nLight (NASDAQ:LASR) executives used a presentation at the TD Cowen Aerospace and Defense Conference to outline the company’s vertically integrated laser technology platform, its emphasis on defense-driven growth, and the rationale behind a recent equity raise intended to support investment ahead of expected demand.
Vertically integrated laser platform
Founder and CEO Scott Keeney described nLight as a high-power laser manufacturer that is vertically integrated “from the semiconductor chip all the way through to complete high-power laser subsystems.” He said the company is headquartered in the Pacific Northwest, which he framed as an advantage for a semiconductor-focused business due to proximity to major fabrication operations, and that nLight also operates a site in Colorado.
Defense focus: directed energy, sensing, and advanced manufacturing
Keeney said nLight began as a dual-use company serving commercial/industrial and defense markets, but that defense has more recently become the core market and is “driving our growth.” He tied the company’s priorities to U.S. defense technology focus areas, highlighting three areas he said are central for nLight: directed energy, sensing, and advanced manufacturing.
Directed energy. Keeney described directed energy as using high-power lasers to “damage, degrade, destroy” threats ranging from counter-drone applications to rockets, artillery, mortars, and missiles, as well as air- and space-based strategic uses. He emphasized the importance of beam-combining approaches, contrasting spectral combining with coherent combining. While he said nLight uses both, he argued coherent combining is the better path for higher-power applications because it can scale to higher power, produce a brighter source, and adjust the beam to compensate for atmospheric effects.
He stated that nLight has “the highest power laser in the world now at over 300 kW” and is “scaling to 1 MW right now.” He also argued that power alone is not sufficient, emphasizing brightness and atmospheric compensation as differentiators, and said the Pentagon is focused on implementing coherent beam combining.
Sensing. Keeney described sensing applications as using pulsed lasers for information gathering such as rangefinding and LiDAR. He said the company has been supporting programs of record for more than a decade and is deployed on “various missiles” that are ramping up. He also said nLight has space-qualified lasers for multiple applications. One area he highlighted was ISR, where he described LiDAR as complementing radar by providing higher resolution and fidelity, and doing so “in a stealthy way.”
Advanced manufacturing. In advanced manufacturing, Keeney focused on laser additive manufacturing for 3D printing metal parts. He cited hypersonics and rocket engines as key use cases and said nLight’s lasers are “core to the production of most of the key rocket engines that are being built today that are 3D-printed metal rocket engines.” He also described how the company adjusts beam characteristics for fine lattice structures versus bulk build speed, and said nLight has proprietary technology that can toggle between modes.
Thermal management and engineering constraints
During Q&A, Keeney said thermal management is critical for high-power lasers, noting that the heat flux at the semiconductor laser facet is “approaching the heat flux of the surface of the sun.” He described heat removal as a key engineering challenge across the system, from chip to full subsystem.
He also pointed to an intersection between thermal design and additive manufacturing, describing how some optimized coolers rely on complex channels that can be produced via laser additive manufacturing—characterizing it as “cooling the lasers with lasers that are printing those parts.”
Customer relationships and vertical integration as a differentiator
Asked about partners in sensing, Keeney said nLight works across government agencies and services and sells subsystems to prime contractors rather than acting as a prime itself. He said the company works with “all of the primes” in both sensing and directed energy.
On how vertical integration supports wins or execution, Keeney argued that rapidly evolving technology makes arm’s-length integration across multiple companies difficult due to transaction costs and limits on sharing proprietary information. As an example, he cited nLight’s acquisition of a Colorado-based business (Nutronics) for coherent beam combining and atmospheric correction technology. He said bringing that team in-house enabled tighter coupling across the entire technology stack, including influences back to chip-level design such as proprietary wavelength-locking to mitigate temperature-driven wavelength shifts and improve downstream performance.
Capital raise and investment priorities
Keeney addressed a question regarding a recent capital raise, stating the company raised $175 million, or $200 million including the greenshoe, and said nLight’s balance sheet is now “over $250 million.” He said the decision to raise capital was based on three priorities:
- Investing ahead of programs of record: Keeney said the directed energy end applications are “reasonably well known” and pressing, and that the enabling technology has matured only in recent years. He said nLight is investing in product development and new processes ahead of formal programs of record.
- Additional CapEx and operational investment: He cited ongoing investment across parts of the business.
- M&A capacity: He said the company wants flexibility to pursue acquisitions as it has in the past, referencing the post-IPO acquisition that established the Colorado site and describing it as transformative, while noting there was no specific deal being highlighted at the conference.
In a later exchange, executives discussed potential bottlenecks tied to lead times for specialized optics and components, which Keeney said can run around 12 months, prompting the company to place inventory “bets” and assess whether additional vertical integration is warranted. John Marchetti, vice president of corporate development and head of investor relations, added that nLight recently announced an expansion in Longmont and said a portion of the capital would be used to outfit that facility, including enabling concurrent system builds. Marchetti said those steps have been “very well received by the Pentagon.”
Looking ahead, Keeney said he is most excited about the growth potential in directed energy and sensing due to their market size and importance, while describing additive manufacturing as smaller by comparison. He also referenced lessons from Ukraine and said U.S. Indo-Pacific challenges are “arguably much bigger,” arguing that both directed energy and sensing are vital. He also mentioned “Golden Dome” as an area that would require both sensing and directed energy effectors working together.
About nLight (NASDAQ:LASR)
nLIGHT, Inc designs, develops, manufactures, and sells semiconductor and fiber lasers for industrial, microfabrication, and aerospace and defense applications. The company operates in two segments, Laser Products and Advanced Development. It offers semiconductor lasers with various ranges of power levels, wavelengths, and output fiber sizes; and programmable and serviceable fiber lasers for use in industrial and aerospace and defense applications. The company also provides laser sensors, including light detection and ranging technologies for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance applications; and fiber amplifiers, beam combination, and control systems for use in high-energy laser systems in directed energy applications.
