AirJoule Technologies Corporation (AIRJ) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Greetings, and welcome to the AirJoule Technologies' Second Quarter 2026 Earnings Call. [Operator Instructions] Please note that this conference is being recorded. It's now my pleasure to turn the call over to your host, Tom Divine, Vice President of Investor Relations and Finance. Thank you. You may begin.

Thank you, and good morning. With me today for our second quarter 2026 earnings call are Matt Jore, Founder and Chief Executive Officer; Pat Eilers, Executive Chairman; Bryan Barton, Chief Commercialization Officer; and Stephen Pang, Chief Financial Officer. During this call, we will be referring to a presentation, which is available on the webcast platform and on the Investors section of our website. I would like to point out that many of the comments made during the prepared remarks and during the Q&A section are forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties that could affect our actual results and plans. Many of these risks are beyond our control and are discussed in more detail in the Risk Factors and the forward-looking statements sections of our filings with the SEC. Although we believe the expectations expressed are based on reasonable assumptions, they are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially. And now I will turn it over to Matt Jore.

Thanks, Tom. Good morning, everyone, and thanks for joining us today for our second quarter 2026 earnings call. We've had some exciting developments over the last few months, and we're pleased to be discussing those today. On our last call in May, we talked about the growing public opposition to data center development. This was driven in large part by the power and water demands these facilities place on their communities. While it started as local opposition in mostly rural areas where data center development was occurring, public perception has shifted, and that opposition has gone mainstream even cultural icons like Willie Nelson and Erin Brockovich are weighing in, issuing statements and launching campaigns to oppose data center development in the United States. The political winds are shifting as well. New York recently enacted a moratorium on data center permits for facilities over 50 megawatts, making it the first state to explicitly pause data center development. When signing the executive order, Governor, Kathy Hochul, specifically said that existing regulatory frameworks are "Not yet prepared to address the large-scale water use and treatment from data centers, which could strain aquifers, surface waters and public infrastructure." in Texas, which has been welcoming data centers and thus has seen massive development in recent years Governor Greg Abbott announced a pause on grid connected data centers until a full and complete audit of all proposed development can be completed. He urge regulators to determine how much water proposed data centers will use and what their water supply is as well as information about their cooling technology. These policy actions are unfolding against the backdrop of growing water scarcity across the U.S. A few weeks ago, the Washington Post profiled Kearny, Arizona, a town of 2,000 people whose annual water allocation was cut by 75% after the reservoir that supplies that town fell to 1% of capacity. The town has prohibited lawn watering, car washing and even little league. The article concluded that other towns across the West could face the same fate. Communities are already running short on water and the demands of new development are colliding with a shrinking water supply. These are the problems that AirJoule helps solve. Our systems produce pure distilled water on site from the humidity in the air, powered by low-grade waste heat without drawing on municipal supply or local aquifers for data center operators, AirJoule offers a path to water access that does not put them in competition with the communities around them. It also helps solve a permitting problem. Water use is increasingly the factor that delays approval of new data centers because communities worry about long-term water usage. By using AirJoule systems, data center operators can show local officials and residents that it has a long-term solution to securing water. And over time, excess water produced by AirJoule can flow back into the community. Which eases local water stress rather than adding to it. For water-stressed regions, AirJoule provides a distributed source of clean water that does not depend on a distant reservoir. The same advantage applies well beyond data centers. In many water-scarce markets, water availability is constraining residential development. To that end, we recently announced an exclusive partnership with Kubota Corporation, to deploy AirJoule systems for residential development in water-scarce regions of Texas and California. Bryan is going to talk about that in greater detail. But it's a huge milestone for us on the path to commercialization. By partnering with Kubota, who has a 136-year legacy of environmental and water engineering expertise will be able to deploy AirJoule systems at scale and unlock residential development across the Southern U.S. Partnerships like the one we just announced with Kubota have been critical to our success. So far, GE Vernova, our joint venture partner, delivered a powerful validation of our technology this summer. In July, GE Vernova held a grand opening for its new Advanced Research Center Frontier campus in Niskayuna New York. They specifically highlighted AirJoule as one of the innovative technologies that GE Vernova is helping to develop. And they have an AirJoule Core system operating there as a showcase unit for customers and partners who visit that facility. You can see it also on their website and their recent posts on LinkedIn. This reflects the strength of our joint venture with GE Vernova, and we are grateful for their continued support through engineering and R&D initiatives. We've also got some very exciting technology in the hopper at AIRJ that we'll be sharing in upcoming communications. Before Bryan provides an update on our customer engagements and productization, I'll turn it over to Pat for an update on our international growth initiatives in the UAE. Pat?

