Good morning, and welcome to the 2026 Lightwave Logic Annual Meeting of Stockholders. I would now like to turn the call over to Ronald Bucchi. Please go ahead.
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Ron Bucchi, and I'm the Chairman of the Board of Lightwave Logic. It is my pleasure to welcome you to the company's 2026 Annual Meeting of Stockholders. This meeting is also being webcast live, and the webcast will be posted on our website for a period of time after the meeting. The meeting will follow an agenda. If you have not yet obtained a copy of the agenda, it can be found on the meeting web portal. There will be a time for stockholder questions at the end of the meeting.
Stockholders may submit questions at any time during the meeting on the web portal. Before we begin the meeting, I would like to introduce the company's directors who are with us today via live webcast. Our CEO and President, Yves LeMaitre, Dr. Craig Ciesla, Laila Partridge, Siraj Nour El-Ahmadi, and Thomas Connelly Jr. First, we will conduct the Annual Meeting to consider each of the proposals listed in the notice of the Annual Meeting of Stockholders, dated April 10th, 2026, and to conduct such other business as may properly come before the meeting.
After the formal meeting has been adjourned, we will provide time for general questions. Only validated stockholders may ask questions in the designated field on the web portal. Out of consideration for others, please limit yourself to one question. Please note that this meeting is being recorded. However, no one attending via the webcast or telephone is permitted to use any audio recording device. Mr. LeMaitre will act as Secretary for the recording the minutes of this meeting.
David Siddall, the duly appointed representative of Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc, has been appointed to serve as Inspector of Elections for the annual meeting. Mr. Siddall has signed the Oath of Office, which will be filed with the minutes of the meeting. I will now call on Yves to establish that we have met the necessary corporate requirements for this meeting.
Thanks, Ron. We have proof that notice of this meeting has been duly given and that the Notice of Annual Meeting of Stockholders, proxy statement, and proxy were mailed on or about April 10th, 2026, to all stockholders of record at the close of business on April 6, 2026. The affidavit, together with copies of the notice, proxy statement, and proxy, will be filed with the minutes of the meeting. As of April 6th, 2026, the record date for the meeting, there were 115,610,710 shares outstanding.
We have 78,998,585 shares present by person or proxy at this meeting, which is over 33.33% of the outstanding shares and constitutes a quorum, permitting the transaction of business. Each share entitles the holder to one vote on each matter that may come before the meeting. The list of registered stockholders entitled to vote is available for examination by stockholders.
Thank you, Yves. Since a quorum is present, I will now call the meeting to order. The meeting will proceed as provided for in the agenda. The items to be voted upon are, number one, to elect two directors to the board of directors to serve until the 2029 Annual Meeting of Stockholders or until their successors have been duly elected or appointed and qualified. Two, to ratify the appointment of Stephano Slack LLC to serve as the company's independent registered public accounting firm for the fiscal year ending December 31st, 2026.
Three, to consider and take action upon other such business as may properly come before the annual meeting or any adjournment thereof. Yves, would you please describe the voting procedures?
We will be voting by proxy ballot on the agenda items described in the proxy statement previously sent to you. If you have already turned in a proxy card and you do not intend to change your vote, it is not necessary for you to vote again. If there is any stockholder present, whether or not you have already submitted a proxy, who now wants to vote in person, please submit your votes via the virtual portal.
The first item of business is the election of two Class 3 directors to the Board of Directors to serve until the 2029 Annual Meeting of Stockholders or until their successors have been duly elected or appointed and qualified. The Board of Directors is comprised of six directors and is divided into three classes, currently comprised of two Class I directors, whose term expire at the 2027 Annual Meeting, two Class 2 directors, whose term expire at the 2028 Annual Meeting, and two Class 3 directors, whose term expires at the 2029 Annual Meeting.
The Board of Directors has nominated two Class 3 incumbent directors for re-election and recommends a vote for the election of the two Class 3 incumbent directors.
The board of directors has nominated the following Class 3 directors to serve for a term of three years or until their successors are elected and qualified. One, Laila Partridge, and two, Thomas Connelly Jr. Advance notice must be given to the secretary of a stockholder's intent to nominate other persons as directors of the company. No such notice has been received. Accordingly, nominations for directors are now closed. The nominee for director receiving the highest number of votes will be elected to the board of directors.
