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Image source: The Motley Fool. Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2026 at 4:30 p.m. ET Investor Relations - Risa Lindsay President and Chief Executive Officer - Jeff Hawkins Chief Financial Officer - Jeffry Keyes Operator: Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Quantum-Si Second Quarter 2026 Earnings Call. [Operator Instructions] Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I'd now like to turn the conference over to Risa Lindsay. Risa Lindsay: Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us. Earlier today, Quantum-Si released financial results for the second quarter and 6 months ended June 30, 2026. A copy of the press release is available on the company's website. Joining me today are Jeff Hawkins, our President and Chief Executive Officer, as well as Jeff Keyes, our Chief Financial Officer. Before we begin, I would like to remind you that management will be making certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Federal Securities Laws. These statements involve material risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results or events to materially differ from those anticipated. Additional information regarding these risks and uncertainties appears in the section entitled Forward-Looking Statements of our press release. For a more complete list and description of risk factors, please see the company's filings made with the Securities and Exchange Commission. This conference call contains time-sensitive information that is accurate only as of the live broadcast date today, August 13, 2026, at 1:30 p.m. Pacific Time. Except as required by law, the company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements. During this call, we will also be referring to certain financial measures that are not prepared in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles, or GAAP. A reconciliation of these non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures is included in the press release filed earlier today. With that, let me turn the call over to Jeff Hawkins. Jeffrey Hawkins: Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us. On today's call, we will provide a business update and review our operating results for the second quarter of 2026. After that, we will open the call for questions. Before diving into specific updates, I want to address at a high level the Proteus roadmap update we announced earlier today. We have updated the Proteus launch timeline from the end of 2026 to the second quarter of 2027. The primary driver of the change is the decision to add an additional integrated instrument design cycle to the program prior to moving to production. In connection with this roadmap review, we have also made program leadership and governance changes to strengthen accountability, improve technical oversight and ensure the Proteus program is managed against clear product readiness gates. Furthermore, we are taking operating expense actions in parallel with this roadmap update that are designed to reduce our cash burn and align our cost structure with the revised timeline while preserving investments in the highest priority Proteus work streams. Our conviction in Proteus remains strong. We have generated sufficient sequencing data from integrated units that we remain confident in the underlying technology. That said, we are taking these actions now because we believe it is more responsible and capital efficient to derisk the platform before production than to move forward before product readiness is fully demonstrated. Focusing on the customer experience at launch is the most important thing we can do to protect the long-term value of the Proteus platform. The remainder of the call will be organized around our 3 corporate priorities for 2026, which are as follows: to deliver Proteus with the capabilities customers need, to prepare the market for Proteus launch and to preserve our financial strength. Our first priority is to deliver Proteus with the capabilities customers need. First, let's start by diving a bit deeper into the instrument development. In 2025, we built and tested Proteus prototypes. In the first half of 2026, we built and began testing integrated units. Those integrated units have generated valuable learnings about both manufacturing processes and system-level performance that prototypes could not fully provide. Based on that testing, we concluded that moving directly from the current integrated unit design to production would carry more execution risk than we are comfortable with taking. We're therefore adding an additional integrated instrument design cycle before moving into production. The purpose of this additional design cycle is to reduce manufacturing risk, improve system repeatability, strengthen product readiness and to ensure a positive customer experience at launch. We are making this decision now because we believe it is more responsible and more capital efficient to derisk the platform before production than to scale prematurely and put the customer experience at risk. Finally, I want to reiterate that we have generated sufficient sequencing data from integrated units that we remain confident in the underlying technology. Turning now to recognizer development, we communicated on our first quarter earnings call that our internal developmental sequencing kit was able to detect 17 amino acids. Our progress in this area and the pace of improvement we are seeing has continued to meet our expectations. Given the revised instrument timeline, we will be able to progress even further in this area before locking the reagent formulation for launch. We believe that with this additional time, we will be in a strong position to deliver Proteus with a detection capability of either 19 or 20 amino acids at launch. We will have greater clarity on this specific reagent configuration when we get closer to launch. Finally, I want to share an important update on our Library Preparation strategy. As a reminder, Library Preparation is the process used to prepare a customer sample for sequencing. Our kit performs 2 key functions, digesting proteins into peptides and attaching a linker to those peptides. That linker enables each peptide to attach to the bottom of the nanowells on our sequencing array where it can be sequenced as a single molecule. Historically, we approached Library Preparation as a general-purpose kit intended to work across the broad range of proteins and applications. One of the important benefits of having our first-generation Platinum system in the market is that we have gained significant real-world insight into how different proteins behave during Library Preparation as well as customer needs across a range of applications. Through our work supporting Platinum customers, we have also developed improvements and add-on capabilities related to Library Preparation, both internally and, in some cases, in collaboration with customers. These learnings have led us to an important strategic shift, evolving from a single generic kit to a suite of application-oriented kits that can be used individually or in combination to optimize sequencing performance for specific customer use cases. We believe this strategy provides 2 key advantages. First, by giving customers more complete off-the-shelf tools tailored to their applications, we can make implementation more efficient and reduce the amount of customer optimization required. Second, this approach allows our development teams to deliver a broad range of capabilities faster and with lower technical risk. Developing kits around more specific application needs is less complex than trying to make 1 generic kit, which performs optimally across every protein type and workflow. We are excited about this strategy and believe it positions us to bring new Library Preparation capabilities to market in connection with the Proteus launch. Our second corporate priority is to prepare the market for Proteus launch. As a reminder, during 2025, we launched a placement program for our first-generation Platinum system. This program allows customers to access the Platinum instrument in their own labs without needing to secure budget for an upfront capital purchase. Through this program, we have gained important market and technical insights that give us increasing confidence in the opportunity for protein sequencing and in the alignment between customer requirements and our target specifications for Proteus. First, we have had the opportunity to work with customers across a broad range of applications spanning academic research and biopharma. One recent example is work we have been doing with a biopharma customer in Europe on the application of protein sequencing to adeno-associated viral vectors, or AAV serotyping. AAVs are commonly used as delivery vehicles in gene therapy, and the presence and relative abundance of different AAV serotypes is important to therapy performance. This application is well suited to protein sequencing because the differences between AAV serotypes often involves only a small number of amino acid differences. With Platinum, we have been able to demonstrate the ability to detect relevant amino acid differences. However, due to the limited sequencing output of Platinum, we did not reach the sensitivity required for routine use in that customer workflow. Importantly, using the Platinum data, we were able to model expected performance on Proteus based on its planned increase in number of nanowells, and that model suggests the customer sensitivity requirement is achievable on Proteus. Based on readily available market data, there are more than 150 biotech and pharmaceutical companies developing gene therapies that use AAVs for delivery, suggesting that this single application could represent an attractive market opportunity for Proteus. A second important learning from our Platinum commercial activities is the potential opportunity in non-human proteomics. Earlier this year, researchers at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory published data using our single-molecule protein sequencing technology for novel pathogen and toxin detection. Over the past few months, we have been working with multiple customers applying protein sequencing to agricultural applications, pathogen detection and typing, and viral protein surveillance applications. We have identified 2 important features of non-human proteomics that make it especially interesting for Proteus. First, many of these markets are not well served by traditional techniques such as immunoassays or Western blots. Second, in many applications, customers need a technology that does not depend on a defined reference because the pathogen or protein of interest may evolve through small changes including single amino acid differences. We believe these market features align well with the core capabilities we are designing into Proteus. Based on readily available market data and looking specifically at the pathogen research and agricultural research markets where our Platinum work has given us a clearer understanding of customer needs, we believe the non-human proteomics market opportunity for Proteus is substantial at more than $4 billion annually. We believe this is a conservative estimate because it does not include additional segments such as environmental, animal health, industrial or food applications where we believe there may be meaningful future opportunity, but where our understanding of the specific customer needs and fit for protein sequencing is still developing. Finally, I want to provide a brief update on our commercial initiatives to build awareness of Proteus in advance of launch. Our commercial team has been executing well, and we continue to receive very positive feedback on Proteus and the wide range of applications it is designed to address. To date, we have identified and qualified more than 250 unique institutions with stated interest in Proteus and the capabilities we are aiming to deliver. These institutions span multiple market segments, including academic research, biopharma and industrial applications, and they have asked to be updated as new information and data become available. We will continue to provide updates on this important market development initiative as we progress toward the Proteus launch. Our third priority is to preserve our financial strength. As I stated earlier, the operating expense actions we communicated today are intended to reduce cash burn, extend our runway and align our cost structure with the revised Proteus timeline while preserving investments in the highest priority work streams required for launch. We are making these decisions as a matter of fiscal discipline. Our focus is to concentrate resources on the activities that most directly improve Proteus readiness, derisk the platform before production and allow us to fund that work responsibly over the extended timeline. I will now turn the call over to Jeff to review our financial results. Jeffry Keyes: Thanks, Jeff. I'll now review our second quarter and first half financial results, discuss the expected financial impact of the operating expense actions we announced today and then provide an update on our full year outlook. Revenue in the second quarter of 2026 was $344,000 compared to $591,000 in the second quarter of 2025. Revenue for the first 6 months of 2026 was $602,000 compared to $1.4 million in the prior year period. Results continue to reflect the dynamics we have discussed throughout 2026, including limited near-term capital purchasing activity for Platinum, ongoing consumable utilization for our installed base, customer awareness of the anticipated Proteus launch and deliberate commercial decisions designed to position customers for a successful transition to Proteus. Gross profit was $172,000 in the second quarter of 2026, resulting in gross margin of 50%. For the first 6 months of 2026, gross profit was $246,000, resulting in gross margin of 41%. Gross margin continues to be affected by the mix and timing of instrument, consumable and service revenue as well as the commercial choices we are making to support the market readiness for Proteus. Turning to expenses, GAAP total operating expenses for the second quarter of 2026 were $25.8 million compared to $30.5 million in the second quarter of 2025. Adjusted operating expenses were $22.6 million compared to $23.8 million in the prior year quarter. For the first 6 months of 2026, GAAP total operating expenses were $49.9 million and adjusted operating expenses were $43.9 million. We continue to manage expenses with discipline while prioritizing the investment required to complete Proteus development, scale internal testing, support manufacturing readiness and prepare the commercial organization for launch. As part of this disciplined approach, earlier today we announced operating expense actions, including a targeted reduction in force representing approximately 20% of the total company headcount. These actions are designed to better align our expense base with the updated Proteus development plan, reduce cash usage, extend our runway and provide additional flexibility as we execute the remaining product readiness work. In making these decisions, we were deliberate in preserving investment in the highest priority work streams required for the Proteus launch. We expect these actions, once complete, to result in approximately $12 million of annual operating expense savings. Net loss was $23.5 million in the second quarter of 2026 compared to a net loss of $28.8 million in the same period of the prior year. Adjusted EBITDA was negative $21.2 million compared to negative $22.2 million in the prior year quarter. Dividend and interest income was $1.7 million compared to $2.3 million in the prior year quarter, reflecting the rate environment and changes in invested balances. As of June 30, 2026, we had $169.9 million in cash, cash equivalents and investments in marketable securities. Taking into account the reduction in force and other operating expense management actions, we now believe we have sufficient capital to support the updated Proteus plan, execute the key activities required for launch and fund operations into the fourth quarter of 2028. This runway allows us to remain focused on the highest return uses of capital, including platform readiness, customer sample evaluations, manufacturing readiness and commercial launch execution. Our full year 2026 outlook remains focused on 3 financial priorities. Maintaining spending discipline, funding the activities required to deliver Proteus with the capabilities customers need and preserving the balance sheet strength necessary to support launch and adoption. For the full year 2026, we're reiterating guidance of revenue of approximately $1 million, adjusted operating expenses of $98 million or less, and total cash usage of $93 million or less. The key financial takeaway is that we are aligning our capital allocation with the updated Proteus development plan. The revised launch timing allows us to complete the additional design, testing and readiness work needed before production, while the operating expense actions announced today are intended to fund that work in a disciplined manner. We're also continuing to invest in the activities that support customer confidence ahead of the launch, including evidence generation