SEALSQ (NASDAQ:LAES) Q2 2026 Earnings Call

0:00 Greetings, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the CLSQ First Half 2026 Financial Results Earnings Conference Call. As a reminder, this conference call contains forward-looking statements. Such statements involve certain known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors which could cause actual results, financial condition, performance, or achievements of CLSQ to be materially different from any future results TLSQ is providing this communication as of this date and does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements contained herein as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

0:50 These risks are also discussed in our filings made with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Please be advised that CLSQ's financial results release for the six months ended June 30th, 2026 was issued last week and can be found by visiting the investor section of the CLSQ website at investors.clsq.com. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A brief question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone requires operator assistance during the conference, Please press star zero on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce Carlos Moreira, Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of CLSQ. Mr. Moreira, please go ahead.

1:45 Thank you very much and good morning in the United States and good afternoon in Europe. So welcome to CLSQ first half 2026, earning call. I am joining today by our Chief Financial Officer, John O'Hara. I will begin with our first half financial and operational highlights, followed by an update on the progress we are making in transforming CLSQ into a global leader in post-quantum and quantum security. John will then review our financial results in greater detail, after which we will discuss our outlook and priorities for the remaining of 2026 and beyond. The first half of 26 was an important inflection point for CLSQ. We delivered strong revenue growth, significantly improved gross margins, and advanced our post-quantum semiconductor roadmap, achieved important certification milestones, and integrated acquired businesses, and expanded our capability across secure semiconductors, trusted digital infrastructure, and quantum technology.

2:54 increased by 131% to $11.2 million compared to $4.8 million in the first half of 2025. Gross profit increased by 233% to $5.4 million from $1.6 million, while gross margin expanded to approximately 48%. This growth was driven by renewed demand for our Volt IC secure element expansion in PKI subscription and digital identity services, initial revenue from Quantix Edge Security in Murcia, Spain, and six months of contribution from IC Alps. IC Alps contributed approximately 2.5 million of first half revenue More importantly, the acquisition substantially strengthened our capabilities and capacities in custom ASIC design, secure semiconductor architecture, and advanced engineering services. These capabilities are increasingly important as customers seek integrated hardware-rooted security solutions rather than just standalone cryptographic software.

4:10 North America generated $5.6 million of revenue, representing 50% of the total. Europe and the Middle East and Africa generated $3.7 million, or 33%, while Asia Pacific contributed to $1.9 million, or 17%. We believe this is the right moment to invest decisively in building a global leadership position in post-quantum and quantum security. The quantum transition is no longer a distant research topic. Governments, defense organizations, critical infrastructure operators, financial institutions, and technology companies increasingly recognize that migration to post-quantum security requires much more than a software update. It requires secure semiconductors, hardware routes of trust, quantum-resistant algorithms, trusted identities, security provisioning, certified manufacturing, Sovereign Infrastructure and Control over the Complete Technology Supply Chain.

5:11 CLSU is building capability across all these layers. As of June 30, 2026, we had more than $486 million in cash, cash equivalent and restricted cash. This strong liquidity position gives us the flexibility to fund research and development Certification, Product Industrialization, Acquisitions, Infrastructure, Manufacturing, Personalization, and other selected strategic opportunities. Our strategy is to convert SLSQ from a secure semiconductor and digital trust company into a major quantum security platform, developing a sovereign vertical stack, what we call from root to qubit, and increasingly from root to space.

5:57 At the center of this transformation is what we call the quantum highway. The quantum highways are architectures for securely connecting the different layers of the emerging quantum economy. It is designed to combine post-quantum semiconductors, quantum computers, quantum photonics, interconnects, quantum secure communications, satellites, PKI, digital identity, trusted provisioning, artificial intelligence, and compliance. The objective is not simply to invest in separate quantum technology, to integrate them into a commercially deployable, sovereign, and interoperable infrastructure. The silicon and hardware root of trust layer, or QS7001 secure element and QVolt TPM remain central to our post-quantum commercialization strategy. During the first half, QS701 achieved NIST SP890B Entropy Secure Source Validation under ESV Certificate E333.

