AEye (NASDAQ:LIDR) reported second-quarter revenue of $202,000, approximately double its first-quarter revenue and about nine times the $22,000 reported in the prior-year period, as the lidar company continued to expand its customer pipeline and add commercial programs across defense, automotive, intelligent transportation systems and sports analytics.
Chief Executive Officer Matt Fisch said the company has recorded four consecutive quarters of revenue growth and reached its highest level of customer engagement to date. Proof-of-concept programs from revenue-generating customers increased to 25 from 21 since the prior earnings call, while overall engagements rose about 25% quarter over quarter and quote activity increased roughly 40%.
Sports Analytics Win and NVIDIA Validation
AEye announced that Alive3D selected its Apollo lidar sensor for next-generation sports analytics. Fisch said the software-defined sensor will support Alive3D’s 3D sports visualization, measurement and data-analytics offerings. The selection extends AEye into a new market category, according to the company.
The company emphasized that Apollo’s behavior can be configured through software rather than requiring a redesign of the underlying hardware. Fisch said this flexibility allowed AEye to tailor sensor performance for Alive3D’s requirements in elite sports and can enable the company to pursue additional applications without making physical changes to its hardware.
Chief Financial Officer Conor Tierney said AEye began shipping units to Alive3D during the quarter. He described the program as commercial evidence that customers with demanding physical-AI applications are selecting sensors based on capabilities rather than price.
AEye also said Apollo was validated on NVIDIA DRIVE AGX Thor, NVIDIA’s next-generation automotive and physical-AI compute platform. The validation follows AEye’s participation in NVIDIA’s Halos AI Systems Inspection Lab and its existing validation on NVIDIA DRIVE AGX Orin. Fisch said the interoperability validation with NVIDIA DriveOS places AEye as a sensor partner in the NVIDIA DRIVE Hyperion ecosystem, potentially reducing integration risk for original equipment manufacturers and Tier 1 suppliers using the platform.
Defense Leads Pipeline Growth
Defense remained AEye’s most active vertical, with engagements doubling quarter over quarter, Fisch said. The company’s lead defense customer placed its third consecutive paid order during the second quarter, and AEye is evaluating Apollo across unmanned aerial vehicle, unmanned ground vehicle and counter-unmanned aircraft system applications.
During the question-and-answer session, Fisch said defense represented a majority of AEye’s pipeline and accounted for most of its quarter-over-quarter growth. He pointed to collision avoidance for aircraft, navigation for unmanned ground vehicles and counter-drone detection as areas of interest.
Tierney said customer-funded engineering work may also become a more meaningful source of revenue over time. The company recorded $30,000 of contract development revenue in the second quarter from an aerospace and defense customer. He said such work can involve software optimization, sensor configuration or hardware changes, and indicates that a customer is investing in incorporating AEye’s technology into its own system.
AEye’s partnership with SynTech, an international defense systems company, continued to promote and ship Apollo sensors to customers, expanding the company’s addressable pipeline in global defense markets, Fisch said.
Financial Results and Cash Outlook
For the first six months of 2026, AEye generated revenue of $303,000, exceeding its full-year 2025 revenue of $233,000. Tierney said second-quarter product revenue increasingly came from repeat orders rather than initial customer evaluations, including larger orders from the company’s lead defense customer.
- GAAP operating expenses were $10.6 million, compared with $8.9 million in the first quarter.
- Non-GAAP operating expenses were $8.2 million, compared with $7.4 million in the preceding quarter.
- GAAP net loss was $10 million, or $0.22 per share, versus a $8.3 million loss, or $0.18 per share, in the first quarter.
- Non-GAAP net loss was $7.6 million, or $0.17 per share, compared with $6.7 million, or $0.15 per share, in the first quarter.
- Cash consumption was $7.5 million in the second quarter, down from $9.2 million in the first quarter.
- Cash equivalents and marketable securities totaled about $71.5 million at June 30, down from $77.2 million at the end of the first quarter.
Tierney said more than half of the sequential increase in GAAP operating expenses stemmed from non-cash stock-based compensation, primarily tied to performance-based equity awards. The remaining increase reflected non-recurring engineering, tooling and testing expenses associated with preparations for higher production capacity.
The company reaffirmed its full-year 2026 cash-use outlook of $30 million to $35 million, including about $5 million in working capital. AEye expects second-half cash consumption to exceed first-half levels as it ramps manufacturing builds and invests in commercial execution, partner support and deployment infrastructure.
Production and Automotive Activity
AEye said its manufacturing partner, LITEON, has a dedicated production line capable of producing up to 60,000 Apollo units annually. Fisch said the company has begun increasing output in anticipation of higher second-half demand, while Tierney said production expansion is being tied to customer demand and opportunities advancing through the sales funnel.
Fisch said AEye expects continued quarter-over-quarter revenue growth in the second half, though the company did not provide specific revenue guidance. He said the company has one announced commercial win and believes several other opportunities are nearing potential customer announcements.
In automotive and trucking, AEye remains involved in multiple Level 3 and Level 4 OEM evaluation programs. Fisch said a new automotive evaluation began during the quarter and an RFQ was received, though he noted that automotive programs typically have longer evaluation periods because of the scale of their potential production commitments.
The company also signed a memorandum of understanding with MoveAWheeL to explore combining Apollo’s long-range 3D object detection with acoustic road-surface friction sensing for advanced driver-assistance and autonomous-driving applications. Separately, AEye said its OPTIS smart-intersection installations remain operational in the Bay Area and Detroit, while it has begun shipping units to an intelligent transportation systems customer it met during a first-quarter roadshow in Korea.
About AEye (NASDAQ:LIDR)
AEye, Inc is a technology company specializing in adaptive LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) systems designed to support advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), autonomous vehicles and other sensing applications. Through its intelligent detection and ranging (iDAR) platform, AEye integrates high-performance sensors with real-time data processing software to deliver customizable sensing ‘pipelines’ that prioritize relevant objects and environmental features. This approach enables longer detection ranges, higher resolution imagery and dynamic field-of-view adjustment, making AEye’s offerings well suited for complex driving environments and safety-critical scenarios.
The company’s core product suite centers on solid-state and hybrid LiDAR sensors that can be configured for a variety of end uses, including passenger vehicles, commercial trucks, robotics, mapping and defense.
