Vuzix (VUZI) Q3 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Image source: The Motley Fool.

DATE

Thursday, Nov. 12, 2026

CALL PARTICIPANTS

• Director of Investor Relations - Ed McGregor
• President and Chief Executive Officer - Paul Travers
• Chief Financial Officer - Grant Russell

TAKEAWAYS

• Total Revenue -- $714,000, representing a 38% decrease driven by lower smart glass unit sales and the discontinuation of the Blade 2, Shield, and Z100 products.
• Engineering Services and OEM Revenue -- $220,000, a 17% decline from $265,000 reflecting the timing of progress on customer projects.
• Gross Loss -- $868,000, compared to $411,000, resulting from lower revenue and $790,000 in unapplied manufacturing overheads.
• Net Loss -- $8.4 million, or $0.10 per share, compared to $7.4 million, or $0.09 per share, in the prior-year period.
• Research and Development Expense -- $3.3 million, an increase from $2.9 million due to external consulting work for the Causeway platform.
• Selling and Marketing Expense -- $1.6 million, up from $1.1 million primarily due to Causeway-related market development assessments.
• General and Administrative Expense -- $2.5 million, a 3% decrease compared to the third quarter of 2025.
• Total Operating Expenses -- $7.6 million, inclusive of $1 million in one-time Causeway consulting expenses, compared to $7.1 million last year.
• Cash and Cash Equivalents -- $9.2 million as of Sept. 30, 2026.
• Net Working Capital -- $10.2 million as of the end of the third quarter.
• Net Cash Used in Operating Activities -- $6.7 million, compared to $5 million in the third quarter of 2025.
• Waveguide Manufacturing Investment -- $2.7 million invested in equipment and tooling during the first nine months of 2026.
• Causeway Platform Capacity -- Initial hardware supports the evaluation of up to 19,200 parallel optical pathways with data rates of 2 gigabits per second to 3 gigabits per second per lane.
• AI Optical Ecosystem Engagement -- 10 companies, including hyperscalers and system integrators, are currently evaluating Causeway samples.
• Defense OEM Orders -- Just under $1 million in new orders received to date in the fourth quarter.
• Engineering Services Pipeline -- A multimillion-dollar defense program is in the final stages of contracting.
• Operating Expense Guidance -- Mid-$6 million range expected for the fourth quarter of 2026.
• Cash Requirement Guidance -- Total cash needs for the fourth quarter are expected to be materially less than in the third quarter.
• AI Market Projection -- The global AI market is projected to reach $4.8 trillion by 2033, according to UN Trade and Development.
• Optics Market Forecast -- The combined co-packaged and near-packaged optics market is forecast to grow to more than $39 billion by 2030.
• AR Glasses Shipment Forecast -- Shipments are projected to grow to more than 32 million units by 2030.
• Unapplied Manufacturing Overhead -- $790,000, an increase from $513,000 in the prior-year period due to lower production levels and product reworking.

Need a quote from a Motley Fool analyst? Email pr@fool.com

RISKS

• Travers stated, "The Blade 2 and Shield were discontinued at the end of 2025 because key components needed to manufacture them were no longer available," which contributed to the year-over-year revenue decline.
• Russell stated, "The increased loss was the result of lower revenues, some unbillable costs incurred on an engineering program to meet customer needs and increased unapplied manufacturing overheads of approximately $790,000," noting financial impacts from manufacturing inefficiencies.

SUMMARY

Vuzix Corporation (NASDAQ:VUZI) reported a strategic transition from its branded smart glasses business toward an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) model focused on AI-powered wearable displays and data center optical connectivity. Management stated that total revenue declined as the company discontinued several legacy products to focus on customer-funded development programs and repeat supply relationships. The company reported the deployment of evaluation samples for its Causeway optical interconnect platform, engaging with more than 10 companies across the AI ecosystem. Additionally, Vuzix indicated that its Rochester facility upgrades are complete, enabling parallel development and production across its defense, enterprise, and data center businesses.

