Spire Global Inc - Ordinary Shares - Class A Aktie

Thank you. Greetings and welcome to the Spire Global Second Quarter 2026 Results Conference Call.

[Operator Instructions]

As a reminder, this conference is being recorded.

It is now my pleasure to introduce Ben Hackman, Head of IR. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining Spire's second quarter 2026 earnings conference call. Our earnings press release and related SEC filings are posted on the company's IR website. A replay of today's call will also be made available. With me on the call today is Theresa Condor, CEO, and Ali Engel, CFO. As a reminder, our commentary today will include non-GAAP items. Reconciliations between our GAAP and non-GAAP results, as well as our guidance, can be found in our earnings press release, which can be found on our IR website. Some of our comments today contain forward-looking statements that are subject to risks, uncertainties, and assumptions. In particular, our expectations around our future results of operations and financial condition are uncertain and subject to change.

Should any of these expectations fail to materialize, or should our assumptions prove to be incorrect, actual company results could differ materially from these forward-looking statements. A description of these risks, uncertainties, and assumptions, and other factors that could affect our financial results is included in our SEC filings.

With that, let me hand the call over to Theresa.

Thank you, Ben, and good afternoon, everyone. Revenue for the second quarter was $18 million. Excluding the maritime business we divested last year, core revenue expanded both year-over-year and sequentially, marking our strongest core revenue quarter since the divestiture. This is consistent with what we outlined in March when we described 2026 as a sequentially building second-half-weighted year. Two quarters in, that's exactly what we're seeing in the numbers. As a result, we're reaffirming our full-year revenue guidance, which at the midpoint represents 50% year-over-year core revenue growth. On our last call, I pointed to the specific milestones investors should watch this quarter: NOAA decisions on our in-year hyperspectral microwave sounding proposals, RFGL contract activity, and the continued expansion of our RFGL collection capacity. There was progress on each, so let me start there.

On NOAA, the proposals we told you we were submitting in May have advanced to negotiation or closed. We are currently in the negotiation phase on an 8-figure contract opportunity tied to our Hyperspectral Microwave Sounder capability following the successful on-orbit validation of our HyMS payload. Combined with last week's NOAA Hyperspectral Microwave Sounder data contract extension, valued at up to $5 million in revenue over a 9-month term, we are encouraged by the growing interest in HyMS. These are 2 sizable opportunities that grew directly out of the flight-proven data we have been generating since the first quarter. On RFGL, we secured awards from 4 new international customers in the second quarter on top of the 5 new U.S. awards and 3 new international customers we reported in the first quarter.

On capacity, the 19 satellites we deployed in the first quarter are reaching full operational status on schedule, and in early July, we launched 10 more, bringing our total to 29 satellites launched in 2026. Today, I want to go deeper on 3 things: where the U.S. government weather opportunity stands, why demand for RF intelligence keeps building, and how our European position and manufacturing footprint turn that demand into long-term growth. Going back to NOAA, on our first quarter call, we told you we were actively bidding on more than $150 million of opportunities across the NOAA portfolio. Last week marked a key milestone as the first of these opportunities crossed the finish line with a signed contract worth up to $5 million.

On top of that, the 8-figure microwave sounding opportunity is within that pipeline, and both advanced from proposal to negotiation or contract signature since our last call. Each is built on the flight-proven data our HyMS payload has been generating since first light in March. As before, our existing NOAA Radio Occultation contract, which has been a cornerstone of our government weather business. Last year's one-year RO award was $11.2 million. That contract is in full execution today, and we expect the follow-on award to begin in September. As a reminder, NOAA is working to establish a multi-year $8 billion IDIQ contract under which efforts like RO can be awarded. Because that IDIQ vehicle is still being finalized, we expect the RO renewal to come in 2 phases.

First, a shorter bridge award we expect to be finalized very soon, followed by a longer-term award once the IDIQ is in place. Taken together, we expect these contracts for RO data to be larger on an annual basis than the $11.2 million contract awarded last year. Beyond these 3 opportunities, a number of other opportunities within the NOAA portfolio continue to move through the pipeline. We are seeing similar weather demand internationally and in the commercial market as well. Recently, we were awarded a contract from EUMETSAT for RO data. This has been an annual contract for Spire, but this year we were able to expand this contract with a total annual value now over EUR 4 million. On the commercial weather front, we started off July by signing 2 6-figure awards for global weather forecasts along with historical weather data.

Let me turn to RF intelligence because demand for this business is being shaped by something larger than any single program or procurement. Around the world, the radio frequency environment has become contested, and it is staying that way. GNSS jamming and spoofing now affect thousands of commercial ships and aircraft from Eastern Europe and the Baltic to the Middle East and Asia Pacific. Vessels broadcast positions that place them on land or go dark entirely. Aircraft reroute around interference corridors that persist for months. In a growing number of regions, operators simply cannot trust the navigation and identification signals the global economy was built on. When those signals are denied or falsified, governments and operators need an independent way to reestablish ground truth, where an emitter actually sits, which vessels have gone dark and where they went, which corridors are unsafe for aircraft.

Our constellation delivers that intelligence today, drawing on more than a decade of investment in radio frequency geolocation, in jamming and spoofing detection through our ADS-B quality indicators, and in a constellation that revisits every point on Earth more than 100x a day. We believe this demand is durable. Interference outlasts the conflicts that put it in the news, and governments have started budgeting for space-based RF awareness the way they budget for other core infrastructure. That spending pattern has years left to run. We see it in our own bookings. In the second quarter, we secured RFGL awards from 4 new international customers. We continue to sign new pilots and extend existing ones. These engagements typically develop in stages. A pilot first, then a data subscription, then a larger operational program, and most of our international relationships sit in the early stages today.

We see that as the setup for a multiyear runway. Our capacity is scaling alongside the demand. The 6 new satellite pairings deployed in the first quarter are reaching full operational status through the second and third quarters as planned. Our single satellite geolocation capability, demonstrated earlier this year on S-band and X-band signals, expands what each satellite can collect and lowers the constellation cost of coverage. With launch capacity reserved through 2028, we can keep adding collection capacity on our own timeline, even in a constrained launch market. Very few companies can meet this requirement with a deployed constellation, flight-proven capability, and manufacturing on both sides of the Atlantic. That positioning is a large part of why the European partnerships I will describe next came to us.

During the quarter, we announced 2 strategic partnerships with Germany-based companies, Schaeffler and Diehl Defence, that we believe significantly strengthen our long-term positioning within the European space ecosystem. Our collaboration with Schaeffler brings together complementary capabilities to explore sovereign European space infrastructure and next-generation satellite technologies. Germany has long been one of Europe's leading industrial economies, and partnerships with established industrial leaders create opportunities to combine advanced manufacturing expertise with our operational space capabilities. Likewise, our agreement with Diehl Defence reflects growing interest in leveraging commercial space capabilities to support national security and defense applications. As governments modernize their defense architectures, resilient commercial satellite networks are increasingly viewed as important complements to traditional government-owned systems. We view these partnerships as more than individual agreements. They reflect our flight-proven infrastructure and operational track record becoming the foundation other industrial leaders build on as they extend into space.

The timing matters because the European demand backdrop just got more concrete. In July, NATO leaders met in Ankara for the 2026 summit, and the Alliance's Defense Industry Forum announced more than $50 billion in new procurement commitments spanning integrated air and missile defense, uncrewed systems, and intelligence capabilities, building on the more than $139 billion increase in core defense investment that European allies and Canada have already delivered since last year's The Hague Summit. Also in early July, the European Union proposed 5 new European Defence Projects of Common Interest, including the Space EDPCI, worth up to EUR 24 billion by 2034. The Space EDPCI is structured around 7 capability areas including space-based early warning and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, a category that encompasses signals intelligence. The project aims to transform mature R&D into sovereign operational capabilities that no single member state can develop alone.

Across Europe, governments increasingly recognize that sovereign access to space-derived data, resilient commercial infrastructure, and responsive satellite capabilities are strategic priorities. These investments will take time to translate into specific procurement programs, but we believe the direction is unmistakable, and the RFGL awards I described are the early evidence of this movement reaching our backlog. As these European opportunities continue to mature, they will further broaden and diversify our revenue base, reinforcing that our growth is being driven by multiple markets rather than any single opportunity. Because we already operate globally, maintain manufacturing capabilities in Europe, and have years of operational experience delivering mission-critical services, we believe we are well-positioned in a European market that has years left to run. Supporting all of this demand is a team we continue to strengthen. This quarter, we welcomed Eric ''Mel'' Mellinger to Spire as our Chief Commercial Officer.

Mel joins us from ManTech International, where he helped drive double-digit year-over-year growth. His mandate is straightforward: convert the demand I have been describing into revenue. That demand extends beyond the $150 million in NOAA opportunities I described earlier. We're also tracking more than $100 million in opportunities across the U.S. federal pipeline, from ROMs to submitted proposals and active negotiations, with the potential for these to convert over the remainder of 2026. We're seeing that same momentum on the commercial side as we continue to build our commercial pipeline with recognizable brands. All of this demand only matters if we can build and launch to meet it. As I noted at the top, the 10 satellites we launched in early July brought our 2026 total to 29. That pace reflects the maturity of our manufacturing organization and the operational discipline we have built over many years.

Our constellation strategy has always been about more than adding satellites. It is about operating a platform that delivers reliable, scalable services for customers who increasingly depend on real-time global data. One of the milestones I'm particularly proud of this quarter was the official opening of our new satellite manufacturing facility in Munich during May. With manufacturing operations now established in North America, Germany, and the U.K., our footprint provides the scale and rapid deployment capability required to capture government and defense pipelines, and it expands our production capacity to approximately 300 to 400 satellites annually. We have already begun to use that capacity in both regions. The satellites for the STRAT 5 program are being built in Boulder and are expected to launch later this year. Satellite integration work is underway in Munich today.

As governments prioritize sovereign space capabilities and supply chain resilience, meaningful manufacturing on both sides of the Atlantic becomes an increasingly important competitive advantage. It is one very few companies in our industry can claim. We also continue to advance our technology. In July, Spire achieved a major milestone in our optical inter-satellite link program, successfully establishing our first cross-plane laser connection between 2 OISL-equipped satellites, building on our previous in-plane demonstrations. The satellites held a stable link for more than 5 minutes across roughly 5,000 kilometers, about the distance from New York to London. This technology lets satellites pass data directly to one another in orbit, cutting latency and reducing dependence on ground station proximity as our constellation scales.

Before I hand the call to Ali, I want to spend a moment on how the rest of the year comes together, because I know the math many of you are doing. First half revenue was $33.9 million. Our full year guidance of $75 million to $85 million therefore implies roughly $41 million to $51 million in the second half, and I want to be specific about what carries us there. Start with what is already under contract. As of the end of July, over 85% of our full year guidance is contracted, up from the 76% shared in May. Our NOAA radio occultation contract remains in full execution. Our European radio occultation work, our space services programs, and our expanded commercial agreements are all in delivery through year-end. The STRAT 5 program continues to progress with satellites being built in Boulder and expected to launch later this year.

Last week's hyperspectral microwave sounder data extension is now under contract, which represents up to $5 million in potential revenue over a 9-month term. Add what we expect to close in the near term. The 8-figure microwave sounding opportunity that is in active negotiation now, and the radio occultation bridge award that is expected to begin in September. We continue to expect the follow-on RO contracts taken together to exceed the $11.2 million annual value of last year's award. So when we reaffirm guidance today, that reaffirmation rests on a contracted base and execution, a renewal we expect shortly, and NOAA negotiations whose estimated scale we have now quantified for you. What remains between here and the high end of the range is execution through the second half.

It's worth calling out that last week we filed an 8-K disclosing the dismissal of all of NorthStar's claims and awarding approximately $12.4 million in favor of Spire. We are pleased with this result. Between now and our next call, the markers to watch are the RO bridge award, the outcome of the microwave sounding negotiations, the STRATFI launch, and continued RFGL awards. We will report against each of them in the fall.

With that, Ali, over to you.

Thank you, Theresa, and good afternoon, everyone. I will ground the financial picture in the same operating momentum Theresa just described. As a reminder, unless otherwise noted, I will be discussing non-GAAP financial measures. Reconciliations between our GAAP and non-GAAP financial measures are included in our press release. Revenue remains the metric we watch most closely because it reflects execution across both sales and operations, and it is the primary driver of our financial progress. As we have discussed in the past, Spire's cost base is largely fixed, and so as revenue scales, a meaningful share of that growth converts directly into margin. On revenue, we continued to make strong progress during the second quarter. Second quarter GAAP revenue was $18 million, up 16% year-over-year on a core basis, excluding the maritime business we divested last year, and up 19% sequentially from the first quarter.

The year-over-year growth was primarily driven by higher delivery of space services data and increased RFGL data purchases. That sequential growth is an important marker. It is evidence of the back half acceleration we have been describing since our fourth quarter call. Non-GAAP gross margin was 38%, down from 52% in the second quarter of last year. This decrease was primarily a result of impacts associated with the WildFireSat contract, which was canceled for convenience in the second quarter. While the gross margin was down this quarter, we expect gross margin expansion in the second half as revenue increases on a relatively fixed cost structure. Adjusted EBITDA was negative $8.6 million, an improvement of 16% year-over-year and 15% sequentially, which is primarily driven by lower operating expenses. Based on our current trajectory, we continue to expect adjusted EBITDA breakeven by late 2026 to early 2027.

Cash flow used in operations was $23.4 million, improving 32% year-over-year and 11% sequentially. This reflects lower operating expenses compared to the second quarter of last year and is consistent with the broader trend of improving financial performance as we scale. We expect that trajectory to hold through the second half, with cash flow used in operations continuing to improve sequentially in both the third and fourth quarters of 2026. We ended the quarter with approximately $92 million in cash equivalents, and marketable securities, and we remain debt-free. On guidance, we are reaffirming our full year 2026 revenue outlook of $75 million to $85 million. This represents more than 50% core year-over-year growth at the midpoint. I will point you back to Theresa's comments on the NOAA pipeline as the clearest illustration of why our confidence in that range continues to build.

