One Stop Systems - Earnings Call - Q2 2025

Transcript

Speaker 5

Thank you, Ayer. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining today's call. I'm pleased to report another quarter of progress highlighted by year-over-year growth in both revenue and gross margin for the second quarter. Most notably, we ended the quarter with one of the highest level bookings in our history. This strong start to 2025 underscores the solid foundation we have built as we capitalize on increasing demand from both defense and commercial customers for our rugged enterprise class compute solutions. As a reminder, we implemented several strategic actions in 2023 and 2024 to reposition OSF for growth. These included strengthening our leadership team with proven defense industry executives, launching a multi-year strategic plan, rebuilding our go-to-market approach, expanding our sales pipeline, and driving higher gross margins.

I'm proud of what our teams have accomplished across each of these initiatives and believe we're well-positioned for strong growth and improved profitability in the second half of 2025 and beyond. We continue to pursue strategic growth opportunities that leverage our high-performance edge compute solutions to meet the growing demands of AI, machine learning, autonomy, and sensor fusion at the edge. Our pipeline is expanding across leading defense organizations and advanced commercial enterprises that seek trusted, proven partners like OSF. As I outlined last quarter, our sales strategy centers on three priorities. First, we are pursuing development work with prime platform vendors to design OSF into key platforms and become the incumbent supplier. We believe this will result in positioning OSF as the best value and provider of choice going forward.

Next, we are focused on expanding the number of OSF systems that are integrated into existing platforms and customer systems. Finally, we are leveraging our integrated compute and storage architecture to deliver higher-value turnkey solutions. Validating the success of these priorities, our OSF segment has generated one of the highest levels of bookings in our history over the first half of the year, totaling $25.4 million and representing a book-to-bill ratio of 2.3. In Q1, we secured a record $6.5 million contract from a leading defense and technology company for 80 high-performance servers and field-programmable gate array systems engineered for mobile, tactical, military environments. This win represents the first large-scale success from our strategy aimed at our goal of establishing OSF as an incumbent supplier on next-generation defense platforms. We also received a third order from a major defense contractor in Asia for an autonomous maritime application.

The latest $340,000 order follows a $200,000 award in December 2024 and signals a transition from system development to production deployment. Based on current forecasts and the expected expansion of our customer's product line production, we expect approximately $4 million in cumulative sales between 2026 and 2029. In Q2, we received new awards from the US Navy and a leading prime defense contractor to support the P-8A Poseidon reconnaissance aircraft. These awards, for $5 million and $3.9 million respectively, showcase our intent to become the compute and storage provider of choice for next-generation AI-driven applications at the edge, as well as our platform-focused growth strategy. To date, we have recognized lifetime contracted revenue of over $50 million on the P-8A Poseidon platform.

In addition, we had previously announced a five-year sole-source supplier agreement and a five-year extension for support, which involves equipping the P-8A Poseidon aircraft and ground-based stations with high-capacity flash storage systems, spare flash storage canisters, and related support services. We also received a $2 million production order from a leading medical imaging OEM, underscoring the growing relevance of our compute and storage solutions in healthcare. We believe the total value of this program will represent over $25 million in revenue over the next five years. Across our pipeline, demand remains strong, supported by growing interest for our rugged enterprise class compute solutions, and we anticipate further commercial and defense announcements in the coming months. In addition, we are seeing signs of stabilization in our European markets that are served by our Brezhnev operating unit.

Recent bookings and revenue within our Brezhnev segment have been in line with our targets, and Brezhnev remains on track to achieve higher sales and profitability for 2025 as compared to last year's results. Looking ahead, we believe OSF is uniquely positioned to capitalize on multi-year growth opportunity driven by accelerating adoption of AI, machine learning, autonomy, and sensor fusion at the edge. As these requirements become increasingly central to defense and commercial innovation, customers are turning to trusted partners like OSF with proven expertise in rugged enterprise-class compute solutions. In support of this, we've increased R&D investments in 2025 to capitalize on emerging opportunities we see developing within our market. In July, we announced Panto, the world's first PCIe Gen 5 GPU expansion platform purpose-built for commercial data centers.

