Second-quarter fiscal 2026 revenue was $1.3 million, down from $1.6 million a year earlier and $1.4 million in the prior quarter, with government R&D contracts the principal source. The GAAP net loss narrowed year over year to $1.9 million ($0.11 per share) - the prior-year period included a $3 million derivative charge - while the adjusted EBITDA loss widened to $917,000 as the company invested in headcount. Aeluma ended the quarter with $38.6 million in cash and no long-term debt, and reported a pivotal milestone: it began taking initial (small-value) sales orders and was receiving an increasing number of requests for quotation, with customer conversations shifting from evaluation to pricing and planning. The company strengthened its go-to-market organization by hiring Bouch Nassar (ex-Lumentum/JDS Uniphase) as SVP of Business Development and Product, won additional NASA and AIM Photonics quantum-related contracts, was named a 2025 LEAP Award winner, joined the DoD's Midwest Microelectronics Consortium, and grew its patent portfolio to 35.
Good afternoon and welcome to Aeluma's second quarter fiscal 2026 earnings call. I'm here today with founder and CEO Jonathan Klamkin and CFO Christopher Stewart. Today's discussions and responses to questions may include forward-looking statements, which are subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual results to differ materially from these statements. These risks and uncertainties are detailed in the earnings press release issued today, along with the reports filed with the U.S. SEC. These reports, along with today's earnings release, can be found under the Investor section of our website. Aeluma assumes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances that may arise after the date of this call. Throughout the discussion, the company will refer to non-GAAP financial measures, including EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA.
A reconciliation of non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures is included in the earnings press release and SEC filings. Now I'll turn the call over to Aeluma's CEO Jonathan Klamkin.
Thank you, Alex, and thank you all for joining today's call. To begin, I would like to share some enlightening numbers I heard recently at the PIC Summit in Sunnyvale, an event aligned with the SPIE Photonics West Conference that Aeluma participated in. An executive from Celestial AI, the photonics company recently acquired by Marvell, stated that the top four hyperscalers invested more than $300 billion in data center CapEx in 2025, and this number is expected to surpass $1 trillion in 2029. This is a significant market opportunity now and for the next several years. It is also an opportunity for new technology and product introduction. Higher performance is needed, higher volumes are needed, and cost is critical. The Aeluma platform wins on all of these metrics.
While data centers represent a very important market for Aeluma, this is only one of three primary near-term target markets that also include mobile and defense. Activities for us are busier than ever across each of these markets. We are witnessing our vision come to life as mobile and consumer electronics OEMs position their supply chains to adopt short-wave infrared, or SWIR, sensors. SWIR sensors have been around for many years, primarily in the defense, aerospace, and industrial markets for applications such as imaging and machine vision. Indium Gallium Arsenide, or InGaAs, one of Aeluma's primary semiconductor materials, has been the benchmark for SWIR because of its best-in-class performance. But incumbent InGaAs technology is expensive and doesn't scale. If only InGaAs could be lower cost. I've heard this for decades. If only, then InGaAs sensors would be in every mobile phone, tablet, PC, and other consumer product.
The mobile market is getting ready to adopt SWIR, and as we know, Aeluma's manufacturing platform enables the scale required for mass markets. In the second quarter, we continued to execute our commitments and remained sharply focused on our transition to commercialization. Conversations with key customers have shifted from interest and evaluation to pricing and planning. At this pivotal time, I am delighted to welcome Bouch Nassar as Aeluma's new Senior Vice President of Business Development and Product. Bouch held key roles at JDS Uniphase Lumentum overseeing sales, product marketing, and management for high-speed receiver product lines. What a great match for Aeluma and our scalable detector technology. Bouch's three decades of experience with semiconductor photonics span optical networking in data centers, sensing, and quantum.
In addition to JDS Uniphase, now Lumentum, Bouch held leadership roles at SCD USA, one of the largest suppliers of infrared sensors, and Princeton Lightwave, where he launched commercial laser, quantum sensor, and biomedical detector products. Bouch is the perfect fit for Aeluma at this stage when we are receiving increasing requests for quotation and have begun taking sales orders. While initial orders are relatively small in value, this marks an important milestone toward broader market adoption. Bouch has a track record of taking technology to product, driving market adoption, and growing revenue. He will accelerate our go-to-market strategy, building on the significant customer traction achieved to date. In addition to Bouch's appointment, we added experienced leadership and technical talent across supply chain and engineering. These other key appointments have strengthened our manufacturing partner relationships as we increase operations with foundries.
Chips are yielding and performing as we qualify our processes for target markets. We will continue to expand the team and also evaluate strategic opportunities to accelerate our growth. Earlier, we announced a win with NASA to invest further in our platform for quantum photonics. We also received additional contract funding to integrate quantum dot lasers directly into the AIM Photonics 300 mm silicon photonics platform. This technology could be a game changer for the photonics industry across AI, data centers, sensing, and quantum. Additionally, we received several award notices recently for later-stage R&D efforts and transition opportunities, reinforcing confidence in Aeluma's technology and expectations for additional contracts this year. In January, our team was very active at the SPIE Photonics West technical conference and exhibition. A presentation was delivered that showcased our scalable semiconductor platform for quantum.
