Ouster Reports Q2 Revenue of $55 Million, Up 56% Year Over Year

Ouster (NASDAQ: OUST ) reported second-quarter financial results on Thursday. The transcript from the company's second-quarter earnings call has been provided below. This transcript is brought to you APIs. For real-time access to our entire catalog, please visit for a consultation.

The full earnings call is available at Summary Ouster Inc reported $55 million in revenue for Q2 2026, marking a 56% increase year-over-year, driven largely by industrial and smart infrastructure verticals. The company shipped over 17,000 sensors, a record high, including notable contributions from the Rev8 LiDAR sensors and ZX Nano cameras. Ouster's strategic initiatives included the launch of Rev8, featuring the world's first native color LiDAR, and expansion of partnerships, notably with Nvidia. The company anticipates reaching production volumes for Rev8 by the end of Q3 2026 and has established manufacturing capacity exceeding 100,000 units annually.

Ouster reported GAAP gross margin of 49%, boosted by a one-time refund, and GAAP operating expenses increased due to new product introductions and the integration of Stereolabs. The company strengthened its balance sheet with $263 million in cash and no debt, following a $191 million capital raise in Q3 2026. 5 million, with continued strong demand expected for Rev8 and software solutions. Management highlighted the successful integration of Stereolabs and the strategic importance of the Rev8 launch, positioning Ouster as a leader in sensing and perception for physical AI.

Full Transcript OPERATOR Hello and welcome to Ouster's second quarter 2026 earnings conference call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After today's presentation and remarks, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. If you would like to ask a question during this time, simply press STAR followed by the number 11 on your telephone keypad.

If you would like to withdraw your question, press STAR 11 again. The call today is being recorded and a replay of the call will be available on the Ouster investor relations website an hour after the completion of this call. I'd now like to turn the conference over to Chen Gin, Senior Vice President, Strategic Finance and Treasurer. Please go ahead.

Chen Gin, Senior Vice President, Strategic Finance and Treasurer Thank you, operator, and good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining our second quarter 2026 earnings call today. On the call we have Chief Executive Officer Angus Pacala and Chief Financial Officer Ken Gianella. As a reminder, after the market closed today, Ouster issued its financial news release, which was also furnished on a Form 8-K and is posted in the investor relations section of the Ouster website.

Today's conference call will be available for webcast replay in the investor relations section of our website. I want to remind everyone that on this call we will make certain forward-looking statements. These include all statements about our competitive position, product advantages and growth opportunities, anticipated industry trends, our business and strategic priorities, our operating expense targets, the impact of our recent acquisition, the development and expansion of our products, our products' capabilities and performance, and our revenue guidance for the third quarter of 2026 and long-term financial targets.

Actual results may differ materially from those contemplated by these forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results and trends to differ materially from those contained in or implied by these forward-looking statements are set forth in the second quarter 2026 financial results release and in the quarterly and annual reports we file with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Any forward-looking statements that we make on this call are based on assumptions as of today and, other than as may be required by law, Ouster assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements, which speak only as of their respective dates.

In today's conference call we will discuss both GAAP and non-GAAP financial measures. A reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP measures discussed today is included in the financial results release. I would now like to turn the call over to Angus. Angus Pacala, Cofounder and CEO Hello everyone and thank you for joining us today.

I'll start with a brief recap of the quarter and an update on our strategic priorities before Ken covers our financial results in more detail. We delivered exceptional results for the second quarter, generating 55 million in revenue and shipping over 17,000 sensors. This marks our 14th straight quarter of product revenue growth and is a testament to the strength of our unified sensing and perception platform. We had strong contributions from our industrial and smart infrastructure verticals for use cases in warehouse automation, yard logistics, port automation, mining, and as customers across the world have continued to scale their investment in physical AI.

Our smart infrastructure business continues to scale with major deployments in New Jersey and Georgia to support the 2026 FIFA World Cup. The New Jersey DOT deployed Ouster Blue City to create a digital traffic twin across 42 highway locations around MetLife Stadium. In Georgia, we deployed Blue City at an additional 30 intersections across the Atlanta area, including around Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Upon the conclusion of the World Cup, Blue City will continue to provide high-fidelity traffic monitoring, automated data analytics, and real-time safety alerts designed to optimize traffic and enhance the safety of everyday residents in these locations.

