Good morning, everybody, and welcome to poLight's Second Quarter Presentation. Together with me today is only the CFO, Joakim Bredahl. Our board chair is enjoying still her summer vacation, so she is not here today. The agenda, key events, introduction to poLight, market review, financial review, and outlook, and in the end, a Q&A. On the Q&A, since this is also webcasted, when there is any question from the audience, please wait for the microphone so that they all can hear your question. From those following us from the webcast, please leave your contact details in case we run out of time and have no time to answer your question, or you can post it in the investor web portal. Key events. We had quite a lot of activity with one customer, which is in the AR/MR space.
We have, post quarter, we had another PO for them, so that in sum there is actually three mass production POs, which led us to kind of regard this now as a design-in. I'll come back to it, but of course, a major milestone. You'll remember that we had a project together with an OEM, which was related to the Q Tech investment. That has also been progressing, and we also received a PO based on that project. Towards the end of the quarter, quite an exciting milestone was also achieved. You know that we have this program where we received some significant NREs to support developing a camera module based on TLens. Now finally we have shipped some cameras to the OEM, which is now currently being tested.
We participated in Automate in 2026 with, I would say, good interest, focusing on the industrial segment. For those who are not so familiar with poLight, we are definitely on a growth path. Not every quarter by quarter will see growth, but definitely we are on a good trend, focusing on both consumer-related markets and enterprise markets. Related to consumers, by far, the most important market segment for poLight is the AR/MR. It's quite interesting to see, I would say, the increased momentum we see in this AR/MR space. If you only go back a year, I would say, it's tremendous to see all the activity in the industry. As we have said for many years in poLight, we believe that this is going to be the big thing. Restating, due to our unique technology platform, speed, compactness, and very low power consumption.
You can imagine that these kind of AR/MR devices, which is so I would say the power budget is so tough and limited. The compactness is so important. It's supposed to be very light, very easy to wear. All this, and it has to somehow replicate the eye, so it needs to be as fast. All these kind of demands is exactly what our unique technology platform can offer. It's a little bit like, I would say you can call it luck, but this was invented in 2005. AR/MR was not at all in focus at that point of time, but this market has evolved. Now, I would say it's more than evolving. It's starting to really show a lot of traction, and we happen to have a technology which is fitting extremely well for that market segment. As I said, founded in 2005.
Headquarter in Norway, in Tønsberg. We have people in Finland, France, U.K., U.S., China, Taiwan, and the Philippines. We have a growing worldwide patent family. When it comes to the technology platform, the first product we have released to market is the TLens, is the tunable lens, which is used for making fixed-focus camera and able to focus. We also have a, as you know, a huge activity related to another product based on the same technology platform called TWedge, which is enhancing significantly the user experiences when you're using AR displays. That product is still not in mass production. Here's the first product.
On the top left animation, you see that we are bending a glass membrane by a piezo membrane. We then shape a polymer, which is the lens material, which is similar to your eye, the lens in your eye, and the piezo membrane is the eye muscles. By changing the voltage on the membrane, it bends from being flat to being bended, and you see that that changed the focus of the light. On the right side, you see how it's implemented, and on the bottom side, you see the supply chain. poLight produces the polymer. We have a MEMS wafer supplier, which is actually the membrane itself, which is bending, which is the eye muscles. We send these two components to assembly partner, who then assemble a complete TLens and test it.
We sell to camera module partners who integrate it in a camera, either on top of the camera, on the upside there, or in between somewhere in the lens stack. This is then being shipped into different products, different OEMs. poLight has an extensive activity direct with the OEMs. It is the OEMs which normally decides which technology to use. That's why we have to have an extensive activity towards the OEMs. Of course, we need to support the camera module and enable them to integrate the TLens technology. Okay. As I said, these are the market segments. There are quite many, and you may say there are too many. Focus is important in an early stage phase of a company.
I would say the main activity and resources being used is, there are two market segments, which is kind of getting most of the attention. For sure, the biggest attention is on the AR/MR because of the opportunity and the good fit we have. Also, the industrial and machine vision market is something which we invest in. As I said, AR/MR is definitely the main focus, as we believe that that's where we will get the volumes. Machine vision and industrial are also important. It's basically the same product, the same TLens at much higher pricing. Margin-wise, it's quite an attractive market segment. Combining high volume with low volume, high prices is a good match. The high volumes will enable us to cost-optimize.
Selling into niche market like the industrial will give us much better gross margin than you typically have in a consumer world. Good combination. There are other markets which we also look at. We don't spend a lot of time to look for those opportunities, is more that those opportunities typically will be kind of incoming calls, which we sometimes support. There's no new design-wins in the quarter; this is the same slide as last quarter. It's a good basis. We have references in all the key market segments, and this is the best sales tools we have. If you have proven that you can deliver, if you've proven that you are a good fit for different market segment, that is basically the best salesman you have.