To provide color, Aeluma is a technology company and not a system integrator. However, we believe our platform has more potential than those developed by major quantum system companies. Compared to alternatives such as lithium niobate or barium titanate, Aeluma's heterogeneous integration on silicon may provide the path forward to scalable quantum photonic systems. Our booth at the exhibition was also busy. We held important meetings with existing customers and partners and also discussed Aeluma's technology with many new leads across key markets. Important people came to see Aeluma. The word is out, and the buzz continues to grow. We were visited by individuals from the mobile market, the data center market, the defense market, and the quantum market, among others. We also took another step to deepen our presence in defense and commercial markets with admission to the Midwest Microelectronics Consortium, or MMEC, in November.
This is a key hub within the Department of Defense's Microelectronics Commons, which is focused on transitioning critical technologies from the lab into domestic manufacturing. Hub themes directly align with Aeluma's technology, which addresses AI hardware, electronic warfare, quantum, and infrared sensing. Simply put, the MMEC expands our reach while reaffirming our role in future-proofing America's leadership in semiconductors. External recognition continued, with Aeluma being named a 2025 LEAP Award winner for advanced materials innovation. This award recognized our wafer-scale SWIR photodetector platform and highlights the competitive advantage of combining best-in-class materials with scalable manufacturing. Importantly, this independent validation enhances our credibility and relevance across multiple high-growth markets. At the same time, we continue to strengthen the foundation of our business. We expanded our patent portfolio to 35 issued and pending patents.
Our mindset is to leave no stone unturned when it comes to establishing a footprint in our target markets. Taken together, these achievements underscore clear themes: momentum is building, visibility is rising, engagement is translating into opportunity. The time is now to capitalize on our progress and the growing market horizon, and to pursue strategic opportunities to accelerate our path to commercialization. As we move through fiscal 2026, we remain intensely focused on commercialization and on delivering long-term value. Now I'll turn the call over to our CFO, Chris Stewart, to discuss the financials.
Thanks, Jonathan. Moving on to our fiscal second quarter 2026 financial results, revenue was $1.3 million compared to $1.6 million in the second quarter of last year, fiscal 2025, and $1.4 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2026. Our government R&D contracts were the principal source of revenue for the quarter. As we have discussed previously, quarter-to-quarter revenue can vary based on the timing of meeting program milestones. It's important to highlight the strategic nature of these programs. Government development contracts provide non-dilutive funding for our R&D investments and serve as ongoing technical validation of our platform by prospective government customers. Going forward, we will continue to pursue strategic government programs that can meaningfully accelerate commercialization opportunities.
GAAP net loss for the quarter was $1.9 million, or $0.11 per basic and diluted share, compared to a net loss of $2.9 million, or $0.24 per share in the prior year period, and a net loss of $1.5 million, or $0.09 per share in the sequential prior quarter. The lower year-over-year net loss was primarily due to a non-recurring $3 million charge for a change in the fair value of derivative liabilities that we recorded in the quarter ended December 31st, 2024. This was partially offset by higher salaries, stock-based compensation, and employee-related costs associated with increasing our headcount to strategically expand our business and scale our operations. The sequential increase in net loss was driven by higher R&D-related expense, partially offset by lower SG&A expense.
Adjusted EBITDA loss for the quarter was $917,000, compared to a gain of $647,000 in the same period last year and a loss of $450,000 in the first quarter of this year. We closed the quarter with a strong balance sheet, including $38.6 million in cash and cash equivalents, an increase of $425,000 from the close of the September quarter, primarily due to the receipt of $690,000 from the exercise warrants that were issued as part of our March 2025 NASDAQ uplisting and financing. Related to the warrant exercise, we issued 124,415 shares of common stock. Currently, we have no long-term debt, and we intend to continue to operate in a disciplined, capital-efficient manner while ensuring that Aeluma is appropriately positioned to execute on our strategic plans and capitalize on the opportunities to create value for our shareholders.
Last week, we took a proactive step in filing a post-effective amendment with the SEC to consolidate several existing S1 registration statements that were currently on file. No new shares were registered in connection with this filing. This consolidation just streamlines our reporting requirements and reduces administrative costs going forward. Turning to guidance for the full fiscal year of 2026, we continue to expect revenue in the range of $4 -6 million. Our execution is progressing according to the plans discussed on our last two quarterly calls. We have strengthened our organization with key additions across our go-to-market and operations teams. We are ramping fab runs and continuing to increase our manufacturing readiness. As Jonathan mentioned, we're receiving an increasing number of requests for price quotations, and have begun taking initial sales orders for product shipments.
While near-term revenue from these orders is expected to be modest, we do believe it's an important milestone and provides another indication of market interest in our technology. With that, I'll turn the call back over to Jonathan for his closing remarks before we open the call to your questions.
Thank you, Chris. To summarize, this quarter reinforced that Aeluma is gaining traction and momentum. We continue to execute our strategic priorities, strengthen our technical foundation, accelerate our go-to-market plan, and expand operations to scale. As we move through the year, we remain laser-focused on converting this momentum into customer programs and transitioning to commercialization. I want to thank our incredible team for their hard work and dedication, and I want to thank all of you for your unwavering support and enthusiasm. Operator, you can now open the call for questions.