This product was designed to address the growing composable infrastructure market, a market expected to grow from $5.87 billion in 2024 to $28.44 billion by 2031, according to Verified Market Research. This launch is aligned with our commercial strategy to deliver standard products in addition to customized solutions and marks a pivotal step in OSF's evolution toward leading the transformation of composable infrastructure and enterprise-scale AI compute while also generating new commercial opportunities. Panto is engineered to bring high-density enterprise-class compute optimized for composable infrastructure environments. It enables dynamic resource pooling and real-time orchestration of compute, storage, and networking to efficiently scale workloads up or down based on application demand. Panto is ideally suited for space-constrained deployments such as remote data centers, corporate campuses, hospitals, and research-intensive universities where performance, density, and operational flexibility are critical. We're excited about the long-term commercial opportunity this product and platform represents.

We're actively engaged with potential customers about deploying our new data center solution, which we expect will begin contributing to revenue in 2026. Beyond the potential of our Panto product, we are executing against a growing pipeline in both commercial and defense markets. Our delivery of a rugged compute solution for combat vehicles for the U.S. Army remains under test and evaluation, which is expected to continue for the remainder of the year. We continue to transform the business, and I'm encouraged by the growing number of multi-year platforms we are now supporting, as demonstrated by the continued growth on the P-8A Poseidon for the U.S. Navy and recently announced ongoing production orders for a medical imaging device company and the autonomous maritime product for a leading defense prime in Asia. Pursuing these types of platform opportunities is an important component of our strategy.

We believe that our bookings growth to date in 2025 points to sustained demand for our product. We are receiving a more diverse mix of larger orders that are extending over multiple periods compared to order trends in prior years. These higher-quality orders further support our strategy to build more predictable revenue streams, and we are building backlogs for 2026 as our business scales to meet rising market demand. Consistent with our expectation for stronger second-half performance in 2025, we expect OSF's segment revenue of approximately $19 million in the second half of the year compared to $11 million in the first half of this year. At this level of second-half revenue, we would expect positive EBITDA in our OSF segment in the second half of 2025. As a result, we expect full-year revenue within our OSF segment of approximately $30 million, representing over 20% year-over-year growth.

On a consolidated basis, we continue to expect revenue of $59 million to $61 million for the full year of 2025 based on current bookings, orders, and market conditions. In addition, we expect EBITDA break even for the full year of 2025. I'm excited about the opportunities ahead and look forward to reporting on continued execution and success in the quarters to come. Finally, I want to thank our entire team for their dedication, innovation, and relentless focus on delivering results for our customers and shareholders. With this overview, I'd like to turn the call over to Dan.

Speaker 1

Thank you, Mike, and good morning to everyone on today's call. In Q2, we achieved strong operating performance and continued to build momentum for sustained growth. We believe that OSF's segment book-to-bill of 2.6 for the second quarter and 1.63 for the trailing 12 months demonstrates that our technology is resonating with customers and validates our strategic focus on securing platform positions with differentiated edge computing technology. With record bookings in the first half of 2025, we are on track to achieve our full-year guidance and to execute on our robust growth and profitability objectives for the second half. Now for a quick overview of Q2 2025 financial performance. For the second quarter, we reported consolidated revenue of $14.1 million compared to $13.2 million last year and $12.3 million for the 2025 first quarter.

The 6.9% year-over-year increase in consolidated revenue was a result of approximately $239,000 of higher OSF segment revenue and $669,000 of higher European markets segment revenue. Second quarter sales were in line with our expectations, and as Mike outlined in his prepared remarks, we continue to expect revenue and profitability to grow at a higher rate in the second half of 2025. Consolidated gross margin in the second quarter expanded 610 basis points to 31.3% compared to 25.2% in the prior year quarter. On a segment basis, gross margin for the company's OSF segment improved to 41.3% compared to 24.9% for the same period a year ago. The 16.4 percentage point increase was due to the non-recurrence of an inventory charge recognized in last year's second quarter, as well as a more profitable mix of products shipped this year.

Year to date, OSF's segment gross margin has benefited from both operational efficiency and a favorable product mix. We do expect some level of variability in gross margins quarter to quarter based on absorption, product mix, and program lifecycle. On a sustained basis, we continue to target OSF segment margins in the mid-30s to low 40s. For full year 2025, we now expect OSF segment margins in the 40% range, up from our prior guidance of mid to upper 30s. The company's European markets segment had a gross margin percentage of 24.3% in the second quarter. The 120 basis point decrease from the same period last year was primarily due to product mix. Total second quarter operating expenses increased 11.6% to $6.2 million. This increase was predominantly attributable to higher R&D expenditures, reflecting targeted investment in new product development.