7:04 Validated entropy is fundamental to secure key generation and cryptographic protection, particularly for systems operating in regulated defense and critical infrastructure environments. QS7001 also completed important common criteria of false injection and side-channel resistant testing. These matters bring us closer to the formal certification required by government agencies and major industrial customers before high-volume deployments. We also continue advancing QVolt TPM, Customer Sampling Progress and Engineering Samples of the post-quantum QVOL TPM-185 become available. Our objective is to support the next generation of computers, servers, industrial systems, edge device, and critical infrastructure with hardware-based protection against both classical and quantum-enabled threads.

8:05 As of June 30, more than 150 customers and prospects were engaging with our post-quantum technologies. with over 30 actively evaluating or integrating QS701 and QVOL TPN. We expect initial QS701 and QVOL TPN revenue late in the second half of 2026 with more meaningful contributions beginning in 2027 as customers complete integration, qualification, and product planning. The precise timing remains subject to certification, customer validation, and procurement cycle. Since the end of the first half, we have continued to make significant progress. Our Volta-IC 408 secure element achieved the FIPS 143 validation under the NIST certificate number 5463.

9:01 This is a major commercial and technology milestone. FIPS 140-3 validation is widely required for cryptographic products used by governments, defense organizations, financial institutions, and operators of critical infrastructure. The certification strengthens our ability to address highly regulated markets and confirms that CLSQ is building its quantum security platform on an already validated and trusted foundation. We also achieved ISO EEC 27001 recertification, reinforcing the security and government framework supporting our semiconductors, PKI, digital identity, and post-quantum operations. Our active commercial pipeline exceeded $225 million in potential revenue opportunities through 2029 and as of September 9, 2026.

9:57 including more than 100 million associated with post-quantum projects already. This pipeline spans secure element, custom ASIC, PKI, digital identity, trusted provision, post-quantum semiconductor and critical infrastructure security. It is a management estimate rather than revenue guidance and remains subject to certification, customer validation, commercial negotiation, procurement decision and execution risk but nevertheless it demonstrates the scale We are also developing a strategic relation with major semiconductors and technology companies, or work with global fundraisers, supports the migration of future secure and post-quantum designs to advanced manufacturing platforms.

10:44 Our collaboration with LATI Semiconductors supports Post-Quantum Security for FPGA-based systems, while our work with Pyro provides access to import and drown robotics and sovereign technology applications for defense. We are also advancing major commercial opportunities for QVolt, DPN, Volt-IC 409, and our broader post-quantum roadmap, including potential applications in computing, industrial systems, connected devices, and critical infrastructure. Beyond our core semiconductor roadmap, we have accelerated the development of CL Quantum, sovereign vertical stat, and its quantum highway architecture. At the semiconductor design layer, ICIALT provides secure ASIC design and engineering capabilities.

11:33 At the quantum computing layer, our investment in Kubli and EROC provides two different differentiated semiconductor-based quantum computer architectures. At the quantum interconnect layer, we completed the acquisition of MIRO-X. MIRO-X brings quantum photonics interconnect technology that can help connect quantum processors, sensors, data centers, and communication systems. This is an essential component of the quantum highway, because quantum systems must eventually be interconnected, not operated as isolated machines. As the Trusted Data and Compliance Layer, we have increased our ownership in WE-CAN Group to 55.5%, gaining control of the company. WE-CAN strengthens all capabilities in high-power compliance, secure data exchange, trusted digital identity, and post-quantum-ready financial infrastructure.

12:21 As the Sovereign Design, Personalization, and Provision Layer, Quantics and Security, MUSIA, generated initial first half-year revenue. This is approximately 40 million initiative is intended to support Europe-based semiconductor design personalization and security provision in one centralized location. We are now evaluating an expanded Q-Quantix 2.0 vision that could bring together additional semiconductor quantum AI and satellite capability in Murcia. In India, we advanced the negotiations to build SEAL Keynes Initiative, which is intended to create localized post-quantum semiconductor capability and give CLSQ access to one of the world's fastest growing semiconductor and digital technology market on which sovereignty is important.