The proxies solicited by management will be voted in favor of all director nominees. I hereby move that Laila Partridge and Thomas Connelly Jr. be elected as Class 3 directors to serve for a term of three years or until their successors are elected and qualified.
I second the motion. The next item of business is the ratification of the appointment of Stephano Slack LLC as the company's independent registered public accounting firm for 2026. The vote required to ratify the appointment of Stephano Slack LLC to serve as our independent registered public accounting firm for fiscal year 2026 is the affirmative vote of the holders of a majority of the votes entitled to vote on the matter. The board of directors recommends a vote for approval of this matter.
I hereby move that the appointment of Stephano Slack LLC as the company's independent registered public accounting firm for the year ending 2026 be ratified.
I second the motion. The time is 12:08 Eastern Time, and the polls are now open for voting on all matters to be presented. If you have already voted by proxy, then you do not need to vote in person at this meeting unless you would like to change your vote. If there is any stockholder present, whether or not you already submitted a proxy, who now wants to vote in person, please submit your votes via the virtual portal. Any outstanding votes should now have been submitted. If you wish to vote, please submit your electronic ballot via the virtual meeting website by following the related instructions.
Again, if you have already voted by proxy, you need not vote today unless you would like to change your vote. The time is now 12:09 Eastern Time, and the polls are now closed for voting. The Inspector of Election has tabulated the votes, and Mr. Siddall will now give us the report of the Inspector of Elections.
All of the votes have now been counted. Based on these preliminary results, Laila Partridge and Thomas Connelly Jr. have been elected as Class 3 directors to serve for a term of three years or until their successors are elected and qualified. Stephano Slack LLC has been duly appointed as the company's independent registered public accounting firm for 2026.
This concludes the annual meeting. The Annual Meeting of Stockholders is adjourned. Yves will now answer some of the questions you may have concerning the company. We will take stockholders' questions that are being entered today on the web portal. Please note we will attempt to answer as many questions as time allows, but only questions that are germane to the meeting will be addressed. Yves?
Thanks, Ron. First question that we have received. With the government announcing intentions to take stakes in a number of quantum computing companies and given Lightwave Logic's Perkinamine 5 and QPICs's partnership, what is the estimated TAM sum for this vertical? Obviously there's a lot of wildly different numbers that are circulating regarding the potential of and the size of the market for quantum computing.
If you look at the specific market where our technology seems to be the most relevant for, which is essentially the photonic processing of quantum, we have not yet solid numbers to which we can communicate to our shareholders regarding those market size. It is clearly significant, but the goal this year for us is to remain focused on our AI and optical communication market and validate the relevance of our technology platform for quantum. I expect to provide updates throughout the year on our progress regarding quantum, but I want to emphasize again that the focus of the company right now is on AI networking and optical communication.
Second question, would you share anticipated timeframe for increase in revenues, and will it be NRE or non-recurring engineering revenues or actual revenue? I'll go back to my little statement on revenues. We believe that our first production revenue is targeted for the second half of 2027. Until then, we believe that our revenue will be made up of a combination of non-recurring engineering revenue, as well as potential prototype or sample sales. Next question. Please communicate on the timing of tape-outs and the number of potential customers participating.
First, we have disclosed that we have currently announced four customers that are at what we call the stage three of our design win process, meaning we are in the phase of going from prototyping to full product with them. All of these customers have active tape-outs with us that are either already being taped out to foundries or are in the process of being prepared for this year. The number of tape-outs and the specifics we cannot comment on due to the confidential nature. We expect our first chips coming out from these tape-outs, coming back from the foundries, basically before the end of Q3 2026.
Last question. Can you talk about the Marvell Polariton Lightwave Logic connection? I have already addressed that in my recent financial and business update call. We have been, it has been public, a long-time supplier of polymer material or perfluorinated material to Polariton. Polariton has been recently acquired by Marvell and is going through the integration into the company. Our goal, like with any other customer, is to maintain a partnership and continue to be a critical supplier to Marvell going forward. That is all the time we have for questions today.
That concludes our meeting. We thank you for your attendance today and continued support. Thank you and have a great day.
Thank you.
The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation, and you may now disconnect.