with Platinum, Proteus awareness initiatives, customer sample evaluations and targeted commercial engagement. Taken together, these actions are designed to reduce cash usage, extend our runway and preserve the financial flexibility needed to execute the Proteus launch plan effectively. In summary, we remain focused on using capital efficiently, funding the critical path to Proteus launch, and making the right long-term trade-offs to support the adoption of the Proteus platform. With that, operator, please open the line for questions. Operator: [Operator Instructions] Our first question today will come from Scott Henry with Alliance Global Partners. Scott Henry: I'm going to start with a couple big picture questions. I recognize you probably answered this perhaps in more detail, but I'm just looking for kind of a top-down, higher-level thought. What drove the change? Did it come from customers or, as you were working through it, did you just say, hey, if we make these changes, it'll be that much more of an effective product? Jeffrey Hawkins: Yes, Scott, it's a good question. It comes from our internal assessment. You know, it's a mix of just the performance we're seeing in terms of repeatability and consistency across the machines we have, thinking about what the manufacturing processes have looked like all the way from the optical module and its sort of yields and success rates into the integrated machines, looking at that and saying what improvements are necessary to have a very high-quality repeatable manufacturing and supply chain, looking at long lead components and planning those out. It's really us thinking through all of those things and saying to have the highest likelihood of success to ensure that this is the machine that customers expect, performs the way we want and we can manufacture it and deliver it consistently. We believe we needed to add this additional cycle. It wasn't driven by some sort of new feedback from customers that caused us to believe we need to add some capabilities we weren't planning for. It's really an internally driven assessment of where we are and the best way to get to the product with the capabilities and manufacturing quality we expect. Scott Henry: Okay, great. That's helpful. And with regards to the target of 2Q '27, do you feel pretty comfortable in that number? How much risk is there to that date, I should say? Jeffrey Hawkins: Yes, Scott, it's a good question. It's a complex development program, so you're never 100% sure of anything. That said, I can tell you that we completed a very thorough review of the program. We took all the learnings from both prototypes and integrated unit testing into consideration. We've added this design cycle that really helps us to retire a lot of key risk before we move into production. And then we've -- as we mentioned in our prepared remarks, really stepped up some sort of the program management side, the things we're doing to have even higher oversight and governance, including from my role in this project. So I think when you take all those together, based on everything we know, we think we've factored that in, that the timeline of Q2 reflects the work required to deliver the product that meets our standards. And that's sort of how we landed on that date. Scott Henry: Okay, great. And then, another big picture question. I think everyone understands the enormity of the proteomics market in the different applications and how each one individual can be a blockbuster indication. But the question is, your new products, they tend to have something that leads the way, a hook. And do you get a sense of, when you go to launch it, what the hook for the Proteus is going to be? Who are going to be the main initial users, adopters of the technology? Or maybe it'll be a mix of multiple. I just want to get your thought on that early adoption. Jeffrey Hawkins: Yes, I think, Scott, it will probably be a mix of a couple things. I think naturally with any new product launch, and we saw this even in the very earliest days of Platinum, you're going to have some number of customers often in the academic research space who are going to adopt the new technology and sort of explore its capabilities and its edges of performance. I think there's always going to be some number of those folks. That's obviously not your big sort of user base for the long haul, but they certainly are there in the early days. I think as we look at where are more of those applications or market segments where you can sort of have that initial hook. I sort of would think of it in 2 ways. One is clearly in the academic research environment, our ability to have very high coverage of proteins, be able to address the most studied post-translational modifications. Those types of things fit very well into sort of that translational world. I've got a protein, now I want to study it in a population of people. I think as we look more into biopharma and other industrial applications, as we talked about on our call a bit, our ability to work with proteins that aren't covered by existing technologies, we've seen this a bit in the military applications we've talked about, where we've worked across multiple branches here within U.S. military, we've got active engagements with other militaries outside of the U.S. This sort of ability to apply a technology that doesn't need a defined reference to things like pathogen identification, pathogen surveillance, other epidemiological type of work. We think that opportunity could be very meaningful and isn't well served by competitive methods. So that could be another area where we see sort of a hook. And that spans researchers, it spans government entities, it could span industrial as you think about antibody production and other things. So I think those are maybe the 2 really unique capabilities that we see sort of having some hooks into the different segments. Scott Henry: Okay, great. Just a final -- just quick question on R&D. I can see SG&A contracting with the cost cuts. How should we think about R&D in the next couple of quarters relative to Q2? Jeffry Keyes: I think you're going to see R&D fairly consistent to prior quarters. I mean, there are some adjustments as we streamlined the development process as we commented on earlier, Scott. But by and far and large, the spend on the program and the important spend on the program will remain intact because that's the most important thing that we're doing here. There could be some ups and downs just over the next couple of quarters as we change around a few things to make sure the program's on track and it stays on track for Q2 2027. But our operating expense action is really hitting all areas across the company and is really associated with the timeline of the program and to make a few things around the company more efficient. So, from that aspect, I think you're going to see the spend relatively consistent with a few adjustments. Operator: Our next question comes from Michael King with Rodman & Renshaw. Michael King: Maybe just a bit of a follow-up on Scott -- your answers to Scott's questions about the additional design cycle. So again, just to be clear on this, was this a function of you running demonstration runs with prototype systems, or was this a result of some scale-up that you were doing for future customer delivery? That's the first part of the question. And then the second part of the question is, how does this affect your ability to satisfy the early access program that you've put in place? Jeffrey Hawkins: Yes, Michael, so again, this is driven by us having deployed integrated machines in our R&D environment and looking at the repeatability of the performance we see, not just in pure sequencing, as you can imagine when you're developing a product like this, you're also looking at a lot of other more fundamental performance metrics or requirements of specific submodules even of the system. And what we were really looking at is how are all of those things performing? Where are they against what our expectation is? And that feeds back into also, what did we learn when we produced those units and what other things we could do that would make that process more efficient in the future or result in a higher first pass yield. So it's a mix of assessment of the repeatability of performance and also our assessment of opportunities to make some design for manufacturability type changes now. That to -- the second part of your question is critical when you think about when we launch we want to be able to confidently and reliably make these instruments and deliver them to customers. So some of those changes are exactly aligned to do that so we don't end up with that learning down the road when we're in the market. Michael King: Okay. And would it apply to the reagents themselves, Jeff, or is this just the instrumentation? Jeffrey Hawkins: It's very hardware-focused, Michael. I mean, reagent development is still ongoing as well as the consumables, but those areas have really been tracking largely to our expectations. It's very instrument-centric areas on this particular sort of topic. Michael King: Got it. And the part of the question about the early access? You slow that down a bit? Jeffrey Hawkins: Yes, so we haven't yet officially started any early access. We have announced that we have for select customers done some sample testing. With this shift in the timeline, we would expect that the early access will also move out. We don't have an official date with which we're saying we're going to start that activity. But I think from our mindset, we want to really see this instrument design cycle get completed, built and tested internally. That would then allow us to sort of open up for testing customer samples and then sort of following on would be sort of deploying these into the field for early access. So I think that event is going to -- it's going to obviously shift out in time... Michael King: Okay. And then is there any thought maybe you could -- would you be able to -- I know you're limited in your supply with Platinum Plus -- sorry Platinum Pro, but are you able to swap those units in just to keep potential clients engaged with the company? Or was that kind of a... Jeffrey Hawkins: Yes, Michael, we have sufficient Platinum Pro machines to be able to work with customers. We have been continuing to use the placement program where we have folks, as the 1 example I gave, around AAV serotyping. That's a good example of leveraging the placement program to engage with a customer, work on their application, really for us, both the customer and us, to understand exactly what's needed to be there. And we feel very good there about Proteus sort of closing the remaining gap. So we still have that available. Our reps have that available. Some customers like that path, others prefer to wait and start with Proteus. So we really let the customers steer that, but we're comfortable that we have sufficient supply of consumables to continue to support that placement program, as customers may request on the path to Proteus. Michael King: Okay. And just as far as kind of merging the full suite of reagents with the commercial unit, assuming that you guys hit your timelines. I was under the impression you'd have all the full repertoire of 21 amino acids available sometime in the first half of next year. Is that still your goal? And would that mean that when Proteus is out there that the full suite of reagents is available? Jeffrey Hawkins: Yes, so Michael, let's go back. What have we said sort of historically? We've said when we believed we would launch Proteus by the end of this year, we had said we would launch with 18, and we would demonstrate all 20, right, and then add 20 when we got into 2027. What we communicate today was with the timeline move, we expect now that we'll be in a position to launch with either 19 or 20. If we launch with 19, then we would still expect to bring on 20 during 2027. We just don't know yet exactly where we'll land on 19 or 20, but we still think we'll be able to demonstrate all 20 this year. We just aren't yet ready to commit to exactly what will be in that kit except to say we do believe it will be either 19 or 20 given the additional time. Operator: Our next question comes from Kyle Mikson with Canaccord Genuity. Kyle Mikson: On the additional cycle that you're, I guess, working on, can you maybe speak to how performance or reproducibility could be affected by this? Or maybe the steps that you take to avoid maybe impacting what your prior performance level expectations were going to be? Jeffrey Hawkins: Yes, Kyle, I think, let me answer what I think you're asking. And if I'm off, just let me know. So what we've observed, again, in the units that we have internally is we have some instruments that really reliably perform at a very high level, meaning above our internal specifications for the product. We have other machines that are performing sort of at or a little below where that's at. And what we are really trying to do with this set of the sort of design spin is make the changes we've identified that we believe allow all of those units to be performing consistently at that higher level. So we think this enables us to sort of unify the repeatability sort of profile of the instruments and also equally as important, take some of the sort of complexity or challenges we saw in manufacturing out by making those design for manufacturability improvements. So I think it will be a combination of the improvement and the simplification of the manufacturing process, but then also the repeatability we should see in the machine should continue to trend up and be consistently above our internal specifications. Kyle Mikson: Yes, that was perfect. And I guess on this note, I mean just -- I'm curious if the production time or any sort of -- any kind of like timing with -- I don't think the sales cycle is a good question for this, but I think like the production time could be interesting to ask about. Could that be -- is that elongated through this process? It's like not really clear if this is how much is affected in manufacturing versus the kind of the end product, if that makes sense? Jeffrey Hawkins: Yes, that's a good question. So I'll say a couple of things on the manufacturing front. It has definitely been more challenging and sort of longer to get the machines than we had anticipated. I think we have an optical module that is made as a fully built-up component by one of our partners that is then sort of qualified and shipped to our instrument partner who then puts that into the broader sort of fully integrated machine. We -- when you're doing this for the first time, you certainly learn a lot about how each of the steps in the process works, how bringing all that together works, and then sort of learn a lot about how exactly do you test that and confirm its functioning is going to meet its requirements. So we've definitely learned a lot about that. That improves every time we make another machine, and I think with the set of changes for manufacturability we've identified, we'd expect with this next cycle for that to look a lot more compressed and lead to a very high yield sort of success coming out the end of the line. So I'd say sort of that about the manufacturing side of the house. In parallel, we are obviously being very conscious of how lead times of components can move around. That is not a constraint today, but we're watching very closely, especially in the world of electronics and GPUs, to make sure -- I mean, you don't have to be an expert in AI to know that the proliferation of data centers and the build out there is a massive consumer of those chips. So we are definitely staying very close to our vendor for those and ensuring that we have those procured well in advance so that when we get to the production stage, that's not a limiting factor. So I think that's the most important thing to limit any future production is really staying on top of long lead components. But I think in terms of just the time to build, that should be largely resolved through this next spin we do prior to going into production. Kyle Mikson: All right, excellent. On the topic of, I think you just referenced data. So with this like chipflation and memory prices increasing and everything, remind us of your exposure to that potential challenge, I guess, beyond '26 when you have Proteus out there? I know the architecture is a bit different, but obviously, like the company historically has been reliant upon semis and everything. So just remind us, please. Jeffrey Hawkins: Yes, so if you look at Platinum, the consumable is based on semiconductor chip so you're sort of square in the foundry world of producing chips. When you look at Proteus, that consumable is essentially a fused silica array, so form of a glass array that's not a CMOS chip. It has a fabrication step where we put the nanowells on, but in that context there are many vendors that can do that, and we're a very small consumer of that. We also get a lot more individual consumables from a single [ wafer ]. So we -- our exposure to sort of the semiconductor and chip world sort of goes away when we move into Proteus. In terms of the instrument, we still have a little bit of exposure in terms of the GPU. We have a GPU in this system to do data analysis. Again, we're a pretty small player in that world. So not -- we don't perceive it