13:13 The space and quantum communication layer or relation with the YSAT supports the development of both quantum secure satellite and IoT connectivity and communications. The objective is to extend our hardware route of trust from terrestrial devices to satellite infrastructure, creating a route to space security architecture. Together, these capabilities form the basis of our quantum highway. Secure ASIC design and engineering through IC-ALP, hardware root of trust through both IC-QS7001 and QVolt TPM, both quantum PKI, digital identity and secure provisioning, quantum computer technology through Kubli and EROC, quantum photonics interconnect through MIRA-X, APower Compliance and Trusted Data through WICAN, Sovereign Semiconductor Infrastructure through Quantix-H and CL-KN-SQ, and Post-Quantum Satellite Communication through YSAT.

14:09 This is what we mean by sovereign vertical quantum stack. Control over the essential layers required to generate, protect, process, transmit, and authenticate sensitive data in the quantum era. During 2026, we increased the capital allocation 2VSEO Quantum Servering Vertical is stacked to 200 million. More than 60 million has already been committed across ICL, Mirax, Kubli, Quantix Edge, Colibri, EROC, YSAT, and WeCan. We are applying this disciplined investment strategy focused on technologies that complement our semiconductor and security roadmap, create commercial synergies, and can ultimately become an integrated component on the quantum highway.

14:55 Our participation as a lead investor in Kubli with 150 million Series A financing and our increased commitment to EROC reflected our conviction that secure semiconductor post-quantum cryptography and quantum computing and quantum communications will increasingly converge among themselves. Our ambition is not to become a passive financial investor in quantum company, obviously. Our objective is to assemble, integrate, and control a strategic technology that can generate products, intellectual property, customer, and required revenue for CLSQ. We also continue to expand the commercial visibility of this strategy or collaboration with the BWT Alpine Formula One team has progressed beyond the cybersecurity into quantum and multi-physics simulation.

15:47 Formula One offers an exceptional environment for demonstrating how quantum technologies can address highly complex industrial challenges involving aerodynamics, materials, energy optimization, and real-time decision making. These applications are relevant for beyond motorsport. The same capabilities can ultimately be applied to aerospace, defense, mobility, advanced manufacturing, energy, and defense. Looking ahead, our priorities are clear. First, we complete the required certification and customer qualification for QS7001 and QVOL TPN and begin their commercial ramp. Second, we convert a growing post-quantum pipeline into production contracts and long-term customer relationships. Third, we integrate ICO, MIREX, and WE-CAN into a unified product and technology roadmap for expand sovereign semiconductor design, personalization, and provisioning capabilities in Europe, the United States, India, and the rest of Asia. Fifth, connect or invest in quantum computers, photonics, AI, trusted data, and satellite communications through the quantum highway. And finally, continue deploying or capital selectively and strategically with the objective of creating a vertically integrated quantum security company with defensible technology, sovereign infrastructure, and global commercial reach. CLSQ ENTER 2026, primarily recognized as a secure

17:21 semiconductor and post-quantum company. We intend to exit this transformation year as a broader quantum security leader, one capable of protecting the entire digital lifecycle from the semiconductor root of trust to quantum computer and space-based communication. We believe our financial strength, technology portfolio, certification, partnership, Thank you, Carlos, and hello to everybody joining us today.

18:14 On the financials, CLSQ reported first half revenue of £11.2 million, an increase of 131% from £4.8 million in the first half of 2025. As Carlos has already explained, this growth was driven by renewed demand for our Volt IC Secure Element products, continued expansion in PKI subscriptions and digital identity services, initial revenue from the Quantix Edge Security joint venture, and approximately £2.5 million of revenue from IC Alps in six months consolidation versus nothing in last year basis pre-acquisition. From a geographic perspective, North America generated 5.6 million of revenue representing 50% of the total. Europe, the Middle East, and Africa generated 3.7 million and Asia Pacific contributed 1.9 million or 17%.

19:03 Our gross profit increased by 233% to 5.4 million compared with 1.6 million in the prior year. And the gross margin expanded to approximately 48%. This improvement reflects a more favourable revenue mix, including ASIC design and engineering services, as well as continued contributions from secure elements, PKI and digital identity. Margins in the ASIC sector in particular are higher than our traditional semiconductor margins, and so these have had a positive impact on our margin and this should continue as this revenue stream continues to grow. Overall operating income was £1.4 million compared with £1.7 million in the first half of 2025, remaining relatively consistent year on year. Turning to expenses, R&D expense was 8.7 million compared with 4.7 million in the prior year period. The increase reflects the consolidation of IC-ALPS, post-quantum product development, certification activities, acquisition-related amortization, and continued investment in our technology roadmap.

