Aeluma (NASDAQ:ALMU) executives said the company is seeing increased customer interest in its photonics technology as artificial intelligence data center investment strains existing supply chains for optical components, while quarterly revenue remained roughly flat and the company narrowed its full-year revenue outlook.
On the company’s third-quarter fiscal 2026 earnings call, Founder and CEO Dr. Jonathan Klamkin said recent discussions at the Optical Fiber Communication Conference, or OFC, underscored the scale of demand for photonics used in AI data centers. He said major laser suppliers are sold out, indium phosphide substrate supply remains constrained and companies across the industry are looking for alternatives that can scale.
Klamkin said Aeluma’s approach is to manufacture indium phosphide-like photonic devices on lower-cost, larger-diameter non-indium phosphide substrates, with the goal of leveraging microelectronics-style manufacturing. He said that positioning has become more relevant as data center customers look for both near-term supply relief and longer-term technologies for applications such as co-packaged optics.
AI Data Center Demand Drives Photonics Focus
Klamkin said AI infrastructure is becoming a central driver of the company’s commercial pipeline. He cited increasing capital expenditures by hyperscale data center operators and said optical networking represents a significant portion of that investment. According to Klamkin, the rapid build-out has created demand for high-performance photonics for interconnects, including lasers and photodiodes.
He said Aeluma’s high-speed InGaAs photodiodes and photodiode arrays could support both “slow and wide” and “fast and narrow” optical transceiver formats. For silicon photonics and co-packaged optics, Klamkin said indium phosphide lasers are facing supply, performance and packaging challenges, and that Aeluma’s MOCVD quantum dot lasers are being evaluated for their potential power handling, scalability and reliability.
During the question-and-answer portion of the call, Klamkin said customer interest in quantum dot lasers has “really grown quite a bit” in recent months, including around high-output power, high-temperature operation and the potential to simplify packaging. He said Aeluma has accelerated internal work on the technology in response to that interest, though he added that customers are still evaluating performance and that adoption of new technologies is not expected to be rushed.
Mobile, Defense and Quantum Opportunities
Klamkin also highlighted mobile and consumer electronics as a major potential market, saying mobile original equipment manufacturers are preparing to adopt shortwave infrared, or SWIR, image sensors in smartphones. He said InGaAs remains the performance standard for SWIR, but traditional manufacturing on indium phosphide substrates is expensive and difficult to scale.
He said Aeluma is engaged across the supply chain with OEMs and tier-one and tier-two suppliers, and that its InGaAs photodiode arrays on non-indium phosphide substrates are designed to combine performance with scalability. Klamkin said qualification and production for mobile applications would require a multi-year effort, and he did not provide a specific timeline for adoption.
In defense and aerospace, Klamkin said government-funded programs have helped mature the company’s technology and build relationships with government agencies, prime contractors, private defense technology companies and commercial customers. He said Aeluma has secured six new development contracts to date in fiscal 2026, totaling “well over” $5 million in value, meeting its goal of winning three to seven new contracts for non-dilutive R&D funding and partnership development.
Klamkin also noted an increase in prospective quantum customer engagements.
Supply Chain Partnerships and Commercial Pipeline
Aeluma said it continues to work with fabrication foundries, materials companies, integration partners and packaging partners. Klamkin said some partners operate at 100 millimeter, 200 millimeter and up to 300 millimeter wafer fabrication, while many target markets may be served by 150 millimeter wafers.
He discussed recently announced partnerships with Sumitomo Chemical Advanced Technologies and Tower Semiconductor. In response to an analyst question, Klamkin said Sumitomo is primarily tied to scaling wafer production, while Tower’s foundry capabilities could support multiple markets, including AI data communications, mobile and consumer electronics, quantum and defense.
Klamkin said the company’s commercial pipeline has increased from the roughly 20 customer engagements previously cited to “upwards of 30” engagements. He said not all earlier discussions remain priorities, as Aeluma is focusing on opportunities that appear more promising and have clearer timelines.
He also said Aeluma has not yet been qualified by a specific customer. Customers are largely evaluating performance metrics and outlining potential qualification requirements, while the company has begun some internal qualification work toward industry standards for products it expects could become more standard offerings.
Quarterly Results and Balance Sheet
CFO Christopher Stewart said fiscal third-quarter revenue was $1.2 million, compared with $1.3 million in the year-earlier quarter and $1.3 million in the prior quarter. Government R&D contracts remained the primary source of revenue.
Aeluma reported a GAAP net loss of $1.8 million, or $0.10 per basic and diluted share, compared with net income of $1.5 million, or $0.12 per share, in the prior-year period. Stewart said the year-over-year change was primarily due to a one-time $2.3 million gain in the fair value of derivative liabilities recorded in the third quarter of fiscal 2025.
Non-GAAP net loss was $701,000, or $0.04 per share, compared with breakeven a year earlier and a $797,000 loss in the prior quarter. Adjusted EBITDA loss was $911,000, compared with a gain of $109,000 in the prior-year period and roughly in line with the second quarter.
Stewart said the company ended the quarter with $37.8 million in cash and cash equivalents and no long-term debt. Cash declined by $792,000 from the end of the December quarter, reflecting spending on new hires and R&D investment.
Guidance Narrowed on Contract Timing
Aeluma narrowed its full-year fiscal 2026 revenue guidance to a range of $4.2 million to $4.6 million, from a previous range of $4 million to $6 million. Stewart said the change primarily reflected delays in the execution and start of work on several government contracts, including delays related to government shutdowns and other factors.
In response to an analyst question, Stewart said the guidance reduction was “vast majority, if not all” timing-related, rather than permanently lost revenue. Klamkin added that several contracts began late, started only recently or had not yet started, pushing some revenue into fiscal 2027.
Stewart also discussed the company’s at-the-market equity facility, established in March. He said Aeluma allocated $50 million of existing shelf capacity to the facility and had not sold any shares through it as of the call. He described the ATM as a financial flexibility tool for an early-stage growth company.
Klamkin closed the call by saying the quarter reinforced Aeluma’s traction across its target markets, particularly following OFC, and that customer engagements are helping drive the company’s transition toward commercialization.
About Aeluma (NASDAQ:ALMU)
Aeluma, Inc develops optoelectronic and electronic devices in the United States. The company manufactures semiconductor materials and chips using compound semiconductors on diameter substrates that are used to manufacture mass market microelectronics. It offers its devices for use in mobile, automotive, AI, defence and aerospace, communication, AR/VR, and HPC applications, as well as laser emitters, transistors for integrated circuits, quantum photonic circuits, and solar cells applications. Aeluma, Inc was formerly known as Parc Investments, Inc and changed its name to Aeluma, Inc June 2021.
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