as a large risk. That said, we understand lead times can be very long. And given the relatively low number of these that we use, comparatively, it's very easy to sort of stockpile a bit and hold that to just sort of buffer any potential for that sort of the supply of GPUs to be moving in or out. But we sort of get away from the historical CMOS-related semiconductor chip that was certainly more at risk of the sort of the foundry capacity that you're alluding to. Kyle Mikson: Okay, that's what I thought. And then on the non-human market opportunity that you talked about, I think that was $4 billion. And I assume it's plant, animal and similar things like that. I mean, I have to imagine that was always part of the plan, I guess. Maybe just kind of backtrack a bit and talk about originally why human, I guess, research, I suppose, was maybe the focus, and especially on the pharma side, of course those drugs are meant for humans, and going forward maybe this is a good like low-hanging fruit potentially for like kind of early on with Proteus and, I guess, with the residual Platinum activities. Jeffrey Hawkins: Yes, so Kyle, I think obviously we've always wanted to target our technology between markets as we can. I think naturally when you go to market, given all of our respective backgrounds and the backgrounds of our sales professionals, you go to large academic centers, large academic medical centers, biopharma. And when you're in those, you're largely in the human world, whether it's basic research, mechanism of action, translational, you're in, to your point, you're in sort of the human world. Platinum is really showing us really what the breadth of that non-human market might look like. With Platinum, we originally got our first sort of exposure to this through the military side with pathogen and toxin detection. When we opened up the placement program, we got drawn into more, in the area of pathogen ID and surveillance, antimicrobial resistance, lots of different areas sort of getting drawn into different types of laboratories doing that work. Those can be government, they can be industrial, they can be academic. The other side is with the placement program, we got drawn into some in the agricultural space. So really Platinum -- what Platinum did was draw us in, in a way where we got a depth of understanding of what the customer is trying to accomplish, the limitations of the tools available to them, and what specific capabilities we could add that would make our technology even more attractive in that segment. So while it's always been a part of our plan, I think the depth of understanding we've been able to gain from the Platinum exposure really helps us make sure all of those capabilities and the additional that they're looking for are in the Proteus platform so we can really go attack that when we launch the platform. Kyle Mikson: Great. And last one on AI. So I'm just curious if you're hearing anything, like getting any inbounds or if you're, like, looking forward a bit and trying to think about the potential to generate proteomics data to train an AI model, maybe at, like, a pharma company, biotech company. And just given for clinical human samples, you need kind of more of a -- like there's a wide dynamic range involved there, can Proteus maybe satisfy that market opportunity as well, given that could be relatively larger over time? Jeffrey Hawkins: Yes, Kyle, I think you're spot on, and I think we're hearing this. Not only are we hearing it, I think other companies operating in the proteomics space are certainly talking a lot about AI. To get the most out of AI, it's really about the training data, how rich is that data? Is it linked to outcomes or phenotypes, those types of things. So we certainly are hearing that in the marketplace. We're hearing it not just in biopharma, but also we hear about it in the academic space because many of the leading academic institutes are sort of operating at the cutting edge of AI tools for whether that be proteomic analysis, whether it be proteins and generating novel proteins or whether it be how might we multi-omic integrate different modes of data and get the most out of that. So I think academic institutes are certainly playing a big role in that area. I'd also say internally we've talked about this before but just to reinforce it, artificial intelligence has been something we have applied significantly in our operations. We use it in the analysis of data. We use it in many other functions. We've talked about it in the recognizer designs, the enzymes in our kit, but we also use it across marketing and finance and other areas, market research inside the company. And it's certainly a very powerful productivity tool as well. So we're bought in. We definitely believe in it as a tool we use, and we do believe our technology will play a role with Proteus in helping people who are looking to build those sort of rich databases to train AI models. Kyle Mikson: Awesome. I have one more question for Jeff Keyes. On the model, so the $12 million in OpEx savings, yes, like I think it was referenced earlier how that's probably just mostly SG&A, but can you just talk about the cadence and the timing of when that truly will hit and be fully implemented over the next couple of quarters? Jeffry Keyes: Yes, I think we're going to start seeing the benefits of that in, call it, fourth quarter, second half of fourth quarter, because we have to work through severance-related costs and the timeline of certain folks leaving the company. But on an annualized basis, that was my prepared remarks that we expect $12 million related to this specific action of annualized savings as we move forward once it's all implemented. Operator: Our next question comes from Charles Wallace with H.C. Wainwright. Charles Wallace: This is Charles on for RK. So I was wondering if you could share kind of the specific gating items between now and the second quarter of '27. And yes, and what new items are in there that weren't in the prior gating items? Jeffrey Hawkins: Yes, I mean, the main gating item, Charles, to our prepared remarks is adding this additional instrument design cycle. So that cycle involves finalizing the exact changes we're going to make in that cycle, rolling that through manufacturing, building those machines and getting them in-house and tested. So we expect to work through that cycle of finalize the design, build, test and confirm performance over the course of the remainder of this year. So that's really the big task. Assuming that task goes well, we intersect it with what we're doing on the reagent side and with the consumables, and then you bring that together through the first half of 2027 and with the launch in the second quarter. So I would say that's the key gating item is really just working through that cycle, getting those instruments installed, and confirming the performance. Charles Wallace: Yes, that's really helpful. And then I guess another question. So I think you said earlier that you haven't started the early access program, if I heard correctly. And so are you still planning to do that? And when would you kind of do that? Would that be kind of this year event or maybe before the launch? Jeffrey Hawkins: Yes, so it's definitely before the launch. But yes, I did answer that earlier. You're correct. We haven't started that yet. With this design cycle that we're going through, we wouldn't expect to start that till sometime after this cycle is complete. So, we don't have an exact date, but if you just sort of think through this cycle, confirming the performance, it's probably more of an end of year, beginning of next year type of event is where that would happen. What we're hoping to be able to do perhaps in advance of that is start allowing customers to send some samples for evaluation. Again, we don't have an exact date for when we would offer that capability, but that's something we're keeping a close eye on. We'd like to be able to do that and we would expect to be doing that before we went to a deployed sort of early access. So right now if you're trying to peg something, I'd say, I'd be thinking more as early access is sort of an early 2027 type of event. Operator: Our next question comes from Jason McCarthy with Maxim Group. Michael Okunewitch: This is Michael Okunewitch on the line. Just a couple, primarily on the market opportunities here. First off, I wanted to ask just about the non-human proteomics market, how mature that is and if it's, I guess, ready for a device with the capabilities of Proteus at this time? Or is this something where you would need to build out a base of published academic research first? Jeffrey Hawkins: Yes, so it's a good question. And what I would say is the reason we focused our remarks on specifically the pathogen research and agricultural is because we've got actual hands-on experience with our existing Platinum and Platinum Pro devices in that market segment. So those are customers trying to solve problems or address initiatives they have right now in place from their institutes. So we believe those markets are absolutely ready for the technology. Some are already applying our first-generation technology and many of them we would expect would move and apply the Proteus technology. Where your comment about the maturity of the markets comes in is the part that we also talked about a little bit in the prepared remarks, which is there are a lot of other areas in non-human like animal health or industrial or food or environmental, those areas, we don't have as much of that direct customer experience. And yet we're doing the work to learn about those. So we just -- we're not really factoring those into our thinking right now, because to your point, we don't know exactly what the fit of the technology is or what the exact need or urgency might be. But certainly, in pathogen and agricultural, given the Platinum work, we think it's a market that's there today and we think Proteus will only build upon the opportunity that we've already sort of uncovered with Platinum. Michael Okunewitch: And then I wanted to see if you could help qualify the difference between only capturing 17 or 18 aminos versus capturing the full suite. Is this something where there's an incremental benefit to the end users? Or does having the full suite open up new applications entirely? Jeffrey Hawkins: Yes, I would think of it in 2 ways. One is, as you start to get out to 18, 19 and 20, you can imagine that we're talking about, generally speaking, lower abundance amino acids. As you can imagine, when we were developing the technology, we tried to target the most abundant ones. So I think for many applications, there isn't a significant difference between 18, 19 or 20. I think in the area of really deep protein profiling, so maybe somebody who wants to try to sequence as many of the amino acids, let's say, in an antibody as they can. That's where that sort of, to your point, that opportunity opens up where people want to do that, they might really care about the difference between 18, 19, or 20. So I think there are some examples of that. There are many instances where it's probably less impactful to the performance. But I can tell you there's also just a general sort of psychology of customers that I think getting out there to 19 and 20 just sort of resonates as it's complete. It's sequencing. I think when people think of sequencing, they largely think of DNA and they think of, you've got to cover all the bases in DNA. So I think there is sort of maybe a little bit of a mental or psychological bar that it's a less nuanced conversation with the customer when you have all 20 than when you have, say, 18 or 19. But I think outside of a small number of applications where you really need all 20, it doesn't really open up a lot of markets. It's more you overcome that -- it makes the sales cycle a bit more straightforward. It makes the explanation easier. You don't get into all these nuances with a customer about what coverage they need for their application. Michael Okunewitch: Yes, you don't have to justify why 18 isn't enough anymore. Jeffrey Hawkins: Yes. It's the same concept in the DNA sequencing world. Before we were sequencing everything, we used to use arrays, right? And the question was, well, how many of the different SNPs in the genome could you look at? Well, this one looks at 500,000. This one looks at 800,000. And eventually when sequencing came out, it was like, well, I can just now look at the whole exome or the whole genome, and people just moved there because they didn't need to make that choice. They didn't need to think through exactly what panel they needed if they could just see the whole thing. I think sequencing is somewhat like that in protein. If you just have the full suite, you don't have to really help people think that through despite the fact that in most applications the difference between 18, 19 or 20 is very marginal. Michael Okunewitch: Congrats on the progress. Jeffrey Hawkins: Thank you. Operator: Thank you. This will conclude today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect. Before you buy stock in Quantum-Si Incorporated, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Quantum-Si Incorporated wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut are built for long-term growth and could produce monster returns in the coming years. 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Our analysts just identified a stock with the potential to be the next Nvidia. Tell us how you invest and we'll show you why it's our #1 pick. Tap here. Management shifted the Proteus launch timeline from late 2026 to Q2 2027 to incorporate an additional integrated instrument design cycle aimed at reducing manufacturing risk and improving system repeatability. Internal testing of integrated units revealed that moving directly to production would carry unacceptable execution risk; the new cycle focuses on design for manufacturability and first-pass yield improvements. The company is pivoting its library preparation strategy from a single generic kit to a suite of application-oriented kits to reduce customer optimization requirements and technical complexity. Strategic conviction in the underlying technology remains high, supported by sequencing data generated from current integrated units that met internal performance expectations. Management implemented leadership and governance changes to strengthen technical oversight and ensure the Proteus program adheres to strict product readiness gates. Platinum placement program insights have identified a significant non-human proteomics market opportunity, estimated at over $4 billion annually, particularly in pathogen and agricultural research. Operational expense actions, including a 20% headcount reduction, were initiated to align the cost structure with the extended development timeline while preserving core Proteus work streams. The revised timeline allows for the delivery of enhanced detection capabilities, with management now targeting 19 or 20 amino acids at launch, up from the previous target of 18. Cash runway is now projected to extend into Q4 2028, providing sufficient capital to support the updated Proteus plan and commercial launch execution. Full-year 2026 guidance remains unchanged, with revenue expected at approximately $1 million and adjusted operating expenses capped at $98 million. Early access programs and customer sample evaluations are now anticipated to begin in late 2026 or early 2027 following the completion of the additional design cycle. Management is proactively managing supply chain risks for long-lead components, specifically GPUs, to ensure production is not constrained by broader data center demand. A targeted reduction in force of approximately 20% of total headcount is expected to generate $12 million in annual operating expense savings. The shift to Proteus has resulted in limited near-term capital purchasing for the legacy Platinum system as customers wait for the next-generation platform. Management acknowledged that manufacturing integrated machines has been more challenging and time-consuming than originally anticipated, necessitating the roadmap adjustment. The company is transitioning away from CMOS-based semiconductor consumables to fused silica arrays for Proteus, reducing exposure to foundry capacity risks. One stock. Nvidia-level potential. 30M+ investors trust Moby to find it first. Get the pick. Tap here. Management clarified the delay was driven by internal assessments of manufacturing repeatability and yield rather than new customer requirements. The additional cycle is intended to ensure that every unit produced meets high performance standards consistently before reaching customers. Initial adoption is expected from academic researchers exploring post-translational modifications and biopharma customers focused on non-human proteomics. A key advantage is the technology's ability to identify pathogens and toxins without a defined reference, a capability not well-served by existing methods. While the difference between 18 and 20 amino acids is marginal for most applications, reaching 20 is viewed as a psychological milestone for customers accustomed to 'complete' DNA sequencing. Launching with 19 or 20 amino acids simplifies the sales cycle by removing the need for customers to justify missing coverage for specific proteins.