We are extremely proud, even though we're not there as a design win, but we have the first design-in in a consumer AR/MR device. That has been an extremely tough fight, in all aspects. Being able to support demanding customer, being able to integrate the technology in a good way into their products. In all ways, proving that we can deliver, convincing them that we are sustainable. It's been a long, long, long fight and we have managed to kind of convince the customer, and we believe that this design-in will go all the way into a design-win. There is, of course, always a risk, but now we have three mass production POs. We have shipped quite a few lenses already and are still shipping, and that is a very, very good sign, and I would be very surprised if this go away.
We waited a long time for classified as a design-in, and I'm typically very careful in doing that, because I don't like to reverse it. I've done that once too much. That's why I've been very conservative, but now I feel there is no way back, I feel. There can be other things which happens, could be strategic things in the company, I don't know, but from a technology and TLens perspective, I don't really see that this can go away due to TLens. We are very happy with this one. Of course, it is the first, and we believe actually a launch this year of the product. We believe that. Of course, what will be the volumes will be a natural question, and we don't know.
I don't think , as I said many times before, these companies taking a new technology into use will be very careful, and they will try to not stress the situation. I said also related to the smartphone area that they will typically take it into some flagship lower -volume things. We don't know, but that is my assessment. Anyway, what it is, I think the volume is not the most important thing. The important thing is that we are in, that it will be released, that it will be a product, which will be tested and referred to as state-of-the-art, and hopefully then and be the basis for future high volume cases for sure. This is probably one of the most, if not the most, strategic milestones we have achieved in the company for a long time.
If you do not see that I'm smiling, it's because you don't see. Generally speaking, I would say that in the AR/MR market segment, as I said in the beginning, it feels like it's happening now. Of course, it's always a question of when will the big volumes come, who will be the players? What I feel is that there are so many players now who are taking a position with a product in this market segment. I feel it's a matter of time before we will see quite a few volumes opportunities. Also, we talked about is it really needed with AF? Well, if you see the products being launched today, they don't have AF, most of them. We are, of course, as I said, we are very close to the OEMs.
The way we read them, more than read them, what they say is that they don't see that it's possible to move in this direction with a high-quality performance without sooner or later implementing AF. That's what they're telling us, and that's of course why we have all these PoCs, because they need to be prepared for that. Then a little bit back to, okay, are we the only one? No, we are not the only one. Again, we feel, based on the interaction we have, that we are definitely one of the preferred ones. Will we be alone? No. Will it be VCMs? I'm sure. Will it be other tunable optics? Maybe. We feel that we have a very strong position. Some of the PoCs, many of them actually, it's becoming more and more mature.
What we also see, they are spending a lot of time to evaluate both the company and the technology. They are not rushing crazy fast. I think that when they see that somebody starts, of course, that puts a different kind of pressure on other actors also to move. Step by step, we feel it's maturing, and of course, this design-in is proof of that. When it comes to the camera module which we shipped in the end of the quarter, the last bullet, this is of course, I mentioned before, a little bit like a reference-type platform assessment. Outcome of that program will be very important. When do we know more? Difficult for us to say. I will meet the customer in a few weeks to discuss status and assessments they have done and future.
I think it will be towards end of the year; we have the more visibility on what's going to happen on that one. Regardless, of course, we have tested a camera, and it works very well. Then it depends on the use case. What is the use case for that particular OEM for that camera? Because that is very different. The typical use cases we can foresee, we see that this camera works. That was TLens. TWedge, I said it before, it's surprising to see how this interest continues, but there are really few players. It's a TWedge I feel is today a tier 1 high-end guys who are able to understand how to utilize. I don't see TWedge have big deployments in the tier 2 and the tier 3s, at least not in the first years.
Who's driving this is not in a way us. It's actually some big guys who is saying, we need your technology to have the successful deployment of quality display. We are being pushed. We are saying, yeah, listen, we cannot move on with this big development without any kind of support/commitment. This is what we are trying to conclude with a few players. We are in, I would say, intense dialogue how to do that. What we are saying is that we're not going to do it if you don't support us. What do we get for giving you money? You get the component you need. That's not good enough, they say. This is the discussion we have. There was actually a quote I would like to use from one of our important OEMs.
He was saying in a meeting or dinner or whatever, is that, do you really understand how important this technology may become? A statement from a customer. That's a very strong statement. Let's see. We are hoping that we will be able to kick off a real program. So far it has been prototyping, selling prototypes to a high price to make sure that there is a clear interest. We need to take it from there to a real program, and that is a costly program. We are having a plan now the next phase, and we are trying to get some financial support from the market/commitment. Amazing to see. Also amazing to see how many different ways the different customers are planning to use it.