An 8-figure HIMSS opportunity and an RO renewal we expect to be larger than last year's on an annual basis. This is exactly the kind of layered near-term visibility that supports the back half of this guidance. These opportunities sit on top of the strong visibility we already have to the midpoint of our full-year guidance. As of the end of July, over 85% of that midpoint is already under contract. The headline I would leave you with is this: Revenue growth accelerated both year-over-year and sequentially this quarter, and the operational proof points behind that trend, satellite launches, expanded manufacturing capability, and a deepening government and defense pipeline on both sides of the Atlantic all moved in the same direction at the same time. That alignment is what gives us confidence heading into the second half.

With that, let us open it up for questions.

[Operator Instructions] Our first question is from Erik Rasmussen with Stifel.

Great to hear all the progress. Maybe just on the guidance, you have talked now several quarters about the second half weighted ramp. It seems like that is still intact. If we look at sort of the transition from Q2 to Q3, is that step up a little bit smaller and then maybe more of the majority of that to make up, we will call it the $46 million to get to your midpoint of your guided range. Is that step up smaller in Q3 and then more of an impact in Q4?

That is correct, Erik. That is the right way to think about it. There should be some step up in Q3, but the majority of it will come in the fourth quarter.

Great. And very good to hear about the 8-figure contract in progress. It sounds like, though, I guess this came about because of the contract extension, and then, I guess does the extension have to run its course before a decision is made? Or will we start to see some of that happen sooner?

Yes, these are 2 separate things, both related to microwave sounding. We are delivering that data buy and the next 8-figure contract, as we said, we are in negotiation. We do expect that that gets awarded in the relatively short term, I think sometime in the next month. They are separate things. I expect that they will both happen in parallel.

Okay. Maybe just one more, if I can, on the NOAA RO. It sounds like there is going to be a shorter bridge award. Any sense of timing? Will that happen to when it expires in September? How quickly after that could we see any announcement or see some news about the RO? You said you had mentioned it probably more than the $35 million that was last year's award. How large of a magnitude of increase could we see there?

Yes. The RO bridge award, we are expecting to happen in August. Could potentially be any day now. It is a bridge award, so it will not be a full one-year program. We have to see how NOAA does it exactly. Potentially before the end of the year, they would then move into the new IDIQ and then do kind of like the proper full award. I think the important thing to note is they are very keen to make sure that there is not a single day that they do not get the radio occultation datasets because these go into the weather forecast every day. However they do the exact contract mechanisms, this is going to be seamless delivery and therefore revenue recognition for Spire.

In terms of order of magnitude, because there is going to be a bridge contract, you have to look at what that would be on an annual basis and then know that there is another one coming. The one last year was, just to correct your numbers, it was $11.2 million, I believe. And we feel very comfortable that it is going to be larger than that number.

Got you. No, the $35 million was the total, and it was split. You had the $11.2 million. Yes. Just wanted to get a sense of though what you thought this next award -- the total award. And then do you think your percentage could actually go up? I think you had about 25% of that award last year.

Yes. I do expect that there are larger dollars, larger number of soundings. I think we can capture a solid share of that. It will definitely be dual source. I feel very good about our positioning there in terms of relevant price to delivery requirement.

Our next question is from Jeff Van Rhee with Craig-Hallum Capital Group.

This is Daniel on for Jeff. Just in regards to the Space Services data that you are talking about benefiting, I assume that is in reference to the Space Services revenue coming online for those 19 satellites that were launched in Q1. Just confirming that is what you are talking about. Then just sort of the cadence of that sequentially in terms of when those satellites were commissioned and data delivery began. Is that something that happened early in Q2 such that you kind of got a full quarter out of that or something that happened late in Q2 where we should see another step up into Q3? Just your thoughts on the Space Services ramp.

Yes. Ali can correct me, but some of this is going to happen a little bit later in Q2, and it is all going to vary depending on the satellite and what is on it and how long the customer takes to go through testing out their payload. But there is still back half loaded, which is why we have continued to tell people there is the step up in the second half of the year. But the Space Services ones we are talking about are from satellites that launched that we then deliver the data on and can start collecting revenue that we would not recognize the revenue earlier in the year.

Yes, that is helpful. Then in terms of RFGL, maybe if you could just sort of rank order the key drivers for that, if that apparently these 4 new international customers and the customers that already international customers that came on in Q1 or if that is more so expansion in the U.S. or just sheer volume increases due to what you can sell from the 6 new satellite pairs that have gone up. Just sort of rank ordering RFGL. What the biggest movers are there?

Yes, I think the increase of capacity is definitely helpful. I think from the beginning of the year, we have had about a 10x increase in RFGL capacity. As you heard, we have signed new international customers, and that is across different locations and a variety of use cases. We have also re-signed with some customers that we had already worked with from the beginning part of the year, and we are definitely continuing to sign and do tasking for end users out of the United States. The other thing I would say is that we still are early in the process, I would say, with these customer sets. So I feel pretty excited about the growth opportunity with these existing customers as well as, of course, the new pipeline of opportunity that we are still working through.

Okay. That's helpful. Then maybe one last one for you, Theresa. On the NOAA opportunity set, stepping out of the ROs and the microwave soundings, just your thoughts on GNSS reflectometry, space weather, any of the other modalities. Are those things that we should be looking for at all in a second order or not?

I am not very certain that those things will come in the second half of the year. It is possible. I think it's also possible that they go into 2027. I don't have a straight answer for that because we just don't know how NOAA will end up making things happen. But we've definitely heard that they're prioritizing RO and microwave sounding stuff first.

Our next question is from Brian Kinstlinger with Alliance Global Partners.

Good to hear about the robust pipeline and some of the bookings. Last quarter, you mentioned the operating leverage you had been discussing for the last few quarters was going to become visible this quarter. Yet despite the significant increase in revenue, gross margin dropped by more than 500 basis points versus the first quarter. Can you help bridge that gap and when we might see that leverage in gross margin?

Sure. Brian, it is Ali. The decline was really driven by the impacts associated with the cancellation of the WildFireSat contract and some balance sheet cleanup we had to do. If you will recall, that contract was terminated for convenience in the second quarter. I would say I would focus more on the trend rather than any single quarter such as the second quarter. The non-GAAP gross margin has been on an upward trajectory over the last 3 quarters. Prior to this quarter, we expect that to resume trend as revenue scales in the second half. We expect to continue getting towards our gross margin, excuse me, target of 60% to 70% going forward. But we were a little bit impacted by some balance sheet cleanup in the second quarter for WildFireSat.

Great. And maybe a follow-up for you, Ali. Maybe you can speak to the magnitude of the improvement of the cash burn coupled with CapEx. You are at about $29 million. What are CapEx plans for the second half of the year? How much could operating cash flow or usage improve? How much longer should we expect unusual costs based on your comments? Is that just one more quarter?

Yes. I would say, again, looking at our trends, we improved 32% in OCF year over year and 11% sequentially. We are definitely headed in the right direction. We feel good about $27 million in total for the year for kind of the fixed asset purchases, property, plant, and equipment purchases. That number, I think, will hold pretty comfortably. We do expect our cash usage to moderate in the back half of 2026, probably more weighted to Q4 based on the revenue trends. But we do expect to continue to improve in the third quarter as well. We remain really happy about our liquidity position and our path towards operating cash flow breakeven, hopefully sometime in 2027. The one-time costs definitely have slowed down.

As you are aware, we received our favorable ruling with our NorthStar arbitration, so a lot of legal fees associated with that should slow down as well as the WildFireSat contract termination that there is not a lot left going on there. I do expect one-time costs. I think you even see it in the second quarter compared to the first quarter. We had a nice decline in those one-time costs.

Great. Last question. A lot of exciting things sound like they are going on within NOAA. For the second straight year, President Trump is proposing major cuts. How protected do you think your contracts and pipeline is? Are they mission-critical? I am just trying to understand if somehow, like they did not last year, but if they got asked this year, how might that impact your pipeline and contract base?

I feel very good about our pipeline and positioning with NOAA. There definitely are a lot of climate and research-related things that are being looked at very carefully at NOAA. What we have seen, and I think what we have heard from NOAA as well, and the administration, is that the commercialization of this or partnerships with commercial companies is a huge priority. Everything we are hearing is that some of those shuffling around of numbers are actually being moved in favor of doing more with commercial companies like us. I feel extremely good. The other relevant thing is that we are expecting a number of these awards to come in the short-term. I do not see an impact to what we are expecting for our 2026 calendar revenue numbers. I feel very good that we are going to keep having step-ups into 2027.

Our next question is from Austin Moeller with Canaccord Genuity.

My first question, is there any DOD or intel community interest in LEMRs that can geolocate or process RF signals emitted from enemy spacecraft in orbit?

I would say this is a topic that we have been talking about for some time. Maybe that's all I'll say.

Okay, that's helpful. I assume the intent to pursuing EU and NATO ally contracts is to increase that international share of wallet and the revenue mix so that your guidance and your revenue is less reliant on U.S. government budget timing each year since historically, we wait to see what happens in August and September with NASA and NOAA.

Yes. I always believe that customer and revenue diversification is important. I don't want to be a company that is 100% federal government-focused, and I think it's pretty clear from this administration as well in all the conversations I have, they don't want companies to be 100% reliant on the U.S. government for contracts and revenue. I feel really good that the diversification of us doing this in multiple parts of the world is something that is positive, and that same goes for the commercial side of it, the non-government. I think between commercial, between civil, and then between defense and intel, I feel good about our strategy there.

Okay. Just last question, are you able to comment on if the 8-figure HIMSS contract is related to a U.S. government agency or an international government agency?

Yes. The 8-figure microwave one we referenced is specifically U.S. government agency. That is part of the NOAA pipeline that we had talked about.

Okay. Is it associated with ProPak?

I do not know, actually, the name of the contract mechanism that it is associated with. I would have to check with the team on that, Austin.

Our next question is from Chris Quilty with Quilty Space.

Actually, just to follow up on Austin's question. I'm assuming your guidance fully expects 100% we're going into CR come October, and that's based in the forecast.

Yes. We have been tracking this carefully because I think there was some risk and worry in the first place that there would be a shutdown. I think everyone is starting to feel pretty confident that it will be a continuing resolution and we keep going on through that process. So, yes is the short answer.

Got you. Ali, just a modeling question here. On G&A, that has always been chunked with one-time items. Do you expect that to look like a cleaner number on a go-forward basis? What would we model it at, assuming lack of one-time items in there?

Yes. I expect G&A to continue to be more right-sized with less one-time items. I do not have a number in front of me to kind of share with you. I can go back and look at that. But, if I am looking at the trend, Chris, it is definitely much more stable, and I do not expect it to go up or down significantly over the next few quarters.

Okay, great. A follow-up question on the optical crosslink. I guess 2 points to it. One, can you give us an idea, what is the size of that crosslink unit? Is it sort of a 1U size? What size satellite are you hosting it on for that demo? Second part of the question is that something, a technology you plan to deploy internally and/or make available for third-party sale?

Yes. I actually don't know off the top of my head the size of that unit itself, but the demo we just did is on, it's either a 3U or a 4U nanosatellite. I think it might be a 3U, though I can check on that. So they're very tiny, and I think this is what is so impressive about these demonstrations is that they're on such a tiny satellite. These are still in the R&D and the testing phase. We've been developing this and working on it for quite some years. It is absolutely something that we plan to deploy internally on our constellation once we decide it's ready to go from the R&D and demo phase into actual operations. I think whether we make that available to other parties is something that is under consideration.

Great. On the RFGL, I think you said that you're up about 10x year-to-date. Of that increase, is most of it due to new satellite pairs on orbit, or are you also seeing improvements due to firmware upgrades? A second part of that question, is that capability only available on newly launched satellites that are developed to pair? Or is it something that you're able to backfit to existing satellites?

I would say most of the capacity increase is from new satellites being launched. Though I will also say that we are continually doing upgrades and improvements across the constellation fleet. That does sometimes mean that satellites that we've already had that we weren't using for RFGL, we then can use for RFGL in certain circumstances. A lot of it has to do with when satellites are coming into relevant proximity in order to do the geolocation. We kind of actively manage that constellation as well as which type of signals we see interest from customer set. There's a certain amount of active management we can do across the fleet, and then a certain amount of it is we just need to put up the additional satellites.

Got you. Is there any thought, based upon the growth or potential of that market to launch to specific inclinations and sort of prioritize for that mission relative to an RO mission or others?

Yes. I think there are certain missions that we will do that. What it really comes down to is the trade-off, certainly in cost, in how quickly to get something up, and also what kind of requests and demand signals that we are getting from the customer base. I take all of those into very careful consideration because at the end of the day, it is what are customers going to pay for and on what timeline. I think there is a variety of ways that we continue to expand how we do this across the constellation. It is something we are tracking closely.

Got you. Final question, the German partnership, obviously, still very new. Each partner seems to be contributing something complementary. From a financial perspective, will there be any impact in '26 and maybe longer term? Is this something where you expect you would be contributing capital to it or simply product and capabilities?

Yes. I generally view this as us providing product and capabilities and heritage in space. The teams are working with both of those organizations, I would say, very closely and on a regular basis. I expect Spire to generate revenue from both of those partnerships. In some cases, it is going to take a bit longer. I think there are other cases where it could actually lead to some revenue in 2026.

Thank you. We have reached the end of our question-and-answer session. This does conclude today's conference call. You may disconnect your lines at this time, and we thank you again for your participation.

Greetings, and welcome to the Spire Global First Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call and Webcast.

[Operator Instructions]

As a reminder, this conference is being recorded.

[Operator Instructions]

It's now my pleasure to turn the call over to Ben Hackman, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining Spire's First Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. Our earnings press release and related SEC filings are posted on the company's Investor Relations website, and a replay of today's call will be made available. With me today are Theresa Condor, CEO; and Ali Engel, CFO.

