Nauticus Robotics, Inc. (KITT) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Hello everyone, thank you for joining us and welcome to the Nauticus Robotics Incorporated Second Quarter 2026 Earnings Call. After today's prepared remarks, we will host a question and answer session. [Operator Instructions] I will now hand the conference over to Kristin Moorman, Corporate Development Lead. Kristin, please go ahead.

Thank you and good morning everyone. Joining me today and participating in the call are John Gibson, CEO and President, Jimena Begaries, Interim CFO, and other members of our leadership team. On today's call, we will first provide prepared remarks concerning our financial and operations results. Following that, we will answer questions. We have now released our results for the quarter ending June 30, 2026, which are available on our website. In addition, today's call is being webcast and a replay will be available on our website shortly following the conclusion of the call. Please note that comments we make on today's call regarding projections or our expectations for future events are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond our control. These risks and uncertainties can cause actual results to differ materially from our current expectations. We advise listeners to review our earnings release and the risk factors discussed in our filings with the SEC. Also, please refer to the reconciliations provided in our earnings press release as we may discuss non-GAAP metrics on this call. I will now turn it over to John.

Thank you, Kristin, and good morning, everyone. Glad you're joining us today. I'm going to save my remarks until the conclusion of the call today. And so at this point, I'd like to just turn it over to Jimena to walk through the financials. Jimena?

Thank you, John, and good morning everyone. During our second quarter, we remain focused on strengthening the company's capital structure and preserving our NASDAQ listing. We completed several important financing initiatives, including finalizing the registration process for our equity line of credit, filing the Series D Certificate of Designation, and executing additional debt to equity exchanges that reduced outstanding debt by $5.5 million, while supporting stockholder equity. I will now discuss our financial results for the second quarter of 2026. Revenue for the second quarter was $0.9 million, an increase of $0.7 million sequentially and a decrease of $1.2 million compared to the same quarter last year. Operating expenses for the quarter were $6.9 million, a decrease of $1.6 million [ compared to Q2 ] 2025 and an increase of $1 million sequentially. This reflects a continuous focus on cost management, partially offset by increased activity levels compared to the first quarter of 2026. G&A costs for the quarter were $3.3 million, representing an improvement of $1.1 million from the same quarter last year. Sequentially, G&A has remained mostly flat, increasing by less than $0.1 million quarter over quarter, demonstrating continued discipline in managing our corporate overhead. Net loss for the quarter was $11.1 million, compared to $9.3 million in the first quarter of 2026 and $7.4 million in the second quarter of 2025. The increase was driven mostly by non-cash losses recognized on debt extinguishment transactions, related to the exchange of outstanding debt for equity securities. Adjusted net loss for the quarter was $7 million compared to $7.4 million for the second quarter of 2025 and $6.4 million in Q1 2026. Cash at the end of Q2 2026 was $2 million, compared to $7.6 million at the end of 2025. This decrease is related to cash used in operating activities. As we enter the second half of the year, our priorities remain clear, continuing to strengthen the balance sheet, maintaining disciplined cost management, and ensuring we have the financial flexibility to support commercial execution and future growth opportunities. With that, I will now hand the call over to Steve Walsh, our sales lead, for an update.

Thank you, Jimena, and good morning. Entering the year, many operators based their capital spending plans on oil prices in the mid-$50 to $60 per barrel range, which led to a more cautious approach to offshore activity in the Gulf of America. As a result, several projects we had anticipated moving forward this year have been deferred into 2027 and in some cases beyond. In response to these market conditions, we've adjusted our operating model to better align our cost structure with current demand. Our objective has been to maintain flexibility to rapidly deploy our personnel and equipment when projects move forward, while avoiding the expense of maintaining a fully mobilized vessel throughout the entire work season. This disciplined approach allows us to remain responsive to customer needs while managing costs and preserving financial flexibility. While these market dynamics have impacted the timing of work in the Gulf, we have made meaningful progress in diversifying our business. We've expanded our presence in the offshore wind market along the East Coast, successfully completed work with one of the world's largest subsea cable laying companies, have projects scheduled on the West Coast in the coming months, and currently have international tendering opportunities. We also achieved an important operational milestone by successfully deploying a Comanche ROV integrated with our Nauticus ToolKITT software. The combined system performed exceptionally well for our client, demonstrating the value of integrating intelligent software with proven subsea hardware. The Nauticus ToolKITT demonstrated the ability to improve the ROV's operating efficiency while reducing pilot workload, allowing missions to be executed more effectively and consistently. This successful deployment further validates our technology strategy and provides another example of how our software-enabled solutions can help customers improve productivity, reduce operating costs, and enhance the overall efficiency of subsea operations. In addition, we are actively pursuing opportunities outside the United States where we believe our technology and capabilities are well aligned with growing demand for efficient, autonomous offshore operations. We are also seeing a growth in the number of opportunities in the defense sector. While these efforts remain in the early stages, we're making strategic investments in marketing, capabilities, alliances, and business development to position Nauticus to compete effectively for this work. We believe our autonomous subsea technologies and software-driven solutions are well suited to support the evolving defense and national security missions, creating another avenue for long-term growth and diversification. Although the near-term offshore oil and gas market remains challenging, we're encouraged by the strength of our opportunity pipeline, the continued expansion of our customer base across multiple offshore markets, and the progress we're making in positioning the company for long-term growth. We remain focused on executing our strategy, expanding our commercial footprint, and creating sustainable value for our shareholders. With that, I'll turn it over to Brian Allen, our Revenue Lead, for his thoughts on 2026.