• Management highlighted the Vuzix Causeway platform as a solution for AI infrastructure, with CEO Travers stating, "Causeway is designed for a wide and slow architecture where aggregate bandwidth comes from the very large number of parallel channels rather than from per-lane speed."
• The defense segment is expected to show growth in the fourth quarter, supported by the introduction of the SHRIKE Defense Display Platform and ongoing production work with Collins Aerospace.
• CFO Russell noted that the $1 million in Causeway-related consulting expenses incurred in the third quarter is not expected to repeat in the fourth quarter.
• Management indicated that the company's original design manufacturer (ODM) partnership with Quanta provides a path for high-volume manufacturing of AI-driven smart glasses.
• CEO Travers noted that AI-assisted solutions are serving as a significant driver of adoption, stating, "We believe AI-assisted solutions will be the most powerful driver of smart glasses adoption we have seen to date."

INDUSTRY GLOSSARY

• Causeway: Vuzix's optical interconnect platform designed to route dense arrays of optical signals in AI data centers.
• Waveguide: An optical component that uses nano-imprinted structures to route light to a display or sensor through a thin plate of glass.
• VCSEL: Vertical-Cavity Surface-Emitting Laser, a semiconductor-based light source used in optical communications.
• Micro-LED: A microscopic light-emitting diode technology used to create high-brightness, low-power displays.
• ODM: Original Design Manufacturer, a company that designs and manufactures products that are eventually rebranded by another firm.
• OEM: Original Equipment Manufacturer, a company that produces parts or subsystems used in another company's end product.
• Optical Interconnect: A communication system that uses light signals to transmit data between components in a computer or network.
• SHRIKE: Vuzix's configurable defense display platform for situational awareness and mission information.
• SerDes: Serializer/Deserializer, functional blocks used in high-speed communications to convert data between serial and parallel interfaces.
• Hyperscaler: Large-scale cloud service providers that manage massive data center infrastructures.

Full Conference Call Transcript

Operator: Greetings, and welcome to the Vuzix Corporation Third Quarter 2026 Financial Results Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this call is being recorded. I would now like to turn the call over to Ed McGregor, Director of Investor Relations at Vuzix. Mr. McGregor, you may now begin.

Edward McGregor: Thank you, operator, and thank you, everyone, for joining us today. Welcome to the Vuzix Corporation Third Quarter 2026 Financial Results Conference Call. With us today are Vuzix President and CEO, Paul Travers; and our CFO, Grant Russell. Before I turn the call over to Paul, I would like to remind you that management's prepared remarks and responses during the question and answer session may contain forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties. The company claims the protection of the safe harbor for forward-looking statements contained in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.

Actual results could differ materially from those contemplated by any forward-looking statements due to factors including general economic and business conditions, competition, changes in business strategy or development plans, our ability to attract and retain qualified personnel, changes in legal and regulatory requirements, and other risks described in our SEC filings. Any projections represent management's estimates as of today, November 12, 2026. Vuzix assumes no obligation to update them except as required by law. This afternoon, the company issued a press release announcing its Q3 2026 financial results and filed its 10-Q with the SEC. Participants may wish to review those documents as we will provide a summary of the results on today's call.

Today's call may include certain non-GAAP financial measures. When required, reconciliations to the most directly comparable GAAP measures can be found in the company's SEC filings. Paul will review our business progress and outlook, followed by Grant's financial review. Paul will then return with closing remarks before we open up the call for questions. Paul?

Paul Travers: Thank you, Ed, and thanks to everyone for joining us today. Let me start with 3 key developments from the quarter. First, in just 3 months since its announcement, Vuzix Causeway has shipped evaluation samples, a co-development letter of intent has been signed, and we have engaged with more than 10 companies across the AI optical interconnect ecosystem. Second, our defense business is entering the fourth quarter with momentum. We have received just under $1 million in new OEM orders to date, with an additional multi-million-dollar program for engineering services work that is in the final stages of contracting.

Lastly, our Rochester waveguide manufacturing upgrades are installed, high-index material processing is operational, and we have delivered functional single-plate color waveguides for customer evaluation. AI is reshaping how people work and the computing infrastructure that supports them. For Vuzix, this creates 2 opportunities: wearable displays that bring AI into the physical world, and optical connectivity for AI infrastructure. Both draw on our optical design, systems integration and U.S.-based manufacturing capabilities. Research, including a study by The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, indicates that generative AI is being adopted faster than personal computers and the Internet were. UN Trade and Development projects that the global AI market could expand approximately 25-fold between 2023 and 2033, reaching $4.8 trillion.