Yes. Thanks, Matt. Good morning, everybody. Since the end of the quarter, we've achieved 2 important milestones related to our ongoing commercialization efforts in the UAE. First, we shipped an AirJoule Core system to the UAE for a series of deployments to demonstrate the technology and validate performance for customers across the country. The first showcase of this Core unit will take place in Dubai at one of Expo City Dubai's landmark destinations. We intend to leverage Expo City's sandbox test environment for the sustainable urban deployment, including technologies addressing challenges like water security. This deployment puts AirJoule in front of the visitors and industry leaders who visit the iconic location. Following the deployment at Expo City the AirJoule system will be used for on-site customer demonstrations and exhibitions across various Emirates of the UAE. Second, AirJoule was awarded one of UAE's first Expo City green licenses. The green license is the first of its kind in the UAE and it is the key enabler of the Green Innovation District, the country's first location dedicated to sustainable innovation. It emits only companies that can demonstrate a commitment to sustainability, and we were in the first cohort. It provides us with access to business missions throughout the Ministry of Economy and Tourism and a seat in the Green Modulus Leadership Forum. In a region where government engagement is paramount, this is a meaningful milestone for us. Our progress in the UAE is taking place as the region is increasingly focused on water security. The Gulf supplies roughly 40% of the world's desalinated water and more than 90% of that comes from about 56 plants. Several countries in the region draw 70% to 99% of their drinking water from the concentrated base. That was always an efficiency story. Events in the region over the past several months have made it a resilient story as well. AirJoule produces pure distilled water on-site across a range of climate conditions without drawing on municipal supplies, local aquifers or a connection to centralized infrastructure. That is what we are demonstrating with this latest AirJoule Core deployment. With that, I'll hand it over to Bryan for the commercial update.

Thanks, Pat. Thanks, Matt. I want to walk through 3 areas this morning. Our commercial progress headlined by our recently announced partnership with Kubota, an update on our 2 product platforms, Prime and Core and our productization efforts. Let's start with commercialization. In July, we signed an exclusive sales agreement with Kubota Corporation, covering residential developments in Texas and California. Kubota will serve as the exclusive sales channel for AirJoule systems in that segment. As a part of the collaboration, we're also deploying 2 AirJoule Core systems with Kubota, one, near Corpus Christi, Texas, and the other in Irvine, California. These will start later this quarter. Kubota, which was founded in 1890, operates in more than 150 countries and brings wastewater treatment, water reclamation, PIPE systems and operations and maintenance capabilities to our partnership. They also have tremendous experience in supporting residential development in water constrained regions. The opportunity here is clear. In California and Texas, as well as other water constrained areas, water is now a primary gating item for residential development. Under California law, a residential development of more than 500 units cannot obtain approval without written verification that the water supply is sufficient over a 20-year horizon. That requirement is getting more and more difficult to meet. The state's owned water supply strategy projects that California could lose up to 10% of its water supply by 2040 due to hotter and drier weather conditions. When a developer cannot verify sufficient water supply, the projects stall. In Texas, the population is expected to grow by 53% by 2080. However, the state's recently adopted water plan projects that water supplies will be declining by 10% in the same time frame. Water supply is decreasing while the population is booming. This is the market we are addressing with Kubota. AirJoule unlocks residential projects by generating pure water on-site independent of municipal allocations and groundwater rights. Importantly, water produced by AirJoule is pure and distilled meeting not only FDA bottled water standards, but also meeting California's drinking water standards, which are the most stringent in the nation. Designing our system for the most demanding standard in the U.S. positions us well for the rest of our addressable markets. When it comes to performance, our systems produce water across a wide range of temperature and humidity conditions. This is what enables a single AirJoule product to serve both the U.S. Gulf Coast and Southern California. Also on the topic of customer engagement, our work with the Net Zero Innovation Hub for data centers will soon move from preparation to deployment. After being selected from more than 70 applicants in the fall of 2025, we successfully completed the Hub's technology acceleration program back in June. And throughout this program, we worked closely with the hub's members, including Google, Microsoft, Danfoss, Schneider Electric and Vertiv. We work with them to align AirJoule's waste heat-to-water capabilities with the real-world operation of data centers. We'll soon be shipping our first Prime unit to Europe for a deployment to show how AirJoule can convert low-grade data center waste heat into pure distilled water. Now let's talk about our products. I'll start with Prime. We commissioned our first full-scale Prime system at our Newark, Delaware facility back in May and has been operating ever since. After the initial start-up, we focused our engineering work on optimizing the run conditions for specific operating cycles. The learnings we gained from our field deployments of the Core systems have transferred directly to Prime. This includes the timing of fans, the sequencing of our vacuum pumps and the thermal management of our sorbent chambers. Our decision last year to concentrate our build and development activity on the Core platform is paying off now by compressing the Prime optimization time line. We are very pleased with the initial performance of the system. And we're tracking toward our expectation of 2,000 liters per day for this system. In late June, we held an unveiling ceremony of the Prime system, and we hosted both Delaware Governor Matt Meyer and U.S. Senator, Chris Coons as well as several local elected officials and representatives from economic development organizations. It was great to show off the Prime system, and we're grateful for their continued support. As I mentioned earlier, this first Prime system will be deployed in Europe, and we will be building additional systems over the coming months. This will this will allow us to continue optimizing the system at Newark as well as provide showcase systems for customer demonstrations. Turning to the Core system as a reminder, we've been using the Core system to demonstrate the technology for customers, but there is significant market demand for the Core product as a dehumidifier that also generates pure water, and we refer to this product as Core DH. Our head-to-head testing of Core DH against the incumbent desiccant wheel standard continues to demonstrate significant energy savings across our target humidity range. With this product, we're targeting the estimated 1.2 million unit installed base of conventional desiccant wheel systems and more specifically, applications where facilities operate between 30% and 50% relative humidity. We've already begun to deploy these systems, these dehumidifier systems with strategic customers for demonstrations and technology validation. The third area I want to cover is productization. In 2025 and 2026, we deployed several AirJoule systems for pilot projects and customer demonstrations, and these units have been critical in improving the technology in the field. We're continuing that work with a limited number of strategic customers this year. And in parallel, we're advancing the engineering that turns AirJoule into a commercial product designed for manufacturing, cost reduction, reliability testing and product certification. Running these efforts together rather than in sequence is deliberate. It lets commercial deployment and product development proceed at the same time and accelerates market adoption. Reliability has been a huge factor for us this year, huge focus for us this year. Since it's one of the most important factors that customers look for when evaluating a new product. We've built a component reliability program that evaluates every major component in the AirJoule system, and we operate dedicated test rigs through accelerated duty cycles, allowing us to identify problems and mitigate them early. In parallel with reliability and component testing, we're completing design for manufacturing work to prepare both platforms for scaled production. We're continuing to reduce and simplify the bill of materials, and we're working through a clear sequence to get us ready for contract manufacturing. Putting it all together, we're executing the commercialization plan that we've laid out for several quarters and I look forward to providing more updates on our next call. Now I'll pass it over to Stephen for the financial updates.

