection further solidifies the case for LiDAR to enable higher levels of automation and has the potential to accelerate adoption of our technology. As the reference sensor on the DRIVE Hyperion platform, NVIDIA is integrating our 4D data for OEM development, validation and simulation. This has the potential to effectively make Aeva a core LiDAR supplier to passenger and commercial vehicle OEMs using the platform globally outside of China. And as OEMs incorporate Aeva's added dimension of velocity into their AV stack, we believe it will drive greater collaboration with Aeva and the potential reliance of our technology that positions us well to win their production programs.

Beyond automotive, Aeva continues to expand into new applications. As we highlighted at Aeva Day last summer, our unique perception platform leverages the same core hardware components with different software to reach an $80 billion-plus market opportunity across a wide range of applications. This includes the fastly growing multibillion-dollar defense market where LiDAR is increasingly used for autonomous vehicles, drones and security. We are engaged with a number of leaders in this space and recently announced our first defense win with Forterra.

Forterra is a key provider of autonomous mission systems for defense and other complex operational environments and has selected Aeva to use our LiDAR technology for its autonomous vehicle system, AutoDrive. Forterra is also transitioning to Aeva due to our combination of long range, velocity and vehicle positioning that enhances perception, including unstructured and in GPS-denied environments where defense vehicles need to operate. And unlike existing solutions, our sensors are also undetectable by night vision systems, a critical feature in sensitive operational environments.

We believe the large defense market can be a meaningful portion of our business in the near term. We have already begun sizable shipments to Forterra last quarter and look forward to supporting this program as well as other defense opportunities that we're currently engaged on.

Moving now to Aeva's key objectives. Let me start with a review of our 2025 goals before turning to our plans for 2026. So we set ambitious goals for 2025 that were designed to further position Aeva on a path for significant and sustainable growth, and it was an incredibly successful year. We exceeded our target for 2 additional wins with a top European passenger OEM production win and NVIDIA in automotive with SICK AG and LMI Technologies in manufacturing and factory automation as well as others such as Sensys Gatso and smart infrastructure.

In terms of product and manufacturing readiness, we successfully completed the final release for our Atlas product as well as the buildup of our automated final assembly line, which we expect to enable systems annual capacity to reach 100,000 units. And as we'll discuss later on, one of our objectives for this year is to focus on increasing capacity of our supply chain in collaboration with our key partners.

Aeva also made significant strides towards expanding into new applications such as precision sensing with our eve sensors that have already begun shipping and a strategic collaboration with LG Innotek that has resulted in our expansion into new physical AI and robotics applications with joint new products that we aim to bring to the market. We accomplished all of this while meeting our financial targets to grow revenues by about 100% and also reducing operating expenses by more than 10%.

Looking to 2026, we are focused on further solidifying our leadership position in sensing and perception and our path to profitability. In particular, we are targeting another 4 or more commercial wins this year, including within automotive and nonautomotive applications. At the same time, we will be equally focused on upcoming production launches with our customers. We are on schedule to begin shipping our Atlas C samples to Daimler Truck this year and are working closely together ahead of start-up production. We also plan to further accelerate our expansion within the industrial robotics and the broader physical AI space with the release of Omni that is targeted for the second half of this year and a 5x increase in our industrial sensor shipments.

To support our growing programs, we will build on the work to scale our manufacturing achieved last year. Key milestones will be beginning manufacturing on our fully automated final assembly line as well as working with our key partners to increase capacity for our module supply chain to support the growing number of commercial wins. And lastly, we plan to do all of this while continuing to strengthen our financial position.

Consistent with the financial framework that we shared at Aeva Day last year and what we delivered over the prior few years, we target another year of significant growth while maintaining similar levels of operating expenses.

So to sum it up, we expect this year will be another major year for Aeva with significant opportunities to advance our commercial momentum with new wins while keeping our ongoing focus on supporting existing programs and for financial discipline.

With that, I'll turn it over to Saurabh.

Thank you, Soroush, and good afternoon, everyone. Before I walk through the financials, I want to emphasize themes that defined our fourth quarter and full year 2025 performance. We are seeing increasing near-term commercial momentum in existing as well as new markets, which have shorter sales cycles, while at the same time, continuing to grow our midterm revenue potential with major program awards. We are also strategically positioning Aeva with partnerships such as with LG Innotek to further capture the rapidly growing number of opportunities across physical AI. And we continue to do this with disciplined capital management, supported by the strategic financing we completed earlier in 2025, which strengthens our liquidity and extends our runway through key milestones.

Now let me review Aeva's Q4 and full year 2025 financial results. We had a record revenue quarter and year for Aeva in 2025. Revenue in Q4 was $5.6 million and for the full year, $18.1 million, which reflects doubling of our revenues last year compared to 2024. This increase in revenue was driven by higher sensor shipments across a number of customers and applications as well as NRE revenues from customers such as Daimler Truck and the top European passenger OEM.

Our non-GAAP operating loss was $23.8 million in Q4 and $102 million for the full year. On a full year basis, non-GAAP operating loss declined by 17% that was driven by a 12% reduction in non-GAAP operating expenses. Aeva's gross cash use, which we define as operating cash flow less capital expenditure, was $23.7 million in Q4 and $119.7 million for the full year. Aeva's total available liquidity at the end of 2025 was $246.9 million, which consists of $121.9 million in cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities and $125 million in an undrawn facility that is fully available to draw at management's sole discretion. We believe this provides Aeva a competitive advantage to continue supporting both existing customers and securing additional wins across a broad range of applications.

Moving now to our financial outlook for 2026. At a high level, we expect to continue strengthening our financial performance that is consistent with the framework we highlighted at the Aeva Day last summer. More specifically, we target growing revenue to the range of $30 million to $36 million in 2026, which would represent an increase of approximately 70% to 100% year-over-year and marks our third consecutive year of a similar revenue trajectory of essentially doubling annually.

The targeted growth in revenue is anticipated to come from a combination of increasing product shipments and increasing contributions from multiple programs as they approach production. Where we land within our guided range will be dependent on exact timing of customer shipments, development activities and ramp. And consistent with prior years, we expect revenues to fluctuate from quarter-to-quarter.