20:01 We continue to expect this to be an area of heavy investment in the future as we look to widen our product range and continue on the roadmap that Carlos set out above before. Selling and marketing expense increased to £7.2 million from £6.0 million, reflecting expanded commercialisation efforts, customer engagement and market development. General administration expense was £23.1 million compared with £13.8 million and this was primarily due to acquired business consolidation, expanded corporate infrastructure, intangible asset amortisation and legal audit, advisory and transaction related costs due to the activities undertaken in the first half of the year. In particular, the acquisition of IC Alps, Mira X and WeCan contributed almost 3 million of additional G&A expenditure, alongside 1.3 million of intangible asset amortisation relating to these transactions.

20:52 As a result, operating loss was 32.2 million compared with 21.2 million in the first half of 2025, while the net loss was 27.8 million compared with 20 million in the prior year. Higher operating expenses were partly offset by the 3.8 million increase in gross profit, and also higher interest income earned on our liquidity reserves. Our EBITDA loss was 29.5 million compared with 20.9 million in the prior year period. The reconciliation included approximately 0.4 million of depreciation expense and 2.3 million of amortization expense added back. We end June 30th with 486 million in cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash, including short-term investments. Total liquidity was approximately 488.5 million. This strong liquidity position remains a significant advantage.

21:40 It enables us to continue investing in R&D, certifications, infrastructure, manufacturing, secure personalisation, integration and selected strategic opportunities while reducing our near-term dependence on external financing. We will continue to allocate capital carefully toward commercialisation, recurring revenue, strategic control and long-term value creation. Turning to our outlook, we are reaffirming our previously announced fiscal 2026 revenue guidance of £27-36 million. This represents expected growth of approximately 50-100% over the audited 2025 revenue of £18.3 million. Our outlook is supported by the full year consolidation of IC Alps, continued demand for our Volt IC products, growth in recurring PKI and certificate management revenue, the initial commercialisation of QS7001 and QVolt TPM, contributions from the Quantix Edge Security Project and potential custom post-quantum ATIC design programs.

22:38 As always, this outlook reflects our current expectations and remains subject to customer demand, qualification, and certification timing, supply chain conditions, commercial execution, order timing, and other risks described in our SEC findings. I will now turn back to Carlos to discuss our growth opportunities and strategic priorities.

22:58 Thank you, John. So looking ahead, our priorities for the remain of 2026 and into 2027 are clear. First, we are focused on commercializing QS70031 and QVolt TPN, as previously mentioned. The market is moving from awareness to implementation, from defense, critical infrastructure, industrial systems, identity devices, secure communication, IoT and autonomous technology. Post-quantum security often requires a hardware-based route of trust. CLSQ is well positioned through our secure element, both quantum cryptography PKI and secure provisioning ASIC design capability through ICOps and growing international infrastructure.

23:43 Second, we remain focused on certification for regulated customer certification is a critical convention point or QS7001 entropy validation and common criteria testing process are important steps and we will continue working towards additional customer qualifications and certification models done. Third, we are focusing on converting our pipeline into customer deployment and production commitments. or Active Pipeline exceeded 2,025 million as September 9, including more than 100 million in post-quantum opportunities, which are going to be increased even further next year as there is an executive order by President Trump requiring PQC deployment and Implementation in Critical Infrastructure in the United States.

24:31 So this is not only a revenue guidance, but it also reflects the growing interest across the portfolio and the increase needed for trusted post-quantum rating infrastructure and to follow the guidelines from the U.S. government. Fourth, we will execute a sovereign vertical stack strategy with discipline. We have allocated $200 million because we believe critical technologies, secure semiconductor design, trusted personalization, quantum capabilities, and a strategic supply chain will become increasingly valuable. Every investment must strengthen our roadmap, technology, position for commercial opportunities or time to market. So finally, our approximately $495 million liquidity position gives us time and flexibility to execute.