Ouster sensors are helping industrial customers like AIM Intelligent Machines improve safety and productivity for autonomous operations in complex, unstructured environments. AIM's autonomy kits retrofit heavy machinery into AI-powered fleets that maximize safety and productivity. We expanded our footprint in the defense industry with a strategic agreement with Argus Interception and announced a collaboration with Field AI to leverage Rev8 to power the next generation of robotic autonomy in markets like construction, mining, and security. The second quarter was also a period of strategic execution and expansion for Ouster.

We brought the world's first native color LiDAR sensors to customers with Rev8 and set a new standard for wrist mount stereo vision with the ZX Nano. We also deepened our partnership with Nvidia, bringing Rev8 to the Nvidia Drive and Jetson platforms with dedicated Nvidia toolkits supporting direct data ingestion and drivers designed to leverage Jetson, Orin, and Thor. Ouster is providing customers with a production-ready ecosystem that is critical to solve the most complex challenges in physical AI. We are actively scaling our Rev8 production lines and anticipate reaching production volumes by the end of the quarter.

As previously announced, we expanded our partnership with Benchmark to support Rev8, establishing manufacturing capacity that ultimately exceeds 100,000 units per year. S. government-funded infrastructure upgrades. Finally, we continue to bolster our strong operational execution with disciplined financial management, building upon an already resilient balance sheet.

The additional capital we raised provides us with the ability to fully fund our current business plan while providing immense strategic flexibility. This strength gives our customers ultimate confidence in our ability to serve their needs and serve as their foundational physical AI partner. Turning to our 2026 strategic priorities, we progressed across all three key focus areas: revolutionizing our LiDAR, camera, and AI compute products; extending our leadership in physical AI solutions; and executing towards profitability. The launch of Rev8 was the most important product release in Ouster's history and a pivotal moment for physical AI.

Featuring the world's first native color LiDAR, Rev8 has set a new industry benchmark and delivers the holy grail for 3D spatial perception. Feedback from customers has been electric, calling Rev8 a massive leap in sensing capability that provides unprecedented situational awareness to scale next-generation physical AI solutions where it matters most. Engineered for functional safety and built for scale, Rev8 is driving commercial momentum across all of our verticals.

From the harsh, demanding environments of mining and construction sites to the dynamic, complex world of robotaxi fleets and statewide traffic networks across the country, Rev8 is cementing Ouster as a core perception partner for market leaders scaling real-world autonomy. Customer response has been immediate, highlighted by multiple million-dollar-plus orders, including the world's largest manufacturer of heavy machinery, a leading developer of autonomous agriculture equipment, and a top autonomous vehicle provider.

During the quarter we secured a significant order to provide the Utah Department of Transportation with its largest LiDAR deployment to date, covering several hundred intersections across the state. With native color and industry-leading performance, Rev8 is solidifying our market leadership and deepening relationships across these and other key accounts. Our acquisition of Stereolabs is already proving strategic and financial value. The ZX Nano was the most successful launch in Stereolabs' history and expanded our reach into industrial and robotics markets, winning new sockets requiring smaller form factors.

By delivering high resolution, an ultra-low-latency capture pipeline, and millimeter accuracy, we're giving roboticists a major upgrade to their vision systems, enabling machines to sense, think, act, and learn with unprecedented precision. With a unified LiDAR, camera, and AI compute stack, Ouster is providing customers with the world's most capable perception platform. We also upgraded our Gemini and Blue City software solutions with Rev8, opening up a new level of spatial intelligence.

This breakthrough introduces the industry's first native color LiDAR detection system, simultaneously capturing both color and 3D depth information without the need for complex calibration. Powered by the Rev8 OS1 Max, we released advanced detection for Blue City, delivering double the range and resolution of previous generations and achieving multimodal detection and classification up to 500 ft.

By providing unmatched situational awareness and delivering precise, high-fidelity digital traffic twins, Rev8 opens up higher-speed markets and allows transportation departments to further optimize signal timing based on real-time data to improve traffic flow while reducing their total cost of ownership. Privacy is paramount for this market, and we designed Blue City with system-level privacy features at the edge to reduce the collection of identifying features.

Ouster Blue City has quickly become a premier traffic management solution, including the three largest LiDAR-based deployments in the United States, and our goal is to be the number one provider of smart infrastructure solutions. Since its launch in 2023, we have established Gemini as a standard for sensing and perception, providing the real-time digital twin necessary for our smart infrastructure customers to increase their efficiency and safety. We see an enormous opportunity in our other verticals to provide software solutions for everything that moves in the physical world.