That growth is driving an enormous effort to build the computing infrastructure needed to support it, and the capital to fund that effort is arriving in many forms. In June, SpaceX, which now includes xAI, completed the largest IPO in history, and both OpenAI and Anthropic have since filed to go public. Moving more data between computing devices within server racks demands higher bandwidth, greater power efficiency, and compact optical connectivity. With the Vuzix Causeway optical interconnect platform, we are applying our waveguide design and scalable manufacturing capabilities to those requirements. AI is also driving customer activity in our enterprise and OEM smart glasses business areas. Companies want to bring AI-powered assistance into maintenance, manufacturing, logistics and field service.

Smart glasses with wide-field-of-view cameras let AI see what the worker sees and can deliver context-aware guidance through voice interaction and information projected on a see-through display while keeping the workers' hands-free and aware of their physical world safely. We believe AI-assisted solutions will be the most powerful driver of smart glasses adoption we have seen to date. It gives enterprise smart glasses a broader everyday purpose and is bringing new customers to Vuzix with increasingly more specific application needs. These customers are not only arriving with defined workflows they want to deploy, but writing their own applications for our smart glasses using the latest AI-powered coding tools.

These factors allow Vuzix to focus directly on their smart glasses solution needs, along with achievement of their commercial milestones and deployments that should logically follow. As we have stated previously, Vuzix is continuing its transition from a business historically reliant on its own branded enterprise smart glasses towards the broader OEM relationships made specifically for the customer. Our OEM model combines customer-funded development with opportunities for longer-lasting supply relationships and repeatable product revenue. Expanding new OEM customer engagement and advancing programs thus far reinforce our confidence in this direction. The OEM cycle is longer, but the resulting relationships should be much more durable.

Over the past 3 months, we have shipped Vuzix Causeway evaluation samples, introduced the SHRIKE Display Platform for defense use cases, supported production and next-generation work with Collins Aerospace, and installed our Rochester waveguide manufacturing upgrades. High-index material processing is now operational, and functional single-plate color waveguides have been delivered for customer evaluation. These advances expand the optical solutions we can deliver across smart glasses, defense and other advanced optical applications. Our focus is customer design needs and their qualification, consistent manufacturing performance, and production execution. Let me walk through the details, starting with the Vuzix Causeway platform for AI data center optical interconnect applications.

Again, in just 3 months since its first public announcement, Vuzix Causeway has progressed from introductory PR to shipped evaluation samples and engagements with more than 10 companies seeking to improve AI data center optical connectivity performance. These include light source and data interconnect suppliers for data centers, AI system integrators and research teams from leading hyperscaler companies. Causeway is a thin passive glass waveguide bridge that routes dense arrays of optical signals between emitters and detectors inside computing systems. It is designed to support compact optical routing and extended reach configurations with potential applications and scale-up connections between processors and scale-out connections between computing systems.

Causeway applies our waveguide design and precision nano-imprinting expertise to data movement optically, where bandwidth density, high power efficiency and packaging are critical. To understand why this matters, consider what the industry calls the copper wall. Today, data moves between processors over copper links that push each lane as fast as possible, now 200 gigabits per second and beyond. Running copper that fast requires SerDes circuits that serialize data at one end and deserialize it at the other, along with retimers and error correction, and each of those steps consumes power and adds delay.

As lane speeds rise, the distance copper can carry a signal keeps shrinking, now to roughly a meter inside a rack, while the power spent just moving data keeps growing. At the same time, industry estimates indicate that GPUs and large AI clusters can spend up to half their time waiting for data to arrive. Causeway is designed for a different approach, often called wide and slow. Rather than forcing data through a very few fast lanes, it carries thousands of optical channels, each running at modest rates, much as a high-bandwidth memory achieves its throughput through a very wide interface.