In terms of spend, we plan to remain strategic and disciplined in how we manage our capital. We see opportunities to balance the need to invest in the business with the completion of certain product development costs. And as such, we target full year 2026 non-GAAP operating expenses to be similar to prior year or a slight increase of up to 10%.

So in summary, Aeva is executing on its road map to capture more of the $80 billion-plus market opportunity while maintaining a disciplined financial approach. Looking ahead, we expect this to continue, and we are focused on maintaining a balance sheet to enable further expansion while continuing to deliver on our customers' milestones.

Now let me turn the call back to Soroush for closing remarks.

Thank you, Saurabh. Across an expanding number of industries from automotive to industrial automation, robotics and more, the momentum for our perception platform to enable the rise of physical AI is increasingly clear and taking hold. Coming off a landmark year at Aeva, I would like to thank the Aeva team for their dedication and tireless work as well as our growing list of stakeholders for their tremendous contribution and support. I fully expect 2026 to be another major year for us with focus on execution and growing number of opportunities to further strengthen Aeva's leadership position and the foundation for significant long-term value.

And with that, we'll now move to questions and answers.

[Operator Instructions] And we'll take our first question from Joe Moore with Morgan Stanley.

I wonder if you could talk about the NVIDIA relationship a bit more. I know we discussed at CES, but can you -- how long have you been working with them? And can you sort of talk about what benefits you may see from that over time?

Yes. Hi, Joe, this is Soroush. Happy to take that. So this NVIDIA reference win for us is a major collaboration. And I think also the biggest piece about it is this is not just another collaboration where anybody can interface with the NVIDIA stack, right? This is the result of a creative effort that we've been working together for quite some time. And we're actually actively working on a production program for an OEM together. So this is, I think, first of all, a validation for LiDAR as itself because NVIDIA, obviously is one of the top leaders in the AV space.

And our partnership is surrounding around our deployment of Atlas Ultra as well as plugging in also Atlas, specifically for all the OEMs that are developing on the NVIDIA Hyperion Drive platform. So the Hyperion Drive platform, why this matters is because it's one common platform, one reference set of the same LiDAR, the same radar camera as well as NVIDIA processor with the software on top of that, that is going to be replicated across all the OEMs that work with NVIDIA. And that's why it's -- we think it can have a significant and massive potential for us to effectively get with one partner, the potential for multiple OEMs that sign on. So that, I think, as a result of that and on the heels of also our win with the top European OEM, we're seeing now an increasing demand and an increasing conversion rate also for the company to get these additional wins and bring the product to market.

So as OEMs, as I mentioned also, leaders in the space such as Mercedes-Benz, Uber, Stellantis, others deploy the technology, we expect that -- we see that, that potential for our LiDAR sensor to be used as a reference set for these production programs is going to be very significant and critical for deployments, specifically for Level 3 and beyond as well.

We'll take our next question from Colin Rusch with Oppenheimer & Company.

Congrats on this top 5 development program. I would love to understand a little bit more with that top 5 passenger OEM, the competitive dynamics and how many other folks are at the table and where you really found some leverage in terms of being able to push yourself to the front on that. And then the second kind of part of my question is really around the pipeline in the defense space. Obviously, having the Forterra relationship is a great validation. But curious about how robust the pipeline is around those defense applications as we move towards a more autonomous sort of military environment across the globe.

Yes, Colin, happy to take that. Thanks for your question. So first of all, on the top 5, this is, I think, the biggest thing for us is this is another major validation point for the transition going from Time-of-Flight towards FMCW. And the growing pipeline to your point about the pipeline for our technology and the company here. So first of all, this OEM has extensive experience with Time-of-Flight and existing LiDAR solutions. And based on our engagement and the joint development that we're doing now, they're increasingly transitioning and looking to adopt our technology.

The reason for that is because they view FMCW as the kind of key driver for future-proofing their AV stack, right? So that's important because there are certain use cases as the OEM is transitioning from the lower level of automation to Level 3 and higher where they can take advantage of those differentiation from FMCW and from our perception stack. So that's one of the key, I think, drivers for where we are today with them.

I think we are obviously now progressing with the configuration, integration. It's really surrounds our Atlas Ultra. But importantly, again, we're going to be working on one common platform that is built on the same Atlas Ultra product that we are deploying for our -- for the other top 10 passenger OEM with some tuning relevant to this OEM, mostly in software to deploy this across multiple vehicle lines and really across multiple car brands for the OEM's global production platform. So one common platform that's going to be hopefully going across multiple car brands.

So that being said, given where we are, we believe Aeva is very well positioned, given both our differentiated performance, our technology platform, our balance sheet and the growing commercial momentum for the company with our partners to deliver on this program and also to continue our conversion rate from development towards production. But obviously exciting for us to get to be able to share that today already within a couple of months after some of the other announcements.

On your other point of your question about defense, as I mentioned on the call and you alluded to it, this is a growing market. It's a massive market already. But it's one that we are seeing increasingly look into advanced sensing like LiDAR to be able to enable autonomy at different levels, including for AGVs, autonomous ground vehicles for the ground, but also for drone applications, right? And this is a multibillion-dollar market. Our first win with Forterra in defense was at the beginning of this year. And we are moving pretty quickly on this. We have already started making shipments that are sizable to Forterra.

And we have a number of other engagements in defense that we think is going to be a potential meaningful contributor to our near-term product sales. So that's something that we're going to keep going on and is the momentum that we're seeing. And it's another proof point of the team here is executing on multiple fronts. It's not -- now Aeva is one of the, I would say, the only pure-play company in the perception space that has real commercial traction, both in automotive as well as nonautomotive applications that we're looking to now leverage that and grow our scaling to be able to support that demand. And that's the focus for this year.

We'll take our next question from Suji Desilva with ROTH Capital.

Congratulations on the customer announcement here. Maybe you can talk about the physical AI market. I know LG I is a partner there, but will LG I be able to enable you to tap the global physical AI opportunity? Or will you need other partners to target various pockets of that?

