Founded in 2000, nLIGHT (ticker LASR) is an American technology company that designs and manufactures semiconductor and fiber laser components. The company has two segments: Laser Products and Advanced Development. The company’s market capitalization at the time of this thread’s creation is $1.42 billion USD.
The Laser Products segment manufactures high-power lasers at various power levels, which can be used, for example, in the defense industry. The company is developing what will be the world’s most powerful laser weapon (1MW) upon completion; they already have at least a 300KW laser. The biggest advantage of laser weapons is their low operating cost compared to traditional anti-aircraft missiles, which can cost tens, if not hundreds of thousands of euros per missile, whereas with a laser weapon, we are talking about tens, at most hundreds of euros per use. The increased use of drones is one growth driver.
The Advanced Development segment manufactures laser systems for use in other industries.
Q2 was the company’s first EPS-positive quarter (still negative by GAAP figures), and they raised their guidance for revenue growth in their A&D (aerospace and defense) segment.
nLight has a strong connection to Finland, as the company’s optical fibers are manufactured in Lohja in the former premises of Liekki Oy. The name of the Finnish company acquired by nLight about twenty years ago adorns all of nLight’s optical fibers, which still bear Liekki’s trademark.
The defense industry is probably still a relatively small market segment for nLight, at least for now?
Aerospace and defence (A&D) has been the company’s largest segment by revenue for a couple of years already. Below is a chart from the Q2 presentation, where A&D is in dark blue. In the last quarter, it accounted for 2/3 of the revenue and was clearly the fastest growing (+49% y/y and +24% q/q).
I also got excited when I saw the news about Israel’s Laser Dome and started looking at what the market had to offer.
In five months, this is up 300%. I guess I’m too late
Let’s look elsewhere in the supply chain.
Rheinmetall and MBDA are starting a collaboration to equip the German Navy with laser-based systems. Relevant for nLight, as MBDA uses components manufactured by nLight.
nLIGHT provided an update to its revenue expectations for the fourth quarter of 2025. The high end of the revenue guidance became the low end (72 → 78), and the high end was raised by $2 million (78 → 80). The primary driver of growth is the Aerospace & Defense segment.
The Company expects to report fourth quarter 2025 revenue in the range of $78 million to $80 million, above the high-end of the Company’s previously announced fourth quarter guidance range of $72 million to $78 million. The Company expects to report Laser Products revenue of $54 million to $55 million and Advanced Development revenue of approximately $24 million to $25 million. The anticipated upside in revenue is primarily due to the continued strength in the Company’s revenue from the Aerospace & Defense market.
nLIGHT is more than doubling its production capacity. Below is a quote from the press release.
The additional space will more than double the Company’s current capacity and enable the continued expansion of its beam-combined high-energy laser (HEL) manufacturing to support ongoing and future work for the U.S. Department of War (DoW) and other U.S. agencies.
nLIGHT has conducted a secondary share offering at a price of 44 USD per share. The closing price of the stock yesterday was 49.98 USD. The number of shares increased by ~7.8% as a result of this offering. Regarding the use of proceeds, it was stated: “nLIGHT intends to use the net proceeds from the offering for working capital, capital expenditures and other general corporate purposes.”
Participants in the offering have an option to subscribe for an additional ~1.2% of the existing share capital within the next 30 days at the same 44 USD price.
I have avoided posting articles related to laser technology or “directed energy weapons” here, because it wasn’t possible to directly conclude from them that nLight was the subject of the discussion. Now I have come across the first article that can be interpreted as talking specifically about nLight. Below is a quote from the article.
“After seeing what a laser can do at megawatt-class power, you kind of scratch your head why we’ve not scaled this to be employed on surface ships for a whole suite of missions that could offload defensive weapons and allow me to increase my offensive capacity,” the CNO said. “I think this is about technology commitment more than an engineering challenge.”
I have underlined the most essential part that links the text directly to nLight, which is the only (known) company that has a laser with a power of at least 1MW under development for this use.
The article discusses how the U.S. Navy intends to accelerate the adoption of advanced laser weapons and other directed energy systems to counter the growing drone and missile threat. According to Navy leadership, the technical challenges are solvable, and the new Trump-class battleships and Zumwalt destroyers serve as key platforms for testing and integrating these high-power lasers and other cutting-edge technologies.
nLight released its Q4 report yesterday evening. Q4 revenue grew +71% y/y and +22% q/q, while Aerospace & Defense (A&D) segment revenue grew +87% y/y and +24% q/q. Operating cash flow is now also strongly positive for the full year for the first time. In the chart below, the A&D segment is shown in dark blue.
The Q1 guidance was a slight disappointment until hearing more detailed background during the call. The company is focusing heavily on the A&D segment, as the intention is to exit the low-margin cutting and welding businesses on the Industrial side. As a result, nLight expects a $25-30M headwind to full-year (2026) revenue. The guidance includes only revenue currently under contract, meaning any potential contracts to be announced in the near future are not included in this guidance. In my opinion, management is being conservative with the guidance.
An outfit called Baird Equity Research is initiating coverage of nLIGHT with a $95 price target. They forecast an EPS of $0.4 for 2026 and “mid-teens” revenue growth for the years 2026-2030.
The news magazine 60 Minutes produced a 13-minute segment on laser weapons. Interviewees include the CEO of AeroVironment (AVAV). The AVAV LOCUST system shown in the video features nLIGHT technology.