Interested in Quantum-Si Incorporated? Here are five stocks we like better. Proteus launch delayed to Q2 2027: Quantum-Si said it needs an additional instrument-design cycle to improve system repeatability, manufacturing readiness and production yields. The company has also delayed its early-access program, potentially to early 2027. Cost reductions will support the revised timeline: The company plans to cut its workforce by about 20%, targeting approximately $12 million in annual operating-expense savings. With $169.9 million in cash and marketable securities, Quantum-Si expects funding to last into Q4 2028. Revenue declined while losses narrowed: Q2 revenue fell to $344,000 from $591,000 a year earlier, but the net loss improved to $23.5 million from $28.8 million. Quantum-Si reiterated 2026 guidance for roughly $1 million in revenue and cash usage of $93 million or less. Penny Stock Quantum-Si Incorporated Readies For Lift-Off Quantum-Si (NASDAQ:QSI) said it has moved the planned launch of its Proteus protein sequencing platform to the second quarter of 2027 from the end of 2026, citing the need for an additional integrated instrument design cycle before production. The company also announced a targeted workforce reduction of about 20% as it seeks to lower cash burn and fund the revised development timeline. President and Chief Executive Officer Jeff Hawkins said the launch delay resulted from an internal review of instrument performance, manufacturing processes and supply-chain readiness, rather than new customer feedback or a change in planned product capabilities. → Lumentum Just Delivered the AI Growth Investors Wanted “We have generated sufficient sequencing data from integrated units that we remain confident in the underlying technology,” Hawkins said. “That said, we are taking these actions now because we believe it is more responsible and capital efficient to de-risk the platform before production than to move forward before product readiness is fully demonstrated.” Quantum-Si built and tested Proteus prototypes during 2025 and began testing integrated units during the first half of 2026. Those units provided information on manufacturing and system-level performance that was not available from prototype testing, according to Hawkins. → Joby’s Defense Pivot Accelerates With $500M Resonant Sciences Deal The additional design cycle is primarily focused on the hardware rather than reagents. Hawkins said some internally deployed instruments have performed above internal specifications, while others have performed at or somewhat below those targets. The company aims to use the added cycle to improve repeatability across systems and make design-for-manufacturability changes intended to simplify production and improve first-pass manufacturing yields. Hawkins said the company expects to finalize changes, build the next set of instruments and test them through the remainder of 2026. If that work proceeds as planned, the company expects to combine the instrument work with reagent and consumable development in the first half of 2027 ahead of a second-quarter launch. → AST SpaceMobile Earnings Just Reminded Investors How Risky Space Can Be Quantum-Si has not yet begun its early-access program for Proteus. Hawkins said the timing for that activity will shift with the revised launch schedule and could be an early-2027 event, after the new instrument design cycle is completed and internally validated. The company may begin accepting customer samples for evaluation before deploying early-access instruments. The company said its developmental sequencing kit previously demonstrated detection of 17 amino acids. With the extended instrument timeline, Quantum-Si now expects Proteus to launch with the ability to detect either 19 or 20 amino acids. Hawkins said the company still expects to demonstrate all 20 amino acids during 2026, but has not yet determined whether the initial commercial kit will include 19 or 20. Management also outlined a shift in its library-preparation strategy. Rather than offering a single general-purpose kit designed to work across a broad range of proteins and workflows, Quantum-Si plans to develop a suite of application-oriented kits that can be used individually or together for specific use cases. Hawkins said the company’s experience supporting users of its first-generation Platinum system showed that proteins can behave differently during library preparation and that customers may need application-specific workflows. The company believes tailored kits can reduce customer optimization needs, speed development and lower technical risk compared with a single kit designed to perform optimally across all protein types. Quantum-Si said its Platinum placement program, which allows customers to use an instrument without an upfront capital purchase, has provided insights across academic research, biopharma and other applications. One example involved a European biopharma customer evaluating protein sequencing for adeno-associated viral vector, or AAV, serotyping. Platinum demonstrated an ability to detect relevant amino-acid differences among AAV serotypes, but its output was not sufficient to achieve the sensitivity needed for the customer’s routine workflow. Using the Platinum data, Quantum-Si modeled expected performance from Proteus’ planned higher number of nanowells and said the model indicates the required sensitivity could be achievable with Proteus. The company also highlighted non-human proteomics, including pathogen research, agricultural research, pathogen detection and viral protein surveillance. Hawkins said such applications can require the identification of proteins or pathogens that evolve through small amino-acid changes and may not be well served by immunoassays or Western blots. Quantum-Si estimated the pathogen and agricultural research portion of the non-human proteomics opportunity at more than $4 billion annually, while noting that estimate excludes potential environmental, animal health, industrial and food markets. Quantum-Si has identified and qualified more than 250 institutions that have expressed interest in Proteus, according to management. These institutions span academic, biopharma and industrial segments and have requested updates as additional information and data become available. Chief Financial Officer Jeff Keyes reported second-quarter revenue of $344,000, down from $591,000 in the second quarter of 2025. Revenue for the first six months of 2026 was $602,000, compared with $1.4 million in the prior-year period. Second-quarter gross profit was $172,000, for a gross margin of 50%. First-half gross profit was $246,000, for a gross margin of 41%. Second-quarter GAAP operating expenses were $25.8 million, compared with $30.5 million a year earlier. Adjusted operating expenses were $22.6 million, compared with $23.8 million in the prior-year quarter. Second-quarter net loss was $23.5 million, compared with a $28.8 million loss in the prior-year period. Adjusted EBITDA was negative $21.2 million, compared with negative $22.2 million a year earlier. Keyes said revenue continued to reflect limited near-term capital purchasing for Platinum, consumable utilization from the installed base, customer awareness of the anticipated Proteus introduction and commercial choices intended to support customers’ eventual transition to Proteus. The reduction in force and other expense actions are expected to generate about $12 million in annual operating-expense savings once fully implemented. Keyes said the company expects to begin seeing benefits during the fourth quarter, following severance-related costs and employee transition timing. He added that research and development spending should remain relatively consistent, with the company preserving investment in critical Proteus workstreams. As of June 30, Quantum-Si had $169.9 million in cash equivalents and marketable securities. Taking account of the workforce reduction and other cost actions, the company said it expects to have sufficient capital to fund operations into the fourth quarter of 2028. For full-year 2026, Quantum-Si reiterated guidance for approximately $1 million in revenue, adjusted operating expenses of $98 million or less, and total cash usage of $93 million or less. Quantum-Si Inc is a life sciences instrumentation company headquartered in Guilford, Connecticut, developing next-generation proteomics solutions based on semiconductor sequencing technology. The company’s core offering centers on a proprietary single-molecule protein sequencing platform that uses a silicon-based sensor chip to convert protein data into digital signals. This approach is designed to deliver high sensitivity, single-amino-acid resolution and deep proteome coverage while potentially reducing cost and complexity compared to traditional mass spectrometry methods. Quantum-Si’s product roadmap includes the development and commercialization of an integrated system comprising instruments, consumable reagents and proprietary data analysis software. This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to [email protected]. The article "Quantum-Si Q2 Earnings Call Highlights" was originally published by MarketBeat. View MarketBeat's top stocks for August 2026.

This article first appeared on GuruFocus. Release Date: August 13, 2026 For the complete transcript of the earnings call, please refer to the full earnings call transcript. Quantum-Si Inc (NASDAQ:QSI) remains confident in the underlying Proteus technology, having generated sufficient sequencing data from integrated units. The company is making strategic shifts to application-oriented library preparation kits, which could improve efficiency and reduce technical risk. Quantum-Si Inc (NASDAQ:QSI) has identified a substantial non-human proteomics market opportunity, estimated at over $4 billion annually, with early customer traction. The company has qualified more than 250 institutions with stated interest in Proteus, indicating strong market anticipation. Quantum-Si Inc (NASDAQ:QSI) is taking proactive cost-cutting measures, including a 20% workforce reduction, to extend its cash runway into Q4 2028. Quantum-Si Inc (NASDAQ:QSI) has delayed the Proteus launch from end of 2026 to Q2 2027, citing the need for an additional integrated instrument design cycle. The company's revenue declined significantly, with Q2 2026 revenue of $344,000 versus $591,000 in the prior year period. Quantum-Si Inc (NASDAQ:QSI) is implementing a 20% reduction in force, which may impact morale and operational capacity. The early access program for Proteus has been pushed out, potentially to early 2027, delaying customer engagement. The company faces ongoing challenges with instrument repeatability and manufacturing yields, which prompted the design cycle delay. Warning! GuruFocus has detected 3 Warning Signs with QSI. Is QSI fairly valued? Test your thesis with our free DCF calculator. Q: What drove the decision to delay the Proteus launch timeline from the end of 2026 to the second quarter of 2027?A: Jeff Hawkins (President and CEO): The decision was driven by our internal assessment of the integrated units we built and tested in the first half of 2026. We observed variability in repeatability and consistency across the machines, and identified opportunities to make design-for-manufacturability changes. We concluded that moving directly from the current integrated unit design to production would carry more execution risk than we are comfortable with. Adding an additional integrated instrument design cycle will reduce manufacturing risk, improve system repeatability, and ensure a positive customer experience at launch. This was not driven by new customer feedback but by our own technical evaluation. Q: How confident are you in the new Q2 2027 launch date, and what is the main gating item between now and then?A: Jeff Hawkins (President and CEO): While no complex development program is 100% certain, we completed a thorough review incorporating all learnings from prototypes and integrated unit testing. The main gating item is completing the additional instrument design cycle, which involves finalizing changes, rolling them through manufacturing, building the machines, and testing them internally over the remainder of 2026. We also strengthened program leadership and governance to ensure clear product readiness gates. Based on everything we know, the Q2 2027 timeline reflects the work required to deliver a product that meets our standards. Q: With the Proteus launch delayed, what is the updated expectation for amino acid detection capability at launch?A: Jeff Hawkins (President and CEO): Given the revised timeline, we will have additional time to progress reagent development before locking the formulation. We now expect to launch Proteus with detection capability of either 19 or 20 amino acids, up from our prior plan of launching with 18. We will have greater clarity on the specific configuration closer to launch. We still expect to be able to demonstrate all 20 amino acids this year, but we are not yet ready to commit to exactly what will be in the launch kit. Q: How will the delayed timeline affect the early access program for Proteus?A: Jeff Hawkins (President and CEO): We have not officially started the early access program yet. With the shift in timeline, early access will also move out. We want to complete the additional instrument design cycle, build and test the units internally first. We expect early access to be more of an early 2027 event. In the meantime, we may start allowing select customers to send samples for evaluation before deploying units in the field. We have sufficient Platinum Pro instruments to continue supporting the placement program to keep customers engaged. Q: What is the expected financial impact of the operating expense actions, including the reduction in force?A: Jeff Kies (Chief Financial Officer): We announced a targeted reduction in force representing approximately 20% of total company headcount. We expect these actions to result in approximately $12 million of annual operating expense savings. We will start seeing benefits in the second half of the fourth quarter of 2026 as we work through severance-related costs. R&D spending will remain fairly consistent as we preserve investment in the highest priority Proteus workstreams. We now believe we have sufficient capital to fund operations into the fourth quarter of 2028. Q: Can you elaborate on the non-human proteomics market opportunity and how ready it is for Proteus?A: Jeff Hawkins (President and CEO): We believe the non-human proteomics market opportunity for Proteus is substantial at more than $4 billion annually, based on pathogen research and agricultural research markets where we have direct hands-on experience with Platinum. These markets are ready for the technology today, as customers are already applying our first-generation system. The estimate is conservative as it does not include additional segments like environmental, animal health, industrial, or food applications where our understanding is still developing. Many of these markets are not well served by traditional techniques like immunoassays, and customers need a technology that doesn't depend on a defined reference because pathogens may evolve through single amino acid differences. Q: What is the strategic shift in the library preparation strategy, and why is it important?A: Jeff Hawkins (President and CEO): We are evolving from a single generic library preparation kit to a suite of application-oriented kits that can be used individually or in combination to optimize sequencing performance for specific customer use cases. This shift is driven by real-world insights gained from supporting Platinum customers across a range of applications. This strategy provides two key advantages: first, it gives customers more complete, off-the-shelf tools tailored to their applications, making implementation more efficient; second, it allows our development teams to deliver a broad range of capabilities faster and with lower technical risk, as developing kits around specific application needs is less complex than making one generic kit that performs optimally across every protein type. Q: Can you provide an example of a specific application where Platinum has demonstrated the potential for Proteus?A: Jeff Hawkins (President and CEO): We have been working with a biopharma customer in Europe on applying protein sequencing to adeno-associated viral vectors (AAV) serotyping, which is important for gene therapy performance. With Platinum, we demonstrated the ability to detect relevant amino acid differences between AAV serotypes, but did not reach the sensitivity required for routine use due to Platinum's limited sequencing output. Using Platinum data, we modeled expected performance on Proteus based on its planned increase in nanowells, and the model suggests the customer's sensitivity requirement is achievable on Proteus. With more than 150 biotech and pharmaceutical companies developing gene therapies using AAVs, this single application could represent an attractive market opportunity. Q: How does the Proteus consumable differ from Platinum in terms of semiconductor supply chain exposure?A: Jeff Hawkins (President and CEO): Platinum's consumable is based on a semiconductor CMOS chip, which is squarely in the foundry world. For Proteus, the consumable is essentially a fused silica array, a form of glass array that is not a CMOS chip. While there is a fabrication step to put nanowells on, there are many vendors that can do this, and we are a very small consumer. Our exposure to the semiconductor chip world goes away when we move to Proteus. The instrument does have a GPU for data analysis, but we are a small player in that market and can easily stockpile components to buffer against supply issues. Q: What is the significance of launching with 19 or 20 amino acids versus 18, and does it open up new applications? For the complete transcript of the earnings call, please refer to the full earnings call transcript.