Yes, Suji, happy to answer that. So obviously, the rise of physical AI is super broad right now, and it's expanding pretty quickly. I think it's an area where I think it is going to be hinging on and relying on advanced sensing, including LiDAR and perception significantly and growing in the coming years here. But there is near-term opportunity here, right, in physical AI. So as you mentioned, for us, with the same core platform, different software, we can address different markets, automotive or manufacturing automation or defense. And we can also scale the performance, so where we can provide unique capabilities that are not really achievable with existing, let's say, LiDAR solutions in general, for example, getting to micron level accuracy for factory automation applications.

So that relates directly to physical AI and robotics. And in our strategic collaboration with LG, we see them as a key partner that can help us expand in these markets. They have the direct credibility and the scale and the resources and, most importantly, the commitment at the highest level of the CEO and across CTO and other levels to bring together new products based on FMCW technology to those markets. They're one of the largest suppliers of camera and vision modules to consumer companies like Apple. They're delivering automotive solutions within a number of players in automotive. And they're also working on visions and kind of laser-based solutions for robotics market, including humanoids and others. So that is something that we are working on together.

Our first product jointly is Omni, which is a 360 sensor solution for the industrial robotics market. And I think that's going to be a big part of the physical AI application. But we're also working on next-generation products that we think can help address some of those other markets and customers that I mentioned earlier. So we're excited about that. I think we're in a very good position. They're very dedicated. They're investing significantly also in that, $50 million about the company and also taking on the CapEx for that. So that, I think, is a good sign, and we'll continue to leverage the existing partners we have and deliver on those new market expansions that we are starting to see.

Okay. And then my other question on the defense market. I'm just curious why you think now you're seeing the interest and traction from the defense customers? Is it your readiness or their interest in something catalyzing that? And also, is the competitive landscape different there? Or what are they using currently that they're maybe upgrading to FMCW?

Yes, of course. I think, first of all, the defense budget is seeing significant growth, right, year-over-year, and that's -- it's a big area. And I think we are seeing that also rely more and more heavily on AI-based solutions, AI-based edge-based solutions. And that's why having a perception system and not just a gadget is important here. With our technology, there's a number of key advantages where we see why some of this acceleration of defense opportunities happen. And I'll give you maybe one of those examples. So for example, for ground vehicles, and the win we have with Forterra, one of the key challenges for applications in defense is when you have automated vehicles you need to rely on these -- on sensors, including LiDAR, right? So there is no GPS as a GPS-denied environment.

With our technology, because we have the ability to do our own motion estimation and odometry that helps with navigation in GPS-denied environments. That's one of the advantages of FMCW. We have the long-range sensing with velocity, which anything happening in the field, in the battlefield that's dynamic is super critical to see immediately. So we can instantly detect those. And third, and I think very importantly also out there in the field, when you use active sensing, these -- sometimes these -- if they're Time-of-Flight based, especially with Time-of-Flight sensors that are out there today are very easily detectable by night vision goggles. Night vision goggles have a very high penetration obviously across the battlefield. So this is something that becomes problematic. So one of the core drivers for our selection also was the fact that with our technology, it's not visible in the night vision goggles besides all the other things that I mentioned. So we are seeing that interest now from other players in the market. And we think that's why it's moving quickly.

And we have already shipped -- actually, as part of last year, we actually had sizable shipments in the defense application that was almost double-digit percentage for our product sales. So I think that all of that, because of the agile movement and the new emerging players that are driving that, we are seeing ourselves also being pulled into that market, which is quite exciting.

We'll take our next question from Richard Shannon with Craig-Hallum.

I'm actually going to ask a follow-on or kind of rephrasing a prior question. I'd love to ask in a slightly different way than I have my own question here. And the first one is on the top 5 OEM here, specifically on the dynamic of competition here and the way you phrased your answer, Soroush, was kind of leaning heavily towards making me think that there is no other competition going on here, but I'd love to hear you state that or what you think is going on there.

And then my question really is on the targeting 4 wins for this year here. Would love to get a sense of how many of those you expect to be in the automotive space with higher volume opportunities.

Sure, Richard. Good question, and happy to answer. So on the top 5, obviously, let me say there's always been competition, but I think the competition landscape has, for sure, consolidated. And if you look at the pure-play capable companies that can compete is less. But one of the key drivers for our engagement with this OEM is because to what we see and the feedback, they are intending to make that transition to FMCW. And this is to everything that we see and the feedback that we hear is going to happen. And what we're working together on is the timing and how we intercept that for the next-generation vehicle platforms.

We are looking at options that we think could potentially accelerate and adopt and intercept an existing program, and we are also looking at opportunities that follow right after that. And these are similar SOPs to the other passenger program, maybe slightly later to follow that up. So that's what I can say right now. But obviously, a key differentiator is our technology.

The other piece of it though is it's not just about the tech or having a cool gadget, have to have all the automotive capability, the certifications, the teams and really the, I think, experience and ability as a Tier 1 supplier to be able to deliver those. And lastly, I think having a strong balance sheet helps us to be a viable and long-term partner to an OEM like that. And the catalyst here for us has been really the top 10 passenger OEM followed by NVIDIA. So I think we're seeing now a growing demand from multiple OEMs, including other top 10 or 5 OEMs that are in discussion with us about the adoption of our technology because they may have some similar view.

So I would say that's where we are. Obviously we're just getting going, but we'll provide updates as we go forward, but we're overall pretty excited. And this is something we've been talking about for quite some time, right? So that's on that one.

And then to I think your other question about the wins for this year. So we target, yes, about 4 wins for this year. Look, my expectation is that it's going to be split fairly evenly. So let's say, target 2 and 2 of each. But it's also dependent on the timing of the customers and their decision-making. But I can tell you, obviously, we have multiple programs across each of these markets within automotive and passenger and commercial vehicles and nonautomotive across the different sectors that provide us opportunity. So I hope that we can even exceed that target, but we're just getting going on the year, and we're setting some aggressive targets. This is, by the way, I think, 2x more than what we targeted last year.

We'll take our next question from Matthew Paciulli with Canaccord Genuity.

Congrats on the quarter. Maybe just to start, we've seen some recent pullbacks from OEMs kind of towards their Level 3 deployments. Do you foresee this impacting any of the existing programs that you have? And maybe more broadly, with anything that's in the pipeline, do you foresee any OEMs kind of delaying their time lines there?