For the second quarter, the company reported a GAAP net loss of $2 million or $0.09 per share compared to a net loss of $2.3 million or $0.11 per share in the prior year quarter. The company reported a non-GAAP net loss of $1.5 million or $0.07 per share compared to a non-GAAP net loss of $1.8 million or $0.09 per share in the prior year quarter. Adjusted EBITDA, a non-GAAP metric, was a loss of $1 million compared to an adjusted EBITDA loss of $1.4 million in the prior year's second quarter. Turning to the balance sheet. As of June 30, 2025, One Stop Systems Federal had total cash and short-term investments of $9.5 million, no borrowings outstanding on our $2 million revolving line of credit, and a consolidated balance outstanding on our term loan of $1.2 million.

For the six months ended June 30, 2025, One Stop Systems Federal used $1.5 million in cash from operating activities compared to operating cash flow of $1.2 million for the six months ended June 30, 2024. The change from the prior year period was primarily due to the timing of working capital. As Mike mentioned, we believe we are on track to achieve our 2025 annual guidance, including 20%+ year-over-year revenue growth for the One Stop Systems Federal segment and EBITDA break even at a consolidated level. Our strong first half bookings give us valuable visibility into our second half ramp. As we move through the second half of the year, we are focused on disciplined execution, including managing our supply chain and achieving our planned production ramp.

We also remain focused on continuing to drive growth by investing in our technology and securing new platform opportunities that will provide sustained multi-year revenue streams. I look forward to updating you on our success. This completes our prepared remarks. Operator, please open the call to questions.

Speaker 4

Certainly. At this time, if you would like to ask a question, please press the star, then one on your telephone keypad. You may withdraw your question any time by pressing star, then two. Again, it is star, then one to ask a question. We can take our first question from Scott Searle with ROTH Capital. Your line is now open.

Speaker 0

Hey, good morning. Thanks for taking my questions. Great job on building the backlog and providing that outlook into the second half of this year. Maybe Mike, to dive in, you know, in terms of the OSF outlook or core OSF outlook, it implies a pretty significant ramp up on that front. The counterweight to that, I guess, is maintaining your existing 2025 guidance implies that there's some decline on the Brezhnev side of the equation. Wondering if anything is going on on that front specifically in Europe or otherwise. It sounded like things were getting better there. Are you guys just being conservative? Looking out to 2026, I know it's early, but you're building a nice pipeline and opportunity set. Does that mix in terms of OSF and Brezhnev continue off of the second half base?

Speaker 5

Yes, thank you, Scott, for your questions. I'll let Dan give you a quick summary of how the Brezhnev line is coming in. We've been happy with their performance compared to last year and the growth they're showing. We have seen market recovery in the economic outlook in Germany and Europe. If you've been watching the news, the increased interest in the defense market in Germany and Europe now has started to pose opportunities that would go into 2026 and beyond. We'll be looking to hopefully take advantage of some of those. I'll let Dan give you some color on the mix between OSF and Brezhnev.

Speaker 1

Yes, Scott. What I'd add, so in our guidance, we've modeled the European markets second half roughly in line with the first half. Certainly, as we put our guidance together, we track a range of opportunities and risks. The strong backlog, strong bookings from the first half of the year do give a lot of opportunity to drive some upside. We are remaining cautious in our outlook at this point, mostly because of the significant ramp that we have in the second half of the year and all of the work that we have to do with our supply chain and with our production to make sure we're able to achieve that. I think there's opportunities, but we are remaining cautious in our guidance.

Speaker 0

Gotcha. In extrapolating the strength in core OSF of 20% growth, does that continue into 2026, given what you're seeing right now in terms of the early tea leaves of wins in the existing pipeline?

Speaker 5

Yes, that's for OSF segment. The way our pipeline looks out for multiple years, we continue to believe there's opportunity for us to continue to grow OSF at that rate. The ratio of revenue comparatively between OSF and Brezhnev will change as time goes forward because of the anticipated larger growth rates in OSF compared to the growth we'll see in Brezhnev. The growth rates expected for Brezhnev will be consistent with historical growth that we've seen in Brezhnev that they're back in line to forecast to achieve this year.