This approach can remove much of the SerDes overhead, reducing the power, heat and the delay of moving data and helping keep expensive processors doing useful work instead of waiting. Causeway-type devices have multiple potential roles in the AI data center. The nearest-term opportunities are in near-packaged and co-packaged optics where optical signals must be coupled and routed in very dense arrays close to the processor and in routing signals inside the system between optical engines and standard connectors. Longer term, the same technology can support optical connections between chips, within a package and it may also play a role in pluggable optical modules.

In each case, Vuzix's contribution is the precise coupling and routing of dense arrays of optical signals. Rising channel counts and VCSELs and micro-LED architectures create optical integration challenges that our waveguide design and manufacturing capabilities are well-suited to address, giving Causeway multiple paths forward as AI compute and data center technologies continue to advance. Our initial platform supports evaluation of up to 19,200 parallel optical pathways. Because Causeway is passive, the data rate on each pathway is set by the active components, with micro-LED emitters typically running at 2 to 3 gigabits per second per lane.

Causeway is designed for a wide and slow architecture where aggregate bandwidth comes from the very large number of parallel channels rather than from per-lane speed. Prospective partners now have physical hardware to assess against their architectures and requirements. We have also entered a co-development letter of intent and begun integration with partner-supplied active optical hardware. The active components Causeway can support are typically micro-LEDs, VCSELs and their respective photodetectors. Discussions now center on hardware evaluation, customer-defined optical requirements and integration with active components. We can pursue this market using an established technology foundation with customization and qualification for each customer design. Engagement spans light sources, receivers, packaging, system integration and ODM suppliers.

All the complementary capabilities needed to develop complete, highly efficient and fast optical data links. Our next commercial steps around the Vuzix Causeway platform are to continue our efforts of securing strategic partnerships and customer-focused and funded engineering programs with defined milestones and deliverables that can support an accelerated path to production. Successful integration and qualification would create opportunities for repeat supply of customized waveguides or optical assemblies. To keep pace with the fast-moving market and with our Board's support, Vuzix engaged a Tier 1 research firm to independently assess AI optical connectivity and test where Vuzix solutions can compete.

Drawing on interviews with more than 70 industry experts, the assessment helped us prioritize applications, clarify customer qualification requirements, map the supplier ecosystem from light sources to hyperscaler operators and identify which relationships to pursue as we move from evaluation towards funded development and production programs. The advisory work also mapped the ecosystem needed to practically bring these solutions to market, from light source and optical engine suppliers to packaging companies, system manufacturers and hyperscale data center operators. It helped us identify where existing and new architectures are defined, how suppliers are selected and which relationships to prioritize as we advance from evaluation towards funded development and production supply.

Taken together, this work sharpened our commercial road map and investment priorities. The customer evaluations and integration efforts now underway show that roadmap moving into execution. Our defense business combines waveguide imaging optics, display engine engineering, and U.S.-based manufacturing. We're already seeing encouraging momentum in the fourth quarter. Besides previously discussed programs, our Collins Aerospace work includes both current production and next-generation development, placing our technology in systems today while addressing expected future requirements. In September, we introduced the SHRIKE Defense Display Platform and began shipping units for customer evaluation and integration. Its configurable waveguide display supports purpose-built systems for situational awareness, unmanned system operations, and mission information.

Working hardware lets customers assess the display, mounting and interfaces, helping define customization and qualification requirements. Applications also include equipment upgrades, training, simulation and counter-drone systems. Vuzix participates through custom engineering, complete displays or waveguide-based optical components. Vuzix's U.S.-based waveguide design and manufacturing, combined with our ability to deliver components or complete systems are important capabilities for customers seeking specialized optical solutions in the defense space. Our near-term focus remains executing existing commitments and advancing evaluations towards defined, customer-supported development work, and ultimately production solutions. AI for frontline workers is expected to be one of the strongest catalysts we foresee for expanding enterprise smart glasses use.

A technician can ask their AI smart glasses for guidance, share the task in front of them and receive relevant information while keeping both hands on the job. Those same applications can help document completed work, prepare service reports and update enterprise systems. AI smart glasses connect frontline workers with information and expertise across maintenance, logistics, manufacturing and field service. Our enterprise wearable computing experience here gives us practical knowledge of ergonomics, cameras, audio, prescription support, safety and software integration. Customers draw on that knowledge when defining their new products as potential OEMs. Their increasingly specific workflows and device requirements further help us to prioritize engineering and move evaluation towards purchase commitments.