Similar to smart infrastructure, these customers need a less technical turnkey solution that is easy to deploy, and we will continue to invest in products and solutions that broaden our market opportunity and help accelerate our customers' development. Finally, our strong results are aligned with our long-term financial framework. We are making strategic investments to expand our addressable market while maintaining our path to profitability. With that, let me now turn the call over to Ken, who will provide more context on our second quarter financial results.

Chen Gin, Senior Vice President, Strategic Finance and Treasurer Thank you, Angus, and hello everyone. In the second quarter we delivered a record quarter of revenue and number of sensors sold and introduced multiple new products to the market. These are important proof points in our continued execution against both our financial and operational goals. These results reinforce our confidence in the long-term financial model supported by continued operating leverage and strong customer demand across our served markets.

Turning to the second quarter financial performance, operating results were again strong with revenue of $55 million. This represents an increase of approximately 56% compared with the second quarter last year. The industrial vertical was the largest contributor to the second quarter revenue followed by smart infrastructure. We shipped over 17,000 sensors, a new quarterly record, which included over 9,000 LiDAR and over 8,000 camera sensors.

2 million. We continue to estimate total royalty revenue in 2026 to be around $5 million. For the full year GAAP gross margin was 49%, up from 45% in the same quarter last year. A one-time refund was included in our cost of goods sold, which positively impacted gross margin by approximately 1,000 basis points.

As a reminder, in the second quarter of 2025 we had a one-time refund which positively impacted us by approximately 500 basis points. We do not expect these one-time benefits to reoccur in our ongoing normal operations. GAAP operating expenses were $47 million, an increase of approximately 10% from the second quarter last year. The increase was primarily due to the addition and integration of Stereolabs for a full quarter, new product introductions with the Rev8 and ZX Nano, and recent investments in expanding our physical AI solution portfolio.

We are closely monitoring our operating expenses and anticipate the third quarter expenses to be 5% to 8% higher year over year. Our adjusted EBITDA in Q2 was a negative $4 million, which was an improvement of approximately $1 million from the second quarter last year. Turning to our balance sheet, we ended the quarter with cash, cash equivalents, restricted cash and short-term investments of $263 million and no debt. This figure includes approximately $98 million raised in the second quarter through our previously discussed ATM program.

At the beginning of the third quarter, we further strengthened our cash position through a successful offering of common stock which closed on July 6th. Given the favorable market conditions at the time and corresponding strong investor demand, we closed a common stock offering that generated approximately $191 million in net proceeds. Upon completion, we had approximately 72 million shares outstanding. This strategic financing decision gives us additional capital to support our growth objectives, invest in opportunities we see across our markets, and further strengthen what is already one of the industry's strongest balance sheets.

Furthermore, after this most recent financing, we do not expect to need additional capital to fund our current operating plan on our path to profitability. 5 million. With the ramp of Rev8 to production volumes expected to occur throughout and into the latter part of the third quarter, our full-year revenue expectations remain unchanged. The acquisition of Stereolabs, introduction of Rev8 and ZX Nano, and our expanding software and AI solutions are great proof points towards our continued investment to be a leader in sensing and perception for physical AI.

Our execution continues to build confidence in our long-term financial model. I'll now turn the call back to Angus for his closing remarks. Angus Pacala, Cofounder and CEO The second quarter continued the momentum of the most transformative year in Ouster's history with the landmark launch of Rev8 and the ZX Nano, the integration of Stereolabs, a strengthened partnership with Nvidia, and significant strategic flexibility provided by our capital raises. Ouster is further extending its leadership as the foundational end-to-end sensing and perception platform for physical AI.

Our focus remains on providing the industry's most performant products and solutions, dramatically simplifying system integration and accelerating time to market for the world's most innovative companies. The resounding customer feedback we received enforces our strategic path. With that, I'd like to open the call up for Q&A. OPERATOR Thank you.

At this time we will conduct the question and answer session. As a reminder, to ask a question you will need to press Star 11 on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press Star 11 again. Our first question comes from the line of Colin Rusch of Oppenheimer.

Your line is now open. Colin Rusch, Analyst at Oppenheimer Thanks so much, guys. You know, can you give us a sense, you know, you mentioned some of these orders that you're talking about, you know, the bookings and kind of backlog that you guys are looking at, you know, some order of magnitude or quantification of what you're looking at that's already been kind of put into your expectations for revenue ramp over the next couple of years. Angus Pacala, Cofounder and CEO Hi Colin.

Yes, good question. So we gave a bit of color as it pertains to this year, Q3, Q4, and our revenue expectation remains on track just given the really strong reception to Rev8.