Speaker 0

Great. Very helpful. Mike, on the data center front, you've had some comments in the past as opportunities started to open up to you guys. I'm wondering if you could provide us with some quick thoughts and comments in terms of what you're seeing in that pipeline and what's going on from an AI partnership standpoint.

Speaker 5

Yeah, yeah, we're excited about these products. We've seen the data center markets making a quick shift here recently into higher wattage available GPUs and card sets. We've adjusted some of our product lines to quickly take advantage of that and being able to provide high-density GPU and card at the much higher wattage card sets, dissipating that heat, making them available. We've been able to rush some of those markets, those products like Panto to the market to help some of our customers and partners in that field. As I mentioned in the comments, we're looking into 2026 to see those start to move forward, along with just some of our standard products that we have aligned to the data center, especially around GPU expansion servers. We'll start to see the next generation of PCIe start to come to the market, and we'll have products aligned for that also.

We're hopeful to see a pickup in the data center business as we continue through the quarters. We'll keep you updated on that. I'm sorry, Scott, the last part of your question was?

Speaker 0

Oh, AI partnerships from the software vendors. I think you've been talking to various guys to help pull you through the channel.

Speaker 5

Exactly. We continue those as a normal course of business. We continue to align with new and existing AI partners as they roll through there, and align on either more fully integrated solutions for our customers and/or for our product sets that can serve as the base of compute for AI companies. We continue to move through those. As we formalize more strategic relationships, we'll look to announce those.

Speaker 0

Great. Last thing, Mike, you mentioned higher wattage GPUs, but there are some architectural shifts going into the data center as well in terms of inference processing or AI accelerators. Are you seeing design requests and activity on that front to potentially expand your product portfolio from GPU-centric architectures to something else? Dan, just a quick clarification in terms of supply chain, otherwise tariff impact, any updated thoughts on that front in terms of limited component availability or pricing headwinds? Thanks.

Speaker 5

Yeah, Scott, quickly on the data center market, we continue to watch those elements of technology around AI accelerators and other. Yes, we adjust and work, adjusting our product line and strategy as we go through, as that market adopts. We have a number of core customers that we keep aligned with and where their product roadmap needs go. Our Chief Product Officer and their team stay aligned with that. I think you'll see us continue to make announcements about the new products and product alignment as we continue through the quarters and well into next year.

Speaker 1

Yeah, on the supply chain front, I just asked, certainly with the higher production that we have in the second half of the year, we're ordering larger volumes from our suppliers. That is impacting lead times. We are seeing longer lead times for some of those components. We're working really closely with our supply chain, driving our suppliers to make sure we're able to mitigate those lead time risks. We think that all those risks are kind of captured in our guidance. It's a key focus. Supply chain execution will be a key driver for our second half performance.

Speaker 0

Great, thanks so much.

Speaker 5

Thanks, Scott.

Speaker 4

We can take our next question from Eric Martinuzzi with Lake Street. Your line is open.

Speaker 3

Yeah, I just wanted to clarify your comment on the Brezhnev segment. You talked about kind of anticipating normal growth rates. I'm struggling with what's normal because, you know, we were up 10% in 2023, down 6% in 2024, and based on 2025, I'm looking at maybe up 2%. I thought I've heard you describe it to kind of grow at the rate of the overall IT rate, which I would put in the 5% to 9% range. Just help me out there. What is normalized growth for the Brezhnev segment?

Speaker 1

Yeah, so for our guidance, you know, we've guided consolidated revenue $59 to $61 million, $30 million for the OSF segment. That implies, you know, the European markets segment at about $30 to $31 million for the year. As I said before, we track a range of risks and opportunities to that. Right now, that's probably biased towards opportunity, particularly because of the supply chain lead times that we've seen on the OSF segment and the significant production ramp that we have. We've kind of taken the conservative position and held our guidance. We are continuing to strive for opportunity.

Speaker 3

I'm asking more of a 2026 question, I guess. For what is, yeah, what does it?

Speaker 1

Yeah, so in general, you know, our longer-term outlook as we look into 2026, 2027, you know, we see the OSF segment growing at about 20% a year, 20% to 25%. The Brezhnev segment we model in the range of 7% to 9%.