As I said, TWedge will make the display in AR / MR devices much better, much nicer in all aspects. The technology platform give us TLens, which we today are in mass production with, and the next product is hopefully TWedge. It is a niche product, and that's why we really would like to see somebody financing at least part of it to bring it to the market. Here is the status on the consumer side. This one do include AR or MR. As you can see now, finally a design-in. As you can see, a high activity on the PoC and planning PoC, and many of them is related to AR / MR. The glasses, the light green there. 19 on PoC and 17 on planning PoC.
You can see also there are some laptop accessories, which also have some promises, but too early to say. I think we are clearly betting on the AR / MR market. Not only us, by the way. Enterprise AR / MR, nothing new this quarter, but low volume still. I believe that as the technology mature, these kind of glasses become more user-friendly. I think also, five years ago, or four years ago, I was talking about sitting on a flight with a big screen in front of me. I think that's also when I look at some of the big guys presenting their solutions; this is one of the applications they're talking about. Finally, it's happening. I talked about it five years ago.
On the barcode side, it is kind of slowly giving us more business and there is a mix between, which is good, existing customer order more and releasing new products and new customer starting PoCs. M12 lens has definitely helped to bring awareness. This is the MLens, which is the off-the-shelf device that actually contains two TLenses. As I said before, why is this important? Because that solution is not only TLens, it is more a lens camera solution, which is more like plug and play and it is much easier and faster for players to adapt our technology. That is why we believe MLens will be important. We got good feedback in when we went to Automate, here in the picture on the bottom, you see Marcia. She is smiling. If it was not for the ears, she would be smiling all the way around. She is showing there the MLens suitcase.
Good feedback. We are also now released two new products which complement what exists from before. Here you see the status on the barcode industrial. It is quite a lot. 15 machine vision, and 11 barcode, and some other applications. Most of these are still shipping. There are maybe three something who is end of life and been replaced. Healthcare. Not really a lot of things happening, but there are some. I said before that I have two, three cases now in mind, which I see some strategic importance in. What has happened before is that in the end of the day, the customer finds out that maybe AF is not needed. The reason for that is today, many uses a two-megapixel sensor resolution, which basically does not need AF, most of them.
What we see now in the other cases we are now active in, is that they moved up to five. Five mega. That means that changed the optics, that changed the game, and that may trigger a need for AF. It is not zero activity. There are some activity, but again, it is more based on incoming calls than anything else. Some of them we do support because we believe long-term healthcare can be a very interesting market for us. Of course, the visibility we have achieved through the Mini2P, this device, which is imaging the brain activity in animals, is quite massive, and that is still shipping well. Automotive, it is in a way, I would say, close to zero activity during the quarter.
We still keep it there to remind ourselves and to remind the market that we have a technology which potentially can be important for that market also. Today, or today's portfolio, we do not see any major opportunities. There are on and off somebody contacting us in this market segment, and we do meet with them, and we do explain our technology. I think it is a long-term opportunity, which we cannot today use time on because of all the other things we are doing. Still, we would like to remind ourselves that it is an opportunity. I do not need to go through this; you see the various segments, and you see the various categories and the trends. Here you can see the Øyvind Buø slide, which shows the development on planning PoC, and completed PoC, and also design-in and design-win.
Since 2020, quite a bit has happened. We could always dream that things go faster, but at least this goes in the right direction. Okay, Joakim.
All right.
The floor is yours.
Thank you. Good morning, everyone. The financial review, we can start with the income statement, the P&L. One focus point is naturally the revenue. We reported revenue growth this quarter as well. The last two consecutive quarters, I have stood before you and I've said that now this is a record quarter in terms of revenue for poLight. Unfortunately, that's not the case this quarter, but if we remove the first quarter of 2026, this quarter is still the highest. It's the second-highest revenue in poLight history. That being said, this is not the revenue we're aiming for. We still have a far way to go until we are where we want to be, and that's referring back to the pipeline that Øyvind just showed. This revenue that we're seeing now is still very much positioning revenue. We're positioning ourselves for the higher volumes.
That takes a lot of work. That requires us using the full supply chain, and that's why we're also very much executing on our hiring plan. Just make sure that we have all the right people in all the right places. It's worth a mention, I think that, if we combine the first two quarters of the year, we have in the first half of 2026, actually surpassed the full year revenue for 2025. That's a good start to the year. That being said, given that we are now positioning revenue, I would say we still could expect quarters to become volatile. It can still go up and down quite a bit, because we're not in that place where we see that steady state of growth yet.