25:20 We can continue developing products, advancing certification, recruiting staff, integrating businesses, supporting partnerships, and building the infrastructure needed to secure global customers. SocialSQL is building a platform for the intersection of semiconductor-secure post-quantum cryptography, trusted digital identity, and quantum technology. We made meaningful progress in the first half. Revenue grew, gross margin expanded, product advanced through technical and certification milestones, and customer engagement increased and strategic capabilities broadened. The next phase is execution, converting technology investment into revenue, production, commitments, recurring services, and long-term shareholder value. So thank you very much for your continued support and interest in CLSQ.

26:08 Operator, we are now ready to take questions. Thank you very much. Thank you. If you'd like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star two if you'd like to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star key. Our first question comes from the line of Matthew Galenko with Maxim Group. Please proceed with your question.

26:39 Hey, thanks for taking my questions and congratulations on all the progress. Maybe firstly, is there any way you could share what the pipeline looks like for the broader quantum stack? I think the 225 million numbers for the post-quantum Security Peace, but I'm curious, you know, for the other components like quantum photonics interconnect, you know, are you engaging with customers? Are there initial conversations happening? And I'm curious when you think that could be commercialized in the future?

27:17 Hey Matt, thank you very much for your question. The quantum ecosystem that we are building, companies like Miraex, they are generating initial revenue. As you know, the quantum industry is not really revenue rich because these companies are not yet able to generate enough qubits. that will, you know, justify anyone to pay the price to buy a quantum computer. So this is still very much science work and R&D work, but it's essential, right? Because as soon as these quantum companies start to generate a number of qubits, you can start to do multiple applications like what we announced on Formula One, with bringing quantum to a sport, you know, extreme sport and redesign the penetration of the car into the air. So all these things are new things and you can start to do with a limited number of qubits. Developing new medical products, new materials.

28:21 So the industry is around there, right? I mean, as you know, even a lot of very large companies a quantum listed company do not have revenue or very little revenue or if they have revenue it's not actually from quantum but from you know fabs and another expanded facility but what is very interesting in this industry is that because we have a quantum security technology and post quantum semiconductors very well established with amazing technology This is allowing us to fully understand what is going to be the vertical on these technologies and they're going to start to accelerate revenue.

29:07 And this is why we invested in Kubli. Kubli, as you know, is a co-investment between Haas and STMicroelectronics. They are developing qubits at the silicon level. With CMOS technology, we also invested in E-Rock with a similar design. So these companies are advancing exponentially, right? and this is something that will diversify your revenue while or QS7001 PQC revenue, PKI revenue, identity revenue is well established and will continue growing as soon as those certifications are finalized, you will see a new class of revenue adding to the company through what we call the CL Quantum ecosystem, right?

29:54 ASIC is another one. ASIC allows us to, and you can see already that an important amount of revenue is coming out from the ASIC. There are not many ASIC companies in the world, actually, that they have a trust model and cryptographic root key capability as we have. And this is new applications that they are coming, for instance, design ASIC for the automobile industry or the medical industry. Those are wins that they have done being ordered by ICALPS. So it is a hard to understand sector for the reason that we all know because it's a very fragmented sector. There are companies doing quantum sensing, there are companies doing quantum networking, there are quantum number generators, and those are kind of pieces, spare parts of the future vertical stack that we are building.

30:45 Some of them belong to us IP-wise. In others, we have technology investment, but as it was in the case of Kubli, we invested on them, but they also acquired $5 million technology from Haas because they understood that quantum security and verticalization was critical for them to sell the first quantum computers. with similar situations are happening in the United States with EROC. And this is going to be more and more the case where quantum security will be generating revenue for quantum companies and quantum companies will be acquiring more and more revenue from us.

31:25 Got it. Thank you. Maybe if we could also just expand a little bit on the, you know, the quantics edge Just really the personalization opportunity beyond Spain. I think you mentioned expansion within Europe potentially and India. Maybe can you just go back over where you're seeing opportunities to build out those facilities and centers and just geographically, where do you think you can be a year or two years from now with that?