Our commentary today will include non-GAAP items. Reconciliations between our GAAP and non-GAAP results as well as our guidance can be found in our earnings press release, which can be found on our IR website. Some of our comments today contain forward-looking statements that are subject to risks, uncertainties and assumptions. In particular, our expectations around our future results of operations and financial condition are uncertain and subject to change. Should any of these expectations fail to materialize or should our assumptions prove to be incorrect, actual company results could differ materially from these forward-looking statements. A description of these risks, uncertainties and assumptions and other factors that could affect our financial results is included in our SEC filings.

With that, Theresa.

Thank you, and good afternoon, everyone. Q1 confirmed the shape of the year we described to you in March and added forward visibility on top of it. The print came in above the high end of our guidance on both revenue and adjusted EBITDA. Core revenue ex Maritime grew 13% year-over-year. Our 50% full year growth guidance is unchanged. We described 2026 as second half-weighted, sequentially building with the catalysts that bridge Q1 to the back half, a specific, named and actively in motion. The risks that remain are primarily delivery risks and delivery is what we do.

Before I take you through Q1, there are 2 structural facts to highlight. We have launched more than 240 satellites across more than 40 campaigns, and we have reserved launch capacity through 2028. Across the satellite services peer group, growth is increasingly being throttled by access to launch. We are not in that constraint. Reserved launch capacity is not something a new entrant can replicate quickly. It directly underwrites our ability to scale RFGL collection capacity, deploy additional weather payloads and meet commercial space services obligations on our own schedule rather than the industry. We have operational scaled transatlantic manufacturing with production facilities in the U.S., Europe and the U.K.

Spire is one of very few companies anywhere with that footprint, and it is meaningful as sovereignty and local production requirements become more central to defense procurement. Our recent Munich opening was attended by local political and military leadership who toured the clean room and saw the scope of our local capabilities firsthand. Reserved launch through 2028 and dual continent manufacturing are the moats. Everything I describe in the next several minutes compounds against them.

Across both the public market and private capital environments, we are observing increased recognition that pure-play scaled multi-domain RF intelligence is a strategic, scarce and durable category. That is consistent with what we hear from customers. They are no longer asking whether commercial RF makes sense. They are asking who can deliver at scale with verified on-orbit performance and with sovereign-ready manufacturing. That set of requirements narrows the field considerably.

The first quarter demonstrated that the platform we described on the Q4 call is now translating into measurable progress. We deployed 19 satellites across 2 launches, which expanded our RFGL collection capacity by 6 new satellite pairings. We demonstrated single satellite geolocation for S-band and X-band signals, frequencies critical for defense missions and a capability that has traditionally required multiple coordinated satellites. This expands what we can do at lower constellation cost and broadens our addressable defense market. We were awarded 5 new RFGL orders from U.S. customers and signed 3 new international RFGL customers. RFGL is no longer a technical milestone. It is converting into revenue.

In weather, our new Hyperspectral Microwave Sounder achieved first light with the demonstrator and is now delivering data to our end-user customer. On-orbit observations are meeting and, in many cases, exceeding our technical targets. We are incorporating this data stream into ongoing discussions with NOAA and allied meteorological agencies.

In commercial, 2 patterns across our book are now consistent enough to call them structural. First, new commercial contract duration has lengthened with some wins moving into multiyear subscriptions. Second, the character of customer engagement is changing. Q1 saw existing commercial customers expanding their use of our data into new workflows and new business units rather than holding flat at their initial use case. The commercial base is becoming stickier and more compounding. Our integration with Amadeus, supporting their service to more than 400 airlines globally is a Q1 example of that pattern.

Our AI-S2S model demonstrated 14.2% outperformance of the leading global subseasonal weather benchmark at the critical 3- to 6-week range, measured using the standard skill score methodology against a multi-month verification window, giving energy trading desks a differentiated edge on hedging decisions. The post Q1 catalysts that should be on every investor's radar are concrete and dated. The first is NOAA. We have multiple in-year proposals being submitted this month for microwave sounding, supported by the verified high quality of HyMS on-orbit data.

Across the NOAA portfolio, we are actively bidding more than $150 million of 2026 opportunities with more than half in active proposal as of this month. The $8 billion NOAA IDIQ covers 7 data types, 4 of which Spire can deliver with infrastructure already on orbit. That distinction matters. Most commercial weather data providers can deliver 1 or 2. In Europe, Germany is moving forward procurement efforts around RF intelligence into the back half of the year. European defense budgets are rising at a pace not seen in decades, EUR 381 billion spent in 2025 on a target of EUR 800 billion annually within 5 years, a 16% CAGR. Germany alone budgeted EUR 108 billion for 2026, more than double its level of 5 years ago.

Our dual continent footprint is the differentiator in these conversations. The structure of these opportunities is consistent, pilot, then data subscription, then full constellation deployment. Additional RFGL collection capacity continues to come online from the Q1 launches with full operational status reached through Q2 and Q3. This is the path between Q1's revenue print and the back half acceleration.

Beyond the near-term catalyst, the substance of our 2026 guidance is in execution today. Our existing NOAA Radio Occultation contract, the $11.2 million 1-year award from last year is in full execution, and we expect uplift on that program at greater scope this year. Our European Radio Occultation contract, our space services contracts, our RFGL deals and our recently expanded commercial agreements are in delivery mode through the year. Initial revenue from microwave sounder data sales begins in 2026.

On the contracted base specifically, approximately 76% of our 2026 revenue guidance is under contract today. Beyond that hard contracted layer, we have additional visibility from sole-source procurements where Spire is the expected awardee, programs where the procurement structure, the customer relationship and the technical fit make us the named provider. The sole-source visibility is a meaningful additional layer of confidence in our range on top of the contracted base.

I have 3 observations on the multiyear setup. The microwave sounder market opportunity is significant. NOAA itself has stated that more than 90% of national weather service model accuracy depends on satellite data, with microwave sounders being a foundational input. The legacy government microwave sounding satellites cost billions of dollars per generation to procure. NOAA has been explicit about its intent to buy more commercial data rather than build another generation of bespoke government systems. Apply commercial radio occultation pricing precedents to that demand picture and a multibillion-dollar TAM over the next decade is not aggressive. Our HyMS instrument captures more frequency bands than traditional sounders and offers atmospheric depth that government systems do not currently provide.

The international defense pipeline structure is multistep and multiyear, pilots converting to data subscriptions converting to constellation deployments. The pilots we have signed in 2025 and 2026 are the leading indicator for the data programs that follow them in 2027 and 2028. The commercial book compounds as customers embed our data directly into operational workflows, whether decision-making, risk management, aviation, energy trading, our services become core to their business. And every new use case adds revenue on top of an installed base that doesn't easily go away.

We continue to make targeted technology investments. We signed an agreement with the European Space Agency with contributions from the U.K. Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency to develop and validate an AI-based system for real-time satellite health monitoring, anomaly detection and predictive failure analysis. As constellations scale across the industry, autonomous fleet management becomes an increasingly valuable capability and one we are positioned to provide.

There are 3 things to take from this call. First, the year's revenue base is now substantially in execution, not in pipeline. The majority of our 2026 guidance is under contract today with additional visibility from sole-source procurements layered on top. The work between here and the high end of our $75 million to $85 million range is execution. Second, the catalysts that decide the back half are not abstract. They are specific, named and in motion. NOAA in-year proposals on microwave sounding now being submitted, European RF intelligence procurement progressing into the back half and RFGL collection capacity reaching full operational status through Q2 and Q3.

Third, the operating leverage you have been hearing about for several quarters is about to become visible in the gross margin line. It will accelerate from there. Between now and our next call, the milestones investors should watch are concrete. NOAA proposal decisions on the in-year submissions, RFGL contract conversions and continued capacity expansion across our RFGL collection footprint. We will keep you updated as those events occur.

Ali, over to you.

Thank you, Theresa. Theresa gave us a clear view of the demand environment. Now let's discuss the numbers. As a reminder, unless otherwise noted, I'll be discussing non-GAAP financial measures. Reconciliations between our GAAP and non-GAAP financial measures are included in our press release. GAAP revenue for the first quarter was $15.8 million, which came in above the high end of our guidance range. Without the $1.9 million of maritime revenue, core revenue grew 13% year-over-year, and the primary driver was civil government weather data purchases.

Non-GAAP gross margin was 44%, an improvement of 5 points over the prior year quarter. We expect our gross margin to keep expanding as revenue grows and we maintain what is a largely fixed cost base. Our 60% to 70% long-term gross margin target is unchanged. Adjusted EBITDA was negative $10.2 million, also above the high end of our guidance range, driven by stronger revenue and disciplined cost management. We used $26.2 million in operating cash flow in the first quarter. Two things drove this decline. First, planned working capital timing; and second, elevated legal and professional fees. These fees are expected to decline throughout 2026.

Spire remains debt-free. We exited the first quarter with approximately $50 million in cash and marketable securities. On April 10, we closed a private placement, which added $65.5 million in net proceeds to our balance sheet. Our cash balance gives us ample runway to execute against our growth plans. We expect our current cash position to fund us through adjusted EBITDA breakeven and beyond. The capital raise was in response in part to a discrete window of strong inbound demand from institutional investors. It allows us to accelerate growth into 2027 and beyond as demand continues to build, particularly across defense and intelligence and weather data procurement.

We are maintaining our full year 2026 guidance for revenue, non-GAAP operating loss and adjusted EBITDA. Revenue remains expected in the range of $75 million to $85 million, representing over 50% year-over-year growth on an ex maritime basis at the midpoint. Full year adjusted EBITDA guidance is unchanged at negative $26 million to negative $20.7 million, and full year non-GAAP operating loss guidance is unchanged at negative $37.8 million to negative $32.6 million. Full year non-GAAP loss per share is expected between negative $0.93 and negative $0.79 per share on approximately 37.9 million shares.

Spire is changing how we communicate guidance going forward. Starting this quarter, we're going to give annual guidance rather than quarterly guidance. This change is driven by the current nature of our business. Large government and enterprise contracts close on customer time lines, not on 90-day calendar quarters. Quarterly estimates imply a precision we can't reliably deliver in any given quarter, and they create noise that really isn't a signal. Our internal forecasting and visibility into the year are the same as they've always been. What's changing is the format.

On the path to profitability, 3 things are no longer variables. Our cost base is increasingly fixed, satellites are on orbit, the ground infrastructure is built, transatlantic manufacturing is operational and engineering teams are in place. Within reasonable bounds, our operating expenses over the next several quarters are reasonably predictable. Reserved launch capacity through 2028 means deployment risk on growth investments is largely contained. Current customer contracts underpin the majority of 2026 and a meaningful portion of 2027 revenues. Every incremental dollar of revenue against our current cost base converts at higher margins.

We continue to target adjusted EBITDA breakeven in the fourth quarter of 2026 to the first quarter of 2027 time frame, followed by positive operating cash flow sometime in 2027. Every pipeline conversion accelerates our cash flow goals. The platform we described on our fourth quarter call is now visibly producing. The trajectory we described has continued and the financial model is performing as expected.

With that, let's open it up for questions.

[Operator Instructions]

Our first question is coming from Erik Rasmussen from Stifel.

So maybe just on the RFGL, that sounds like you made a lot of progress. You had 5 new in U.S. and 3 international customers orders. It sounds like are you generating revenue today? And maybe just how big of an opportunity are you tracking, whether it's this year or in the coming years?

Yes. So I'll say, yes, we are generating RFGL revenue today, and we continue to build out the pipeline of that. I think, as you know, we don't give exact pipeline numbers. What I can say is that we've been increasing what we do both in the U.S. and in Europe. The NRO has continued to add to the contract that we have with them. And we continue to go through the process of pilot into data subscription into talking about sovereign constellations, particularly on the European side of things.

So I'm super excited about what is happening on the RFGL side right now. And with the geopolitical situation just continues to reinforce that both in the U.S. and around the world, there's a great demand for this type of capability and very few companies that can actually meet that demand, both on the U.S. side and on the non-U.S. side.

Great. And maybe just, Ali, for you, just the shift, should we think about the changes to annual guidance is primarily driven by deal timing becoming less linear across the quarters and rather any change in underlying visibility of demand? And then as you make that shift, what metrics should we focus on throughout the year to track the progress against that?

Erik, good to talk to you. Yes, I think the change in the guidance is really just based on what we're seeing in the business and where we want to spend our time, which is focusing on meeting our year. We have a lot of great things that we're working on right now with -- that involve longer sales cycles and the quarterly ups and downs are more of a distraction. So I'd focus on our annual guidance, which we are reaffirming from our last call and how we are performing against those expectations during the year.

Great. And maybe just my last one. You opened up the satellite manufacturing facility in Munich. It sounds like you're able to produce 100 satellites. Are you at that point yet? Or when will you be at that capacity? And then maybe was this intentional in relation to the EURIALO project? Maybe just comment on how that maybe positions yourselves to potentially win and execute if you do go on to the next phase.

Yes, yes. So the manufacturing facility is open in Munich. I think you probably saw some of the announcements about it. We had a really successful kind of opening and visitor session that happened earlier today in the European time zone. We have really 300 to 400 satellite capacity across those facilities when we talk about Boulder, talk about Munich and we talk about, of course, what we can still continue to do in Glasgow. The EURIALO satellites are the first ones that are being integrated out of that Munich facility. So certainly, those are the ones that get it kicked off and started and then give us the ability to continue to do European-specific sovereign capabilities. And it's -- I think it's pretty exciting that we have those capabilities on both sides of the Atlantic and is really a competitive differentiator for us.

Our next question is coming from Jeff Van Rhee from Craig-Hallum Capital Group.