Company updates anticipated commercial launch of Proteus to Q2 2027, cost-reduction actions expected to extend cash runway into Q4 2028 and highlights estimated new market opportunities for protein sequencing BRANFORD, Conn., Aug. 13, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Quantum-Si Incorporated (Nasdaq: QSI) (“Quantum-Si,” “QSI” or the “Company”), a proteomics technology company redefining protein analysis through single-molecule protein sequencing, today announced financial results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2026. Press Release Highlights Reported second quarter 2026 revenue of $344 thousand during the Proteus transition period. Updated anticipated Proteus launch timeline to Q2 2027 to incorporate an additional integrated instrument design cycle focused on manufacturing readiness, system repeatability, and customer experience at launch. Highlighted an estimated $4 billion non-human proteomics market opportunity identified through on-going Platinum commercialization activities. Announced a reduction in force of approximately 20% of the Company’s workforce to align resources and spending with the updated Proteus launch timeline. Extended cash runway into Q4 2028 from Q2 2028. “Our conviction in Proteus remains strong. Testing of our integrated instruments has generated sequencing data that reinforces our confidence in the underlying technology,” said Jeff Hawkins, president and Chief Executive Officer of Quantum-Si. “As we advanced the program, we concluded that adding an additional integrated instrument design cycle was the most responsible path to strengthen manufacturing readiness, improve system performance, and ensure a successful customer experience at launch. While this decision extends the timeline, we believe it significantly improves our readiness for commercialization and positions Proteus to create the maximum long-term value for customers, shareholders, and the broader scientific community.” Hawkins continued, “As we continue to advance Proteus toward commercialization, our ongoing customer work is also expanding our view of the platform’s addressable markets. Over the past few months, we have been working with multiple customers applying protein sequencing to agricultural applications, pathogen detection and typing, and viral protein surveillance applications. Based on this work, we believe the non-human proteomics market opportunity for Proteus is substantial, at more than $4 billion annually and is likely to be larger as we continue to develop our understanding of additional non-human markets.” Second Quarter 2026 Financial Results For the second quarter of 2026, the Company recorded revenue of $344 thousand, compared to $591 thousand in the second quarter of 2025. For the six months ended June 30, 2026, the Company recorded revenue of $602 thousand, compared to $1.4 million in the prior-year period. The year-over-year decrease reflected the Company’s ongoing transition from Platinum to the anticipated Proteus platform, including lower instrument demand, continued consumable usage by existing customers, and commercial programs intended to support customer migration to Proteus. Gross profit was $172 thousand and gross margin was 50% in the second quarter of 2026. For the six months ended June 30, 2026, gross profit was $246 thousand and gross margin was 41%, with results affected by revenue mix, timing of sales, and transition-period commercial activity. Total operating expenses were $25.8 million for the second quarter of 2026, compared to $30.5 million for the same period in the prior year, and $49.9 million for the six months ended June 30, 2026, compared to $56.1 million for the same period in the prior year. Adjusted total operating expenses were $22.6 million for the second quarter of 2026, compared to $23.8 million for the same period in the prior year, and adjusted total operating expenses for the six months ended June 30, 2026, were $43.9 million compared to $46.6 million for the same period in the prior year. Spending levels reflected continued investment in Proteus development and commercialization readiness, partially offset by ongoing expense management. The Company also announced cost-reduction actions, including a reduction in force affecting approximately 20% of total company headcount. The actions are expected to streamline operating expenses in connection with the revised Proteus development and launch timeline while maintaining resources for critical development, manufacturing, and commercial readiness activities. The Company expects the actions to generate approximately $12 million in annualized operating expense savings once fully implemented. Net loss was $23.5 million for the second quarter of 2026, compared to a net loss of $28.8 million for the same period in the prior year, and net loss was $45.2 million for the six months ended June 30, 2026, compared to a net loss of $48.0 million for the same period in the prior year. Adjusted EBITDA was negative $21.2 million for the second quarter of 2026, compared to negative $22.2 million in the same period of the prior year, and negative $41.2 million for the six months ended June 30, 2026, compared to negative $43.7 million for the same period in the prior year. A reconciliation of the non-GAAP financial measures adjusted total operating expenses and adjusted EBITDA is provided in a table included in this press release. As of June 30, 2026, the Company’s cash, cash equivalents and investments in marketable securities were $169.9 million. Based on the updated operating plan, including the announced workforce reduction and other cost-management actions, the Company expects its existing capital to fund operations into the fourth quarter of 2028. 2026 Financial Guidance For the full year 2026, the Company reiterated the following financial guidance, as initially issued on March 3, 2026: The Company continues to view 2026 as a transition year ahead of the anticipated Proteus launch. The updated anticipated launch timing of Q2 2027 is intended to allow the Company to complete additional integrated instrument design and testing work, advance verification and validation activities, and further prepare for manufacturing and commercial launch. The Company expects 2026 revenue to continue to reflect the transition from Platinum to Proteus, including customer purchasing behavior, installed-base consumable activity, and customer planning for the anticipated new platform. Adjusted total operating expenses are expected to support Proteus development, platform integration, verification and validation activities, chemistry and workflow development, and launch preparation. The Company plans to manage spending against the revised launch timeline while maintaining the resources needed to advance Proteus toward commercialization. Total cash usage is expected to include Proteus development, selected inventory investments, and commercial readiness activities supporting the updated Q2 2027 anticipated launch timing. The Company does not provide a reconciliation of forward-looking adjusted total operating expenses to total operating expenses, the most directly comparable GAAP measure, because stock-based compensation, restructuring costs and other excluded items are dependent on future events and are not reasonably available without unreasonable efforts. These items could have a material effect on GAAP operating expenses. The Company believes its cash, cash equivalents and investments in marketable securities of $169.9 million as of June 30, 2026, together with the announced cost-reduction actions, will support the Company’s operating plan into the fourth quarter of 2028. Webcast and Conference Call InformationQuantum-Si will host a conference call to discuss its second quarter 2026 financial results on Thursday, August 13, 2026, at 4:30 p.m. Eastern Time. Individuals interested in listening to the conference call may do so by joining the live webcast in the Investors section of the Quantum-Si website under Events & Presentations. Alternatively, individuals may register here to receive a dial-in number and personalized PIN to participate in the call. An archived webcast of the event will be available for replay following the event. About Quantum-Si Incorporated Quantum-Si is transforming proteomics with a benchtop platform that brings single-molecule protein analysis to every lab, everywhere. The Company’s platform enables real-time kinetic-based detection and allows researchers to move beyond traditional, multistep workflows and directly access dynamic, functional protein insights with unparalleled resolution. By making protein analysis simpler, faster, and more informative, Quantum-Si is accelerating proteomic discoveries to improve the way we live. Learn more at quantum-si.com or follow us on LinkedIn or X. Use of Non-GAAP Financial Measures This press release presents the non-GAAP financial measures “adjusted total operating expenses” and “adjusted EBITDA.” The most directly comparable measures for these non-GAAP financial measures are total operating expenses and net loss. The Company has included below adjusted total operating expenses, which presents the Company’s total operating expenses after excluding stock-based compensation, legal settlement expense, net of insurance proceeds, restructuring costs and other non-recurring operating expenses. In addition, adjusted EBITDA further excludes interest, taxes, depreciation, amortization, dividend and interest income, changes in fair value of warrant liabilities and other income or expense. A discussion of the reasons why management believes that the presentation of non-GAAP financial measures provides useful information to investors regarding the Company’s financial condition and results of operations is included as Exhibit 99.2 to the Company’s Current Report on Form 8-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) on August 13, 2026. Forward Looking Statements This press release includes “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the “safe harbor” provisions of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The actual results of the Company may differ from its expectations, estimates, and projections and, consequently, you should not rely on these forward-looking statements as predictions of future events. Words such as “expect,” “estimate,” “project,” “budget,” “forecast,” “anticipate,” “intend,” “plan,” “may,” “will,” “could,” “should,” “believes,” “predicts,” “potential,” “continue,” and similar expressions (or the negative versions of such words or expressions) are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements include, without limitation, the Company’s expectations with respect to future performance and development and commercialization of products, services and applications, its anticipated cash runway, the anticipated timing of product launches and product capabilities (including Proteus), the Company’s current belief regarding remaining technical challenges associated with Proteus commercialization, the expected timing and successful completion of system integration, optimization, verification, validation and launch-readiness activities, the expected benefits of the Company’s development-process, organizational and cost-control actions, including the reduction in force, and any financial guidance. These forward-looking statements involve significant risks and uncertainties that could cause the actual results to differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements. Many of these factors are outside the Company’s control and are difficult to predict. Factors that may cause such differences include, but are not limited to: the inability to maintain the listing of the Company’s Class A common stock on The Nasdaq Stock Market; the ability of the Company to grow and manage growth and retain its key employees; the Company’s ongoing leadership transitions and succession planning; the Company’s ability to successfully implement organizational changes, including workforce reductions, cost-control actions and development-process improvements, without disrupting product development, launch readiness, employee retention or customer engagement; the possibility that additional technical, integration, performance, reliability, verification, validation or launch-readiness challenges may arise or take longer or cost more to address than expected; changes in applicable laws or regulations; the ability of the Company to raise financing in the future; the success, cost and timing of the Company’s product development and commercialization activities, including the use and benefit of artificial intelligence in these and other activities; the commercialization and adoption of the Company’s existing products and the success of any product the Company may offer in the future, including Proteus; the potential attributes and benefits of the Company’s commercialized Platinum protein sequencing instruments and kits and the Company’s other products (including Proteus) once commercialized; the Company’s ability to obtain and maintain regulatory approval for its products, and any related restrictions and limitations of any approved product; the Company’s ability to identify, in-license or acquire additional technology; the Company’s ability to maintain its existing lease, license, manufacture and supply agreements; the Company’s ability to compete with other companies currently marketing or engaged in the development or commercialization of products and services that serve customers engaged in proteomic analysis, many of which have greater financial and marketing resources than the Company; the size and growth potential of the markets for the Company’s products and services, and its ability to serve those markets once commercialized, either alone or in partnership with others; the Company’s estimates regarding future expenses, future revenue, capital requirements and needs for additional financing; the Company’s financial performance; the Company’s defense and initiation of litigation matters; and other risks and uncertainties described under “Risk Factors” in the Company’s most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and in the Company’s other filings with the SEC. The Company cautions that the foregoing list of factors is not exclusive. The Company cautions readers not to place undue reliance upon any forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date made. The Company does not undertake or accept any obligation or undertaking to release publicly any updates or revisions to any forward-looking statements to reflect any change in its expectations or any change in events, conditions, or circumstances on which any such statement is based. ContactsInvestor and Media:Jeff KeyesChief Financial [email protected] Source: Quantum-Si Incorporated

Interested in Quantum-Si Incorporated? Here are five stocks we like better. Quantum-Si posted just $258,000 in Q1 2026 revenue and kept its full-year outlook unchanged, signaling that 2026 remains a transition year centered on developing and preparing the Proteus platform for launch. The company said Proteus development is advancing, including successful sequencing on fully integrated instruments and detection of 17 amino acids; it still expects a commercial launch by the end of 2026 and aims to reach full 20-amino-acid detection over time. Management highlighted strong focus on market preparation and early customer engagement, including roadshows, conference presentations, and first customer sample sequencing, while saying the company has enough cash to fund operations into Q2 2028. Penny Stock Quantum-Si Incorporated Readies For Lift-Off Quantum-Si (NASDAQ:QSI) reported first-quarter 2026 revenue of $258,000 and reiterated that the year will be a transition period focused on development and market preparation for its next-generation Proteus protein sequencing platform. President and Chief Executive Officer Jeff Hawkins said the company’s priorities for 2026 are to deliver Proteus with customer-requested capabilities, prepare the market for launch and preserve financial strength. Quantum-Si expects Proteus to launch commercially by the end of 2026. → Insider Sales: Top AST SpaceMobile Insider Cuts Postion Over 30% “We continue to believe that Proteus will be the long-term driver of commercial adoption, revenue growth, and our path to profitability,” Hawkins said on the call. Hawkins said Quantum-Si made “significant progress” on Proteus during the quarter, including the successful completion of sequencing on fully integrated Proteus instruments. He described the milestone as a meaningful de-risking event for the platform, noting that the system automatically performed the sequencing workflow from reagent preparation and sample loading through sequencing, data capture and analysis. → Light Speed Returns: Corning Cashes In on NVIDIA Growth The company said its developmental sequencing reagents, kinetic arrays and surface chemistry enabled single-molecule loading and sequencing with detection of 17 amino acids. Hawkins said Quantum-Si increased the number of detectable amino acids from 15 in December 2025 to 17 within four months and improved detection frequency across the amino acids it can currently detect. Quantum-Si said it has confidence it can deliver Proteus by the end of 2026 with detection of 18 amino acids, demonstrate detection of all 20 amino acids during 2026 and deliver a sequencing kit in 2027 that detects all 20 amino acids. → Years in the Making, AMD’s Upside Movement Has Just Begun Hawkins said Proteus is expected to offer advantages over the company’s current Platinum system, including automation, higher throughput, better signal-to-noise ratio, the ability to detect shorter recognizer pulses, more amino acids per peptide and longer average peptide read lengths. Quantum-Si also emphasized its work to enable post-translational modification, or PTM, analysis on Proteus. Hawkins said current methods for studying PTMs can be limited, with affinity-based approaches often restricted to specific sites or proteins and mass spectrometry requiring complex sample preparation and specialized bioinformatics. The company is focusing on using kinetic signatures to detect PTMs. Hawkins said the approach