In terms of size of revenue, we are still loss-making, and that's because we need to have a very qualified organization working with this area. If we look at the OPEX, we could just look at the gross margin first because the profitability in the quarter is around 50%, which we're quite satisfied with. 86% of the revenue is in the AR/MR segment, which corresponds well to what I've been saying about where we're putting our energy. We usually say about 90%, so we're 4% off that target. Satisfactory gross margin. We look at the OPEX. I think if we take a look at the R&D, because if we look at the R&D here, on the surface, it looks a bit like we are spending less on R&D, or it's flat. That's actually not the case.
Up until 1st of January 2026, we reported customer service because that took more the form of business development, actually. We reported that as R&D. That's the same work, it's the same people doing it, but it's more repetitive now, and it's more taking a form of sales support. We have now reported that since the 1st of January, we reported that as sales marketing. We haven't gone back and corrected earlier numbers because we feel it was correctly reported in 2025, and we're also reporting correctly now. That means that we're not completely comparing apples and apples when we look at the R&D between the years. Actually, we're spending quite a bit more on R&D than we did a year ago. Correspondingly, sales and marketing has increased, and that's not surprising given what I just said.
Since customer service has moved there, that's also an increase in sales marketing spending. For the supply chain operational expenses, that's increased. That's basically down to strengthening of that team, increasing the headcount. Administrative expenses has also increased. I think an explanation factor for the OPEX increase is actually not really related to things we do internally, but the share option program and employer's NICs, which increases when the share price increases. During Q2, the share price developed very positively, which is fortunate, but it also leads to a higher employer's NIC. That's actually NOK 7.4 million higher than the same time last year. One number that I thought is more interesting to look at is if we rinse out that factor, because that's not really down to things that we do and how we spend money, and it doesn't have a cash effect.
If we look at the OpEx and compare it to the revenues, if we look at the first half of 2025 compared to the first half of 2026, the OpEx over revenue ratio was 2.75 x higher last year compared to this year, which means we're getting far more revenue out of our spending. That's a very positive sign. Sorry. Yes, we can leave the income statement. If we look at the balance sheet, of course, as always, the most interesting part of our balance sheet is the cash. I'll get back to that. If we also look at the inventory, that's also more complex part of our balance sheet, and that's seen a reduction in the quarter of NOK 4.4 million, which is cost of goods sold. It's the provision for obsolescence that happens every quarter. It's a small increase due to some assembled goods.
If we take the wafer out of the inventory and we assemble it into TLens, that increases the value of the inventory slightly because we add the work done. Looking at the cash flow development. Again, I don't want to really compare the two numbers without rinsing out the factor here, because Q2 2025 was a quarter where we had a private placement of NOK 161.5 million, which makes it, of course, a net increase of NOK 137 million in that quarter. If we take away that factor, we actually have a cash net decrease that was NOK 6 million less this quarter compared to the same quarter last year. Cash burn has been lower. That is mostly explained by a decrease in working capital.
That is, the decrease is higher than it was in that quarter and then slightly offset by the net loss that was slightly higher. We also have CapEx in the quarter of NOK 1.3 million, which is related to investments into new test equipment. This leaves us with a cash at the cash balance at the end of the period at close to NOK 244 million, which we consider to be still quite healthy at the development stage that poLight's in currently. I think that concludes the financial review, and Øyvind can lead you through the outlook, and then we'll have room for Q&A after.
Yeah. Thank you, Joakim. Outlook. Restating something we said before, we would like to repeat, we feel very confident, more and more confident on poLight and our success, particularly in the AR/MR segment. We now have our first design-in for consumer, which will be an extremely important platform for new design-in and wins. I would like to thank the team for achieving that, because that has been a really tough fight. As I said, autofocus capabilities in these products seem to be on the roadmap for all the major players, and then typically all the others will follow more or less. It's not going to happen in one big bang. It's going to happen step by step.
We're going to get into the design-ins and the design-wins, which will maybe starting in the beginning, not be the high-volume products, but as I said before, trying new technology, careful release into key products, and then ramping. Competition will be there. Again, the way we read the market, we feel that if, what should I say, if cost is not super important and performance is most important, I think we have the best technology. We are not able or willing to sell at the cheap VCM price level. We also do not think VCM is a good solution. There will be a solution based on VCM. We are positioning us based on performance, which I think is business-wise more healthy. TWedge remains extremely strong. I used a quote from one of our customers.
You do not understand how important this technology may become. I think about that every night I go to sleep. As Joakim indicated, we are in an investment phase still, and I have to thank your shareholders for patience and support. It will be a mistake to save money at this stage. No, we need to take care of the opportunities and that cost. We will take care of the cash as good as we can, of course. We need to optimize future success. That's the focus in the company. Joakim, would you join me for Q&A?
I will.
Is there any questions today? A little bit lighter today, isn't it?
We'll see.
Okay.
We'll see. Yes. We can start with the ones that we received before—
Yeah. Okay.
...before the session started. First to design-in consumer AR. Congratulations.