A couple for me, Theresa. On the RFGL side, I mean, obviously, a ton of interest there now HawkEye is out and you've got a public comp. And I think the space is starting to get a lot more attention. Can you just help scope back to the prior question, can you help scope a deal, kind of what you're seeing in terms of maybe the time line of a deal in the pipeline, when it shows up, how long you think it takes between sort of showing up and getting into pilot and subscription, you mentioned constellation. And maybe just what a midsized deal might look like in terms of dollars?

Yes. And every single deal is different, right? So it's really hard to talk about what is going to be the average. I will say things do move faster in the United States. And on the RFGL side, those can move very quickly within a matter of weeks. And this is what is so exciting about RFGL capability because a lot of it is driven about real operational capabilities that are needed given events that are happening around the world.

On the European side, it is slower. There's no doubt. And the time line from going to pilot into data subscription is really very much dependent on the country, their procurement mechanisms and their time lines of things. So it's hard to give you just in average. When it comes to deal sizes, I think we've mentioned before, you look at a month-long pilot and you're talking mid-6-figure range maybe. There's definitely a lot in the pipeline that gets to 7-figure range. And then, of course, it moves up as you start talking about sovereign constellations, multiyear capabilities, et cetera. I think that gives you the range.

Yes. That's helpful. And on the NOAA front, I mean, obviously, IDIQ and the budget intentions there look to just be absolutely massive. Congrats on the quick early light on the Hyperspectral Microwave Sounder. Just curious, you commented a bit on the data. Could you just expand a little bit more on that in terms of are you far enough into that? Have you got a broad enough data set to give you the conviction that the data quality relative to NOAA needs is there or better at this point?

The short answer is yes. We're delivering that data right now. I believe, in fact, we are getting paid for that data. And we expect to continue to have procurement around that data set from that satellite that is in orbit today. And I think I will add the opportunities with NOAA, we talked about some of that pipeline. We mentioned over $150 million of stuff that is in year between the various data types, RO as well as multiple related to microwave sounding. I can't underemphasize enough how different this is from where NOAA was in prior years. Like it's really pretty exciting, all the stuff that is being worked on right now. And the team is pretty hectic, I have to say, responding to these.

Yes, it's great to see the move to commercial actually really playing out in scale. Maybe one last. Just curious if you could comment on the broader space services pipeline. You had a nice signing a little while back with Deloitte 8-figure deal. You were just commenting on the Munich capacity coming online. So obviously, you've got capacity proven ability to launch. Just curious what that's doing to your space services pipeline and how it's evolving.

Yes. I think a lot of the space services pipeline is really focused on what we're able to do on the government side. And that's going to be government, that's also going to be, I would say, commercial companies that ultimately are serving the government market, right? Because that's where all the budgets are. And what everyone cares about is the ability to rapidly deploy things and rapidly deploy new things as we go forward and the geopolitical situation continues to change. And that's exactly where Spire shines and why it's important that we have that manufacturing capacity already deployed. We already know how to build those satellites at scale. And so I'm pretty excited about the space services pipeline there as well and what the team has done as work over the past year in getting us ready for scaling.

Yes. Great. I'll add maybe one last, if I could. Ali, on the $5.8 million of legal accounting professional, it sounds like that's going to come out over the year. Can you just give us maybe any sense of how quickly those costs can come out and get down to a more manageable baseline?

I think it's kind of probably back half of the year should decline more significantly than the first half of the year, Jeff. That's probably the most I can say about that.

Your next question today is coming from Austin Moeller from Canaccord Genuity.

So my first question, on the $8 billion NOAA ProTech IDIQ, what modalities of data are being sought? I think there's 8 mentioned. And how are the funds from that $8 billion dispersed between the different modalities like microwave, reflectometry, occultation, sea height, ice, et cetera?

Yes. So it's actually 7 data types. I think I've misspoken in a few places and said 8, right, when it first came out. So it's 7, 4 of which we are able to do. The IDIQ is being responded to right now by industry, right? So it's going to be something where multiple companies are tied into it. And then NOAA will issue task orders over the next, I think, it's 5 years related to that IDIQ. So multiple companies are going to get orders under that. NOAA likes to have at least 2 parties getting data orders in all the different types that they do. So you can't really give a number, and it's not really a zero-sum game around that IDIQ. I mean, I think $8 billion is a huge number and just gives you a sense of how serious NOAA is about this.

What I can tell you is that NOAA is very focused on radio-occultation and microwave being the 2 most important ones that they want to get going from a procurement perspective. And they continue to talk to us about the reflectometry and the ocean surface winds as also the next one that they have as a priority. And so of course, this will continue to evolve over the years, but I think gives you a good indication of some of their top priorities are areas where we have a very strong offering to give.

Okay. And are you able to give an update on where we're at on EURIALO satellite production? And I guess, what the European Space Agency and the European Union's current thinking is now that the ministerial budget is in place?

Yes. So the team has been working and building stuff on those satellites, and they start doing integration in the Munich facility, I think it's later this month, in fact. So I mean, their work is happening on that and ongoing. The EURIALO program was given additional budget coming out of the ministerial. And so how this continues to evolve is an ongoing discussion between all the various parties. European Space Agency is involved, the DLR, the German Space Agency is involved, right? All of our different consortium partners are involved and of course, continued interest and priority through the European Union. So it's an ongoing process, I would say.

Our next question today is coming from Chris Quilty from Quilty Space.

Theresa, I just want to follow up on the NOAA opportunities and an exciting pipeline there. How should we think about that in terms of capital contribution? In other words, as you branch out into different sensors, does that require different classes of satellites or different orbital inclinations? Are there any of these where there might be a large contribution? And with the contracting, are you seeing opportunities for government NRE?

Yes. So in terms of capacity, we have a lot of capacity on orbit, and I would say enough capacity on orbit for radio-occultation for what we would do with reflectometry. And of course, we just mentioned already the first satellite even has relevant capacity from a microwave perspective. So as we would go forward, more microwave sounding satellites is where this would become relevant as part of our ongoing replenishment and deployment across the constellation. The HyMS satellite, you may be aware, is already fitting within the normal form factor that we do.

You may also recall that the development of that HyMS payload and satellite was actually something that was supported through a customer contract in the first place. So that's actually a great example of some government-funded NRE that turns into then capacity and capability that we can then deploy and sell as a data service. So I think it's a fantastic example of that.

Got you. I guess my question was, as you add capabilities, whether it's different phenomenologies on the weather side or RFGL and do you get to the point where you have to build individual fleets of satellites? Or do you think the form factor you're working from, you still have bandwidth to be able to add multiple technologies onto the same platform?

Yes. I mean our platform already supports the TEC, the RO, the R, now the microwave sounding. And so I don't want this to be something where we're going and building brand-new big things, spending tons of NRE that is outside of our wheelhouse. I think we have a great technology platform base that we've shown we can deploy in a cost-effective way. And we have tons of opportunity with NOAA and more broadly from that to be able to use the platform that we have. And of course, we continue to deploy new technology. We talked about the anomaly detection in the comments that we shared earlier. So we continue to do R&D on that. But this is like scalable business rather than trying to do NRE all over the place.

Great. And speaking of new technologies, congrats on the success with the mini crosslinks. Is that a product that you expect to both proliferate across your constellation as a standard? And is it something that you would sell on a merchant basis?

So it's definitely something that we look at as enabling technology that just makes our constellation and our platform better. And I suppose that's an open question, whether it's something that we would also make available more broadly in the industry. Right now, I'm focused on making sure we take it from the final demonstration R&D phases into something that is deployed across our network.

We reached the end of our question-and-answer session. And ladies and gentlemen, that does conclude today's teleconference and webcast. You may disconnect your line at this time, and have a wonderful day. We thank you for your participation today.

Greetings, and welcome to Spire Global Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2025 Results Call. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this conference is being recorded.

I would now like to turn the call over to your host, Ben Hackman, Head of Investor Relations. Thank you, sir. You may begin.

Thank you. Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining Spire's Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2025 Earnings Conference Call. Our earnings press release and related SEC filings are posted on the company's IR website. A replay of today's call will also be made available. With me on the call today is Theresa Condor, CEO; and Ali Engel, CFO.

As a reminder, our commentary today will include non-GAAP items. Reconciliations between our GAAP and non-GAAP results as well as our guidance can be found in our earnings press release, which can be found on our IR website. Some of our comments today contain forward-looking statements that are subject to risks, uncertainties and assumptions. In particular, our expectations around our future results of operations and financial conditions are uncertain and subject to change. Should any of these expectations fail to materialize or should our assumptions prove to be incorrect, actual company results could differ materially from these forward-looking statements. A description of these risks, uncertainties and assumptions and other factors that could affect our financial results is included in our SEC filings.

With that, let me hand the call over to Theresa.

Thank you, and good morning, everyone. I want to open today with a clear statement about where Spire stands. 2025 was a transformational year. Excluding the Maritime business we divested, Spire delivered 44% year-over-year revenue growth in the fourth quarter. Gross margins expanded 5 points from a year ago. And as we enter 2026, that momentum accelerates with our midpoint expectation for 50% growth in revenue, excluding Maritime. But the numbers only tell part of the story. The global demand environment for space-based intelligence has fundamentally shifted in Spire's favor, and we are uniquely positioned to capture it. Three forces are converging.

First, defense and intelligence spending on space is surging, not just in the United States, where the administration has targeted a $1.5 trillion defense budget for fiscal year 2027, but across Europe, where nations are making historic investments in strategic autonomy. Germany alone has committed EUR 35 billion over the next 5 years to defense space capabilities. Second, civil agencies like NOAA and NASA are shifting decisively toward commercial data procurement with NOAA projecting billions of dollars in commercial weather data purchases over the next decade. And third, commercial industries from agriculture to aviation are adopting space-based intelligence at an accelerating pace, driven by AI and the operational advantages our data provides.

Spire is not just well positioned for this moment. We are, in many respects, the only company positioned to serve all 3 of these markets at a global scale. Our competitive position rests on 4 advantages that taken together, no other commercial provider can replicate. First, Spire has a fully deployed global constellation. Today, we operate about 100 payloads on orbit, providing continuous global coverage and revisiting every point on Earth more than 100 times per day. This constellation functions as a persistent global sensor network, observing activity across aviation, weather and broadband radio frequency environments in near real time.

Each day, we track roughly 190,000 aircraft, process more than 300 million ADS-B messages and maintain the capacity to produce over 20,000 daily atmosphere profiles. Each of our typical RFGL satellites has a field of view of almost 5 million square miles that search for signals of interest as they cover all of earth every day. This is not a constellation we are planning to build. It is built, it is operating, and it is generating intelligence today.

Second, Spire has more than 12 years of operational experience in Space Systems. Since 2013, we have designed, built, launched and operated our own satellites. We are vertically integrated from spacecraft manufacturing through constellation operations to the software and analytics layer that delivers intelligence to customers. That depth of experience, hundreds of satellites built and over a decade of continuous on-orbit operations cannot be replicated quickly.

Third, and this is a distinction I want to emphasize, Spire manufactures satellites in both the United States and Europe. We operate production facilities in the U.K., Germany and the United States with capacity to produce 300 to 400 satellites annually. In a world where allied nations are rapidly scaling defense and space investments and where sovereign manufacturing and data sovereignty requirements are becoming standard, our dual continent industrial base is an extraordinary strategic asset. No other pure-play commercial space data company has this today.

Fourth, we have built proprietary radio-frequency sensing and geolocation capabilities that are genuinely unique. Our RF expertise spans over a decade and includes capabilities in radio occultation weather observation, GNSS reflectometry, ADS-B aviation tracking and now radio-frequency geolocation. RFGL, the ability to detect, characterize and geo-locate RF emitters from space is an area where Spire has moved from concept to on-orbit demonstration to agency-funded operations faster than any competitor. I will say more about this shortly because it is becoming a major growth engine for the company. These 4 pillars, deployed constellation, operational depth, transatlantic manufacturing and differentiated RF products are what makes Spire's growth story durable. They are not advantages that erode with time, they compound.

Let me turn to the area of our business that I believe represents the most significant near-term growth opportunity for Spire, defense and space reconnaissance anchored by our RFGL capability. A major transformation is underway in space-based intelligence. For decades, defense and intelligence agencies built and operated their own satellites for signal collection and tracking. That model is rapidly changing. Advances in satellite miniaturization, digital signal processing and machine learning now enable commercial companies like Spire to deploy RF sensing constellations that supplement and in some cases, exceed government systems at a fraction of the cost and on dramatically faster time lines. The RF intelligence market is in the early stages of what industry estimates believe will be a transition to a $3 billion to $4 billion addressable market by the end of the decade. Spire is at the forefront of this transition.

In early 2026, Spire successfully demonstrated single satellite geo location, including detection of S-band and X-Band signals commonly used by radar and sensing systems critical to defense missions. This is a meaningful technical milestone. It validates that our approach works and it positions us to scale. RFGL capacity at Spire will increase approximately 15x over the next 12 months. That expansion moves us from pilot programs to large-scale operational deployments with government customers and ultimately to sovereign constellation opportunities. We are already seeing this progression in our pipeline.

In 2026, Spire has secured awards from U.S. agencies for rapid RFGL collections over South America, the Middle East and Asia Pacific. These are funded operational missions in contested environments demonstrating that our capability is mission-ready today. We have also secured pilot awards in 2025 and already in 2026 with overseas allies that we expect will turn into larger programs in the future. Spire expanded our space reconnaissance product in 2025 to collect and process publicly broadcast voice transmissions from space.

Using AI-driven processing, we can transcribe, translate and summarize even short or noisy signals in near real time. Combined with RFGL, this creates a multilayered intelligence product that defense and intelligence customers are actively procuring. The U.S. defense environment is strongly favorable. The administration has targeted a $1.5 trillion defense budget and the Department of War is driving a modernized procurement model focused on speed, commercial terms and measurable outcomes. Spire is positioned squarely within this model. We deliver operational capability.