All the while, AI development tools are also reducing the software effort required to connect glasses to the enterprise workflows, opening opportunities for partners and customers to build applications. Our enterprise OEM and OEM model allows us to tailor optics, camera, audio systems, and safety features for software integration to a customer's application with a path to ultimately supplying them both complete systems and/or optical components. By way of example, working with a leading global automotive manufacturer, we have moved from engineering sample systems in its operating environment to negotiating production configurations, manufacturing responsibilities and production deployment schedules.

We also continue to support Amazon's MRE (sic) [ RME ] team with the current M400s, and we are expanding into next-generation data center programs that use AI to help technicians maintain and support data center operations. The Ultralite platform combines our waveguides with a lightweight and see-through display eyeglasses-style platform. Customer evaluations and requirements are further refining the camera, audio and optical software requirements for enterprise and specialized applications. And we are translating that work into production-scoped commitments with qualifications and schedules specific to each program. Our OEM strategy can create several revenue opportunities within a customer relationship.

Engineering can lead to waveguide, optical module or complete system supply, subject to qualification and commercial agreements, while customer funding supports development around their predefined solution requirements. Mirroring our OEM strategy is our ODM business. Our lead customer here is Quanta, whose high-volume manufacturing capabilities and customer reach complement our waveguide design and volume manufacturing. Together, they give customers a clear path from design to high-volume AI-driven smart glasses. Our waveguide design and nano-imprinting manufacturing are a common thread across our AI data center and AI smart glasses and defense HMD opportunities. Each program has distinct performance and qualification requirements, but all draw on the same core capabilities.

In the first 9 months of 2026, we invested approximately $2.7 million in additional equipment and tooling, primarily for waveguide manufacturing and R&D work. This investment supports larger customer programs, it supports parallel work on more programs at once and the distinct requirements of our advanced display and optical interconnect waveguides. With the Rochester facility upgrade now installed, we have greater flexibility to support development and production across multiple programs simultaneously. Potential OEM customers need a supplier that can deliver design support, qualification, high volume and competitive costs. We combine those manufacturing disciplines with our optical engineering and wearable product experience.

Before Grant reviews our financial results, I want to put our third-quarter revenue performance in the context of the transition underway at Vuzix. Revenue from our established enterprise products declined year-over-year and part of that decline reflects changes to our product line. The 2025 period included sales of Blade 2, Shield and Z100 smart glasses. The Blade 2 and Shield were discontinued at the end of 2025 because key components needed to manufacture them were no longer available. In addition, we moved the Z100 from a standard product to an OEM platform device, which we now will supply only to committed customers with volume orders. What encourages us is the overall commercial progress we are seeing now.

The orders, customer engagements, and program milestones discussed today show our strategy beginning to translate into tangible commercial opportunities. Our focus is on converting that momentum into funded development, production orders, and repeat supply relationships. We believe this transition positions Vuzix to build a larger, more diversified revenue base while maintaining disciplined capital investment. And with that, I'll turn the call over to Grant for our financial review.

Grant Russell: Thank you, Paul. As Ed mentioned, the 10-Q we filed this afternoon provides a detailed explanation of our quarterly and year-to-date financials, so I'll provide you with just some color on the key numbers for the third quarter ending September 30, 2026, only. Total revenues for the 3 months ended September 30, 2026, were $714,000, down 33% (sic) [ 38% ] from the same period in 2025. Lower smart glass revenues was the primary driver of this decrease as unit sales of our M400 product decreased, along with the absence of any revenues from our Blade 2, Shield and Z100 products, which were discontinued at the end of 2025.

Sales of engineering services and OEM products for the 3 months ended September 30, 2026, were $220,000 compared to $265,000 in the 2025 period, a decrease of 17%, primarily related to the timing of progress on customer projects. Gross loss for the 3 months ended September 30, 2026, was approximately $868,000 compared to $411,000 for the comparable 2025 period. The increased loss was the result of lower revenues, some unbillable costs incurred on an engineering program to meet customer needs and increased unapplied manufacturing overheads of approximately $790,000, up from $513,000 in the 2025 period.