Yes. Sure, Matt. So happy to answer that. So actually, what's interesting is some of the OEM programs that have -- that are looking to transition, one of those reasons because, as I said, is the fact that they're looking to future-proof their stack. And what they see is with the experience that they built up with the existing stack and the existing solutions, there were some gaps, right? And that's where the opportunity for us actually is quite interesting because now this is in a position where it actually helps us because now one of the reasons that, for example, we have the Level 3 program with this top 10 passenger OEM is because they decided to make that transition from another Time-of-Flight solution, right? And these folks, if you look at depending on who you're talking about, they're now looking to focus all the efforts separate from Level 2 on to Level 3 for programs to come up in a couple of years from now by 2028. So that's the time line.

We're seeing this, I think, I would say, focus from the market across multiple OEMs to achieve the same goals or similar goals by the similar time frame, between '28 to '29. And this is not just one OEM, it's multiple. And as you see also from like, for example, the announcement today on the top 5, that's another one that's having a similar time line in mind for that. So I think some of those -- I think Aeva is coming at the right time. Some of those adjustments or transitions is actually coincidental with the OEMs making those decisions. This does not mean that they're actually looking not to do L3, they're actually looking to bring L3 with the right partners at the right stack as soon as possible, and they're putting all their focus on that besides Level 2 program. So that's what I would say about the company you mentioned.

This concludes today's question-and-answer session. This brings us to the end of today's meeting. We appreciate your time and participation. You may now disconnect.

Good day. My name is David, and I'll be your conference facilitator. I would like to welcome everyone to the Aeva Technologies Third Quarter 2025 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, today's conference call is being recorded and simultaneously webcast.

I would now like to turn the call over to Andrew Fung, Senior Director of Investor Relations and Corporate Development. Andrew, please go ahead.

Thank you, and welcome, everyone to Aeva's Third Quarter 2025 Earnings Conference Call. Joining on the call today are Soroush Salehian, Aeva's Co-Founder and CEO; and Saurabh Sinha, Aeva's CFO.

Ahead of this call, we issued our third quarter 2025 press release and presentation. which we will refer to today and can be found on our Investor Relations website at investors.aeva.com. Please note that on this call, we will be making forward-looking statements based on current expectations and assumptions, which are subject to risks and uncertainties.

These statements reflect our views only as of today and should not be relied upon as representative of our views as of any subsequent date. These statements are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations.

For a further discussion of the material risks and other important factors that could affect our financial results, please refer to our filings with the SEC, including our most recent Form 10-Q and Form 10-K.

In addition, during today's call, we will discuss non-GAAP financial measures, which we believe are useful as supplemental measures of Aeva's performance. These non-GAAP measures should be considered in addition to and not as a substitute for or in isolation from GAAP results. The webcast replay of this call will be available on our company website under the Investor Relations link.

And with that, let me turn the call over to Soroush.

Thanks, Andrew, and good afternoon, everyone. It has been an incredibly busy and productive quarter here at Aeva. Following Aeva Day this summer, where we shared how our breakthrough unified perception platform is enabling new levels of perception for customers across a broad range of applications, interest for Aeva's technology has continued to grow significantly. Our focus has been on achieving important milestones for our partners and positioning Aeva to meet the expanding demand to adopt our differentiated FMCW technology.

The key highlight this quarter is our progress with the top 10 global passenger OEM. At the start of the year, we announced that the OEM had selected Aeva for a development program and also issued Aeva a letter of intent for production, where upon successful completion of the development program, the engagement would transition to a serious production award opportunity.

I am very pleased to share that we have completed the development program ahead of plan and are now in late-stage contract negotiations for a series production award and more on that later. We also continue to make good progress on the Daimler Truck production program. Aeva's deliverables for the initial vehicle builds have been completed, and we are now shifting our focus to support Daimler Truck's growing vehicle fleet in 2026 and have already received the initial orders for next year's shipments of our Atlas final samples. And overall, we remain on track for Daimler Truck's planned market entry in 2027.

Outside of automotive, we are pushing deeper into precision sensing. We have already started shipping against our first 1,000-plus units orders for our Eve 1D sensors. And in just a few months, we have expanded our precision sensing product line with the unveiling of our Eve 1V sensor. This builds on the EV 1D product by adding motion measurements to our product line to address what we believe is more of the multibillion-dollar manufacturing automation market. Reception has been really strong with multiple customers already placing initial orders with the opportunity to incorporate Eve 1D and 1V into their product portfolios.

In Q3, we completed installation and bring up of the production line for our Eve sensors in Thailand. The first sensors have come off the line and shipped to customers. And we believe we now have the capacity ahead of time to fulfill next year's volume and we will continue to increase the capacity as the demand grows.

Now to support our growing commercial traction across multiple segments and our scaling, today, we announced a $100 million investment from one of the world's leading investment firms, Apollo Global Management in the form of convertible notes. This comes at a defining time in the industry, and we believe it further positions Aeva to support not only the scaling of our existing programs, but to also win additional programs. This also follows our partnership and strategic investment from LG Innotek that we announced earlier this year, further reinforcing Aeva's leadership position in next generation of sensing and perception.

So to sum up this quarter, Aeva continues to execute on the exciting and vast opportunities we highlighted at Aeva Day. We believe that we are positioned to finish the year strong, including closing the top 10 global passenger OEM production program decision. And with our differentiated technology and strong balance sheet, we see this as just the beginning with significant potential to continue our momentum into 2026 and forward.

Now, let's go into more detail on our key business developments. Starting first with our engagement with the top 10 global passenger OEM. As we shared at the start of this year, this OEM selected Aeva for a development program using our Atlas Ultra sensor for the OEM's next-generation global production platform. We expected to complete the development program by the end of this year, and I am pleased to say that, we have successfully completed it in Q3 ahead of plan.

The development program was focused on packaging and integration to be able to incorporate our Atlas Ultra as one standard platform across the OEM's multiple vehicle model lines. This is a global production program with a worldwide rollout plan across geographies, excluding China. And the OEM plans to offer Level 3 across a broad range of their global vehicle model lineup, not just the top-of-the-line models.

As part of our joint development, we also successfully completed key performance testing to help ensure that Atlas Ultra enables the OEM to introduce new functions of Level 3 driving, including both highway and city driving.