Thank you.
In Q4 2025, it was mentioned that there was a big guy behind the PO on lenses for this project. Can you say anything more about the geography of this customer, or say anything more about the schedule or anything else about the way forward?
I do not like to comment on where this customer is. Having said that, most of the companies we are dealing with, they are all over the place. Yes, I don't want to say that or comment on that. What I can say is that the way we understand the situation is that the release plan is this year. When this year is still for us a little bit uncertain, but I think it seems to be quite certain this year. When it comes to next steps, we have already, as I mentioned, received three mass production POs based on mass production prices. All those has been announced. Typically these customer, they would like to have as close to zero inventory. They want us rich suppliers to take care of that. They're typically not one kind of big PO.
We try to force them to place as big PO as possible, especially the first one. You may see that the first one we received was bigger than the follow-on POs. You saw that. That's typically how we try to massage it. They will typically give us a forecast, and then they will potentially place a PO per month or per second month or something, depending on their demand. Now they have built a certain inventory, which they don't like. Then when they release, they will see how the sales go. Based on that, they adjust the forecast and place PO when they see that the inventory is at an unpleasant low level. This is completely unknown for us how this will develop. As I said, we don't expect major OEMs to bring new technology immediately into super high volumes. That will be too risky.
I've said this many times, many years. I also expect this is the case here. It's probably high-end. It's probably high performance. That's why they use us. We don't know, and the customer doesn't know.
This is a fun question. Have you seen or tested any glasses from the customer?
Normally we are not allowed to see them. Extremely secretive , but in some cases, we jump into them because we are together within the factory and debugging situations. Sometimes yes, but not in any way that we have tried them and understand how they perform or like that. They are extremely sensitive on that. When we are in meetings, they don't bring it in. When we are in their offices in the lab, they remove everything which is sensitive. They're very, very careful. They want to have control of the market release, of course.
Should we expect to see further and potentially larger purchase orders as we approach the mass production and launch phase? This is sort of answered.
Yeah. Mm-hmm.
Also, there's a question here about the volume potential of this specific project.
I think we answered that also.
We also answered that too. Based on precedent, poLight declared a design win simultaneously with a product announcement. Could you describe what specific milestones would be required before the current design-in can be classified as a design win?
Yeah, good question. Typically, that will be when we know that this is being released to market. Will that be based on some product presentation, early marketing, or will it be when you see it in the shop? We don't know. Typically, there will be some announcements upfront of release. That's when we define design win, meaning when we are sure it will be in the shop.
Comparing a few of the projects, and some people want to puzzle together what project is what. The Q2 report clarifies that the new 2026 design-in is a separate case from the consumer OEM backing the Q Tech assembly line investment. Could you share some color on the maturity of this Q Tech-related OEM case and what milestones, validation steps remain before that project might also reach a formal design-in status?
That is another extremely thorough process, with an extremely important OEM in the U.S., as we have said before. We had another PO this quarter, as of Q2. We are in constant dialogue with both the camera module supplier and the OEM, which I also will meet in a couple of weeks. I feel that that program is doing quite well. It is a relatively slow-moving process. Again, very advanced glasses. High-end glasses. Big OEM. That means that they are extremely thorough. You wouldn't imagine. They are even acquiring themself very advanced optical test equipment to basically do what we have been doing for 20 years, characterizing. What the management is telling me when I am complaining a little bit about speed and all the effort we need to support them and for no money, they go, Øyvind, this is how we work.
We cannot take a risk of not doing a good job. We have to be as thorough as this. This will sooner or later, maybe not in the beginning, ramp in huge volumes. We cannot do that before we have gone through this thorough assessment. It is slow, frustrating slow, but hopefully for good reasons.
poLight has several major projects on the way for which POs have been announced. I am curious about the major players you have not announced POs from. Do you have ongoing projects with several top tiers and leading OEMs that are maturing?
I would say, as mentioned before, we have activity with many of the big names and less big names and announced POs. Yes.
Completed POCs jumped from 43 - 49 in one quarter. Can you give any color on what these six new completed POCs represent in terms of market segment and commercial potential?
That seems a little bit high, to be honest. Maybe I did a mistake. I need to check that, but if this is related to consumer, it could potentially be a few laptop cases, but I felt that was a little bit high number. I need to double-check that and come back.
Yep. The report confirms that the first camera modules from the October 2025 project were shipped to the customer for validation, as you mentioned in the presentation. What is the next milestone for this project, and what is the expected timeline?
I mentioned that the honest answer is that we don't know. I'm going to meet key management in a few weeks, discussing results they have achieved so far. My understanding from last meeting I had with this company is that there may be some kind of visibility towards the end of the year. Very important program, by the way.