In January, we announced the establishment of our Board of Advisers which includes Admiral Grady, who brings over 4 decades of leadership at the highest levels of U.S. Military and National Security Command; and Ed Newberry, a globally recognized leader in Government Affairs and National Security Policy. These appointments reflect the seriousness of our commitment to the defense market and the caliber of relationships we are building. With space reconnaissance revenue scaling, RFGL capacity expanding 15x and a growing base of funded government end users, we expect this segment to become a powerful driver of Spire's growth trajectory over the next 3 to 5 years.

I want to spend a moment on the International Defense opportunity because it is where Spire is most differentiated. At the Munich Security Conference earlier this year, a central theme was the need for stronger European strategic autonomy. This is not rhetoric. It is backed by historic budget commitments. Germany has allocated EUR 35 billion over the next 5 years for space and defense capabilities.

Across Europe, defense spending is accelerating at a pace we have not seen in decades with a target of EUR 800 billion annually in 5 years' time, a CAGR of 16% from the EUR 381 billion spent in 2025, which grew at a CAGR of 15% over the prior 4 years. For Spire, this creates a generational opportunity. We are, to my knowledge, the only commercial space data company with installed satellite manufacturing facilities in both the United States and Europe. That means we can meet sovereign manufacturing requirements, comply with data sovereignty regulations and serve as a trusted partner for allied governments on both sides of the Atlantic.

Today, we are actively engaged with 17 countries across Europe, the Nordics, the Middle East and Asia Pacific region. These opportunities range from partnerships with major defense contractors to direct engagements with ministries of defense. The pipeline includes RFGL data services, custom satellite missions and full sovereign constellation programs in the range of high 8 figures to low 9 figures.

We also continue to build our government contract base. In 2025, Spire secured several important awards including a $11.2 million 1-year contract from NOAA for radio occultation data, a $2.5 million NOAA contract for ocean winds data, a EUR 3 million renewal from EUMETSAT for weather data, and the selection for the Missile Defense Agency's SHIELD ID/IQ contract. Myriota expanded its agreement with us to scale its IoT constellation with 16 additional satellites, and we received an award from Deloitte to support on-orbit cyber and data operations. The combined U.S. and allied defense demand picture overlaid with Spire's unique ability to serve both markets from local manufacturing bases with proven on-orbit capabilities results in a multiyear growth runway that is still in its very early stages.

Turning to civil government. The shift toward commercial data procurement is gaining significant momentum. At the 2026 American Meteorological Society Annual Meeting, NOAA announced its intention to expand the use of commercial observations, increase transparency about future requirements, and provide industry with sufficient lead time to deliver. NOAA anticipates that commercial weather data purchases could reach billions of dollars over the next decade. NASA is also orienting toward further commercial satellite data procurement under new leadership and legislation to solidify commercial data procurement policies has been advancing through both houses of Congress.

Spire is directly positioned to capture this demand. We are already one of NOAA's primary commercial data providers through our radio occultation observations and our ambitions extend well beyond RO. In January, we launched our first hyperspectral microwave sounder satellite and have already shared initial data with our test customers. This opens an entirely new category of atmospheric observation for commercial procurement, one that NOAA and other agencies are actively exploring alongside GNSS reflectometry and other data sets.

Our strategy in weather and climate is deliberate. We anticipate market needs, invest ahead of demand and deliver operational solutions as the procurement programs mature. The hyperspectral sounder is a perfect example. We invested in the capability before the procurement program existed, and now we are positioned as a first mover as agencies expand their commercial data requirements.

Customers are also finding novel applications for our data beyond traditional weather forecasting. Radio occultation observations are now being used for characterization of satellite launch activities globally and to support hypersonic vehicle tracking, applications that bridge our civil and defense businesses and demonstrate the versatility of our data.

Our commercial business is also accelerating driven by the intersection of AI and space-based data. AI is transforming weather forecasting and Spire has been at the forefront of this transformation. Our AI weather models now deliver probabilistic forecasts extending to 45 days, built on proprietary data assimilation that integrates atmospheric profiles, soil moisture observations, and ocean surface winds from our satellite network. We are also introducing rapid refresh forecasting that updates predictions in minutes rather than hours and customers are asking for now casting products that forecast conditions up to 8 hours ahead for time-critical operational decisions.

As AI scales across industries, we expect high-quality, differentiated observational data to become more valuable, not less. Our proprietary space-based weather data is a strategic asset that supports both physical and AI-based modeling and our software stack helps customers extract more value from that data in operational environments.

In agriculture, we are seeing strong demand for soil moisture intelligence. Our expanded platform integrates more than 40 years of historical data with daily satellite observations and forecasts extending to 45 days. In late 2025, we secured a contract to provide high-resolution soil moisture insights for a leading precision agriculture customer in the U.S. Another customer is using Spire's Weather Intelligence and our expert meteorology team to support storm outage prediction and wildfire risk management.

On the aviation side, a government agency is using our ADS-B quality indicators to identify regions where aircraft may have experienced GNSS spoofing or interference. The common thread across all these use cases is that Spire's data is being embedded into customer workflows as operational infrastructure, not as a nice to have, but as a mission-critical input. That creates recurring durable revenue relationships and gives us confidence in the long-term growth trajectory of the commercial business. Our operational execution continues to match our commercial ambitions.

In 2025, we conducted 6 launches, deploying 39 satellites across multiple missions. These missions expanded our constellation capabilities, demonstrated single satellite RFGL and introduced optical inter-satellite link technology for high-speed data transfer directly in orbit. That momentum has carried into 2026. In January, we launched 9 satellites, including Spire's next-generation hyperspectral microwave sounder. Earlier this month, 10 additional satellites arrived at the launch site for our upcoming T16 mission. 8 of those satellites are dedicated to customer programs, spanning RF data collection, cyber security-focused space capabilities, Internet of Things connectivity and remote sensing imagery.

The launch will also include another satellite equipped with our optical inter-satellite link technology and a replenishment satellite to maintain global coverage. This launch cadence reflects the operational maturity of our platform. Our production facilities can manufacture between 300 and 400 satellites annually. Our Constellation is fully deployed and replenishing continuously. And because our infrastructure is already global, every new intelligence product we introduced can be delivered with substantial operating leverage.

I want to address the financial transformation this company has undergone because I believe the market is still catching up to where Spire is today. With the completion of the Maritime divestiture, we retired all outstanding debt, something very rare for a space company and strengthened our balance sheet. More importantly, we reshaped the company. Post divestiture, Spire is a pure-play space intelligence platform with a fundamentally different growth profile and end market composition than the company investors knew 12 months ago.

As we scale the platform, the operating leverage in our model becomes increasingly visible, our constellation and data infrastructure are already deployed globally. Adding new intelligence products and customers does not require proportional increases in costs. That dynamic is reflected in improving gross margins, and we expect continued margin expansion as revenue scales.

We also see a favorable shift in revenue quality. Our government and commercial contracts are increasingly multiyear in nature with growing recurring revenue components. This gives us better forward visibility and underpins our confidence in sustained growth. Excluding the divested Maritime business, for 2026, we expect midpoint core revenue growth of 50%, driven by expansion across defense, civil and commercial markets. The opportunity in front of us is larger than any single quarter or fiscal year. Indeed, we foresee durable growth of at least 30% given our strong pipeline, favorable macro conditions and unique positioning of Spire in the marketplace.

We are operating at the intersection of 3 secular growth trends. The expansion of defense and intelligence spending on commercial space capabilities, the modernization of global weather and climate infrastructure through commercial data and the adoption of AI-driven analytics that make space-based data exponentially more valuable. Each of these markets is in its early stages and growing.

Defense and Intelligence agencies are only beginning to shift RF collection to commercial providers. NOAA's commercial data purchases are projected to scale to billions of dollars. And the commercial market for AI-powered weather and environmental intelligence is expanding as industries recognize the operational value of these data sets. Spire's plan over the next 3 to 5 years is to scale across all 3 of these sectors simultaneously.

In Defense, we intend to move from RFGL pilot programs to large-scale deployments and sovereign constellation contracts with allied nations. In civil government, we plan to expand from radio occultation into a multi-sensor data portfolio that includes microwave sounding GNSS reflectometry and other observation types. In commercial markets, we are building an AI-powered intelligence platform that turns raw space-based observations into actionable decision tools for industry spanning energy, agriculture, aviation and insurance.

Importantly, we believe the competitive moat deepens over time. Every orbit adds to our proprietary global data set. Every new sensor type expands the intelligence we can deliver. Every year of operational experience widens the gap between Spire and anyone attempting to replicate what we have built. And our transatlantic manufacturing base becomes more valuable as sovereign requirements intensify across allied nations. This is not a company that is hoping for growth. This is a company that has built the platform, demonstrated the capabilities and is now entering the phase where the market demand is catching up to the infrastructure we have deployed.

Let me close with 3 commitments for the year ahead. First, Spire will deliver accelerating revenue growth in 2026, driven by defense and space reconnaissance, expanding civil government data procurement and commercial AI adoption. Our current pipeline and contracted backlog give us strong confidence in this trajectory. Second, we will scale our RFGL capacity by 15x and convert our growing pipeline of international defense opportunities into funded programs. The sovereign data and constellation opportunities across 17 countries is the largest in our history, and we intend to capture a leading share. Third, we will continue to expand our data portfolio and demonstrate the operating leverage in our platform through improving margins and continued progress towards sustainable free cash flow generation. Across defense, civil government and commercial markets, the demand for real-time intelligence from space is not just growing, it is accelerating.

Spire has the platform built to meet that demand. We have the constellation. We have the technology. We have the manufacturing footprint on 2 continents, and we have the team and the operational experience to execute. I have never been more confident in Spire's trajectory, and I look forward to delivering on the extraordinary opportunity in front of us.

With that, I'll turn it over to Ali for the financial details. Thank you.

Thank you, Theresa. Theresa laid out the demand picture and our competitive positioning. My job is to show you the numbers behind that story, and they are strong. As a reminder, unless otherwise noted, I will be discussing non-GAAP financial measures. A reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP results is provided in our earnings release on the Investor Relations website. Let me start with the headline.

Excluding our Maritime business, Spire delivered 44% year-over-year revenue growth in the fourth quarter and 36% sequential growth. Both the fourth quarter and full year results met the midpoint of our financial outlook. And for 2026, at the midpoint, we are guiding to 50% year-over-year core revenue growth on the same basis. These are not aspirational numbers. They reflect contracted programs, expanding customer relationships and a pipeline that is accelerating.

With the sale of the Maritime business in April 2025, Spire retired all outstanding debt and emerged as a pure-play space intelligence platform. We are now debt-free with $81.8 million in cash and marketable securities as of December 31. More importantly, the business that remains is faster growing and better aligned with the defense, civil and commercial growth drivers Theresa described.

Fourth quarter non-GAAP gross margin reached 43%, a 5 percentage point improvement year-over-year. Full year gross margin improved 4 percentage points to 44%. These improvements reflect the operating leverage inherent in our platform. Our constellation and data infrastructure are already deployed globally, and as revenue scales, we are delivering more intelligence from the same infrastructure.

Revenue for the fourth quarter was $15.8 million. Full year revenue was $71.6 million, reflecting a year-over-year decrease due to the maritime divestiture. Excluding the maritime business, which is how we manage the business, and how I would encourage you to evaluate it, fourth quarter revenue grew 44% year-over-year and 36% sequentially. The growth was driven by higher radio occultation and ocean winds data sales under NOAA awards, along with increased revenue from space services. Any remaining maritime activities following the transaction are being managed as a runoff business.

Fourth quarter adjusted EBITDA was negative $9.7 million an 8% improvement year-over-year and a 17% improvement sequentially. The sequential improvement was driven by higher revenue. Full year adjusted EBITDA was negative $39.7 million. The year-over-year change from negative $16.1 million in 2024 was primarily a function of lower total revenue following the Maritime divestiture. The important signal here is trajectory, Q4 adjusted EBITDA improved both year-over-year and sequentially, and we outperformed the high end of our own outlook, both for the quarter and the full year.

Cash flow used in operations was $4.3 million in the fourth quarter, a 78% improvement year-over-year and 65% improvement sequentially. Cash usage in the quarter reflected revenue timing effects, working capital dynamics related to satellite manufacturing and elevated legal and professional fees.

Turning to our outlook for 2026. For the first quarter, we expect GAAP revenue between $14.5 million and $15.5 million. Excluding Maritime revenue of approximately $1.7 million, first quarter revenue growth represents nearly 10% year-over-year growth for the core business. For the full year, we expect revenue between $75 million and $85 million. On the same ex-maritime basis, this represents over 50% year-over-year growth. Importantly, our 2026 guidance does not include any revenue from the wildfire sat program. Work on that contract is paused. We remain committed to the program, and we'll provide an update when we have clarity on the path forward. Our growth guidance stands entirely on its own without revenue from the wildfire sat program.

I know the question on many of your minds is the path to profitability, and I want to address it directly. We previously targeted quarterly adjusted EBITDA breakeven by the end of 2026. We made significant progress towards that goal already. Q4 adjusted EBITDA improved 17% sequentially and 8% year-over-year. For 2026, we are guiding first quarter adjusted EBITDA between negative $11.5 million and negative $11.2 million and full year adjusted EBITDA between negative $26 million and negative $20.7 million.

First quarter non-GAAP operating loss is expected between negative $14.5 million and negative $14.1 million and full year non-GAAP operating loss between negative $37.8 million and negative $32.6 million. First quarter non-GAAP loss per share is expected between negative $0.44 and negative $0.43, assuming approximately 33.1 million basic weighted average shares. Full year non-GAAP loss per share is expected between negative $1.11 and negative $0.96 on approximately 33.9 million shares.

Looking at our trajectory, the combination of 50% plus revenue growth at the midpoint, expanding gross margins and the cost structure adjustments we have recently implemented puts us on a clear path towards profitability. We are targeting quarterly adjusted EBITDA breakeven in the fourth quarter of 2026 to the first quarter of 2027 time frame, followed by positive cash flow from operations on a quarterly basis in 2027. As we gain clarity on certain nonrecurring professional fees, we expect to narrow that window. The underlying business is on track. Core business revenue is accelerating, margins are expanding, and the operating leverage in our model is becoming increasingly visible.