In addition, we completed comprehensive manufacturing audits with our partner, LG Innotek for this OEM and detailed out our industrialization plan for the OEM's planned production. All of this now paves the way for the OEM to make the series production award. As we disclosed earlier this year, we secured a letter of intent from this OEM toward the series production program award, where upon successful completion of the development program, the engagement would transition to a global production program opportunity for Aeva. We are now in late stages of contract negotiations and believe that Aeva is well positioned to supply for the series production program.

Beyond this particular program, we believe that the top 10 OEMs selection of Aeva for their global series production program would represent one of the strongest validations of our technology platform, in particular, of the superior performance and maturity of our technology.

This OEM has a long history of leading in the automotive industry with significant influence and a reputation for excellence and introducing industry-defining features in automotive at mass volume on a global scale. This would also be the first time a passenger OEM would transition from time-of-flight to FMCW to enable Level 3 for both highway and city driving.

As such, we believe their vote of confidence in Aeva has the potential to accelerate the interest in FMCW technology as a blueprint for other fast follower passenger car makers. To that end, we are already engaged with a number of OEMs and industry players across RFI and RFQ stages looking to leverage 4D LiDAR for passenger vehicles, trucking and mobility.

Over the course of this year, our pipeline has continued to grow, and we expect our first passenger OEM win to further increase interest in Aeva as other OEMs view the top 10 OEMs decision as a reference design for implementing Level 3 automated driving functionality.

Turning to our production program with Daimler Truck. We are progressing well on the OEM's milestones, keeping us on track to meet Daimler Truck's planned market entry in 2027. We have now completed sensor deliveries for the OEM's initial vehicle builds and Daimler Truck, together with its subsidiary, Torc, are operating this fleet of trucks on large routes to validate production intent hardware and autonomous capabilities ahead of commercialization.

Aeva is the exclusive long-range and ultra-long-range LiDAR supplier for Daimler Truck's autonomous truck production program, with our Atlas 4D LiDAR playing an important role as the primary detection sensor. We're now preparing for next year to support the expansion of vehicle fleet rollout by Daimler Truck and Torc. And we have already received the first orders for 2026 and plan to deliver our Atlas C samples to fulfill Daimler Truck scaling of vehicle builds throughout next year and ahead of launch.

Now moving to precision sensing, with the introduction of our Eve 1V motion sensor, Aeva is expanding into a whole new category of applications within the multibillion-dollar manufacturing automation market. Eve 1V uses our core FMCW LiDAR on chip technology to deliver high-precision contactless motion sensing, which means we can consistently do this more accurately, faster and without the wear and tear challenges of traditional encoders and tactile sensors that are used to measure an object motion in manufacturing today.

We also designed Eve 1V for a wide range of applications and flexibility for users across multiple processes. This has the potential to be a game changer for the industry and reception so far has been very encouraging. We have already received initial orders from multiple customers for our Eve 1V sensor.

Now, more broadly, the number of engagements for our precision sensing capabilities continue to increase since we first announced our product line this year. Precision sensing is a unique market opportunity for Aeva due to our technology's ability to achieve the needed micron-level accuracy that is not really possible with traditional time-of-flight LiDAR.

We are working aggressively now to meet the growing interest, including ramping up manufacturing. And importantly, over time, we plan to expand our product lines for industrial manufacturing and robotics to new categories beyond 1D and 1V to address even more of this major market opportunity.

Key to enabling this is the precision sensor manufacturing line at our partner, Fabrinet, a leader in the manufacturing of optical components. This quarter, we completed installation and bring up of our line with the first sensors produced and shipped to customers. We now have the capacity in place to fulfill next year's expected volumes for Eve 1D and building capacity for our 1B sensors following its introduction.

We have also started shipping against our initial orders of over 1,000 units that we received just a few months ago. Our ability to scale is driven by our chip-based architecture, which we designed specifically for fully automated assembly process steps. By integrating all optics onto a silicon photonics module, we have significantly reduced the number of components within a LiDAR that can be manufactured with greater efficiency and quality.

And through our partnership with global manufacturing leaders, we believe that we can lean on their expertise and scale to ramp production quickly without the need to invest significant levels of CapEx.

With that, let me now turn the call to Sourabh, who will discuss our financial results.

Thank you, Soroush, and good afternoon, everyone. Let me share more about Aeva's third quarter 2025 financial results.

Starting with revenue, it was $3.6 million in Q3, with contribution from ongoing sensor shipments to multiple customers as well as NRV, such as for the Daimler Truck program. Moving to non-GAAP operating loss for this quarter. It declined by 13% year-over-year to $27.2 million, which largely reflects our target to reduce full year 2025 non-GAAP operating expense by 10% to 20% year-over-year.

Aeva's gross cash use, which we define as operating cash flow less CapEx, was $33.6 million in Q3, which is higher than the prior quarter due to timing of certain payments and working capital adjustments.

In addition, we have received cash of $32.5 million in gross proceeds from LG Innotek upon closing of their strategic equity investment. This brought total available liquidity at end of September to $173.9 million, excluding the Apollo investment we announced today. This is comprised of $48.9 million in cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities and a $125 million in undrawn facility that is fully available to draw at Aeva's sole discretion.

Let me talk a bit more about the capital raise we announced today. The $100 million in convertible senior notes will provide incremental capital for Aeva to continue to accelerate our ongoing growth. The notes have a coupon of 4.375% payable in cash or stock at the option of the company and conversion price of 115% to the stock price. The notes are due in 7 years in November 2032. This represents a flexible source of unsecured capital, with no financial or maintenance covenants, and we will retain the flexibility to settle the convertible in cash, shares or any combination at our election upon a conversion. For additional details, please refer to the related 8-K.

Including the new investment, our total pro forma liquidity position now stands at approximately $270 million, which we believe provides Aeva's strong competitive advantage to support existing programs as well as secure more wins. As we detailed at Aeva Day this summer, Aeva's unified perception platform enables us to bring new levels of perception to a broad range of large markets and applications. Our momentum has only grown since then. And as we continue to execute, we believe that we are in a strong position to convert additional opportunities into wins.

With that, let me turn the call back to Soroush for closing remarks.