Those unapplied overheads are related to our continued reworking of older product versions and upgraded current versions, which does not result in any additional overhead absorption being added into inventory, as well as lower production levels of new products as the company has sufficient finished goods on hand. Research and development expense for the 3 months ended September 30, 2026, was $3.3 million versus $2.9 million in the prior year's period, with the entire increase due to external consulting work related to the company's new Causeway CPO solutions. Selling and marketing expense for the 3 months ended September 30, 2026, was $1.6 million versus $1.1 million in 2025.

The majority of this increased due to external consulting work related to the company's new Causeway CPO solutions. General and administrative expense for the 3 months ended September 30, 2026, was $2.5 million, down 3% from the same period in 2025. Total operating expenses, inclusive of the special $1 million expense incurred in Q3 regarding our new Causeway optical interconnect platform, were $7.6 million compared to $7.1 million in the prior year's quarter, and we expect our total OpEx will be in the mid-$6 million range for Q4 '26.

If one excluded the $1 million Causeway-related consulting expense in Q3, which we do not expect to incur in Q4, our operating expenses would have been approximately $6.6 million or about 7% below the prior year's quarter. The net loss for Q3 '26 was $8.4 million or $0.10 per share compared to a net loss of $7.4 million or $0.09 per share for the same period a year ago. Now for some balance sheet highlights. As of September 30, 2026, cash and cash equivalents were $9.2 million, and our net working capital position was approximately $10.2 million. The company continues to have no current or long-term debt obligations outstanding.

For the third quarter ended September 30, 2026, net cash used in operating activities was $6.7 million, compared to $5 million in the prior year's period. For the 3 months ended September 30, 2026, cash used for investing activities on fixed assets and patents was $1.6 million versus $0.4 million in the comparable 2025 period. The increase was primarily driven by our waveguide manufacturing plant expansion, which was substantially complete as of September 30, 2026, and we expect our quarterly investment activities to decline significantly in Q4 '26. Causeway evaluation samples to date have been produced on our existing waveguide equipment with no dedicated or incremental capital spending.

For the 3 months ended September 30, 2026, cash provided by financing activities was $0.2 million versus $10.6 million in the comparable 2025 period, driven by lower ATM net proceeds in the third quarter of 2026 and the prior year's receipt of $5 million in funding from Quanta in the same period of 2025. Overall, we recognize the importance of preserving our financial flexibility as various capital programs develop for both our imaging and CPO waveguides and OEM smart glasses programs. Customer-funded engineering is an important part of that approach because it shifts more development costs to the customers who have committed to a program and its underlying products.

With our further manufacturing waveguide upgrades substantially complete and the Causeway market development assessment behind us, we expect our total -- we expect our overall total cash needs for the fourth quarter to be materially less than in Q3. Our plans include raising capital as needed, improving our operating efficiency and adjusting discretionary spending and development activities where appropriate. The ATM sales agreement we have in place provides a timely financing mechanism as needed, with its use dependent on market conditions and/or actual funding requirements. Paul, I would like to turn the call back to you.

Paul Travers: Thank you, Grant. As we conclude, I want to emphasize the scale of the opportunities ahead and the progress Vuzix is making towards capturing them. AI is driving new opportunities across our 3 key markets: smart glasses that bring AI-powered assistance into everyday work, advanced optical systems that improve situational awareness in defense applications and optical interconnects that support the rapidly growing demands of AI data centers. All 3 build on the waveguide technology, optical expertise and U.S.-based manufacturing capabilities Vuzix has spent years developing.

TrendForce forecasts that shipments of AR glasses, which are smart glasses with built-in see-through displays, will grow to more than 32 million units by 2030, while it also forecasts that the combined co-packaged and near-packaged optics market will grow from approximately $100 million in 2025 to more than $39 billion by 2030. Defense and industrial applications represent additional multi-billion-dollar and significant unit volume opportunities. Importantly, our growth should no longer be dependent solely on sales of Vuzix-branded smart glasses. Our OEM-focused strategy positions us to supply waveguides, optical components, engineering and specialized systems to customers serving these expanding markets.