Let me frame how we think about the next 3 to 5 years financially. We are operating a globally deployed platform with high fixed costs already absorbed. As revenue scales, and we are guiding to 50% midpoint growth this year alone, the incremental economics are highly attractive. Gross margins have already expanded in the past year. We expect continued expansion as high-margin products like RFGL and AI-driven weather intelligence become a larger share of the mix. Over the next 3 to 5 years, we are targeting gross margins in the 60% to 70% range.

On the cost side, we have recently adjusted our cost structure to align with the opportunities ahead. The infrastructure required to serve a $75 million to $85 million revenue business is substantially the same infrastructure required to serve a $150 million revenue business. That operating leverage is the defining financial characteristic of Spire going forward. Our balance sheet gives us the runway to execute this plan. We are debt-free with $81.8 million in cash and marketable securities as of December 31. We believe our current cash position combined with improving cash flows from operations provide a strong foundation for executing our growth plan.

To summarize the financial picture on a non-GAAP ex-maritime basis, Spire delivered 44% Q4 revenue growth, expanded non-GAAP gross margins by 5 percentage points and improved operating cash flow by 78% and enters 2026 guiding to 50% midpoint core revenue growth with a debt-free balance sheet and a path towards profitability. This is a company that is scaling and entering an inflection, one where the platform is built, the demand is accelerating and the financial model is demonstrating the leverage we have always believed was there.

Now I would like to open the call for questions.

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from the line of Erik Rasmussen with Stifel.

A lot to take in there, but it seems like the business is really starting to hit -- showing some possibility for inflection. I wanted to ask about the guidance. Q1 revenue around $15 million. That is up, I guess, on an excluded basis sequentially. But just wondering how do we think about that in relation to the $80 million annual guidance? I wanted to get some of my thoughts on the slope of that revenue throughout the year? And then are you looking at more of like a weighted second half versus first half?

Yes. Thanks, Erik, for that and for the nice words. You're correct that we start to ramp up revenue more as we go through the year. And I'll talk a little bit about why that is. In Q1, as you know, we had some launches that moved out of Q4 into the early part of Q1. So there is the ramp-up of revenue that starts to come out of those launches.

The other thing is really going to be focused on the radio frequency geolocation opportunity as we move from pilot programs into larger data deliveries that hit revenue right away. This is where you start to see a lot of the growth coming in the back half of the year. In the last 2 weeks alone, we've had a flurry of activity and requests coming around the geopolitical situation, and I am expecting that to continue.

The other thing that I want to highlight is the area we discussed in the call -- in the comments about NOAA and their intention to increasingly purchase commercial data sets. I don't know if you've seen yet, but an RFP has come out for a 5-year ID/IQ with an $8 billion ceiling for -- I think it's about 8 different data types for weather data, 4 of which Spire is capable of delivering with infrastructure that we already have. And so the NOAA relationship and an ability to keep growing into that is also going to be important to the year.

Great. And maybe just speaking with the financial model, Ali talked about a gross margin target over the next 3 to 5 years of 60% to 70%. What's pushing that out? We see -- I seem to remember that, that might have been a more near-term target. But can you just maybe talk about what's driving that and sort of how that ramps throughout maybe this year and then in relation to that target?

Yes. I think we definitely see the ramp as we see the revenue growth throughout the year. But as we continue to compound on that, that allows us to attain higher margins in the future. I mean we do see margin growth in 2026. But I think hitting those higher targets in the out year will be driven by revenue growth.

Great. And maybe just touching on my last question, just touching on the satellite opportunities that's been pushed out with the wildfire sat with Canadian Space Agency. Can you just talk about sort of what's happening there, latest on conversations? It seems like you stripped that out entirely. So that could potentially be upside to your numbers if that does come through again. Maybe just further thoughts on that.

Yes. There's not a ton that we're able to say other than we've paused execution while we have discussions on the status with our partner, including around timing and requirements. As you said, we have been conservative in taking out any amount of revenue for the year so that we can give you numbers that we have really great visibility into. And as you said, that is potential upside to the numbers that we have shared.

Our next question comes from the line of Jeff Van Rhee with Craig-Hallum Capital Group.

Obviously, that guide, in particular, excluding wildfire side is, to me, pretty impressive. On the sovereigns, I think you called out a lot of strength in EMEA in particular. And maybe you could just expand on that a little bit. You've got -- I think you said upper 8 or 9 figures, some government deals in those categories that are percolating.

Just how many years would one of those, say, 9-figure deals be spread over typically? And then you mentioned you've got some pilots going to deploy. So I'm just trying to understand how much of that is -- how visible it is, I guess. If you look at that 2026 outlook, how many pilots are you in that could convert to large sovereign deals? So a couple of questions embedded in there.

Yes. And I mean, I really -- I'm excited about the RFGL opportunity. And I'm excited about what we can provide on the U.S. government side, and I am excited about what we can provide Rest of World. We've talked about that quite a bit. We mentioned the number of 17 different countries that we're engaged in.

And the discussion always starts with what do you have in orbit today that you can provide us data with immediately right now that we can start working with and then it transitions into what type of wider subscription program can we do using in-orbit assets at the same time that the discussion around sovereign constellation happens.

And so this would be using our local manufacturing capacity in Germany and in the U.K. depending on the need deploying capabilities that, of course, we already know how to deploy and we have the technology that are for a particular nation or government or region. And that's where you have the transition from these pilot programs into much larger opportunities. And I think just about all of the discussions transition along that pathway. And I do expect those transitions to start to bear fruit in 2026.

And just the second part of that question, if it's a 9-figure deal, just generally speaking, how long will those deals be?

Yes. So they're going to be similar to our space services ones where they're multiyear. It's going to depend a bit on what they're asking for, right, but they're multiyear.

Okay. And then if you look at the pipeline with respect to the mix of space services, contracts versus what I would call sort of the data/recurring contracts. Just talk about the sort of the mix of the 2 and the mix shift that, that implies for revenue flows over the next year or 2?

Yes. So I think the big growth that we're still expecting in terms of revenue in 2026, is a lot tied to RFGL, and it's going to be tied to revenue that we collect from satellites that have been launched and programs that have already been signed. Of course, as we start to build out the pipeline of space services opportunities, that's what gives us confidence in the ongoing growth when we talk about the out years and 3- to 5-year growth. And I think we continue to have a mix of both sovereign opportunities and continuing to fill in the gaps with our existing infrastructure on the data side.

Got it. And then maybe last for me. I think in last quarter's call, you were fresh off a lot of chaos within government, U.S. government, in particular, related cycles. I think they stalled in Q3 and you played that through in your Q4 guide. What are you experiencing? And what are you assuming for Q1 and beyond?

Yes. And I think the strength of the NOAA story and the movement that they are making there is very apparent. And I mentioned in the comments to Erik about this new 5-year ID/IQ with a bunch of different data types. They came out at the very beginning of the year at the AMS meeting with very strong comments about moving towards a much broader based focus on commercial data purchases versus building things themselves. And they've made pretty clear that they're expecting commercial companies to have the infrastructure for the data purchases. So that puts Spire squarely as a core player in that $8 billion ceiling ID/IQ. So we are absolutely seeing the movement, including what happened with that [ RFP ] coming out this week.

We do see bills moving through Congress that look to solidify the focus on commercial purchases, both across NOAA and NASA. And on the NASA side, we continue to have discussions with that team on what that program looks like. They are very active.

But I'd just add on to that, Jeff, that's really -- a lot of that momentum is going to start being seen in Q1 and Q2 and beyond.

Got it. Great. Well, great to see. I mean, obviously, it's been a big period of transition and getting just a lot of the noise behind you and being able to go execute, looking forward to it looks like some good organic growth there.

Our next question comes from the line of Brian Kinstlinger with Alliance Global Partners.

I'm curious if you could first speak to the visibility of the low point of revenue guidance. How much is coming from backlog or signed orders versus how much do you need to win or convert from pilots into orders?

We have really a strong visibility into the revenue and a very large part of it. I would say approximately 75% is covered through contracts we already have in place.

Great. And then can you talk about how you think about the time frame when you're in a pilot? And how quickly and what has to happen between the 2 stages as that pilot turns to a production order for data? Does contract need to start over? Does -- what has to happen between those 2 phases other than them testing and seeing success?

Yes. It's really going to depend on the customer and on the country and on their procedures. In some cases, it can move very quickly from a pilot into a wire subscription. In other cases, it's going to take a little bit longer. So it's hard to give you an exact answer other than to say that I feel very good about the momentum that we have on the RFGL side in 2026. I do believe we will be transitioning into larger amounts of revenue that are going to hit in the year for us. in the geopolitical situation, our 15x capacity on orbit is going to support that.

Okay. Last question I've got is the first quarter adjusted EBITDA loss is quite high. Can you just highlight what the infrequent costs are that are being added back? And then even excluding that SG&A tie, maybe you want to touch on why the SG&A is still elevated outside of that in the first quarter?

Yes. I mean I think that there are -- it's being driven by a couple of things. One is sort of a unique situation with respect to our audit fee because KPMG did not start the full year 2025 audit until November. We had to take really a fee that we would recognized over an entire year and recognize that over a 5-month period from November through March. So that kind of smashed in, for lack a better technical term, a bunch of costs in Q4 and Q1 in SG&A. And I think that's the primary driver of what we're seeing aside from some legal fees for those various run-of-the-mill matters.

Our next question comes from the line of Austin Moeller with Canaccord Genuity.

So just my first question here. If we think about Golden Dome, do you expect the primary opportunity there to be more like the RF geolocation opportunity? Or are you interested in bidding on Golden Dome on the SHIELD contract vehicle as a bus manufacturing operator?

Yes. So we're evaluating right now the opportunities that will make the most sense. As you know, we're part of that ID/IQ. I think we have very strong capabilities when it comes to our bus and our satellite systems. Of course, the RFGL capabilities are very unique. And I would also highlight the things that we can do around whether data sets, weather forecasting and the aviation tracking. So I would say all 3 of those things are on the table. Our team here in the U.S. is meeting regularly with leadership related to that program. And I feel good that we're well positioned to play a part of it.

Okay. And then could you provide any update on the EURIALO satellites and ESSP now that the ESA budgets passed? And I guess if you have capacity for 300 to 400 satellites a year, does that mean there wouldn't be a significant CapEx investment if you were to win ESSP and expand that?

Yes. So the satellites from the existing contracts are being built. That's all proceeding and in play. The wider program continues to march forward slowly, I would say, but it marches forward. We did have an incremental new contract related to it. I can't say anything more about it than that. And that's just to say momentum continues and the discussions about it continue. Of course, we talk about that 300 to 400 capacity for manufacturing. This, of course, would involve additional CapEx to put up those satellites. And the CapEx in that instance, of course, would be paid for by the customer that has requirements sovereign capabilities that need to be rapidly deployed.

So when we say that number, it's talking about the capacity that we have if someone comes to us tomorrow and says, "Okay, we need to put a lot of satellites through the system." And I think what's important about that is that a lot of organizations are talking about setting up the capacity and the ability to build things. We've got it all ready to go, and then it's just a question of how we move through the customer demand.

Our next question comes from the line of Scott Buck with H.C. Wainwright.

I appreciate the time. Theresa, I guess first on the revenue guide. At the high end, are you relying on a single program to potentially reach that 61% level? Or are there multiple balls in the air that could get you there?

Yes. No, there are multiple different things in our pipeline that I'd say we have quite good visibility into. And so it's not like this is a black or white thing. We gave the high range because we still feel like it's an entirely possible thing to hit based on the pipeline that we have.

Perfect. And then you highlighted Europe and your facility there. I'm curious, has any of the European opportunities move beyond budgeting to pen to paper and checks being written?

So I would say the pilot programs that we've mentioned is pen to paper and checks being written. And this relates, I would say, to data delivery programs. Of course, we have existing things going like EURIALO that were already pen to paper that we're building out of that facility. We're very aware of budgets and demand and programs that are, I would say, working their way through the system. And this remains an extremely important topic.

I know it's harder to picture that over here in the U.S., but it is the constant topic of discussion in Europe everywhere you go with every government you talk to about sovereign capabilities and where something is manufactured, where leadership is located and an ability to count on the technology. And we are positioned, I think, better than any other company to be able to capture that in a legitimate way in Europe as well as continue to be a really strong partner in the United States.

Okay. So it sounds like you're seeing a real sense of urgency and not just saber rattling, I guess.

There's absolute urgency. I have never seen it like this before.

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes our question-and-answer session. And we'll conclude our call today. We thank you for your interest and participation. You may now disconnect your lines.

Greetings, and welcome to the Spire Global Third Quarter 2025 Results Call. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this conference is being recorded.

I would now like to turn the call over to your host, Ben Hackman, Head of Investor Relations. Thank you. You may begin.

Thank you. Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining Spire's Third Quarter 2025 Earnings Conference Call. Our earnings press release and related SEC filings are posted on the company's IR website. A replay of today's call will also be made available. With me on the call today is Theresa Condor, CEO; and Ali Engel, CFO.

As a reminder, our commentary today will include non-GAAP items. Reconciliations between our GAAP and non-GAAP results as well as our guidance can be found in our earnings press release, which can be found on our IR website. Some of our comments today contain forward-looking statements that are subject to risks, uncertainties and assumptions. In particular, our expectations around our future results of operations and financial condition are uncertain and subject to change. Should any of these expectations fail to materialize or should our assumptions prove to be incorrect, actual company results could differ materially from these forward-looking statements. A description of these risks, uncertainties and assumptions and other factors that could affect our financial results is included in our SEC filings.

With that, let me hand the call over to Theresa.