This question is a bit back to the Q Tech and the backing OEM. This project seems to go well from what I can understand. What will the next phases be? We've answered that. This project is a qualification for a specific product. Can you say something about whether you have seen any demonstration glasses in this project? I guess the same answer is there.
Yes.
Can you say something about the lenses that have been produced at Q Tech?
Yeah. Those have been tested and qualified, I would say. It seems to be good. We are tuning some of the processes still, but what has been delivered as good lenses out of Q Tech line are good and qualified. There are some tuning to be done in some of the processes, it seems good.
A question. We recently saw that Ant Group showed off a demo glasses with a TLens camera at an event in Asia. It was mentioned by someone there that the camera and the glasses was chosen to have a TLens so that payment solutions could, such as Look to Pay, could work optimally. Can you tell us more about this project? There are many glasses available on the market with fixed focus and a few with VCM.
I'm so glad that you are able to pick up all these details. It's more than I view, to be honest. But of course, we know that initiative. It's Alibaba, a small company in China, which, of course, is a big payment machine. When I'm traveling to China, I'm using Alipay and WeChat. And of course, if I could, instead of taking my phone and scanning a QR code, could just look at something and pay, that would be much easier, and that's what they want to do. They want to have glasses which is AI glasses, which are smart and which can automatically you can pay through, but just looking at the QR code instead of using your phone and losing your phone on the street and so very good idea and I think that's a big use case. And Alipay and WeChat Pay is extremely used.
You don't have cash. Only a few years ago, we always had cash when you go to China. Never cash, only Alipay and WeChat Pay.
This is dangerous, like window shopping is now.
Yeah. Exactly. You buy something, you look at the dress, and you buy it before you know it. Exactly. That's going to be an expensive trip.
Yeah.
I need a higher salary.
Yeah. We'll look into that.
Yes.
Okay.
This kind of function would mean that they need a very good fast capture, accurate capture, and that equals AF. Different light conditions, different distances. Ant, which is a kind of subgroup of Alibaba, have presented because they saw and they got some feedback that this Look to Pay didn't work so nice. They kind of said, we will improve. We will make a proposal to a better design, which then is exactly that reference design, which was shown at this conference in China, big conference. They even mentioned TLens. They have a glass brand, Quark or something, I can't remember, which is being produced by an ODM that is currently using fixed focus.
Kind of the reported challenges with these kind of glasses is claimed to be solved by using AF and, in this case particular, mentioned TLens. Of course, if this Look to Pay becomes something big, and which it can, and only after that, when that was kind of announced, we saw another boost of incoming calls to poLight in China. Of course it's fantastic. Still early to say what it will imply. It's only positive, of course, that they do marketing for us.
A few questions about TWedge. We talked about the finding a partner for TWedge project development. Are there one or more stakeholders in dialogue with poLight about this?
Yeah. We are working with a small hand; I would say three at least very active. We are discussing how to bring this to a mass production product with at least two of them. Hopefully, that could mean that we can get some kind of support/commitment. We don't know yet.
Vitrealab was listed on the stock exchange with the laser-LCoS demo version with TWedge by poLight a while ago. Vitrealab is expanding its clean room facilities considerably and preparing for future scaling. How is poLight's further cooperation with Vitrealab?
It's interesting in a way. I think I talked about a little bit more in detail last quarter, but they use our TWedge for other application, more laser-based, as you said. We supply to them, and they implement it, and we invoice, and they pay. That's the relationship. We don't really engage on the technical side. They seem to be more than capable to implement this themselves. We just ship TWedge, which is a little bit auto spec for the AR TWedge display, and because the laser have other specifications, we kind of are using part of the stock into that, and support them. We only support them on supply because they do it themselves. What is interesting is to see that what will be the display solution in AR/MR? Question mark. Today is a lot of LCoS.
There's a lot of talk about MicroLED. There is also maybe a wave coming later on back from LBS, a laser, which you remember we were involved in. It seems like whatever display solution, TWedge can find its way in to improve that solution. This is very interesting. We are not kind of betting on one particular display technology, but seems to be needed in different types of display solution. Vitrealab, one example. We do see that some of the OEMs we are working with, they are asking us to support Vitrealab. Clearly they have some traction.
A question about MLens and machine vision. How has the response to the two newest MLens units been, and have any other customers on any of the four MLens units provided feedback that may indicate that they will be ordering products?
Yeah, I think generally speaking, I don't have any particular feedback on the two latest because it has been always communicated to customer that this will be the portfolio, and first we launch this, and then we launch that. That was not a big surprise to the market. Generally speaking, I feel that the feedback is good, both from the OEMs, from partners. It's good. Yeah, I think next year we will see how things pick up and the year after. I would say it's quite promising.
About medical. This is quite a long question, so just pay attention.