32:03 So as you know, one of the big issues in quantum is sovereign vertical technology because quantum computers, the data they are fully developed, will be $100 or $200 million apiece, so it's a very expensive technology. Hardware, which requires PhDs and very specialized staff. So obviously not every company will have the resources to acquire their own quantum computer. So what is happening is that the industry is coming with quantum as a service type of model where you have one quantum computer or several quantum computers in one specific territory. and this quantum computer will be acting as a vertical stack in a sovereign way. Obviously the United States is a huge market so a lot of companies will afford to buy a $100 million quantum computer but in some countries they will need to only have one or two hubs on where those quantum computers will operate and this is a bit the case of the project in Quantix. So Quantix is a joint venture between us.

33:06 and the Spanish government. It is a very interesting project because it's expanding very fast. We started with a semiconductor post-quantum, but we're also adding and other elements actually in the technology roadmap will be adding the possibility of developing new NEO clouds. This is a very big subject now that they are secured by the cryptographic root key capabilities of a wise key and using secure hardware, PQC secure hardware enabled for CLSQ. So we are a bit expanding those centers into what you call deep tech centers, right? So we have one very, very successful deployment. There was a 40 million euro deployment.

33:51 This is going to be expanded in the future. CET has invested already $2 billion in Spain, the Spanish government, in creating sovereign infrastructure. And Murcia is the preferred hub for the entire country, right? So you will see a huge progression there, which will also contribute very substantially in our revenue generation and diversification. But the beauty of that model is that we have the footprint on replicating that model anywhere in the world. And the good news is that countries, we go to the Middle East, we go to Asia, we go to South Korea, we go to India, all of them they are telling us this is actually the model we want. We want a vertical stack which is sovereign that allows our country to be totally independent in the quantum computer era.

34:43 Because a quantum computer is the one that will, due to the enormous compute capability, will accelerate AI. AI will become much more powerful with quantum computers. Quantum computers will be able to completely revolutionize the medical sector. So they don't want to have this technology outside the country. They want to have it in the country. and those centers which are starting to be... I think the angle which is very unique in-house, we started from the quantum security because that's where it's a concern now, you know, with the new executive order in the United States with President Trump saying, you guys need to be by 29, post-quantum ready, otherwise you will not be able to participate in the future critical infrastructure in the United States because You can be hacked, right?

35:30 The Harvest and the Crypt Now issue that everybody knows about it could happen as early as 29, 30. So that means that countries need to be ready. In the United States, obviously, there's a lot of things that are going to happen in the following months because this executive order is accelerating the demand from big players on post-quantum technology, and there's not available post-quantum technology secure elements like the one we produce. to accelerate revenue generation in the United States. And as you know, we signed a partnership agreement with GlobalFundry. GlobalFundry is the number three funder in the world, which is now very interested. They received, I think, $350 million from the U.S.

36:16 government on quantum investments, and they are very interested to convert their funder into quantum funders as well, so they can also develop the next generation quantum chips. So very close relation with them and this is helping us to slowly enter into the United States in a way that we will very likely replicate this personalization center in the U.S. soil.

36:44 Great. Thank you. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes our question and answer session. I'll turn the floor back to Mr. Moreira for final comments.

36:59 Okay, so thank you very much everybody for joining us today. As I mentioned before, the first half of 26 demonstrated the progress CLSQ is making across our core business and our long-term strategy. We increased revenue by 131%. We are one of the Quantum companies that generate revenue, the others they are not, and we are expanding our cross-margin advancing our post-quantum product and certification roadmap and continue building our strategic ecosystem and maintain at the same time a very strong liquidity position. So we conclude that quantum security is no longer a distant theoretical issue. Governments, enterprises, critical infrastructure, operators are increasingly preparing from the transition to post-quantum cryptography and trusted hardware-rooted services.

37:46 So CLSQ has the product, the engineering capability with over 200 engineers, the certification roadmap, the customer pipeline, the strategic partnership, and capital position to participate meaningfully in this transition. To our employees, partner, customer, and shareholder, thank you for your continued commitment and support. We look forward to updating you on your progress through the remaining of 26 and this concludes our today call. Thank you very much for your attention. Thank you very much for the operator to organize this call. Thank you. This concludes today's conference call. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.