For more than a decade, Spire has been a steadfast champion of safety and security. We protect businesses and people by delivering critical weather intelligence and aviation insights that spot potential navigation hazards before they become problems. We empower nations with radio frequency data, turning raw signals into actionable intelligence. Through our proven scalable space infrastructure, Spire provides global invisible intelligence from orbit, capturing RF signals, atmospheric conditions and operational behavior data. This continuous space-based awareness provides hundreds of organizations and governments a real-time view of activity across Earth's environment, operations and infrastructure, enabling them to act faster, act safer and act with greater confidence.

Today, Spire operates a satellite constellation of over 100 payloads. Our antennas cover every spot on earth approximately every 12 minutes. We serve data and analytics applications to hundreds of customers across 45 countries and collect millions of RF signals and atmospheric measurements every day.

Spire closed the third quarter on the back of sizable commercial and government contract wins with triple-digit growth on multiple repeat contract awards in our core areas of weather and security. These awards reflect demand translating into signed long-term programs.

We head into 2026 buoyed by unmistakable market opportunity even as we have navigated recent timing variability inherent in government procurement and delivery. Heightened security imperatives, larger budget allocations, accelerated procurement cycles and clear expectations for commercial partnerships have created a fertile environment for a well-established company like Spire, one that can deliver operational capability today while iterating rapidly toward tomorrow's needs.

Our 2025 satellite manufacturing ramp-up proved we can scale with confidence. Satellite manufacturing throughput doubled per year while remaining flat headcount. Our on-orbit data production is expected to increase tenfold for crucial RFGL products and threefold in our daily RO profiles. This step change in capacity cement Spire's role as a true dual-use solution provider driven by European, especially German demand, we have cost effectively installed a world-class satellite manufacturing facility in Germany which will provide us with backup resilience and additional manufacturing capacity of up to 100 satellites per year once fully qualified and operational in Q1. We have selected KPMG as our new audit partner, and we are confident that Spire is positioned to operate as a regular reporting public company going forward. In September, Spire secured its largest radio application contract from NOAA, an award 3x the size of last year's in annual sounding volume and a greater than 40% improvement in price per sounding versus historical benchmarks. The agency also awarded Spire a contract for ocean surface winds derived from our GNSS-R data, supporting operational forecasting missions.

Across Europe, demand for our weather data suite remains robust. We renewed our radio application agreement with EUMETSAT, sold GNSS-R data to the European Space Agency and sold data to a leading European weather agency in support of improved forecast accuracy. As the region advances its process of catching up with the U.S. in terms of commercial data use, Spire is uniquely positioned to continue as the key commercial partner based on its strong European operations.

Looking ahead to 2026 we anticipate an even deeper partnership with NOAA across our product categories, buoyed by the agency's ongoing dialogue with commercial providers about their expanding strategic role in satellite-based weather observations. This expectation is supported by the overarching directive of the current U.S. administration towards more commercial partnerships and less government ownership. Spire's momentum is further supported by the upcoming launch of our microwave sounding satellite next month, which addresses a multibillion-dollar global atmospheric sounding need. Microwave sounders are among the most impactful satellite observations for forecasting models worldwide, especially because they can see inside clouds and provide temperature and moisture profiles crucial for accurate forecasting. Microwave soundings currently provide up to 40% of forecast accuracy benefit and are used by all global forecasting agencies around the world. However, the combination of the legacy government instrument retirements, administrative changes in data sharing, and delays in new instruments have sparked global concerns about the consistency and completeness of microwave data sets, particularly for critical applications such as hurricane intensity monitoring. This further opens the door to efficient and effective private sector participation in the multibillion dollar global observing system. As geopolitical dynamics evolve, weather intelligence is also gaining heightened relevance for defense. Germany has recently published space security strategy underscores the strategic value of weather observations alongside traditional intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance domains. Demonstrating this trend, Spire recently won a contract award for high-resolution weather insights to support military applications.

Further illustrating the link between global security and citizen safety, Spire signed a contract to deliver soil moisture data across Ethiopia Somali region, covering hundreds of thousands of square kilometers in partnership with the international organization for migration. We have also won a coveted contract for high-resolution soil moisture insights from a brand named commercial smart ag customer in the U.S. Spire's expanding partnership with Deloitte and the accompanying contract to fill multiple satellite clusters equipped with Deloitte's Silent Shield cyber defense suite, underscores the strategic relevance of our space services platform. While revenue recognition extends beyond 2025, a satellite manufacturing, operational deployment and backlog conversion are proceeding exactly as planned. The program contributes to the company's total deferred revenue backlog of over $200 million, representing multiple years of contracted activity and reinforcing the long-term financial strength of the business. It is also another demonstration of our ability to secure high-profile awards that amplify our go-to-market reach within the U.S. federal ecosystem.

Spire was recently selected as an awardee on the U.S. government Missile Defense Agency's multi-award ShIELD IDIQ contract with a shared ceiling of $151 billion. This award positions us to compete for task orders under the Golden Dome initiative, a U.S. missile defense effort expected to award over tens of billions of dollars per year over the next decade. Winning in this highly contested selection process confirms our role as an industrial-based partner capable of delivering defense-grade space-based data, RF intelligence and digital engineering expertise for today and tomorrow's national security requirements.

The Secretary of War's rapid procurement guidelines explicitly reward innovative firms that can meet capability needs today. Our Boulder-based manufacturing facility and all U.S. workforce provide the domestic footprint and security posture required to respond quickly. While the U.S. government shutdown shifted a portion of anticipated revenue from 2025 into 2026, the underlying program funding and delivery commitments remain fully intact, and recent awards demonstrate that the U.S. defense market continues to expand.

In Europe, urgency for commercial partnerships in defense has increased meaningfully compared to a year ago. Germany has announced a EUR 7 billion per year space defense budget over the next 5 years, totaling approximately $40 billion. Our ISO-ready clean room and fully vertically integrated facilities in Munich, make Spire one of the very few companies local to Germany with end-to-end small satellite capabilities with German nationals as well as German-speaking executives. We are also the only one with deep in-space radio frequency expertise. The German Space Agency DLR, a current Spire partner and customer, will play a key role in procurement, accelerating engagement with commercial suppliers. This relationship will support our ongoing direct engagement with the military on their short-term requirements, capability needs and procurement asks. The European Space Agency Ministerial Council concluded in November with the largest financial commitment in their history. Member states pledged EUR 22 billion in new subscriptions for the next 3 years, with Germany contributing EUR 5 billion, an increase of almost 50%. Under the European Space Agency's geo-return policy, German contributions are reserved for contracts with German companies such as Spire, reinforcing our strategic positioning within Europe's growing space defense ecosystem and European Space Agency's largest contributor.

The European Union's Space Shield initiative slated to begin in 2026, an increasing urgency among NATO members further underscore demand for sovereign and commercial space capabilities. Across national security strategies, core requirements such as intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance are consistently highlighted, reinforcing the relevance of Spire's dual-use satellite data services. NATO countries have pledged to increase their defense budgets to 5% of GDP. Assuming 5% of that amount for space would unlock $17 billion to $32 billion per year in additional contracts. Spire's space reconnaissance portfolio is seeing heightened demand as agencies move beyond traditional telecom and imaging approaches to exploit the radio-frequency domain. Our pipeline includes multiyear sovereign programs with recurring data demand as well as request for immediate data delivery using installed capacity. With government backing, we have begun collecting S-Band and X-Band maritime radar signals and expanding geolocation capabilities to serve our non-U.S. customer base. Spire is advancing technology by utilizing a single satellite and our small form factor LEMUR platform to gain insights that would traditionally take a larger platform or multiple satellites. Even as Spire emerges as a national security technology partner, our commercial business remains an important growth engine. Under new leadership, our weather and aviation businesses are increasingly integrated with commercial revenue growing at a double-digit rate year-over-year and strong customer retention. Spire continues to see interest from our energy and commodity focused clients that are using our short-term high-resolution forecasts and our long-term subseasonal to seasonal forecasts. We are hearing consistent feedback from these customers that Spire's forecasts are ahead of other models, capturing critical weather signs earlier and translating them into real operational and financial impact.

During the quarter, we were also awarded a commercial aviation contract in which the customer is utilizing Spire's ADS-B data to track aircraft movements and detect potential discrepancies, which may point to suspicious activities, including route divergence or aircraft operating with ADS-B switched off.

Our engineering transformation efforts continue to deliver results, proving that we can deliver operational capabilities at scale. We process nearly twice as many satellites through the clean room this year while maintaining flat head count and stricter quality controls by implementing design for manufacturability and lean manufacturing principles. We are meeting heightened government cybersecurity and [ cyber ] requirements and delivering the accompanying documentation while continuing to invest in this area. On-orbit checkout time has been reduced by roughly 50%, compressing the time between capital investment and revenue realization. We expect this to further improve and positively impact our results as we launch further satellites for our customers in 2026 at an expected cadence of every 3 months on average. While we encountered unexpected timing impacts from the U.S. government shutdown and in actions in the back half of the year, I remain confident in Spire's technology advantage, are expanding capacity and the clear demand for both government and commercial capabilities. I reiterate our commitment to long-term double-digit sustainable revenue growth.

2025 starts as a year of revenue timing normalization, not a change of growth trajectory, setting up 2026 nicely to reflect the full benefit of capacity, backlog and demand already in place. I am excited about what lies ahead and the value we will continue to build for shareholders.

I will now turn it over to Ali, who will share our financial results, reflecting some of the mentioned revenue timing and accounting effects and our strong backlog and remaining performance obligations which drive our confident growth outlook for 2026.

Thank you, Theresa. Before walking through the financials, I want to anchor them to the operating momentum Theresa just described. The third quarter reflected strong bookings, growing backlog and expanding on-orbit capacity, offset by revenue timing impacts related to government delays. Importantly, these results do not reflect any change we see in underlying demand, customer commitments or program execution.

I will be discussing non-GAAP financial measures unless otherwise stated. A reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP results is included in our earnings release available on our Investor Relations website. As a reminder, Spire's third quarter 2024 results include our maritime business which was sold at the end of April 2025 and had contributed about $40 million of revenue in the prior 12 months. All year-over-year comparisons should be viewed in that context.

GAAP revenue for the third quarter of 2025 was $12.7 million. Year-over-year, revenue declined primarily due to the absence of approximately $11.5 million of maritime revenue that was present in the third quarter of 2024 and is no longer part of the business. In addition, approximately $6 million to $8 million of revenue shifted out of the quarter due to the timing of milestone-based revenue recognition on an existing multiyear contract and the uncertainty of award for an Earth Observation data contract.

First, revenue recognition timing on a multiyear contract reduced third quarter revenue by approximately $4 million to $5 million. This revenue remains fully contracted and is expected to be recognized in 2026 as we continue to execute and deliver program milestones.

Second, we saw a third quarter impact from the uncertainty of the NASA Earth Observation data contract renewal with additional smaller short-duration opportunities also deferred. The NASA contract is a contract that Spire has successfully delivered for several years with very high customer satisfaction. Taken together, these timing effects shifted a meaningful portion of revenue out of the third quarter but did not reduce the overall value of contracted programs.

Non-GAAP operating loss for the third quarter of 2025 was negative $13.9 million compared to negative $6.1 million in the third quarter of 2024. Adjusted EBITDA was negative $11.8 million compared to negative $3.1 million a year ago. These changes were primarily driven by lower revenue recognized in the quarter, as just mentioned, rather than an increasing cost structure of the business. Excluding the maritime business and certain onetime expenses, operating expenses in the third quarter were down year-over-year and sequentially, reflecting continued cost management. As revenue recognition normalizes, we expect improved absorption of fixed costs and a corresponding improvement in margins.

Turning to the balance sheet. Spire utilized $20.4 million of free cash flow in the third quarter and ended the period with $96.8 million of cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities. Cash usage in the quarter reflected revenue timing effects, working capital dynamics related to satellite manufacturing and elevated legal and professional fees. As of the end of the third quarter, our remaining performance obligations are over $200 million which is over 3x trailing-12 months revenue. Of this amount, we expect approximately $70 million to be recognized as revenue in 2026. This backlog reflects multiyear contracted programs, primarily with government and institutional customers and provide substantial revenue visibility as we move into 2026. For the full year 2025, we now expect revenue in the range of $70.5 million to $72.5 million, implying fourth quarter revenue of approximately $14.8 million to $16.8 million. Through November 30, 2025, we have already recognized approximately $10.5 million to $11.5 million of fourth quarter revenue. We anticipate full year non-GAAP operating loss of negative $54.7 million to negative $53.8 million and adjusted EBITDA of negative $42.2 million to negative $41.3 million. For non-GAAP loss per share, we expect a range of negative $1.98 to negative $1.95, assuming a basic weighted average share count of approximately 30.9 million shares.

The company is in the process of completing its 2026 budget with a focus on becoming adjusted EBITDA and operating cash flow breakeven to positive by no later than Q4 2026. We are taking a comprehensive look at our cost base to align to our revenue expectations and the sale of the maritime business. More than $10 million of revenue has moved into 2026 due to government delays like the shutdown. This amount relates to programs that remain funded, contracted and operationally underway. With approximately $70 million of this revenue already sitting in remaining performance obligations to be recognized in 2026, our 2026 growth is supported by contracts already secured, expanding backlog and an increase in on-orbit capacity that is already deployed or scheduled to be deployed in the first quarter. Given revenue movement out of 2025, we now expect greater than 30% revenue growth in 2026 for the business, remaining after the maritime divestiture. As in prior years, we plan to provide more comprehensive guidance for 2026 during our earnings call in March.

With that, I will turn the call back to the operator for questions.

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from the line of Erik Rasmussen with Stifel.

Theresa, in your prepared remarks, it sounded like there's a lot of opportunities and a lot of development that's happened since our last update. But so far, it just doesn't seem like it's translating into the revenue opportunities. I mean, you're looking at, obviously, this year's has been challenged with some of the timing issues and then government shutdown. But what gives you the confidence that 30% is the right number for next year for growth? And what are some of the puts and takes that get you there? I mean obviously, you have $70 million of RPO covered for next year, but what gets you to even higher than that 30% growth rate?