Thank you, Bryan. I'll walk through our financial results for the second quarter of 2026 and then provide an update on our 2026 outlook and liquidity position. For the second quarter, AirJoule Technologies reported net operating expenses of $4.1 million. This is inclusive of $0.8 million in administrative and engineering expenses reimbursed to us by the joint venture under a statement of work. Our net loss for the quarter was $8.5 million, the primary components below the operating line was $5.1 million of noncash losses due to the increase in the fair value of our earn-out shares liability and subject vesting shares liability. Now turning to the joint venture. Total JV operating expenses for the second quarter were approximately $5 million. The joint venture received $2.5 million in additional capital contributions from AirJoule Technologies during the quarter to support ongoing productization, manufacturing and commercial deployment activities. AirJoule Technologies ended the second quarter with $41.4 million of cash on the balance sheet. This includes $14.2 million of net proceeds from a registered direct offering we completed in early June. Combined cash across AirJoule Technologies and the JV was $43 million with no debt. Our guidance for the full year 2026 cash spend at AirJoule Technologies and the JV is now slightly higher at approximately $27 million to $28 million. This reflects increased commercialization activities as we pursue multiple projects and deployments across different market applications. Our liquidity is sufficient to fund our operations, the JV and our planned commercial deployments into 2028. Looking ahead, we still expect modest paid deployment revenue at the JV during 2026, with more meaningful commercial revenue beginning in 2027 as our Core and Prime deployments come online. We continue to maintain strong flexibility in managing our capital position and balance sheet, and we'll remain opportunistic and disciplined in evaluating anyfinancing and strategic opportunities that enhance our balance sheet and support long-term value creation. With that, I'll pass it back for the Q&A portion of the call.

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from the line of Jeffrey Campbell with Seaport Research Partners.

Congratulations on all the progress that you're making. You said that AirJoule is deploying the Core DH to strategic customers beginning in the third quarter of [indiscernible]. Just provides some colors maybe [indiscernible] areas that you're targeting or maybe just some specific types of businesses.

