Fluence Energy, Inc.

and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Fluence Energy First Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star 1-1 on your telephone. You will then hear automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star 1-1 again. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I'll now hand the conference over to your first speaker today, Chris Shelton, VP of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Good morning, and welcome to Fluence Energy's first quarter 2026 earnings call. Joining me on this morning's call are Julian Nabretta, our President and Chief Executive Officer, and Ahmed Pasha, our Chief Financial Officer. A copy of our earnings presentation, press release, and supplementary metrics sheet covering financial results along with supporting statements and schedules, including reconciliations and disclosures regarding non-GAAP financial measures, are posted on the investor relations section of our website at FluenceEnergy.com. During the course of this call, Fluence management may make certain forward-looking statements regarding various matters unrelated to our business. including statements related to our future financial and operational performance, future market growth and related opportunities, anticipated growth and business strategy, liquidity and access to capital, expectations relating to pipeline, order intake, and contracted backlog, future results of operations The impact of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act projected costs, beliefs, assumptions, prospects, plans, and objectives of management and the timing of any of the foregoing. Such statements are based upon current expectations and certain assumptions and are therefore subject to certain risks, uncertainties, and other important factors which could cause actual results to differ materially. Please refer to our SEC filings for more information regarding these risks, uncertainties, and important factors. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements which speak only as of today. Also, please note that the company undertakes no duty to update or revise forward-looking statements for new information. This call will also reference non-GAAP measures that we view as important in assessing the performance of our business, including adjusted EBITDA, adjusted gross profit, and adjusted gross profit margin. A reconciliation of these non-GAAP measures to the most comparable GAAP measures is available in our earnings materials on the company's investor relations website. Following our prepared comments, we will conduct a question and answer session with our team. Thank you very much. I'll now turn the call over to Julian.

Thank you, Chris, and welcome to our stakeholders joining our call today. Turning to slide four, this morning I'll highlight first quarter results and the momentum we're seeing in the U.S. order intake as demand for energy storage continues to accelerate. I'll outline the rapid expansion of our pipeline, driven by new customers and emerging use cases, and share the tangible impact of our enhanced sales efforts. I will also update you on our domestic content strategy and the meaningful progress we made resolving early production challenges in the US. Ahmed will then cover our financial results and 26 outlook in more detail. To summarize our financial performance. First, our backlog has reached a record of $5.5 billion, reflecting a clear step up in US contracting activity driven by the One Big Beautiful Big Act and rising demand forecast. The midpoint of our revenue outlook is now fully covered by our backlog. Second, with Q1 now complete, we are reaffirming our fiscal 26 guidance, supported by greater revenue visibility and line of sight on execution, which increase our confidence in delivering this outlook. we ended the quarter with approximately 1.1 billion in total liquidity, which positions us well to support our growth. Please turn to slide five for details on our order intake. During the first quarter, we signed over $750 million of new orders globally. More than $500 million of these orders were in the US, which represented strong growth from prior quarters. Activity in the US market has been gaining momentum since the passage of legislation last July. We continue to expect growth in orders across all our core markets for this year, with the US representing about half the total. consistent with our pattern from previous years. Please turn to slide six for an update on our pipeline. We are seeing growing demand from developers, IPPs, utilities, and rapidly expanding data center opportunities. During the quarter, we also ramp up our sales efforts in all our core markets. including expanding our sales channels and outreach to existing and potential new customers. We're already seeing initial benefits with an approximately $7 billion or 30% increase in our pipeline, with a majority of growth coming from the U.S. The task now is to convert our pipeline into sign orders, And this is where we are concentrating our efforts. Please turn to slide seven for an update on expanding sources of growth. We are seeing growing interest in our product from new customer segments as well as new use cases. In terms of new customer segments, our biggest opportunities is data centers. We are engaged in discussions covering 36 gigawatt hours of projects, including customers with large portfolios, such as hyperscalers. We are working through technical reviews with them and working closely to show how our technology fits their specific needs. I will note that many of the 36 gigawatt hours of data center projects are not yet included in our pipeline, which represents meaningful upside opportunity. Another area of growth is long-duration energy storage, where we are in early discussions with 34 gigawatt hours of projects, largely in Europe and the US. leading density positions as well to compete for these applications. Long-duration projects, by definition, require more volume and therefore provide an additional growth opportunity. In addition to new customer segments, we are seeing an evolution in the way our customers use battery storage. Historically, Our solutions have been used together with renewable projects to firm up their power generation. Utilities have also used our product to store electricity that can be utilized during peak demand periods, also known as energy shifting, or in specific locations to support grid needs. Today, we're seeing new and developing uses for our battery solutions by large energy users such as data centers and CNI facilities. These include, first, speed to power. Storage can speed interconnection to the grid by adapting power demand to the grid capabilities and avoid the delay and expenses of grid upgrades. Second, quality of power. Storage can inject reactive power to resolve voltage disturbances, manage demand, including disconnection from the grid when needed, and provide smooth ramp rate control, among others. We believe that no other technology can offer these three capabilities combined at competitive terms. Third, backup power. Energy storage, lower cost, and longer duration enables replacement of higher cost and carbon-intensive thermal gensets that have traditionally served this need. Fourth, support of on-site generation. For bringing your own generation applications, energy storage can match up behind the meter power with the customer's energy needs by adding flexibility and efficiency to dispatchable generation or firming up capacity for renewable sources. Let's turn to slide 8 for an update on our domestic supply chain. Let me highlight three developments that are strengthening our competitive advantage and keeping us reliably on schedule. First, our domestic content supply chain is now performing at the level necessary to meet our delivery schedule. Cell and module production continue to run ahead of the plan. And our enclosure manufacturing facility in Arizona is now on track to meet our projected needs. Additionally, we continue to expand and diversify our domestic supplier base to enhance our flexibility and cost competitiveness. Second, on battery cells, we continue to make progress with ASC in resolving the prohibited foreign entity or PFE status of its Tennessee facility. Our overall priority is to secure competitively priced PFE compliant domestic sales. ASC is looking at various paths to addressing the ownership aspect of PFE compliance. We are confident that the outcome will be consistent with our stated objectives. to secure competitively priced PFE-compliance battery cells. Third, we are encouraged by the growing momentum of domestic manufacturing of components for vests. Several facilities are shifting their EV battery lines into vest production. This will enable valuable diversification to a supplier base. We believe that building multiple domestic sale partnerships will optimize pricing, resiliency, and the supply we need to support our growth. Before turning the call to Ahmed to discuss our financial results, I am pleased to update you on the satisfactory resolution of two pending legal matters. The first is on Mossland. where the matter was settled for an immaterial amount by the company in conjunction with our insurers and subcontractors on confidential terms. The settlement includes a full release of claims with no admission of responsibility or liability for the 2021 overheating incident. The second is on the Diablo Canyon project, where Fluence has obtained a core dismissal of Diablo's 230 million disgorgement claim. With that, I will turn the call over to Ahmed.