Speaker 3

Okay, that's what I was looking for. Thanks. Mike, you've had a chance, or I guess maybe your customers have had a chance to digest the One Big Beautiful Bill Act on their business. I'm just curious to know, since the passage on the 4th of July and today, what are you hearing about the potential impact to your pipeline in 2026, 2027?

Speaker 5

Yeah, Eric, you know, not seeing a significant change to kind of the pipeline than the way we figured out in the forecast. We're looking at 2026 and 2027. The markets inside of defense are fairly well aligned, especially the markets where we pursue that have to do with sensor processing, fusion, AI, and autonomy. Those markets have held strong. Continued investment. We've been specifically more aligned to watching the timing of when the bills will be released into 2025 or into 2026. As you know, we were on a full year continuing resolution this year. That caused some delays in new program launches that we've had to work through. It's just caused some delays in existing funding.

It seems like 2026, the current process is on track for a bill to be on schedule for the year for 2026, although I'm starting to hear early rumblings of maybe a few short months CR to start off 2026. I would say we're more concerned about the timing of CRs and new program releases than we are the effects on the scale or opportunity of the markets and where they're going. If anything, we're probably more opportunistic on the overall pipeline and outlook because we have seen, it existed prior before this administration, the desire and need to move into some more commercial applications. Under the new administration, that desire has increased and their hope is really to accelerate some of that timing. We have seen some early precursor requests for information, requests for architecture thoughts permeating out. Hopefully that'll transition into awards.

As I mentioned, it's really the timing, I would say, that we keep an eye on more so than our concerns about any growth or change to the pipeline or scope in the future.

Speaker 3

Yeah, Tim, you talked about the U.S. Army combat vehicle opportunity that you're kind of, they're kicking the tires on what you guys can offer them. Any sense of the size as well as the timing of some kind of, I'm just not familiar. I know it's a terrific opportunity. I don't know if it would be, you know, a one or two-year sample set and then you get into full production even if you do win it. Just help me size that opportunity as well as get into the timing.

Speaker 5

Yeah, we're very early stage on this. As we had noted in a number of other investor presentations, we had identified opportunities in our pipeline that had opportunity to be larger in nature than our normal work. There was time to go and we had aligned the probability of those accordingly. We're early stages of opportunity here with the Army. We're in the research labs who are sharing the technology and their test and evaluation with the acquisition offices who are evaluating those against their requirements, needs, and funding. As I noted in our comments, I would anticipate from what we're seeing in their schedule, they'll continue testing through the remainder of this year. That will start to inform their requirements definition and budget building for 2026 and beyond.

The speed or size or volume of which those will go will be dependent on the need and the demand and how they want to utilize existing funds or new funds. It's a little bit early for me to say how that would, how long or what the scope and value of that would be. I think we'll know more in the quarters to come as we see the culmination of the testing and the requirements generation on the acquisition side.

Speaker 3

Okay. Last question for me is on the gross margin side. I was encouraged to see that OSF segment that you're comfortable with a 40%+ on the gross margins there. Can we extrapolate that out, given the 2026 we're looking for a faster growth rate in the OSF segment versus European markets and that the gross margins for the business would increase in 2026 as well?

Speaker 1

Yeah, I think from a gross margin perspective, we look at gross margin as really being driven by two things. One is absorption. As we get better volume, we get better absorption. The other is product mix and program lifecycle. From a product mix perspective, straightforward, we have some products that are higher margins, some products that are lower margins. We see some variability from quarter to quarter. From a program lifecycle perspective, we typically see early in the program, you have customer-funded development that tends to be lower margin. You move maybe to some prototype builds. Those also tend to be lower margin. You don't have as much opportunity for learning curve and supply chain efficiency. You get into low rate, full rate production, tech refresh, and sustainment. That's really where you see the expanding margins. As we model 2026, we kind of weigh all of those factors.

I think that for the OSF segment overall, we continue to guide mid-30% to low to mid-40%. I think that will sustain through 2026. There could be some variability from quarter to quarter on where in that range of mid-30% to low to mid-40% we land.

Speaker 3

Got it. Thanks for taking my questions.

Speaker 5

Thanks, Eric.