Thanks, Saurabh. At a pivotal time for the industry, Aeva is increasing its leadership position in next-generation sensing and perception. We are firing on all cylinders, achieving major milestones on existing programs, progressing towards additional wins and strengthening our balance sheet to scale multiple programs across many markets.

I would like to thank the Aeva team for their continued dedication and our stakeholders for their ongoing support. Together, we are in a strong position to realize Aeva's vision to bring the next wave of perception to all devices.

And with that, we will now move to Q&A.

[Operator Instructions] We'll take our first question from Colin Rusch with Oppenheimer & Company.

Can you talk a little bit about the ramp in Metrology sales? I mean, certainly, it looks like you have a pretty meaningful opportunity there in a number of applications. I'd just love to understand kind of how that cadence of product rollout really starts to hit as we get to the balance of this year and into 2026.

Yes. Colin, this is Soroush. Happy to answer that. So obviously, as you know, we're -- as I said, we're firing on multiple cylinders here. So, we announced our Eve 1D sensor just a few months ago earlier this year. Since then, we talked about how the traction in the market has been very strong. Following that, we started getting initial orders. We talked about the first 1,000-plus units orders. And since then, a couple of things that we've done in the past 2 or 3 months.

One, we pulled forward our setup of our manufacturing line for the Eve sensor due to this increasing demand. Our team is engaged with multiple tens of customers in this space alone. Each one represents significant opportunity volumes for us. And in this quarter, what we talked about just earlier today was we've now been able to set up the line quickly within a couple of months' time frame and also start building out the units off of this line, and we started to ship the first unit against those 1,000-plus units order already. So that's very important for us, which means we're starting to now crank that gear around shipping units towards those customers.

Separate from that, as we also get in the market, we're also getting feedback from customers about the capabilities of our sensors. So beyond measuring micron level accuracy for distance sensors, we have also been able to provide an initial SKU or a new type of product with our Eve 1V sensor, which is now measuring the speed of things on the manufacturing line at a very high level of accuracy, right? So sub-millimeter per second precision. So that is what provides additional opportunities for us.

We are already starting getting some orders for that as well from existing customers, also some new customers. But just to give you a rough sense of that, the market for this industry, as we talked earlier, is about 2 million sensors a year for these kind of displacement sensors. And it's roughly ASPs are higher than automotive. So, it's multibillion dollars, $4 billion going to about $6 billion in the coming years. And we are partnering already with some of the key leaders in the space, including SICK and LMI, and others that are coming down the pipe that we can talk about, hopefully as we go forward. And those themselves represent double-digit percent of the market share here, right?

So you're talking about, for example, SICK maybe shipping 200,000 or 250,000 sensors annually every year, right? So, when you look at that, I think for us, the way we see the ramp-up is, obviously, it's not going to be overnight, but it's going to be faster also than some of the automotive applications. So, it helps us kind of also fill in that revenue growth and pipeline for the company as we go along. So, we're very encouraged by the reception that we're seeing from the market.

Importantly, we're now shifting gears on focus on building the units and we're bringing up the manufacturing line and getting ready for the demand ahead of time for next year, right? So that's what I can share at this point. And as we are able to get additional information from our customers and orders, of course, we'll be talking about that as well.

Okay. Perfect. And then as a follow-up, just the L2 ADAS and kind of L2+ ADAS opportunity on the trucking side seems pretty substantial. Obviously, those are some longer sales cycles, but also the articulation of the insurance needs and all the other value capture for the truck OEMs seems pretty substantial. Can you talk about the breadth and depth of customers looking at your solution for that L2 and L2+ sort of application in the trucking market?

Yes, absolutely. So as I mentioned on the call earlier, we've been focused on the one unified perception platform that can allow us to enter multiple market segments with one core technology without a ton of optimizations using the same hardware platform with adaptive software that can go into addressing these multiple markets across automotive, both for Level 3 and driving as well as entering into Level 2+, especially in commercial vehicles, which is your question, I'll get to that in a second.

But also, then applying that to the other markets, including industrial that we just talked about. So specifically, on L2+, one of the biggest debates that we have talked about over and over again in the past few years is the need for LiDAR and then the famous quotes around, you don't need LiDAR for even going into Level 2 -- Level 3 applications maybe but Level 2. I think over time, that argument has fallen.

I think Level 3 is very clear with our progress and the successful completion of this top 10 OEM that Level 3 with LiDAR is going to be standard and it's going to be the key enabling feature for making these vehicles and driving the customers' choice of purchase. But on the Level 2+, I think we have a unique opportunity at Aeva, due to our unique technology, which is because of the fact that we can measure velocity, because of the fact that we can do some of the perception of the sensor, we've been able to demonstrate that we can do more, reducing the need and maybe the cost of other modalities in the Level 2 traditional stack, which is today, especially for commercial vehicles, tends to be camera image sensors plus maybe radar and then some compute box.

So, one of the partnerships that we have there that we talked about earlier is with Bendix, which is the market leader in North America, part of a large Tier 1 company around providing Level 2+ ADAS. It's really automatic emergency braking. This company is shipping already in the 200,000 to 300,000 fusion systems every year, these automatic emergency braking systems every year. And they're really standard as the technology of choice for the flagship models of many of the top vehicle OEMs, right? Volvo, PACCAR, Navistar, even Daimler in some examples.

So we see an opportunity here together with Bendix to provide a next-generation Level 2+ solution that leverages our 4D LiDAR technology, reducing the need of some of those other components and having the combination of image camera plus 4D information, with processing on the edge, an edge device that I think is going to be bringing the cost down -- but because we leverage the same core unified platform, chip technology, we can use the economies of scale to then also provide those benefits and the flywheel effect into other markets.

So, we think that's a massive opportunity. We're working towards that. We introduced this partner earlier in the year, but we think that could be another marquee win for us, especially as we close out this top 10 passenger OEM. We think that, that is going to set the reference as a blueprint for other OEMs in Level 3 for passenger and Level 4 in trucking, but also maybe in Level 2+ for certain commercial vehicle trucking applications as well.

We'll take our next question from Suji Desilva with ROTH Capital.