Yes, Erik, thanks for that question. And thanks for recognizing that there's over $10 million that really shifted across the calendar year. And that the number that we're giving is in excess of 30%. We did have government shutdown stuff, but at the same time, the U.S. continues to push on things like the SHIELD IDIQ that came out in the U.S., there is great urgency to move fast and move forward with commercial companies. And of course, we talked quite a lot about Europe. As you know, I'm based in Europe, I'm involved directly myself in a lot of these conversations. You heard in the prepared remarks about the very large budgets that are coming out of Germany, both from the national side as well as the contributions to ESA, 2025 was really a resetting year for Spire. And I would say in Europe as well, it was the year that they started to get their budgets in order, understand their priorities, start to look at some of the more obvious ways that they spend their money and 2026 is really where they start to make movement. Everyone we talk to over here has huge urgency and recognizes the importance of partnering with commercial entities. So I feel very good that we have a lot of momentum going into 2026 and that we're well positioned.

You mentioned the remaining performance obligations. These are things that are contracted. These are things that are high manufacturing throughput and the really big increase in in-orbit capacity that we have mean that we can meet both all the existing demand as well as the new ones that we're expecting to come from that pipeline backlog that we have.

Great. And then maybe just staying with one of the 2 items. With NASA, the Earth Observation contract that was around $7 million. I think last year, you signed in August timeframe an extension, do you expect that to actually happen? Was it just because of the government shutdown? Or is there something else that's going on that maybe could put that at jeopardy of not being renewed?

Yes. And I think there's a lot of stuff going on at NASA right now in addition to everything that happened with the U.S. government shutdown. And as you saw from the short-term extensions, that there is a great desire to have access to those data sets with everything that happens in the U.S., it is true that, that did not sign. It doesn't mean that it's not signing, it means that there is a delay while all of this process happens at NASA. And that's really, I think, the only thing that we can say right now. We don't believe that it's lost, it is not yet signed.

Okay. And then maybe just your cash balance. I remember our last update, you were targeting around $100 million exiting this year. Now you you're below that through Q3, how should we think about cash going forward? Is it really just tied to now the revenue and revenue growth and you passed a lot of the impacts of professional fees and everything else that was driving up a lot of more near-term spending?

Maybe I'll start and then Ali, if you need to jump in. So I'm going to start by saying, I think we will finish the year with a lot of cash on the balance sheet. We have -- a lot of this has to do with billings coming in the door and having some mismatch in the timing of how all this plays out. The other thing I would mention is that we have still had a number of these kind of onetime legal and accounting fees that have been happening throughout the year.

So maybe, Ali, I'll pass it to you to answer more comprehensively.

Sure. Thanks, Theresa. Erik, yes, I mean, we definitely finished the balance sheet strong with just under $100 million in cash. We remain debt-free, so we feel very good about our balance sheet. And so I do think we'll end the year with a strong cash balance and take that into 2026. We do have, as Theresa mentioned, timing issues on payment collections for -- in contracts versus when we execute the work as well as some continued need for spending around particularly legal fees.

Our next question comes from the line of Jeff Van Rhee with Craig-Hallum Capital Group.

Several apologies if I repeat here, I got bumped off the call briefly. But if I take a look at the previous guide to the current guide midpoints, we're taking roughly $19 million out of the second half. How does that -- if you had to put some crude sort of numbers to that reduction, just break that down for me?

You want me to take it, Theresa?

Go ahead. Go ahead.

Yes. Yes. I mean I'd say there's about -- somewhere, I think we said $6 million to $8 million related to a percent complete contract. There's several million related to the Earth Observation contract. And I'd say we probably lost another $6 million to $8 million just due to potential or loss of contracts getting signed due to the government shutdown that was kind of an unprecedented length of time at sort of the critical end of the year time frame for us.

And the only thing I want to add, if I can, Jeff, just to think about it, is that more than $10 million of this was stuff that has gotten pushed from a timing perspective into 2026. That takes us a bit below the low end of the guidance, just to set the context there.

Yes. The -- on the -- can you say on the percent completion, I think you said just now $7 million of it is due to that. Just explain that, what happened there?

And I can take that, Ali. So I think, Jeff, as you know, we work across quite a number of these large programs with government that are on these new accounting rules with the percent completion. And a lot of that requires interaction with our government customers and partners through that process. And of course, we are impacted by the timing of those interactions with those government partners, especially under the way that we do the accounting here. So this is something that it shifted in time across the calendar year. So again, the contracts are in implementation. It's just the timing of it that has moved around.

Okay. You had the substantial WildFireSat award, and I believe that got a smidge of that maybe in Q2, but that should be ramping in Q3. And then you had the substantial NOAA upsell. Can -- are both of those still tracking as to your expectations 90 days ago?

They're both still tracking and the team is deeply involved in delivering on both of them. And the WildFireSat one, of course, we've talked about it contributing significantly to revenue in 2026 and in 2027 as we complete implementation.

Okay. And then I know at least my memory was you had put up, the number [ is 27 ], if I remember right. But you had a lot of satellites going up on the Transporter missions 12, 13, 14 earlier this year. And a lot of that, by my understanding was mechanical in terms of rev rec, namely once they're up and accepted and live, the revenue turns on. Any issues with the satellites put up in those Transporter missions from a functionality performance or client acceptance standpoint?

Functions are -- satellites are functioning. We're collecting data. Customers are getting the data. We just had another launch that went up when was the last Transporter -- one was like at the end of November, I believe. Our satellite bus and technology is all checked out rapidly. I mentioned in the comment -- the prepared comments, that we have in the second half of the year, even quite dramatically improved the speed at which we are able to check out and pass things on once they go on orbit. So I have to say, I'm very pleased at how that process has gone this year. I think we've done a fantastic job.

But I would add on to that, Theresa, that T15 was postponed by, I want to say, 8 weeks. Part of that was also the government shutdown in terms of their ability to be able to launch. And so there was -- that went up later than we had anticipated.

Yes. Yes. I was -- okay, I got it. Yes. Okay. And then just 2 other brief ones, if I could, Ali, on the costs. In terms of the expenses that are implied in the Q4 outlook, what exactly would you call unusual in there? I know you've got some lingering issues, congrats. It seems like a light at the end of the tunnel here in terms of being able to just operate the company and not have sort of lingering restate or just delayed financial issues. But can you talk to just the unusual expenses that are still sitting in that Q4 outlook that we should be aware of?

Yes. It's primarily legal fees related to kind of nonoperating matters. Some professional services fees around continuing to utilize EY as a support partner on some of our technical matters and [ some severance ] as we continue to work through certain business realignment post maritime. So those are kind of the categories, Jeff, that we consider for these unusual items.

And are you able to put a number around that basket?

For the fourth quarter? I don't think it's significantly different than the third quarter.

Well, I guess what I'm wondering is, I'm just trying to -- obviously, I got to do a '26 model. I'm just wondering what of those are going to recur into the forward year, like into Q1 and beyond versus what you think goes away?

They should definitely decrease in 2026.

Okay. All right. And then just lastly then on the pipeline. We've seen, especially in some of these space services contracts from some of the sort of the new space names, an incredible flow of massive 8-, 9-figure deals that are out there, sovereigns, et cetera. I think you referenced you've got good relations in Germany. I know you've got them elsewhere. Would you maybe take a second and just talk about what I would call sort of some of the mega deals in the pipeline. Are they there? How many? How late stage? Any qualification quantification would be great when you start thinking about like 8 and 9-figure deals and what you're seeing out there?

Yes. I think the first comment that I want to make is that you have started to see some of these come out, and they generally focus on the first areas where everyone is familiar when it comes to either talking about telecom or talking about imaging, and that's the first place everyone knows when they start looking at satellites and sovereign capabilities. And then we see all of the RF come next. And we've really seen a big uptick even over the past 6 months in all of these types of government customers being interested in and appreciating the role that RF also has to play. I mean, it's all the things that we've talked about in the other calls and other conversations. So what we are seeing, and I mentioned it briefly in the comments as well, is that there is a lot of interest in those types of sovereign capabilities specifically for RF. And there is interest in direct data acquisition of installed capacity, and they often piggyback on each other. And I expect that we see movement on all of these conversations happening in 2026. They're all gearing up to start making movements and putting money down.

Our next question comes from the line of Andrew Steinhardt with Canaccord Genuity.

Great. This is Andrew on for Austin. Just my first question here on the MDA SHIELD program selection. Of the 19 work areas mentioned in the RFP, which specifically was Spire selected as a potential provider for? And I guess since the MDA cut over 1,400 companies from the proposal list, can you detail what the selection process was like?

I have to admit that I am not the expert deep in the details of that IDIQ SHIELD contract win that we have. We have a federal team that is focused on that. And I feel very good that we're in all the right conversations there. But I cannot directly myself detail in which all of the work areas. Ali, do you know that? But I think you would have to come back to you with that type of detail after checking with our federal team.

Yes. Ben and I were just caucusing, we don't have the detail in front of us. Apologies for that, Andrew.

No, no worries. I guess would you -- would you be able to speak to the SHIELD program at all? I mean like maybe quantifying what portion of the $151 billion total contracting vehicle could be applicable to Spire?

Honestly, I don't think I'm prepared to do that yet, and I'm not totally sure that anyone fully knows. I think the only thing that I can tell you is that we've already been having conversations with the right people post the award of that IDIQ contract. And I think it is just a testament to our strength and ability to really be a key partner in how this plays out. What we're doing with our Boulder manufacturing facility is really important. I think the investments we're making on the kind of cybersecurity and infrastructure resilience side are important. And I think it can also be some signaling as you start to see the European Space Shield effort that we're going to start to hear about next year as well.

Got you. I appreciate that. And I guess just a follow-up here. Could you provide an update on the SEC subpoena and how the response is going there?

There's really not much -- anything much to share other than we're just continuing to work through the process, Andrew.

Our next question comes from the line of Chris Quilty with Quilty space.

Just wanted to get a clarification. I think you mentioned the impact of the government shutdown and sort of revenue shifting in '25, in '26, can you give us a sense of what the mix, the contribution mix of governments will be and probably at the end of '26 since a good portion of the growth next year, of the 30% growth that's coming from government on a pro forma basis?

Ali, maybe you can take that one while I answer in generality. First for you, Chris, is that -- we talked about the Earth Observation contract that is not yet signed and is in a delayed period. And that, as someone already mentioned, is delivery of data, really quick direct revenue as we deliver every month. So that had an impact on us. Normally, that is a $7 million contract for us. We also, as Ali mentioned, did have the delay of that Transporter launch which as those go up and things get out and operational, there is a certain portion of that as we start delivering data that translates into revenue. And then there are other things that just didn't get signed in the quarter during the government shutdown piece. We, overall, talked about more than $10 million that has shifted from 2025 into 2026. And we're not giving direct guidance for 2026 right now that will come in the March period, other than to say that we feel very comfortable saying, in excess of 30% year-on-year revenue growth. And yes, government will continue to be an important portion of that.

Ali, I don't know if you have anything that you want to add that is more detailed than that.

No, I think you covered the highlights, Theresa.

Okay. And maybe if I could reframe it in a different way. When you think about what types of applications. Which applications are going to be the biggest driver for '26? Is it more on weather programs? Is it on space services business? Is it radio frequency mapping or does some of the aircraft tracking you start to pick up just in terms of raw either revenue or EBITDA contribution?

Yes. So what I can tell you is all of those areas, I consider incredibly important and contributing to our revenue growth. We talked about the $70 million already that is kind of contracted and then we just deliver on it while we -- and then start to recognize the revenue. Aviation has generally been our smallest business but it continues to be important. It continues to be important as we deliver on the EURIALO program, which generates revenue for us. And on the weather side with NOAA, we continue to build out that relationship and see NOAA leaning in towards commercial partnerships across a variety of areas. So I do think that, that NOAA relationship will continue to be important. So on the civil side of things, I do think that Radio Frequency Geolocation is going to be an important part of that growth. And that can be either delivery of data sets directly from the capacity that we have on orbit. And then when you start to talk about areas where we have a presence, we have the local manufacturing capability, then you start to talk about sovereign capabilities, which might fit more in the space services category.

Got you. Also, a question statement you had earlier in the script, you mentioned that you basically double the production on the same headcount. Just generically, was that -- what were the factors driving the efficiency, was is outsourcing, was it vertical integration? Was it AI? [indiscernible].

Yes. I mean it was -- we mentioned these phrases design for manufacturability and lean principles. So a lot of it was things like looking at the flow of how we did things, looking at how we did the testing, what was the timing of testing, how did we use the time. Otherwise, when we had some satellites in certain testing facilities, how did we do the timing, then inside the clean room, how did the actual engineers who design things interact with the people doing the manufacturing. So it's a lot about how they better manage and led the whole flow inside the clean room. And I think when we start -- this is a process that has begun, and we had talked about a lot even at the beginning of the year around the scaling and efficiency aspects. And I'm really proud of the team of having done this without adding cost to it. But I don't think we're done in pooling efficiency out of that system. And there are a lot of these other things like you mentioned, that can help us keep doing that in the future. But what we did this year, I would say, is basic lean manufacturing and closer integration between the design teams and the manufacturers.

Got you. And when you say operating cash flow positive exiting '26, do you see any change in the CapEx profile of the business? And when should we look at free cash flow?

Definitely, we see lower CapEx needs right now in our preliminary 2026 planning, and that's both Spire funded CapEx as well as customer-funded CapEx. And so we are obviously very focused on becoming operating and free cash flow positive. I think we've got to get over the operating cash flow first and then go from there. But we are seeing a lower level of projected spend right now where we're at in the 2026 planning process.

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes our Q&A session, and we'll conclude our call today. We thank you for your interest and participation. You may now disconnect your lines.