Speaker 4

We can go next to Brian Kinstlinger with Alliance Global Partners. Your line is open.

Speaker 2

Great, thank you. Sorry I joined late if it's already been discussed. Several companies have been sharing that government short-term awards have been hurt by an uncertain government funding year, which I know you know and have discussed that. What was the mix of government to commercial bookings in the first half that's been so strong? In terms of your bid and proposal activity, how is it being impacted on the government side?

Speaker 5

Yeah, thanks, Brian. On the booking side, the percentage has been a little more weighted to defense over commercial as we've gone through the first half of the year. Part of that was driven by we saw a pickup in defense orders in the second half of the second quarter of this year. It looked we started to see the government start to pull out and in as they got getting closer to the end of their fiscal year to start aligning and moving budget and making awards. We were encouraged by that movement through the year. As we look forward, the way our companies build as we're aligning bid and proposals, we're looking at 2026 and beyond. You know, the opportunity set that's in there, I think we're well aligned with the teams and the bid and proposal budgets we have set to capture the opportunities we're in.

I think we're still well aligned. As I mentioned earlier, for us, we continue to monitor the timing on how the government will be able to move its budgets down to awardable releases.

Speaker 2

How do you think about the bid and proposal? Is the goal to be bidding three times your kind of revenue rates? Is it, do you have a number in the pipeline that you think is addressable through 2026? Maybe anything you can share on that would be helpful, maybe compared to where you've been in 2024 and 2025.

Speaker 5

Yeah, Brian, I'll let you lay it out this way, how we work the process. You've heard me talking, we have a five-year factored and unfactored pipeline. In any given year, we have a factored and unfactored forecast or pipeline that we're going after for the year. The unfactored and the factored pipeline numbers, both, the factored pipeline number really represents where we've been able to achieve that 20% or greater growth. We have significantly more factored opportunities in a quarter to drive the revenue that we get in any quarter, and that same holds for the year. As we process that out, we have that significantly greater opportunity to bid down.

The ratio of bid and proposal, of how much we're bidding versus how much we pull in, changes quarter to quarter and by the year, just based on the size and the probability of a program happening and our probability of win. I'll say we've been able to convert well. The majority of the stuff that we win is generally sole source. Customers see what we have to offer, and there's not a comparative competitor offering the same thing. We're usually competing against an incumbent or an existing architecture. We tend to win our stuff sole source. Where we are competing head-to-head, we've been winning a little bit more than 70% to 75% of the programs that we've bid. We've been getting a fairly good transition rate out of our pipeline and into revenue.

Our biggest thing I go back to, the thing we tend to worry about more, is what's the probability of the timing that something's funded, ready to go, and is going to be released in the time that our customers identify versus when they actually happen.

Speaker 2

Just to make sure I understand what I heard, because I thought it was a big takeaway there. Are you saying that of factored proposals, you're winning 70% to 75% of those?

Speaker 5

In the competitions that we bid, that are competitions, we're winning 75% or more of those.

Speaker 2

Wow. That's really telling. The last question I have is, just to be clear, is proposal activity in the pipeline near-term kind of steady? Is it rapidly increasing? Is it steadily increasing? Just maybe give some discussion on the trends you're seeing in near-term pipeline.

Speaker 5

Yeah, we've seen, as the company has grown from 2024 quarter on quarter into 2025, with the book-to-bill ratios you're seeing, we've seen a steady increase in the activity in our bids and proposals. That starts out with early requests for information, early engagements with customers into architecture ideas and concepts. We've seen the requests for information or requests for white papers. We've seen a significant steady increase in that from 2024 into 2025. It looks like it's going to continue well into the second half of 2025. The result of that also is that we're putting out more proposals that come from the first engagement through requests for information. We're also seeing, as our pipeline continues to expand out through the years, each year, that our opportunities for bids are also increasing.

Yes, we're seeing a steady increase in the amount of proposals and requests for information quarter to quarter.

Speaker 2

Great. Congratulations on the progress over the last couple of years of turning the business around.

Speaker 5

Thanks, Brian.

Speaker 4

This does conclude our question and answer session. I'd like to turn the program back over to our presenters for any closing remarks.

Speaker 5

No closing remarks, Aaron. You can close the call.

Speaker 4

Thank you for your participation. This does conclude today's program. You may disconnect at any time.