Congratulations on the progress here. My question is really around the length of the design cycle for additional customer opportunities. Looking at the Tier 1 you're on the brink of signing with; I'm wondering the step of having to proliferate the design across their model line. I'm curious, what's involved there and how detailed a process that is? And if there can be learnings from what you're doing here, kind of building a catalog of placements and tweaks and software updates that would be leverageable to shorten the design cycle for future customers.

Yes, Suji, happy to answer that. This is Soroush. So, look, I think, first of all, I hope you can hear our voice. We are very excited about the progress that we have made and the successful completion of this top 10 passenger OEM program. To give a quick recap, earlier in the year, we announced and said that, we were awarded a development program from this top 10 passenger OEM, along with a letter of intent for the series production award.

And we set out that, there are going to be a number of milestones that we're going to be working together to really develop a scalable modular platform for their global production platform. And that's going to be applied to multiple vehicle model lines. So since then, we have completed all the key milestones satisfactorily, which includes, as I mentioned earlier, around packaging and integration of our sensors to make sure that really works across the OEM's multiple vehicle model lineup -- and this is not intended to go into one top trim or premium model only. It's intended to be really as a standard platform across their multiple vehicle models.

And two was around aligning our performance, making sure that it really addresses the key use cases, most importantly, to enable Level 3 driving from the get-go, both across highway and then also eventually around city driving, which is we think is going to be a key driver.

And then third piece was around really the industrialization and manufacturing, in which together with our partnership with LG Innotek, which we secured along with a strategic investment, we then got to work, and we did comprehensive audits of our manufacturing line with a manufacturing partner, LG Innotek and this top 10 OEM and really defined a clear industrialization plan of how we're going to go to production.

So, in some way, this was really the first phase of the series production development. And what we have now is, we said at the beginning of the year, we're going to complete this by the end of the year. We are seeing now the OEM is very eager to also move forward faster, and they're pulling forward that timeline. So, we were able to successfully complete this a quarter early, which is now in Q3, we have completed that. And the work from here really is around -- we're in late stages of commercial negotiations and that -- so we're feeling good about that.

Obviously, it's not done until the ink is dry, but we have -- we are feeling confident about our position about securing this program. So that's what I would say. And I think you asked an important question, which is what is the -- what does it work from here, the cycles for additional wins and how could this OEM be relevant.

This OEM is a major OEM, a top 10 OEM globally and we see that this program is for worldwide deployment, excluding China. They are making millions of vehicles every year. They're known as a leader to bring in new technology, but also do it at scale. So that's very important. So, I think that -- what we believe that does as they have shown time and again over the many decades is that, it's going to provide a blueprint and a reference design for other OEMs that are looking to provide this Level 3 functionality really with FMCW technology, we believe, to use that and also implement that.

So that is going to be basically from a competitive landscape, we think that is going to be critical. So, we believe that this could be a defining moment when we would have that award around our company, but also the industry for the adoption of Level 3 technology in the next 3-plus years, right? So that, I think, is very important in our plans ahead. So that's a quick background on that.

Okay. A quick follow-up there on the applicability to mobility, I guess, urban scenarios, where is time of flight sufficient there versus FMCW? Curious your thoughts there as you sound like you're kind of addressing both highway and mobility in your comments.

Yes. I think -- look, the way I think the OEMs in this OEM and others kind of see it is they're making a platform technology choice that they're going to be working with in hardware, hopefully, for many years to come. This obviously will be a long-term production going into the next decade. And the idea is that, we've talked about it, you need to future-proof the stack, right? And we believe we are at this inflection point where this is one of the first times -- it will be the first time actually that an OEM in the passenger car space will be transitioning from time-of-flight LiDAR to FMCW. And this obviously is a testament to both the technology capability as well as maturity of our products. But also, it is important because they -- we think that is going to lead up to other, of course, programs.

My personal opinion is that, in a few years from now, consumers when they buy vehicles is not going to be just based on any more specs on feeds or speeds or infotainment. It's going to really be also importantly around the ease of use and saving us time in our daily commutes and our day-to-day life. And that, I think, is going to be one of the key enablers by Level 3. Like Level 3 driving is going to be the key driver for the sales of cars, not these other things.

So that is why I think we're going to see that as you're starting to see some of that in Asia, we're going to see that for the rest of the world that is going to be the key driver for, I think, most key OEMs to go to really have Level 3 from the get-go. And this means it needs to be end-to-end, right? Like you get in the car, and you get to a destination from point A to point B, which includes city driving as well as highway.

So long form of that is, yes, we believe that they're choosing one hardware and they're going to use it for all use cases and use a software approach of upgrade over time to be able to enable highway city driving, but most importantly, that Level 3 functionality end-to-end.

And we'll take our next question from George Gianarikas with Canaccord Genuity.

You have Matt here on for George. Congrats on the quarter. So just to start off, could you guys just provide a little more color on the timeline with Daimler? Like what's kind of needed for the program to reach validation ahead of production? And then maybe just a little bit about the Torc relationship. It looked like they were looking for a capital partner for that. With that and potential slipping of funding, do you foresee any slippage in the timeline?

Yes, sure. Happy to answer that. I think you had some questions that I think maybe for Daimler. But I can tell you a high level, look, first of all, Daimler Truck and Torc, they have been very clear and public about their commitment to autonomy. This is one of their key drivers of growth. If you look at that from Karen and the management team at Daimler talking even on their public earnings, and they have been very clear and consistent about their messaging. 2027 market entry is on track as a go for us. We are obviously a key portion for the technology and perception detection.

So, as I mentioned, we're the exclusive supplier for LiDAR on long range and ultra-long range for Daimler Truck and Torc. We are progressing on track. They are also progressing on track in delivering on their milestones. We have clear line of sight with 2026 vehicle build plans and the growing of that. We actually have received initial orders already, and we're going to start shipping our Atlas C samples against that. So that's important.

I think just to also -- you mentioned about capitalization. Obviously, I think that's a question for Daimler and Torc. But as you know, Torc is an independent subsidiary of Daimler Truck, right? And they're investing heavily in this very committed. So, we don't think that, that is a risk topic for us to really worry about. I think overall, the program is really progressing well.