I'm sorry, Jeff, you were breaking up a little bit. We got that this is about the Core DH deployments. Can you repeat?

As the Core DH, I was wondering if you could give us a little color on maybe where these initial strategic applications are being located geographically and maybe specific types of businesses that you're targeting if that's relevant?

Yes. Thank you for the question. And as we said, we are deploying Core DH systems to strategic customers for industrial dehumidification. And really this segment where spaces need to be kept dry. And I would maybe just elaborate that this is a strategic deployments. These are seeking to validate the performance and the efficacy of the Core operating system, and we're focusing on both deployments that can enhance our commercial product adoption with strategic customers in that sense as well as some industrial focused customers that see the value of both the dehumidification and the water that's generated.

Okay. And Bryan, you discussed preparations for contract manufacturing, specifically highlighting cost reduction and simplifying materials. I wondered if you could add any color with regard to, a, are both models in the optimization is the effort on time? And when do you expect to be ready to present enhancing designs to manufacturing partners?

Yes. I think both DFM activities and kind of cost simplification activities are on track for Prime and Core. The Prime engineering is effectively going through, right, those cost component changes and some simplifications for manufacturing. And it's on time for this 2027 contract manufacturing conversations, and we're preparing on schedule for that. For the Core product, it's a little bit even though we've had Core for a while, getting that product to be really ready for Prime time. I'm very excited about the dehumidification market opportunity in front of us with this product. And we are pushing to -- we're on time. We're also pushing to accelerate that effort. In the past, and we've clearly communicated a 2027 products there for Core DH, and we're on track for that.

Sorry, Matt here. Just wanted to add on the first topic. Keep in mind, Bryan mentioned the $1.2 million installed base for that dehumidification market. I'm pretty excited about that. That gives you a little bit of color on where we're heading with it. On contract manufacturing, it's important to recognize that the vast majority of the components that go into a Core or Prime system are built around the heart of the system, the coated contactor, the metal organic framework coated contactor. So there are name many manufacturers who already have ERP system, supply chain all set up for all the rest of the relatively commodity components. So it's not a heavy lift is my point.

Yes. Understood. If I can ask one last one. With regard to Kubota and the development work that's going on there? Can you just give us a little color on what the thought is? Like I am wondering are the installation is going to be more centralized maybe for a planned development? Or will each home have an AirJoule? And would one Core enough water supply for each home. Just anything you can tell us there so we can start to visualize it a little bit.

Yes, Jeff, thanks. I think we have a rendering that was, I believe, released. But the idea is a planned residential community. This is a multi-home community where there are several houses, and there would be a centralized water generation system and recycling system. So AirJoule brings the pure distilled portable water for the drinking water for the community. And then there's water recycling system as well for the community. So it's kind of that centralized community picture.

Our next question comes from the line of Alex Fuhrman with Lucid Capital Markets.

Congratulations on all of your recent announcements and progress towards commercialization. Matt, I wanted to ask about the path to 2,000 liters per day. It sounds like you're very happy with the progress that you're making and that you're confident you're going to be able to hit that target. Can you give us an update on where you've been performing lately and just what that arc has looked like over the past 6 months? And just give us a sense of what other kinds of tweaks and optimizations we're talking about that are getting you to that 2,000 liters per day?

Alex, this is -- I know that the correct question was directed to me, but I'm going to let Bryan answer it before I do. I think it's important that you recognize long term, these communities are looking and regulators are looking at permitting where companies, data centers or residential developers can show 20 or 100 years in the case of Arizona water supply. So that's really what we're pointing to long term 2,000 liters a day is just the start. Long term, we want to do 10,000 and 20,000 liters, and that's what we're focusing on. But for now, I'll let Bryan answer the current state of Prime.

Thanks, Matt. Thank you for the question, Alex. We commissioned this system in May. It's been operating outdoors ever since. And we've been really impressed with the speed upon which it's come online and operated. It's running 24/7 with high uptime. And there's a lot of water and data that's being generated through a lot of different environmental conditions. And I guess as a reminder, to everyone, right, the system operates depending on the humidity levels in the air. So when we talk about 2,000 liters per day, up to 2,000 liters per day, that's at the higher side of the humidity levels. And what makes AirJoule unique is the ability to not only run on waste but to generate humidity under a wide range of environmental conditions. And thankfully, we've been blessed with hot warm days that are humid as well as dry days. And so we've been getting really great data across the gamut. We are really, I'm very pleased with its performance coming online. And yes, we are on track to hitting the 2,000 liters per day. And we have a specific measures now identified to close the gap and to have the system really operating aspect.