SES AI Corporation

Good afternoon. Thank you for attending today's SES AI third quarter 2024 earnings release and call. My name is Jayla, and I'll be your moderator for today. All lines will be muted during the presentation portion of the call with an opportunity for questions and answers at the end. I'd now like to turn the conference over to our host, Kyle Pinkleton, Chief Legal Officer. Kyle, you may proceed.

Hello, everyone, and welcome to our conference call covering our third quarter 2024 results. Joining me today are Qi Chaohu, Founder, Chairman, and Chief Executive Officer, and Jing Nilas, Chief Financial Officer. We issued our shareholder letter after market closed today, which provides a business update as well as our financial results. You'll find a press release with a link to our shareholder letter and today's conference call webcast in the investor relations section of our website at ses.ai. Before we get started, this is a reminder that the discussion today may contain forward-looking information or forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable securities legislation. These statements are based on our predictions and expectations as of today. Such statements involve certain risks, assumptions, and uncertainties which may cause our actual or future results and performance to be materially different from those expressed or implied in these statements. The risks and uncertainties that could cause our results to differ materially from our current expectations include, but are not limited to, those detailed in our latest earnings release and in our SEC filings. This afternoon, we will review our business as well as results for the quarter. With that, I'll pass it over to Chi Chau.

Thanks, Kyle. Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us on our third quarter earnings call. Here we present an update on our progress toward commercialization of our next generation lithium metal batteries and our three AI solutions. So first, early commercial revenue in urban air mobility and drones. Our UAM lines have completed site acceptance tests, SAT, and we won cell supply agreements, including with SoftBank. Second, these samples pass EV safety tests, Our 100 m power lithium metal B sample cells successfully passed the GB3A031-2020, a major milestone towards C samples and start of production SOP. Third, revenue pipeline from AI accelerated battery material discovery for lithium metal and lithium ion. We expect earlier revenue pipeline from electrolyte projects, including both lithium metal and lithium ion. So first, early commercial revenue in UAM and drones. Recently, we signed several commercial agreements to supply lithium metal cells with several customers, including SoftBank. Earlier this year, we converted our EVA sample lines to UAM lines, and we're excited to report that both our Shanghai and Chengdu EVA sample to UAM line conversions have completed site acceptance test, SAT, and achieved ready-to-use, RTU status. The new UAM cells manufactured on these lines have 30 amp power in capacity and are custom designed to meet UAM customer requirements. Second, B-samples pass EV safety tests. As the world's first to enter automotive B-sample joint development for lithium metal, our 100 amp power lithium metal cells developed for our B-sample JDAs successfully pass the rigorous industry safety test of GB38031-2020. This is the first time in the industry that a large-capacity lithium metal cell successfully passed safety tests required by the global GB38031-2020 EV traction battery safety standards. This certification is required by all of SSAI's EV OEM partners, as well as many of the other leading manufacturers at the global standards. GB3A031-2020 is a mandatory safety standard encompassing a series of rigorous tests, which include overcharge, overdischarge, external short circuit, heating, temperature cycling, and crushing. Achievement of this standard demonstrates that SES-AI's 100mP lithium metal cells can effectively manage safety risk under these stringent test conditions. This is a major milestone towards C-sample and start of production, SOP. Third, all in our AI. Our AI solutions have already borne fruits in advancing our lifted metal plan as outlined earlier. We're working closely with our OEM partners to broaden the scope of our AI efforts to incorporate other battery chemistry and cell designs. We anticipate that this will enable us to deliver greater value to a broader customer base. better serving our customers using lithium ion and lithium metal batteries, and generating multiple revenue opportunities. AI accelerated battery material discovery. Earlier this year, we established our Electrolyte Foundry, formed a partnership with NVIDIA to leverage the latest computing hardware and software, and attracted a team of world-class battery electrolyte scientists, including promoting Dr. Kongshui to our Chief Technology Officer, CTO. We achieved remarkable acceleration, which allowed us to compute the largest molecular property database in the world. We have the most complete end-to-end capabilities, including molecular property mapping, AI model development, human domain expertise, the electrolyte foundry for molecule synthesis and electrolyte formulation, and cell production and validation from lab to A samples, B samples, and beyond. We expect to enter a pipeline of revenue contracts for the first time later this year, including five projects from two companies, one electrical manufacturer and one automaker, to apply our AI accelerated battery material discovery end-to-end capability to solve various lithium metal and lithium ion electrolyte challenges. This is just in the first quarter since we introduced our all-in on AI strategy. AI for manufacturing and safety. Both our Shanghai and Chengdu UAM lines now have AI for manufacturing installed, and we are currently installing AI for manufacturing for the B sample lines at our OEM partner site. This tool has helped us detect defects that would have escaped using conventional manufacturing quality control. All UAM and drone customers that receive our lithium metal cells and modules will also have our AI for safety embedded in addition to conventional battery management system. to precisely monitor battery health and predict incidents. With AI for Safety alone, we have achieved 95% prediction accuracy, achieving the target that we set out earlier this year. And with AI for Manufacturing integrated with AI for Safety, we can achieve 100% prediction accuracy. These are based on training from 15,000 lithium metal cells. I'm very proud of our achievements in the past quarter. In EV, our 100 amp power lithium metal cells successfully passed the rigorous GB38031 Global Industry Safety Test, an industry first for lithium metal, and a major milestone toward commercialization of lithium metal for EV. In UAM and drones, we now have two lines producing cells for multiple customers, including South Bank. Powering the success of our lithium metal is our all-in on AI strategy, We built what we believe to be the world's largest molecular property database using state-of-the-art computing hardware and software, expect to enter a pipeline of revenue contracts for the first time from our AI solutions in the fourth quarter of this year, and achieved our target of 95% prediction accuracy with AI for safety, 100% accuracy when we integrate AI for manufacturing with AI for safety. So thank you for your continued interest in SES AI. And now I will turn it over to Jing for financial updates.