A few months ago, TS-Precision posted an update on LinkedIn that they are working with TLens and have projects in both AR and medical. They mentioned that there is a Chinese endoscopy case in the early stages for which they are supplying lenses. Is poLight aware of how this project is going, or if there is any development in other medical-related projects from other camera module makers?
Yeah. We know TSP very well. We have done many things with them. I think I know which project they are talking about. This is one of the cases which I am referring to. There are some interesting healthcare endoscope cases which start to use higher megapixel sensors that can be relevant. Yes, we are aware of it, and yes, we know them very well.
We are skipping into the questions that have arrived during the presentation. Firstly, having followed poLight for over 10 years, please let me express my gratitude to you and the whole hardworking and persistent team for impressive achievements.
Thank you
That's pleasant to hear. How about competition regarding TLens and TWedge? You've mentioned it briefly. Is there any—
I don't feel there's anything new, but it's a good question to ask. No, I would say that the competition on TWedge—we haven't really seen a lot of competition. I think the competition is not using it. On TLens, depending on which market segments you're talking about, there is a very tough competition from VCM, for sure. There are other tunable optics who can do better high optical range and bigger aperture, which in some industrial use cases is preferred. There's a competition there also. If you look at then our major main focus, the AR/MR market, on TLens, we feel that we are, from performance perspective, size, power, speed, ahead of competition.
Hmm. There were several additional questions related to competition. If we see any copycats, if we see any incumbents improving their alternatives or cutting their prices, but it's basically part of the same answer.
Yeah. We haven't seen any copycats. That may happen one day. They will have a tough journey to get the high-quality product. I can promise that.
What is the status of the Q Tech TLens production line?
I talked about that.
When do we expect to ramp TLens production?
I think that's a good question; it depends, at least partly, on the OEM backing that investment, when they need what kind of volume. That is a question mark we or Q Tech don't know. To be seen.
Then a comparison between TWedge and TLens. How does TWedge compare to TLens regarding the need for robustness, lifetime cycles, thermal drift, et cetera?
Very similar.
Yeah.
Very similar, I would say. Very similar. We do now actually do some reliability simulation and test on TWedge also, even though it's still on the technical samples level, just to understand where we need to have focus when we do design for manufacturing, what do we need to take care of. That's why we do an early reliability assessment also. That will be a major thing, of course. Then maybe also our reliability assessment has very much also before been related to smartphone, thin, stiff devices dropping from one and a half, two meters, relatively heavy, whereas with glasses it will be different. It will not be the same. They are lighter, dropping maybe from a different Maybe same, actually. That is very critical. Reliability will be super important also for TWedge.
When it comes to temperature and humidity, we expect to see the same. It's polymers there, so it's the same material in that context, glass. Should be many parallel learnings from TLens into TWedge.
A few questions about the large aperture TLens. If we could share something about progress and status, when could samples be ready for customer development evaluation? Is there customer interest?
There is definitely customer interest. The design which we developed, the concept we have developed, we feel currently is not fitting the consumer world because of cost. We did kind of sum up that feasibility study, so we know what we can do. At the moment, of course, we can take TLens today's structure based on piezo, thin-film piezo. We can do more than 1.9 mm, which is the Silver Premium. How much more? We have done a test on 2.2, but that's still 2.2 or 2.3 or 2.4. For many application, that is too small. You need three, four, five, six, and then you need a different concept. That concept we have, but so far we haven't seen a good way to make a cost-efficient realization of that concept. That's where we are today.
The AI, AR/MR market is accelerating. We need to start combining these.
We can say XR.
XR is the way to go.
XR. Yeah.
Several players seem to be moving launches forward. Are you seeing any customers in your projects pushing for a faster time to market than originally planned?
We do see more and more planning to have AF, of course, we would like them to go even faster. TWedge, we can see some elements of that. They are pushing us to be ready maybe earlier than we think is possible. We've seen some elements there.
When do you think autofocus will become standard in consumer AR glasses? Besides TLens, what optical technologies will coexist in the camera stack over the next two to three years? Two to three years.
Repeat, when will—
Autofocus become standard in consumer AR glasses. Then besides, take TLens, our technology, what optical technologies—
Okay.
...will coexist in the camera stack?
Good question, [Owen]. I think that the way we see it is, two to three years is a number. Again, I don't think it will be a big splash. I think it will be some big ones, some small ones coming out, and then the market will look at the performance, and then they will follow. That number is a number which I think in three years from now, I think that we will see definitely much more plans related to also having AF. That I strongly believe. When it comes to which technologies, if we behave and if we deliver, I think we will be one of them. I think there will be solutions with VCM, for sure. Then depending on, in a way, power consumption and power budget as an example, and performance.
There are also other tunable optics which could go in. You know the landscape. It's the liquid crystal guys, it's the liquid guys, and then you have other kind of technologies. I think several will coexist, but I can only restate what I said. We feel that we are in a very good position.