And I think, look, if any OEM has the scale to really make this happen and the resources, including capital is really Daimler Truck. And others, of course, are also working on it. We are also engaged with a number of other OEMs in the commercial vehicle space. So overall, I think we're feeling good about that. I think Justin also mentioned Daimler Truck has publicly talked about, I think even recently about the outlook for autonomy because of the use cases in the business case of over, I think, about $3 billion of annual revenues and $1 billion profit by 2030 just from autonomous trucking.

So that -- I think it's important for the industry that players, including Daimler Truck and others, make this happen. And we think the timeline remains in '27 and the scaling is going to go from there. So, we're feeling confident about that and our ability to deliver against it.

Great. And maybe just to switch gears here. It looks like you guys obviously raised the $100 million investment from Apollo. Could you just provide a little more color on what you intend to use that for and how that's going to help you just push commercialization faster?

Matt, this is Saurabh. Happy to take your question. So, the $100 million in convertible notes is for general corporate purposes. We are already, as we mentioned in our prepared remarks, making tremendous progress with our customers and potential customers. And we use our unified platform, perception platform, which helps us to execute on multiple wins and bring new customers on board without any step function increase in our expenditure.

In fact, we have been very disciplined in our capital allocation and spending and this year, we are coming down from last year in the range of 10% to 20% on a non-GAAP OpEx basis despite increasing our commercial momentum. So, we feel pretty good about it. It's for general corporate purposes.

Yes. And just to add to that, I think, obviously, Apollo by themselves, the name is one of the leaders in financial investments. We're excited to have them as partners. I think it sends a clear signal as sole investor party to really support our growth and momentum here. And it comes at an important time, I think, for our company, but also an inflection point in the industry. I think we have all the pieces in place. We have methodically, as we talked about, set out our plan to grow from each segment, establish a leadership position within key players, we are executing on that, and we're looking forward to execute that well, right?

So, from automotive, from trucking with Daimler Truck, passenger top 10 OEM and others that we're working on, industrial with SICK, LMI. We have the partnership with LG Innotek around that for industrial as well as the robotics applications and then expanding from that. So that we're very excited about the progress so far. And obviously, we're looking forward to continue on this momentum.

And we'll take our next question from Richard Shannon with Craig-Hallum.

Apologize for the ambient noise rolling through an airport here tonight. I guess, I'll ask kind of a 2-parter around the top 10 OEM. Just want to make sure that you're in an exclusive negotiation position. There aren't any other competitors here. I think you alluded to that's probably the case, but I just want to make sure that, that is accurate. And then also maybe if you can elaborate, hopefully, you mentioned this before when I was on the call, but what kind of time frames are we looking at for ramping here? I would assume it's earlier than '27, but just want to get your take on that sort of.

Yes, absolutely. Look, I don't want to comment on anything that is sensitive or confidential information, obviously here, but I think, hopefully, you can see from the updates we provided, we feel that we are the only party here that is going through this late-stage negotiations. But I will stop at that. I think we're feeling good about securing this production program. And importantly, I think the timing of that is pulled forward, so to really get going on this.

So, you asked about kind of what it looks like from here and kind of the timing. I think, look, the point of this initial development program was to ensure that we have a solution jointly that's going to be applicable to the OEM's broad vehicle lineup. It's going to be from an integration standpoint, it works across multiple trends, multiple models that the performance enables Level 3 driving for both highway, as well as city, and to also make sure that we have the proper industrialization plan and comprehensive audits, and all of that so that we can really hit the ground running.

The team is working very diligently on that. This is in another way or form, really the first stage of the series development already. So, we are really hitting the ground running. And we think that we are on track for this late '27, early '28 timeline for the launch of this OEM. So that's been the timeline that we have been working with, and we are excited to deliver on it.

Okay. Appreciate that detail, Soroush. My last question here is just from this comment in the press release, I suspect you may be addressed in the prepared remarks today, did not get it early to hear, but you're just talking about growing interest and engagements from other major OEMs leveraging for L3 automotive applications here. Is there some sort of catalyst or other event here driving this related either to the market or to Aeva's products and technology development? Maybe just clarify what you meant by that.

Yes, absolutely. Look, I think we have been obviously engaged in a number of programs across various stages from RFIs to RFQs in multiple segments within automotive as well as industrial. Your question, I think, is around automotive. Within automotive includes passenger, multiple programs there and trucking. I think one -- there's multiple, I think, factors that have been happening, of course, in the industry as well as, I think, with Aeva.

So first of all, we have laid out a clear foundation of our path to winning business and delivering on it, which includes partnering with the leaders in each respective space, which means they have to also want to partner with us and select us; and two, leveraging our perception platform and the chip-based technology to scale that according to their time lines; and three, be able to apply that without having to invest heavily in a bunch of new CapEx or a bunch of new teams for different product lines and segments using this approach of the one platform.

So, we've been able to do that. I think obviously, with our progression and the successful completion of this development program with the top 10 passenger OEM, and we hope that upon a production when this will be the first time that a passenger car maker will be transitioning from time-of-flight to FMCW to enable a key use case that's differentiated for the end customers. And we think that, that is a key driver with some of those uptick in the engagements for us.

We think that, that has the potential to provide us with potential additional wins in a faster time frame than we have in the first one. As you know, first one is always the toughest. But I think importantly, because this OEM is really seen as a leader in automotive, introducing new technology, but doing so at scale, they ship millions of vehicles every year. We think that, that is going to be a catalyst and really a blueprint, or a reference design for other OEMs and fast followers to also enable that functionality. So, I think that's part of the main interest in this space.

The second piece also, I think, is around some of the consolidation in the market. We have always talked about that even though Aeva came as one of the last players in the space, we took a contrarian path, but one that we believe is going to have the future-proof technology. And similar to radars who transitioned from kind of pulse-based atomic flight system to FMCW, we have always believed and talked about that, that will be a transition that will happen over time as well.

So, I think that is with both the developments in the market, some of the consolidation in the players as well as the transition of the OEMs to technology here that is more FMCW based, we think are going to be the catalysts in our growing momentum within automotive and also additional markets.

Thank you. That does conclude the final question we have for today, and this will conclude Aeva Technologies Third Quarter 2025 Earnings Conference Call. Thank you all for your participation. You may now disconnect.