would allow software to determine whether a PTM is present, identify the PTM and locate the specific amino acid site, using the data generated during sequencing. “Given the extremely large amount of data we expect to generate in a Proteus sequencing run and leveraging the power of advanced AI tools, the potential to develop PTM capabilities using kinetic signatures and continuously expand those capabilities over time is immense,” Hawkins said. Quantum-Si said its commercial and scientific affairs teams are focused on demonstrating the value of single-molecule protein sequencing, expanding awareness of Proteus across geographies and market segments, and building a funnel of potential customers ahead of launch. Since the start of 2026, Hawkins said the company has had three customer manuscripts released via preprint or peer review, five posters presented at industry conferences and a customer podium presentation at US HUPO. He said the work covers applications including pathogen and toxin detection, clinical proteomics and PTM detection in translational research, spanning academic, clinical, biopharma and government markets. The company also launched a Proteus roadshow series in April. Hawkins said the events are intended to educate prospective customers about Quantum-Si’s protein sequencing technology and Proteus’ projected capabilities. At one recent event, the company expected 25 registrants or attendees but had 35 researchers in attendance, he said. Quantum-Si has also completed sequencing of its first customer samples on a Proteus prototype. Hawkins said the customer, an existing Platinum user, responded positively to higher amino acid detection and longer read lengths compared with Platinum. In response to an analyst question, Hawkins said the read length in that customer sample work was about double what the customer was used to seeing on Platinum. Asked about the customer impact of more amino acid coverage and longer reads, Hawkins said the benefits depend on the application. For protein identification, the added content can help analyze more complex mixtures. For PTMs and protein variants, he said more coverage and longer read lengths can improve the ability to detect events across a peptide. Chief Financial Officer Jeff Keyes said first-quarter revenue was $258,000, generated from the Platinum instrument line, consumable kits and related services. Gross profit was $74,000, resulting in a gross margin of 29%. Keyes said the margin was primarily driven by revenue mix, with a higher proportion of consumables relative to hardware. GAAP operating expenses were $24.1 million in the quarter, down from $25.6 million in the first quarter of 2025. Adjusted operating expenses were $21.4 million, compared with $22.9 million in the prior-year period. Keyes said the company funded research and development at a slightly higher level to support Proteus development while reducing spending in selling, general and administrative areas. Dividend and interest income was $1.9 million, compared with $2.5 million a year earlier, reflecting lower interest rates and changes in invested balances. As of March 31, 2026, Quantum-Si had $190.4 million in cash equivalents and investments in marketable securities. The company maintained its 2026 outlook, including: Total revenue of approximately $1 million; Adjusted operating expenses of $98 million or less; Total cash usage of $93 million or less. Keyes said the company is making “intentional choices that prioritize long-term platform adoption over near-term revenue maximization,” including upgrade paths and certain Platinum Pro unit sales in 2026 that could affect near-term revenue. He also said customer purchasing timelines are being influenced by expected Proteus availability. Quantum-Si said it believes its cash and investments will support operations into the second quarter of 2028, roughly a year and a half after the estimated Proteus launch date. Keyes said the company expects operating expense leverage over time after launch as development spending declines, particularly because Quantum-Si is using external partners for certain development activities. During the question-and-answer session, Hawkins said the major invention and technological breakthrough phase for Proteus is behind the company. He said the remaining work over the next six months is focused on manufacturing transfer, systems integration, reliability, success rates and meeting target specifications. “It’s technical in nature, but not something where we’d expect the need to have some sort of innovation breakthrough,” Hawkins said. Asked about manufacturing, Hawkins said the current focus is building instruments for internal research and development use, with some production supporting early access customers in the summer. Inventory build for commercial sales is expected later in the year, depending on the customer funnel and potential preorders. Hawkins said early access sites are expected to span market segments and geographies, potentially including academic institutions and commercial environments such as biopharma or antibody production. He said Quantum-Si has not provided an exact number but expects “at least a handful” rather than 10 sites over the summer and into the fall. On pricing, Hawkins said the announced $425,000 price for Proteus has not generated pushback so far. He compared it with high-end mass spectrometry equipment, which he said can cost more than $1 million. Quantum-Si Inc is a life sciences instrumentation company headquartered in Guilford, Connecticut, developing next-generation proteomics solutions based on semiconductor sequencing technology. The company’s core offering centers on a proprietary single-molecule protein sequencing platform that uses a silicon-based sensor chip to convert protein data into digital signals. This approach is designed to deliver high sensitivity, single-amino-acid resolution and deep proteome coverage while potentially reducing cost and complexity compared to traditional mass spectrometry methods. Quantum-Si’s product roadmap includes the development and commercialization of an integrated system comprising instruments, consumable reagents and proprietary data analysis software. The article "Quantum-Si Q1 Earnings Call Highlights" was originally published by MarketBeat. View MarketBeat's top stocks for May 2026.

Successful sequencing on integrated Proteus instruments and continued progress toward amino acid coverage and overall launch capabilities BRANFORD, Conn., May 07, 2026--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Quantum-Si Incorporated (Nasdaq: QSI) ("Quantum-Si," "QSI" or the "Company"), a proteomics technology company redefining protein analysis through single-molecule protein sequencing, today announced financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2026. Press Release Highlights Successful sequencing on integrated Proteus™ instruments Sequenced first customer samples on a Proteus prototype system Current developmental sequencing kit detects 17 amino acids Multiple customer posters, pre-prints and manuscripts released during the quarter Initiated Proteus roadshows to build awareness and prepare market for anticipated commercial launch at the end of 2026 "We delivered a strong quarter of Proteus execution, achieving the key development milestones we outlined at our Investor & Analyst Day in November 2025. Most notably, we achieved automated sequencing runs on integrated Proteus instruments bringing together all the core elements of the system planned for the launch configuration spanning instrumentation, KinetIQ™ Array, Sequencing chemistry and data analysis, all without user intervention once the run is initiated," said Jeff Hawkins, President and Chief Executive Officer. "While there is more work ahead, the momentum we are building across all parts of the Proteus development program is encouraging and reinforces our confidence in the roadmap we are executing." Hawkins continued, "Commercially, we are laser focused on building market awareness about our single-molecular protein sequencing technology in general and about the Proteus system specifically. Our initial roadshows have been well attended, and we will continue to expand the number of events to build awareness across many geographies and end-market segments. As Proteus continues to progress through development, we can now turn our focus towards being able to open customer access to sample evaluations and ultimately enabling early access sites with Proteus instruments this summer to continue to build momentum and interest in preparation for commercial launch at the end of 2026." First Quarter 2026 Financial Results For the first quarter of 2026, the Company recorded revenue of $258,000. Gross profit was $74,000 and gross margin was 29%. Total operating expenses were $24.1 million in the first quarter of 2026, compared to $25.6 million for the same period in the prior year. Adjusted total operating expenses were $21.4 million in the first quarter of 2026 compared to $22.9 million for the same period in the prior year. The Company funded research and development at a higher run rate year-over-year to support Proteus development and launch readiness, while selling, general and administrative expenses were lower year-over-year due to continued tight cost controls. Net loss was $21.7 million in the first quarter of 2026, compared to a net loss of $19.2 million in the same period of the prior year. Adjusted EBITDA was negative $20.1 million in the first quarter of 2026, compared to negative $21.5 million in the same period of the prior year. A reconciliation of the non-GAAP financial measures adjusted total operating expenses and adjusted EBITDA is provided in a table included in this press release. As of March 31, 2026, the Company’s cash and cash equivalents and investments in marketable securities, were $190.4 million, which is anticipated to carry operations into the second quarter of 2028. 2026 Financial Guidance For the full year 2026, the Company reiterated the following financial guidance, as initially issued on March 3, 2026: 2026 will continue to represent a transition year as the Company prioritizes positioning Proteus for a successful commercial launch and long-term adoption. The Company continues to expect that 2026 revenue will be impacted by deliberate strategic actions taken in advance of the anticipated Proteus launch, including embedding upgrade credits into Platinum Pro units sold in 2026 to provide customers with a clear path to Proteus, as well as customers choosing to delay purchasing decisions as they plan for the Proteus platform. This revenue guidance reflects intentional tradeoffs designed to support market readiness and long-term platform adoption and is not indicative of underlying demand or the Company’s long-term growth opportunity. Adjusted total operating expenses are expected to include funding of substantially all activities required to complete development and support of the commercial launch of the Proteus platform with its anticipated capabilities by the end of 2026. The Company expects to continue managing operating expenses with discipline while prioritizing investments directly tied to Proteus execution and launch readiness. Total cash usage is expected to include operating expenses related to Proteus development, as well as modest inventory build and commercial readiness activities ahead of the anticipated Proteus launch. The Company believes its cash, cash equivalents, and investments in marketable securities of $190.4 million as of March 31, 2026, will provide sufficient runway to execute on the Proteus launch and support operations into the second quarter of 2028. Webcast and Conference Call Information Quantum-Si will host a conference call to discuss its first quarter 2026 financial results on Thursday, May 7, 2026, at 4:30 p.m. Eastern Time. Individuals interested in listening to the conference call may do so by joining the live webcast in the Investors section of the Quantum-Si website under Events and Presentations. Alternatively, individuals can register here to receive a dial-in number and personalized PIN to participate in the call. An archived webcast of the event will be available for replay following the event. About Quantum-Si Incorporated Quantum-Si is transforming proteomics with a benchtop platform that brings single-molecule protein analysis to every lab, everywhere. The Company’s platform enables real-time kinetic-based detection and allows researchers to move beyond traditional, multistep workflows and directly access dynamic, functional protein insights with unparalleled resolution. By making protein analysis simpler, faster, and more informative, Quantum-Si is accelerating proteomic discoveries to improve the way we live. Learn more at quantum-si.com or follow us on LinkedIn or X. Use of Non-GAAP Financial Measures This press release presents the non-GAAP financial measures "adjusted total operating expenses" and "adjusted EBITDA." The most directly comparable measures for these non-GAAP financial measures are total operating expenses and net loss. The Company has included below adjusted total operating expenses, which presents the Company’s total operating expenses after excluding stock-based compensation, net lease termination expense, legal settlement expense, net of insurance proceeds, restructuring costs and other non-recurring operating expenses. In addition, adjusted EBITDA further excludes interest, taxes, depreciation, amortization, dividend and interest income, changes in fair value of warrant liabilities and other income or expense. A discussion of the reasons why management believes that the presentation of non-GAAP financial measures provides useful information to investors regarding the Company’s financial condition and results of operations is included as Exhibit 99.2 to the Company’s Current Report on Form 8-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") on May 7, 2026. Forward Looking Statements This press release includes "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the "safe harbor" provisions of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The actual results of the Company may differ from its expectations, estimates, and projections and, consequently, you should not rely on these forward-looking statements as predictions of future events. Words such as "expect," "estimate," "project," "budget," "forecast," "anticipate," "intend," "plan," "may," "will," "could," "should," "believes," "predicts," "potential," "continue," and similar expressions (or the negative versions of such words or expressions) are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements include, without limitation, the Company’s expectations with respect to future performance and development and commercialization of products, services and applications, its anticipated cash runway, the anticipated timing of product launches and product capabilities (including Proteus), investor confidence in Quantum-Si and our strategic roadmap, and any financial guidance. These forward-looking statements involve significant risks and uncertainties that could cause the actual results to differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements. Many of these factors are outside the Company’s control and are difficult to predict. Factors that may cause such differences include, but are not limited to: the inability to maintain the listing of the Company’s Class A common stock on The Nasdaq Stock Market; the ability of the Company to grow and manage growth and retain its key employees; the Company’s ongoing leadership transitions and succession planning; changes in applicable laws or regulations; the ability of the Company to raise financing in the future; the success, cost and timing of the Company’s product development and commercialization activities, including the use and benefit of artificial intelligence in these and other activities; the commercialization and adoption of the Company’s existing products and the success of any product the Company may offer in the future, including Proteus; the potential attributes and benefits of the Company’s commercialized Platinum protein sequencing instruments and kits and the Company’s other products (including Proteus) once commercialized; the Company’s ability to obtain and maintain regulatory approval for its products, and any related restrictions and limitations of any approved product; the Company’s ability to identify, in-license or acquire additional technology; the Company’s ability to maintain its existing lease, license, manufacture and supply agreements; the Company’s ability to compete with other companies currently marketing or engaged in the development or commercialization of products and services that serve customers engaged in proteomic analysis, many of which have greater financial and marketing resources than the Company; the size and growth potential of the markets for the Company’s products and services, and its ability to serve those markets once commercialized, either alone or in partnership with others; the Company’s estimates regarding future expenses, future revenue, capital requirements and needs for additional financing; the Company’s financial performance; the Company’s defense and initiation of litigation matters; and other risks and uncertainties described under "Risk Factors" in the Company’s most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and in the Company’s other filings with the SEC. The Company cautions that the foregoing list of factors is not exclusive. The Company cautions readers not to place undue reliance upon any forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date made. The Company does not undertake or accept any obligation or undertaking to release publicly any updates or revisions to any forward-looking statements to reflect any change in its expectations or any change in events, conditions, or circumstances on which any such statement is based. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260507483844/en/ Contacts Investor and Media: Jeff Keyes Chief Financial Officer [email protected]