Thanks, Steve. Jimena has taken you through the numbers and I want to cover why this business has been hard to forecast and what we're doing about it. Now looking at our revenue the way an investor would, I see a business that's hard to model and there are 4 reasons for that and we are changing all of them. First, where we sit in the contracting chain, our services business is mostly time and materials orientated and we normally bid as a subcontractor. That means we win work only if the company above us wins theirs first. Their timing sets hours, their price affects hours, and when their contract slips, our revenue moves with it. And that's what's been happening. Second, time and materials pricing hands the customer the efficiency our technology creates. So we finish faster, they pay for fewer days, and we earn less overall. And third, our software has only recently become a defined product. While it was maturing, it wasn't able to be sold easily. And lastly, pipeline coverage. You carry more opportunity than you need because not everything converts. And in a soft market, that coverage has to be higher. So here's what changes. We're targeting a significant increase in pipeline coverage for 2027 and widening where it comes from, starting up sales activity internationally and across the defense sector. Defense inquiries are already up and those use cases align well with what our technology does reliably today, and we have active proposals out now. The services business that we're building internationally will bid as the main contractor on work where our autonomy gives us a real advantage. And when we hold the contract, we set the price and the scope and we keep the margin our technology creates. We are putting the quality systems in place to bid at that level. Those contracts will be fixed price. When our autonomy takes days out of the job, that shows up in our margin. And finally, I'm extremely pleased to announce the first formal release of our Nauticus ToolKITT software for ROVs, now on sale to underwater fleet operators across the energy sector and defense groups. Jason will tell you a little bit more about that shortly, but for the business, it starts bringing in recurring, predictable revenue from 2027. And we will communicate our bookings and backlog in future calls. I'll now hand you over to Jason.

Thank you, Brian. While we move towards growing product revenue, we continue to make meaningful progress across the technical validation and commercial pathways supporting our product portfolio this quarter. One of the clearest examples was the continued use of Nauticus ToolKITT in active ROV projects. The software exceeded expectations in customer operations, particularly improving vehicle stability, survey consistency, and the quality of the resulting data. Feedback from both our operators and the customer was highly positive and reinforced that Nauticus ToolKITT can deliver meaningful operational value on existing ROV fleets. These deployments provide important field validation and proof points, which help us refine and continue to deploy the commercial adoption model. With Aquanaut, we completed the planned freshwater phase of an autonomous mooring line and riser inspection workflows for our customers at the Florida test location. We will continue to leverage the lake for our mission training, while further progress for our mooring line and riser inspection now requires access to a suitable offshore test environment. We remain engaged with participating organizations and other interested parties regarding the next phase and the timing will depend on customer budget cycles and site availability. We also reached an important milestone in our manipulation program by completing the prototype of our next-generation electric manipulator, which has a much lower capital requirement for manufacturing supported by our strategy to manufacture in the UAE. We have validated the movement through our software controls architecture, and now functional and load testing are underway with further prototype builds and design refinement planned. This provides an important foundation for future commercial and defense missions requiring autonomous subsea interaction. As we look at the near-term market, we're placing greater emphasis on defense and government opportunities. This is not a change in our underlying technology strategy or a move away from commercial markets. Aquanaut, Nauticus ToolKITT, and our manipulation technologies can be configured and trained around different commercial, government, and defense missions. What is changing is where we see the strongest near-term environment for revenue. Defense and government customers are focused on autonomous systems, subsea awareness, and infrastructure security, and their programs are often structured to fund phased development which match our product strategy. This gives Nauticus an opportunity to advance reusable software, sensing, vehicle and manipulation capability through funded mission work. Aligned with this focus, we have prioritized our defense and government opportunities. During the quarter, Nauticus completed an initial scope of work intended to support the evaluation of a broader multi-phase defense project. If awarded, we anticipate revenue this year and into 2027. In parallel, we expanded our participation in next-generation ocean sensing opportunities. Nauticus is currently involved in multiple collaborative proposal efforts with government, commercial defense and academic participants evaluating autonomous approaches to deploying and operating persistent subsea sensing infrastructure. These activities bring together Aquanaut, Nauticus ToolKITT, manipulation and advanced sensing technologies into broader customer solutions. They illustrate how Nauticus addresses missions that are difficult or costly to perform using traditional vessel-based approaches. Our solution offers a platform to deploy infrastructure that supports new forms of long-term value for persistent subsea data. Together, these activities represent progress across multiple routes to broad product revenue. Nauticus ToolKITT is being validated in real customer operations. Aquanaut is being developed around specific commercial and defense applications. And our manipulation technology is advancing through internal product development and industry collaboration. The work completed during this quarter expanded the way we can bring high-value technology to the market. Our increased near-term focus on defense and government work is intended to accelerate our progress through markets that are actively interested in development and deployment of autonomous subsystems. Importantly, the resulting technology remains not only applicable for defense, but also across the commercial markets that we serve. I'll now hand the call back to John.