Vuzix Causeway optical data connect (sic) [ interconnect ] solutions in 3 months, since their unveiling, have advanced to customer evaluations, optical integration work and engagement across more than 10 companies in the AI optical interconnect ecosystem. While our third-quarter results reflect the transition underway in our business, these developments reinforce our confidence in the opportunities ahead. Our priority now is execution, converting customer engagement into funded development, production orders and repeat supply relationships, while maintaining financial discipline. We believe this is the path towards building a larger, more diversified business and creating lasting shareholder value. Thank you for your continued support, and operator, we're now ready for questions.

Operator: [Operator Instructions] Our first question is from Christian Schwab with Craig-Hallum Capital Group.

Benjamin Taxdahl: It's Ben Taxdahl on for Christian Schwab. My first question is, Paul, as it relates to optical interconnects, can you walk me through -- walk us through the differences between, say, Vuzix Causeway and Corning's GlassBridge?

Paul Travers: Yes. I was talking to myself there, Ben. Sorry about that. It's a great question, Ben. Let me start by saying Corning is the world leader in glass, and we view their GlassBridge as validation that glass waveguides belong in the AI data center. But the 2 technologies solve different problems. The GlassBridge is a fiber-to-chip connector designed primarily to couple fibers to the edge of a silicon photonics chip. Causeway is designed to couple and route dense, 2-dimensional arrays of light sources, such as VCSELs or micro-LEDs like we've talked about. These emit light from their surfaces rather than the edge.

Edge coupling ties the number of channels to the length of the chip's edge, while Causeway can use the area of the chip, which supports much higher channel counts. It's also why Causeway fits the wide-and-slow architecture we discussed earlier, which uses thousands of parallel channels -- I mean, literally tens, maybe hundreds of thousands, as opposed to a line of maybe 50 or 100. So it's a significant number of parallel channels we can support. And because Vuzix doesn't make light sources or the chips, Causeway can work with every supplier in the ecosystem. So we see the two as largely complementary, and in some systems, they could even coexist.

Benjamin Taxdahl: My next question, can we just stay in here on this topic? Can you share a little bit more about the company, the types of companies you're working with related to Causeway? You mentioned 10, but just a little bit more clarity on types of companies would be helpful.

Paul Travers: It would be great to name-drop, but I can't. We're under NDA with every single one of these guys. But we can describe the mix, and we think the breadth is meaningful. Our engagements span most of the optical interconnect ecosystem. They include companies developing light sources, both VCSELs and micro-LEDs. If you do a search online and you just look at those kinds of companies, probably they've reached out to Vuzix and are asking how we might play together. Optical engine and transceiver developers, optical connector and fiber connectivity companies and packaging companies. These relationships also include some of the ODMs that build and integrate the complete server racks installed in AI data centers today.

And we're in discussion with a lot of research teams. Some of them are very, very early on the research team side. Some of them have been doing this for quite some time and haven't been able to solve this short-haul connection of these 2D arrays. So it's -- the companies that are all trying to solve the same problem, coupling and routing very large numbers of optical channels in a very small space. And that's the problem Causeway is designed to solve. We're in a unique spot with unique technology and a plant floor that's designed to deliver in volume into it.

So the other piece that's really cool is when we've got some updated videos of our plant floor and how it operates and when people see that, it's almost kind of a jaw-dropping moment to think that there's this small Vuzix, but it has such an advanced plant for the manufacturing of these waveguides. So we get a lot of points for that, and it's really across the ecosystem, Ben.

Benjamin Taxdahl: Just going to that, the new videos on the plant floor, what you guys are doing, there's several -- there are lot of irons in the fire here. There's several new OEM programs in front of you. So what gives you guys confidence that you have the operations to handle running all these programs in parallel?