Image source: The Motley Fool. Thursday, May 7, 2026 at 4:30 p.m. ET President and Chief Executive Officer — Jeffrey Alan Hawkins Chief Financial Officer — Jeffry R. Keyes Head of Investor Relations — Risa Lindsay Need a quote from a Motley Fool analyst? Email [email protected] Risa Lindsay: Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us. Earlier today, Quantum-Si incorporated released financial results for the first quarter ended 03/31/2026. A copy of the press release is available on the company's website. Joining me today are Jeffrey Alan Hawkins, our President and Chief Executive Officer, as well as Jeffry R. Keyes, our Chief Financial Officer. Before we begin, I would like to remind you that management will be making certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws. These statements involve material risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results or events to materially differ from those anticipated. Additional information regarding these risks and uncertainties appears in the section entitled Forward-Looking Statements of our press release. For a more complete list and description of risk factors, please see the company's filings made with the Securities and Exchange Commission. This conference call contains time-sensitive information that is accurate only as of the live broadcast date today, 05/07/2026. Except as required by law, the company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements. During this call, we will also be referring to certain financial measures that are not prepared in accordance with U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, or GAAP. A reconciliation of these non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures is included in the press release filed earlier today. With that, let me turn the call over to Jeffrey Alan Hawkins. Jeffrey Alan Hawkins: Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us. On today's call, we will provide a business update and review our operating results for 2026. After that, we will open the call for questions. As we communicated on our last earnings call, we expect that 2026 will be a transition year with revenue primarily driven by consumable utilization from our installed base, some new placements of Platinum, very modest new capital sales, and a laser focus on Proteus development, preparing the market for a strong commercial launch by 2026. As such, our three corporate priorities for 2026 are as follows: to deliver Proteus with the capabilities customers need, to prepare the market for Proteus launch, and to preserve our financial strength. Our first priority is to deliver Proteus with the capabilities customers need. We made significant progress with the Proteus development program during 2026. The results of this progress were highlighted in our recent announcement regarding the successful completion of sequencing on fully integrated Proteus instruments. The achievement of a milestone of this complexity is a significant de-risking event for any new platform development program. To accomplish this result, we had instruments and software that automatically performed all the steps in the sequencing process from reagent preparation to sample loading through to sequencing and data capture and analysis. We also had developmental sequencing reagents, kinetic arrays, and associated surface chemistry that enabled single molecule loading and sequencing with the detection of 17 amino acids. While there is more work to do to get to the commercial launch, it is clear that the Proteus platform is a fundamentally superior technology compared to Platinum. Beyond automation and throughput, which customers will certainly value, the core technology in Proteus consistently delivers higher proteome coverage. At its core, Proteus has a better signal-to-noise ratio and can reliably detect much shorter pulses of recognizers, which translates into detecting more amino acids per peptide and longer average peptide read lengths. In terms of recognizer development, we recently reported that our internal developmental sequencing kit was able to detect 17 amino acids. Not only have we increased the number of unique amino acids detected from 15 in December 2025 to 17 in just four months, but we have also made improvements that increased detection frequency across all the amino acids we detect. Our recent progress in this area and the pace of improvement we are seeing provide us with high confidence that we are well on our way to delivering Proteus by 2026 with the detection of 18 amino acids, demonstrating detection of all 20 amino acids during 2026, and, in turn, delivering a sequencing kit in 2027 that detects all 20 amino acids. Finally, I want to provide an update on our progress toward enabling post-translational modification capabilities on Proteus. For background, depending on the PTM, customers today have two choices: affinity-based methods, which are limited to a specific site or specific protein of interest, or mass spectrometry, which requires complex sample preparation procedures and access to sophisticated bioinformatics personnel to collect, filter, and analyze the data using a variety of software tools that are required to provide site-resolved profiles. This is true for a well-studied PTM like phosphorylation. When you move into other PTMs like methylation, acetylation, or citrullination, the options are even more limited, with the available analysis tools often being lab-developed versus commercially available. During our November 2025 investor and analyst day, we provided insight into three different ways that our technology can detect PTMs. One of those ways is via kinetic signatures. In short, using the rich set of data that each recognizer generates as the sequencing reaction moves through each amino acid in the peptide, the software can automatically determine if a PTM is present or not, which PTM it is, and at which specific amino acid site. The primary advantage to this method is that the sequencing chemistry is universal, and the PTM detection is accomplished using automated analysis algorithms. This is in stark contrast to affinity-based methods, which require site-specific PTM reagents and, in some cases, those reagents are protein-specific as well. Given the extremely large amount of data we expect to generate in a Proteus sequencing run, and leveraging the power of advanced AI tools, the potential to develop PTM capabilities using kinetic signatures and continuously expand those capabilities over time is immense. This is why we are laser focused on this approach, and I am pleased to report that we are making great progress in this area and expect to have more specific updates to share in the near future. Our second corporate priority is to prepare the market for Proteus launch. In preparation for commercial launch of Proteus, we are focusing our commercial and scientific affairs teams on three main strategic initiatives: demonstrating the value of our single molecule protein sequencing technology, expanding awareness of Proteus across geographies and end market segments, and identifying and developing a funnel of potential Proteus customers to ensure successful commercial adoption upon launch. To demonstrate the value of single molecule protein sequencing, our scientific affairs team has been working with customers using our first-generation Platinum instrument and commercially available kits to generate data and release the results via posters at industry conferences and manuscripts via preprint and peer-reviewed publications. Since the start of 2026, we have had a total of three customer manuscripts released via preprint or peer review, five posters presented at industry conferences, and a customer podium presentation during US HUPO. The data released this year show a wide range of applications, from rapid pathogen and toxin detection to clinical proteomics to detection of post-translational modifications in translational research. Importantly, the data released this year also span multiple end market segments, including academic research, clinical, biopharma, and government. We believe that these sets of customer data and other studies in the pipeline will continue to demonstrate that the potential opportunity for our technology extends well beyond the basic research markets that we operate in today. This is important since customers in biopharma, translational research, and clinical testing typically have higher consumable utilization rates and repeat order patterns compared to basic research customers. Turning now to our work on expanding awareness of Proteus across geographies and end markets: In April, we announced the beginning of the Proteus roadshow series. These events are designed to educate the market on the value of our proprietary single molecule protein sequencing technology and the Proteus instrument and projected capabilities. The individual roadshow events can take the shape of one of two types of formats. First, in institutions where we have an existing customer, we work with them to bring together as many of their colleagues as possible to expand the institutional awareness of our technology. Expanding institutional awareness can benefit our existing user by creating more demand for inclusion of our technology in ongoing research studies, and it also aids us in building a large community of interested users for Proteus, increasing the number of potential avenues to pursue for funding the purchase of the instrument in the future. The second type of event is tailored to locations where we do not have an existing customer. In these locations, we focus on a centrally located venue, and our outreach focuses on engaging potential users from as many unique institutions in the surrounding area as possible. While we have just started the roadshow series, the early data are encouraging. At one recent event, we had 25 people register or attend, but on the day of the event, we had 35 people in attendance. All the attendees were researchers who currently use or want to begin to incorporate proteomic technologies into their research. Importantly, these 35 attendees invested nearly two hours of their time to learn about our technology, the Proteus system, and to discuss potential applications with members of our commercial and scientific affairs team. We expect to continue with roadshows throughout the year, and we will provide more updates on specific cities and associated event metrics as the program progresses. Finally, in addition to supporting our existing Platinum users, our sales team is focused on identifying and developing a funnel of potential Proteus customers to ensure successful commercial adoption upon launch. Our team has been assigned quantitative goals for each quarter, and we are pleased with the current progress we are seeing. As part of this process, we recently announced that we had completed sequencing of our first customer samples on the Proteus prototype. In this first instance, the customer is an existing Platinum user, and they were interested in seeing how much better the data would be with Proteus. While there were many exciting takeaways from the data, two that resonated the strongest with the customer were the increase in the number of amino acids detected and the increase in the average read length on Proteus compared to Platinum. When combined, improvements in these two attributes provide the customer with significantly more sequence-level information about each of their proteins of interest. The positive response from this customer confirms our belief that offering the ability for customers to send in samples for evaluation could be a valuable tool to deepen engagement and advance the customer through the buying process prior to Proteus commercial launch. We are working closely with our manufacturing partners to increase the number of Proteus instruments available within our R&D labs, and once complete, we expect to be able to offer sample evaluations more broadly to prospective customers. Our third priority is to preserve our financial strength. We believe that the data we will generate over the coming months will continue to demonstrate that Proteus is not only a new architecture with greater throughput and automation, but also a significant leap forward in terms of sequencing performance and application breadth. We continue to believe that Proteus will be the long-term driver of commercial adoption, revenue growth, and our path to profitability. We remain committed to continuing to operate with a high level of fiscal discipline while ensuring the core strategic initiatives are appropriately funded to deliver Proteus on time and with the capabilities customers are asking for. I will now turn the call over to Jeffry R. Keyes to review our financial results. Jeffry R. Keyes: Thanks, Jeff. I will now walk through our operating results for 2026. Revenue in 2026 was $258 thousand, consisting of revenue from our Platinum line of instruments, consumable kits, and related services. Gross profit was $74 thousand, resulting in a gross margin of 29%. Gross margin in the quarter was primarily driven by revenue mix with a higher proportion of consumables relative to hardware. As we have discussed and guided for 2026, we expect revenue in the near term to reflect the anticipated launch of Proteus as some customers time purchasing decisions closer to the availability of our new platform. Turning to expenses, GAAP total operating expenses for 2026 were $24.1 million compared to $25.6 million in 2025. Adjusted operating expenses were $21.4 million compared to $22.9 million in the prior-year quarter. Year over year, we funded R&D at a slightly higher level to support Proteus development while maintaining discipline in total overall adjusted operating expenses. Dividend and interest income was $1.9 million in 2026 compared to $2.5 million in the prior-year quarter. The year-over-year decrease reflects lower interest rates and changes in invested balances. As of 03/31/2026, we had $190.4 million in cash, cash equivalents, and investments in marketable securities. As we presented on our last call, our outlook for 2026 includes total revenue of approximately $1 million, adjusted operating expenses of $98 million or less, and total cash usage of $93 million or less. 2026 is a delivery transition year as we prepare the anticipated launch of Proteus, and we are making intentional choices that prioritize long-term platform adoption over near-term revenue maximization. This includes embedding upgrade paths in certain Platinum Pro unit sales in 2026, which has a near-term revenue impact, as well as expected timing shifts as customers plan for Proteus availability. With our development progress, Proteus roadshow events, and continued education of channel partners worldwide, we are seeing strong interest in Proteus, which is influencing customer purchasing timelines. Our operating expense guidance and cash remain on track and reflect the activities required to complete development and support a successful commercial launch of Proteus. Our expected cash usage also includes modest inventory build and commercial readiness efforts ahead of the launch. With over $190 million in cash and investments at March 31, we continue to believe we have cash to support operations into 2028, approximately a year and a half after our estimated Proteus launch date. After the Proteus launch, we expect meaningful operating expense leverage over time as launch-related development spend rolls off. Because we are utilizing key external partners for certain development-related activities, we anticipate the ability to ratchet down R&D spend post-launch. This gives us flexibility to reduce total operating expenses and extend our cash runway while retaining the option to selectively redeploy resources into high-return commercialization initiatives as we scale. Finally, management and the board remain aligned with shareholders. Insider ownership remains meaningful, and recent Form 4 activity by management continues to reflect routine tax-related mechanics associated with equity compensation vesting, with no management team members selling shares outside of plan-mandated sales to cover required tax withholdings. In addition, it is important to note that two of our board members collectively purchased 600 thousand shares during the quarter in the open market. With that, we are happy to take your questions. Operator: We will now open the call for questions. As a reminder, to ask a question, you will need to press 11 on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press 11 again. Please stand by while we compile the roster. Our first question comes from Scott Robert Henry with AGP. Scott, go ahead with your question. Scott Robert Henry: Good afternoon. The first kind of bigger-picture question: as customers are starting to use Proteus and they are seeing more amino acids and longer read length, can you talk a little bit about what that means to the customer experience? I know you mentioned more information, but is it also better information, faster information, new applications? I am just trying to get an idea a little bit more about the customer experience with Proteus versus Platinum. Thanks. Jeffrey Alan Hawkins: Yeah. Thanks, Scott, for that question. So maybe we will break it down into three different application buckets. One bucket could be: I have a sample, and I want to identify the proteins that are present in that sample. Another bucket would be post-translational modifications. And a third sort of application area would be, let us say, variants—an engineering approach where I want to see if there are variants of the target protein I am trying to make. If you think about getting more amino acids and getting longer read lengths—so getting more content per protein—if you are in that protein identification area, it means you are going to be able to deal with a more complex mixture of proteins. You will have more unique content, unique information, with which to determine the variety of proteins that are there. Even more importantly, when you look at post-translational modifications or looking for variants in proteins, that is where more amino acid coverage and longer read lengths give you the ability to detect more of those events. You see those events may be spread out along the length of a peptide; they are not always at the beginning of a peptide. So these things give you a much higher level of fidelity and capability when you start thinking about those applications like post-translational modifications or variants. So that is maybe a way to think about what these fundamental sequencing capabilities mean to a customer in terms of the applications they are doing. Scott Robert Henry: Okay, great. Thank you for that color. And somewhat related—and this relies a little bit on your perception and perhaps some of the earlier customer feedback you have gotten—how could you anticipate customers' volume when one switches from Platinum to Proteus, because you have all these added benefits? Could it double volume? Could it 4x volume? I realize this is a bit of guesswork, but I just want to get your thoughts on that. Jeffrey Alan Hawkins: Yeah, I mean, I think it is the right question, Scott, and I think it is a little hard to predict right now. If we maybe take the question up to the 10,000-foot level, within the Platinum customers, Proteus clearly is going to bring a broader set of applications, which we would expect would open up the utilization of our technology in a lot more research studies. So we would expect within that Platinum base that Proteus should see more volume than Platinum sees. Exactly how much that is—is that a factor of two? Is that a bigger number than that?