Well, thank you, team, for the updates. And before we open the line up for questions, I'd like to step back from the individual updates you've heard today and try to put them into perspective. There's no question that 2026 has been a challenging year. The offshore markets developed more slowly than we anticipated. Customer projects have shifted to the right and our financial results reflect that reality. Rather than waiting for the market to improve, we've taken decisive action. We've reduced our cost structure, we've strengthened our balance sheet, we've broadened our addressable markets and sharpened our focus on the opportunities where we believe Nauticus can create the greatest long-term value. Just as importantly, our technology has continued to advance. Nauticus ToolKITT has now been successfully deployed in customer operations, and we are formally taking that product to market. Aquanaut continues to mature around specific commercial and defense missions, and our next-generation electric manipulator has entered functional testing. Increasingly, these technologies are coming together as an integrated autonomous platform capable of addressing larger opportunities in subsea autonomy, critical infrastructure protection, and persistent ocean sensing. We're also evolving how we go to market. As Brian discussed, our objective is to build a business with more predictable, higher margin revenue by expanding software sales, pursuing fixed price projects where we capture the economic benefits of autonomy, and ultimately growing recurring product and service revenue. That transition is fundamental to creating a more scalable and valuable company over time. Defense and government markets are becoming an increasingly important part of our strategy. Around the world, governments are investing in autonomous maritime capabilities, subsea infrastructure security, and persistent maritime domain awareness. We believe Nauticus has developed technologies that are well aligned with those priorities and position us to compete in markets that we expect to grow for many years. Internationally, we're progressing in the United Arab Emirates. We have secured a facility. We are expanding our business entity and are planning for future operations and manufacturing. More importantly, we have developed an outstanding relationship with our partners there, and I remain very optimistic that the UAE can become an important regional hub for Nauticus as we expand internationally. So while the first half of the year presented challenges, I believe Nauticus enters the second half of 2026 stronger, a more focused company with a clear commercial strategy and expanding product portfolio and opportunities across commercial, defense and international markets. Our priorities are straightforward, execute, deliver for our customers, convert our pipeline into contracts, and continue building long-term shareholder value. Before we conclude, I'd like to briefly address a topic that many shareholders have asked about. We've seen discussion regarding the possibility of another reverse stock split. We have no desire to undertake another reverse split, and we're pleased that our recent share price recovery has improved our position. Based on where we stand today, a reverse split is not required to maintain our NASDAQ listing. At the same time, we continue to monitor and prepare for any changes to NASDAQ's listing standards to ensure we remain in compliance and well positioned for the future. Finally, I want to thank our employees for their dedication, our customers for their trust, our partners for their collaboration, and our shareholders for their continued confidence and support. We appreciate your commitment to Nauticus. We look forward to updating you on our continued progress in the quarters ahead. And with that, I'm happy to open up the line for questions, Operator.

[Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from the line of Peter Gastreich with Water Tower Research.

Thank you very much. Good morning and thanks for taking my questions. With the Nauticus team, I really always appreciate hearing from the expanded team on these calls. So thanks for the detail there. Just a few questions for me. Starting out, it feels like you've been building toward this in the previous calls, but I believe it's the first time that you've kind of stated primary contractor explicitly in terms of a strategy. Now, if I understand it correctly, serving as a primary contractor internationally means that you would be taking on maybe vessel commitments and more execution risk. But could you talk about the trade-offs in that primary contractor strategy and what they mean for your margins and capital intensity?

Yes, Brian, why don't you take that question from Peter. It's good to hear from you, Peter. Go ahead, Brian.

Yes, so this was one of the things which the team brought in as a strategy change relatively recently. Now, with regard to the risk element to it, yes, if you look at primary contracting status where you're actually running your own vessel, it's a lot riskier, but we're not looking to do that. So not looking at taking long-term charter commitments. Essentially, we can operate in the sort of position of vessels of opportunity, i.e., we can bring a boat in for a particular project, mob it up and then move it on to other projects for the summer and then demobilize it for the winter, thereby minimizing risk with shorter-term contracts. The reason why we get that flexibility is because the more we use our own software systems in our projects, the greater the margin we actually have to play with. And we are starting to work on focusing on 2 particular types of contract types so we can actually specialize on things which are fitting to ToolKITT. So again, that further reduces risk because we are limiting our contract types essentially, as well as limiting the use of external vessels.