Paul Travers: Ben, we built this company ahead of the business that we're now pursuing. I mean you got -- everybody knows that we've invested a lot on this plant floor, the technology. They know that it's not inexpensive to run Vuzix on a quarterly basis. And that's because we built this infrastructure. This company is ready to perform and deliver into these markets. Our manufacturing team has years of experience producing waveguides now, smart glasses at volume and our engineering and technology teams have been delivering custom designs for OEM, defense and now data center customers. Just as important, these programs share a common foundation.

I mean display waveguides, it's all basically the technology that we deliver, designing, making the tools for and then ultimately manufacturing the waveguides in volumes. So we have an organization that is designed to run and race in the nano-imprinting waveguide marketplace. These are just hand-in-glove fits for AI and data centers and AI for display systems.

Benjamin Taxdahl: Got it. And then can you share a little bit more on the -- you talked about $1 million in recent awards. Can you just talk a little bit more about those contracts?

Paul Travers: Yeah, it's interesting to note that it actually -- yes -- there's no doubt it's a contract award, but quite frankly, it's for an OEM program. The contract award takes an existing OEM platform that we have at Vuzix. I can't get into the details because of who the customer is, but it takes an existing OEM platform that we have. It modifies it slightly to turn it into what this customer needs, and it will deliver first modest volumes but still production devices. So it's -- yes, it's an award, but it's not an engineering services award only or a contract to build the next-generation kind of a thing that there's no production associated with it.

This is build and modify out the platform that exists, get it into production, and deliver first assets, which we fully expect should evolve into much higher volumes down the road.

Benjamin Taxdahl: Thanks. And just going back to Causeway quick, if I could sneak one more question in, how should investors be thinking about the business? How should we measure the progress of this new business?

Paul Travers: We'd encourage our investors to measure Causeway the way our customers will, by how far programs move toward production. We expect to show progress in 3 ways. First, the number and range of development projects. We expect a growing number of projects integrating Causeway with different light sources, including VCSELs, micro-LEDs, and silicon photonics, and across different parts of the link, from co-packaged and near-packaged optics to the connections between optical engines and standard connectors. This is not always going to be under NDA and cloak-and-dagger sort of stuff; we will be able to start sharing these kinds of things as they get announced, and we go to trade shows with these companies and it unfolds.

Second, the projects will advance from evaluation samples to joint development to customer-funded engineering to qualification and ultimately production supply. Customer funding is an especially important signal. Sometimes people think about Vuzix and its cash runway and the like. These are going to be funded -- in some ways and sometimes significantly funded programs, which will really grease the skids as it were to get this technology, number one, moving into production, but also help Vuzix take all this overhead that we have and use it for what it was intended for. And then third, the depth of our relationships.

Some companies we're working with see Causeway as pivotal to their own solutions, and we believe some of those relationships could grow into strategic partnerships, potentially including strategic investments, which, if you've been a shareholder of Vuzix for a long time now, you know we have done this kind of thing multiple times in the past. So it's evolving and it should get very obvious as it unfolds in the data center space, that kinds of activities that are happening, and it should be exciting for all of our shareholders.

Edward McGregor: At this point, I would like to turn the call back over to Paul Travers for any closing remarks.

Paul Travers: Everybody, thank you again for joining us today. It's an exciting time at Vuzix. This data center application space is going to be very, very big coming up and Vuzix is excited to be a player in it. It's nice to see all this technology that we've built being able to be put to use in such a great space and a technology that's going to change the world in so many ways. It's just revolutionary. We look forward to updating you on our customer programs and financial progress over the next quarters. Thanks, everybody. Have a nice evening.

Operator: This concludes today's conference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you again for your participation.

This article is a transcript of this conference call produced for The Motley Fool. While we strive for our Foolish Best, there may be errors, omissions, or inaccuracies in this transcript. Parts of this article were created using Large Language Models (LLMs) based on The Motley Fool's insights and investing approach. It has been reviewed by our AI quality control systems. Since LLMs cannot (currently) own stocks, it has no positions in any of the stocks mentioned. As with all our articles, The Motley Fool does not assume any responsibility for your use of this content, and we strongly encourage you to do your own research, including listening to the call yourself and reading the company's SEC filings. Please see our Terms and Conditions for additional details, including our Obligatory Capitalized Disclaimers of Liability.

The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.