On the new design-in, can you say whether it is an AI, AR, or MR device? Maybe we should use XR. Whether it uses one or two cameras. While you've said the volume is unknown, do you have any internal estimates or assumptions that you can share, even as a range?
No, I think I will pass on that one. Sorry.
That question comes up two times also.
Oh, yeah. Okay. That's right.
Question—
It's an important question.
It is; it's clear.
I would love to answer it, but.
I understand very—
I need to be careful because you're so clever in—
Yeah.
...in adding two and two and get five.
Yeah. I know; I understand very much the need for that information.
Yes.
You mentioned that you're gradually building capacity and capabilities across the organization. Should we expect the underlying cost base, excluding share option effects, to step up further in the second half, or is the current level a reasonable run rate?
I need to talk to the CFO.
I think, as I mentioned, we are executing on the hiring plan. We see that there is a step up, but it is very gradual, and it is not like there will be a dramatic effect from one quarter to the other. Also, because we, to a certain degree, are, in some cases, we are exchanging external costs with internal costs. We stop paying consultants for doing the work that our employees are doing instead. That is a matter of building capability too, is to do it in-house instead of outsourcing certain critical functions. It is a good question. We do expect it to increase, but not dramatically, but gradually. You have mentioned the first camera module shipped for validation under the October 2025 project. Could you give some more color on the next decision point? We have answered that, have not we?
I think we have been at that, yes.
Is the AR order from 24th November 2025, the same custom project where three POs and design-in was announced between 7th of April and 10th of July 2026. I found that for you here, if you want to look at.
Okay. Thank you.
You have a good memory, but—
Yeah. Yes. Seems to be the same, yeah.
Yeah. Looks like the same. Are there any news on the iris scanner product that should have been released around Christmas last year?
No, it seems to be on hold. For whatever reason. There are some problems there; that's what we know. It's on hold, but still live, but on hold.
Mm-hmm. Then we just have the same question—
Oh, yeah. Mm-hmm.
...about the design-in, we can't say anything more about that.
It's an external device.
It's an external device. Let's say it like that. Oh, just one question came in right now.
Okay.
Is the camera in the design-in used to take photos or videos, or is it used to read and understand the surroundings? That's another way of asking the question, isn't it?
Yeah. To be honest, these are typical information we will even not know. As I said, they are extremely sensitive to what they tell us. Very often, I'm sitting on the lap of the customer. What? You have to include us more and closer. We need to know more. The only way we can give you the best design proposal, the best support, is if we know much more. They are super afraid. Yeah, you're also talking to others. We cannot let you in too close. That's a little bit of a nightmare actually, because we have seen many cases which we could have gone much faster to a good solution because they're keeping us an arm's length and two distance.
The NDA only takes trust that far.
Yeah. NDA takes the trust that far. Exactly. This is difficult. It's costly. No, we don't know.
Mm-hmm.
We are good?
We are good. We could open up if there are any questions from the audience.
Take the microphone, yeah.
Yeah, take the microphone.
Are there any questions?
There's one, yeah.
Yes.
Yes. Hello. I see there was some mentioning of expenses related to test equipment.
I was wondering at what location will that test equipment be used? Is it for the Q Tech line or rare are there plans for more test equipment?
Good question.
Yeah.
Yes. That particular investment is related to doubling capacity in the Philippine factory. Yes, we assume we have to do more, and also at the other line. Yes, there is, and they're all very expensive equipment. That 1.3 is only a fraction of the total cost of that kind of test equipment. It's very advanced machines. Yes, I guess that answers your question.
Yeah. Super. Okay. Next events. On your request, we have planned for a capital market day. Know you better come. 30th of October, the day after Q3. We will have it in Pareto, isn't it, the plan?
Yes.
Yeah.
Pareto house, yes.
In Oslo. Yes, in Oslo. We will bring in different specialists in my team, and also potentially some external, so that you can deep dive into all the different areas of the company and be exposed to more than me and Alf Henning.
Alf Henning, yeah? That was the old one.
Maybe he's coming too.
Maybe he's coming too.
I don't know.
Joakim, sorry.
Yeah.
That will be a good day. It takes a lot of preparation, so hopefully there will be a lot of people coming. The day before that will be the Q3, 29th of October, 2026.
Yes. There will be a press release later on today about the Capital Market Day.
Yeah.
Which is more or less a placeholder. There will be a new press release where it says where you can sign up for the event, because it will be an event where we require that you sign up.
Yeah. Super. Thank you a lot for coming and be together with us face-to-face today. Always much better talking to you and see faces and smiles and all that, instead of only talking to an empty screen. Thanks for you following us on the webcast. Thanks for all the questions, and thanks to the team. Have a good day.