NLIGHT Earns $210 Million in Full-year 2023 Revenues, Wins Multiple Large-scale Directed Energy Contracts

Recently, U.S. fiber and semiconductor laser manufacturer nLIGHT announced its full-year 2023 results and fourth-quarter financial results for the year ended December 2023, according to the company's financial results.
According to the financial results, nLIGHT's total revenue for the fourth quarter of 2023 amounted to $51.9 million, which was down 13% year-over-year, but the figure was slightly higher than the company's forecast three months ago. The main driver of this growth was earlier shipment dates, which pushed nLIGHT to realize total revenue growth for the full year 2023 - to $210 million.
nLIGHT achieves full-year 2023 revenue of $210 million, wins several large directed energy contracts
Despite some market challenges, nLIGHT's investment in automated production in Camas, Washington, is starting to show results. This allowed the company to reduce its operating loss from $55.1 million to $46.8 million during the same period.
CEO Scott Keeney said on an investor call that the company's operations are now much less dependent on its China plant, thanks to the Camas, Washington, facility and contract manufacturing.
During an investor call, Scott Keeney, CEO of nLIGHT, shared the company's operational strategy and outlook for the future. He said that through its Camas, Washington facility and outsourced manufacturing, nLIGHT has significantly reduced its reliance on Chinese factories.
Until 2023, our Shanghai facility was responsible for assembling most of our semiconductor lasers and a significant portion of our fiber lasers," Keeney said. But now, we've managed to reduce that exposure to less than 10 percent."
While these operational improvements and capacity optimization are expected to provide significant benefits to the company in the long term, Keeney is also candid about the fact that the relative shortfall at the Camas plant in the short term may have some impact on nLIGHT's profits in the first quarter of 2024. Accordingly, he and his team expect revenue for the quarter to be in the range of $42 million to $46 million.
Looking at the fourth quarter of 2023, the market revenue outside China accounted for nearly 95% of the total revenue. And the market in China accounted for only 5% of the revenue. The details are as follows:
nLIGHT's full year 2023 revenue of $210 million, winning several large directed energy contracts

nLIGHT's revenues and changes in the major end-markets in the fourth quarter of 2023 are as follows:
nLIGHT's business in the micromachining and industrial segments declined significantly compared to the key aerospace and defense segments.
In addition, by different product power, nLIGHT's revenue distribution by product in each power segment during the quarter was as follows:

In 2023, nLIGHT secured several large directed energy (weapons) contracts and advanced its new business plan.
Although the company currently has a firm purchase order backlog of $108 million and nearly $220 million in contracts (primarily related to directed energy laser weapon development), growth in 2024 is likely to be slower than previously anticipated.
This adjustment has been largely driven by weakening industrial demand, particularly at the end of last year, when Velo3D, an nLIGHTE customer and well-known metal 3D printing company, announced a strategic assessment that showed weakness in demand in the additive manufacturing market.
In response to this change, Scott Keeney, nLIGHT's CEO, said, "This is not the plan we had hoped for." The company also faces stiff price competition from Chinese fiber laser companies in the industrial laser market. Nonetheless, Keeney emphasizes that nLIGHT's programmable "Corona" lasers still have a performance advantage over the competition.
Turning to laser weaponry, Keeney says demand is growing steadily and is not limited to the US Department of Defense. He commented, "We're finally seeing high-energy lasers come out of the lab and onto the battlefield." Despite being challenged by supply chain issues, nLIGHT achieved year-over-year growth in defense-related sales in 2023.
Notably, nLIGHT recently managed to win a defense-related business contract of more than $200 million, which further strengthens the company's market position in this segment.
Keeney emphasized nLIGHT's involvement in directed energy weapon development over the past 20 years. While the technology still faces challenges, the US and its allies are looking to field the system within the next 18-24 months. He noted, "Over the past quarter, we have seen a desire to deploy. In particular, the ability to use lasers to disrupt drone and missile attacks is particularly important in terms of ship protection in areas such as the Red Sea."
Additionally, Keeney cited the level of directed energy weapons activity outside the United States as "significant," with extensive global participation, including notable developments in Israel, which is considered "quite advanced."