—I think that is the part that, until we get machines in the field and running, is a little hard to predict. The other aspect is all those labs and customers and some of the market segments that we just have not been able to access with Platinum at all. We think the capabilities, focusing in on post-translational modifications and focusing in on those protein variants, are going to open up a whole bunch of new customers. Today, we do not even have a Platinum in there; we are getting no volume. That will be sort of a new addressable set for us and the ability to go farm that account across a lot of different researchers in one institute and really drive volume into our machine. Scott Robert Henry: Okay, great. Thank you for that feedback. Final question: between now and launch—you have about six months—are there any gating factors technologically, or is it mostly production and building of inventory between now and then? Jeffrey Alan Hawkins: Yeah, Scott, so the way I think about it is you have the invention or the big technological breakthrough phase. That has happened; that is behind us. We have achieved that. We know the technology works. We know we are getting the performance from the fundamental components of our technology, whether that is the consumable, the instrument, or sequencing reagents. So really what we view the next six months as is a mix of the manufacturing transfer and bring-up that you mentioned, but also what I would call very standard hardware or instrument engineering and systems integration—driving up the reliability and the success rates, making sure you really get to the target specifications you want, not just in terms of amino acid coverage but the precision you are getting, the reliability you are getting, the mean time between failures. I would put all of those things into what would classically be considered pretty standard systems engineering or systems integration work. So it is technical in nature, but not something where we would expect the need to have some sort of innovation breakthrough. We think the innovation phase of the program and the invention phase are behind us, and it is really now more an operational and execution-related development effort. Scott Robert Henry: Great. Thank you for taking the questions. Jeffrey Alan Hawkins: Thanks, Scott. Operator: Our next question comes from Michael King with Rodman & Renshaw. Michael, go ahead with your question. Michael King: Hi. Good afternoon, guys. Thanks for taking the question. A couple of quick ones. I am trying to understand how you have lower operating expense in the quarter—$24.1 million versus $25.6 million in the same period last year—but you say you funded research and development at a higher run rate year on year. So how does that math work? Jeffry R. Keyes: Hey, Michael. This is Jeff. From an overall R&D standpoint, it can be a little lumpy from quarter to quarter just as we deploy with third-party partners that help on certain aspects of related activities. So that is why I was saying this year compared to last year, we were spending at a slightly higher level in R&D, but we were spending in SG&A at a slightly lower level based on other activities that we have pulled back and streamlined as part of our overall OpEx optimization to ensure that we have good runway going forward. So R&D can be a little lumpy from quarter to quarter, but overall we expect to spend within those guidelines that I mentioned earlier. Michael King: I see. Okay, thanks for clarifying that. The next question is, are you ramping—I know you use a third-party manufacturer—but are you ramping their production in advance of shipments, or will that not happen until later in the year? Or does that just happen as a function of incoming orders? Maybe you can talk a little bit about that. Jeffrey Alan Hawkins: Yeah, Michael, right now the focus is really ramping the delivery of instruments that we are using for R&D purposes. That is really the main focus today—just building out that base of instruments. That said, some of the build that is happening will ultimately support the early access customers in the summer as we work through the continued development. In terms of building inventory for the launch, that is something we will start to look at as we move through the year and really pace that for what we see as the funnel and any preorders that may come in at the back end of the year. So think right now of more of an internal scale-up to continue to expand the development activities and be able to support those early access sites in the summer. Think of inventory build for sales as being something later in the year. Michael King: Okay, thanks for clarifying that. And then I am curious about the roadshow activity. How many cities, how many sites do you expect to hit? And are you thinking about bringing your existing customers or potential customers into your headquarters to train them up so that once the installation is completed, they can immediately start doing their sequencing at scale instead of having to climb the learning curve? Jeffrey Alan Hawkins: Sure. Let us break the question into two parts. In terms of the roadshows, we put out a press release a couple of weeks ago talking about the first few cities that we were targeting with those events. We are continuing to scale that up. We are committed to continuing to provide a press release around the cities. Right now, we have been most heavily focused in the U.S. market, but we have begun locking in the dates for some of the roadshows and events in Europe. Keep your eyes out for press releases in this area; we will continue to update you on the new cities each quarter as we move through. We are seeing this as a very valuable tool in terms of us reaching people and the amount of time you get. If you are a sales professional trying to educate somebody on a new product or technology and you just go as a sales call, you typically get allotted a fairly short period of time—maybe 30 minutes, a really generous customer maybe an hour—and it could take several sales calls to build the level of information awareness that we get when we do these roadshows, where people come and spend about two hours on average at these events. We like the format, we are liking the engagement, and we are getting positive feedback. To your point on training, the roadshow is more educational; it is not really hands-on with the technology. As we get our internal fleet of instruments up to the number we would like to have, with some additional capacity to apply to customer work, we would look to have customers initially send samples to us so we are generating data. They get that data in their hands and are starting to work through that evaluation process and ultimately the budgeting process. When we get to launch, we will have some number of customers who have already done the prework, and what they will be doing more is working through their budgeting process to get the capital to purchase the machine. Once it is in their lab, we are very comfortable with how to train a customer. We have done it to date on the Platinum instrument, and Proteus, having all of the sequencing components automated, should be easier to train a customer on than it even is today. We are not worried about that back-end training component. We think that sample evaluation access early to get data in their hands is the key thing, and that is the next major milestone we are looking to accomplish over the coming quarter. Michael King: Amazing. And then one final quick question. What does the early access site selection process look like, and how many sites do you expect to have active by the end of the summer? Can you give us a range or point estimate? Jeffrey Alan Hawkins: I would say the process looks like we are going to want to have early access sites that span market segments. Clearly, we are going to want some number of academic institutes because those folks will be the type of customer who not only will do the early access but are also going to publish. That said, we are also evaluating the potential to have one or more of the early access sites be in a commercial environment—whether that be biopharma, antibody production, some area like that—because we really want the data and the experience in that market segment. But we know that when you get into a commercial setting, oftentimes customers are not able to publish. So we are thinking about those factors: demonstrating the capabilities, multiple segments, and also thinking about geographies. We have not set out an exact number. The way we are thinking about it is we are going to want to have a reasonable number of these. Do not think you are going to see us do 10 of them, but at least a handful is probably in the neighborhood of what we would be looking to implement over the course of the summer and even into the fall, again spanning geographies and end markets. Michael King: Super. Thanks so much for taking the questions. Jeffrey Alan Hawkins: Thank you, Michael. Operator: Our next question comes from Charles Wallace with H.C. Wainwright. Charles, go ahead with your question. Charles Wallace: Hi. This is Charles on for RK. Thanks for taking my question. You called out that any Platinum Pro unit sold in 2026 is going to have an embedded credit towards Proteus. Have you sold any Platinum Pro units, and do you have some of these credits stacked up at this point? Jeffrey Alan Hawkins: I will start, and if I do not get everything out, I am sure Jeff will jump in here with anything I miss. Not every Platinum Pro has to have that credit. It is a credit that is available to customers if they want to have that ability. Sometimes when you have a new machine coming, people say, “I want to buy it, but I am not really sure what is going to happen when the new machine comes out—how long will you support it?” Those types of things. So they want to have a credit. It is available to customers if they request it. That said, sometimes the machines you are selling now were ones that were budgeted for many months ago, up to a year ago. Those processes and those quotes would have gone out without this credit. So that might not show up in some of the machines that get sold throughout the year if they were budgeted for in the past. At this point, we are not really breaking out which of the capital sales have had the credit or not. As we go through the year and see other metrics of the funnel building, perhaps we will be in a position to provide a little more color on that, because a credit is really a protection for the customer. They still have the option to buy the Proteus or not. At this point, we are not breaking it out; we do not want to overstate the demand for the future machine just based on whether somebody asked for a credit or not. Charles Wallace: Okay, that makes sense. For the early access program, you mentioned maybe a handful of units, and then you also said you are building a fleet of internal units. How large of an internal fleet are you targeting, and how long does it take typically for an instrument to be built and be fully ready? Jeffrey Alan Hawkins: In terms of the internal fleet, I do not know that we have an exact number that we would give out. You can think about the internal fleet as needing to support our instrument engineering team—people working on instruments, integration, software. We have reagent development—the people putting the sequencing reagents into consumables and getting those optimized and ready to go—so they have to have access to machines. Then, of course, as we are bringing up manufacturing, we have to have some number of machines in our quality control testing environment to develop the QC tests, run the specifications that we will hold ourselves to when we are launching, when we are finalizing a kit, and ultimately deciding what can be shipped to a customer. So we have multiple groups who need access. In general, our strategy is to continue to build those and maximize their utilization. If we see that those are all maxed out, we keep building. We do not ever want to be throttled in terms of our ability to push as much testing volume and development volume through those internal machines. In terms of timelines for build, it would be a little early to put a specific timeline on the lead time to build an instrument. There are a small number—as is the case in most instruments—of long-lead parts. We procure those in advance and hold those parts. The assembly process itself is more about applying the labor and optimizing those processes. We are not having issues with a machine showing up at a Quantum-Si incorporated facility and functioning properly. We are not having those types of challenges that sometimes exist in early hardware development programs. Are we operating the line with perfect efficiency and perfect throughput? It is safe to say we are not yet, but we are very comfortable that we know how to do that, and we can optimize that well in advance of any commercial ramp. Since it is very labor-oriented, we have external partners, and one of the reasons we use those partners for instrument manufacturing is they have the capacity and the people. They can flex that up or down as our forecast requires. As long as we maintain those long-lead parts in inventory, the ability to flex up or down is a pretty efficient thing to do when you have external partners who have that kind of capacity. Charles Wallace: Great. Makes sense, and thank you for all the color. Operator: Our next question comes from Kyle Mikson with Canaccord Genuity. Kyle, go ahead with your question. Charlotte Mauer: Hi. This is Charlotte Mauer on for Kyle. Thank you so much for taking our questions. To start, could you elaborate a little bit more on the recent successful sequencing run on Proteus and how the performance compared to your expectations? What were some of the most notable improvements, and were there any specific challenges that need to be addressed before moving forward? Jeffrey Alan Hawkins: Thanks, Charlotte. I will work on that question backwards to forwards. The last part of your question was whether we experienced any challenges testing those samples, and the answer is no. We were able to run those samples successfully. We ran them both on Platinum and on Proteus so we could get a same-time comparison. In this particular situation, these are a series of proteins that the customer has previously worked with and tested in their own lab using a Platinum instrument. What they were focused on for their application was trying to both identify these proteins, and they are also doing some really novel work around developing tools for essentially de novo detection of amino acids. They are really focused on the coverage and the read length. Getting data from Proteus—one is just the amount of output you get. The number of reads is much, much higher with Proteus simply based on the number of features on that chip compared to Platinum. The coverage—as I mentioned in the prepared remarks—not only are we detecting 17 amino acids now, but our detection frequency of the others is considerably higher. And then, when you think about read length, what the customer saw in these particular samples is that the read length on Proteus was about double—about twice as long as what they are used to seeing on Platinum. If we go back to one of my earlier answers to Scott—why would a customer care about more amino acids being detected or longer read lengths? In this case, they are working on samples where they want to identify these proteins and potentially variants or modifications of them. They are thinking about algorithms they are developing for de novo detection. More content, longer reads, more complete information are going to really help them with their exploratory algorithm work in addition to the basic performance in identifying and subtyping those different proteins. Charlotte Mauer: Thanks for that additional color. I also had some questions about the roadshow. It sounds like there has been some strong early interest, but could you dive a little deeper into any relevant feedback or interest that you have received from customers at this point about Proteus, key highlights or takeaways, and any feedback on pricing? Jeffrey Alan Hawkins: Early interest is largely where we anticipated it: customers are really excited to have the ability to analyze PTMs. It is an area of translational research, basic biology research, and mechanisms of action where—outside of phosphorylation—it is a pretty difficult field to tackle even if you have access to some of the highest-end mass spec machines. So PTMs are a big draw. On the two roadshow formats, in the first format where we go to an institution with an existing Platinum and open up the education, we are seeing not just the core lab but many other researchers—translational and basic biology—who have an interest, a study in mind, a potential way to utilize the technology. That has been a really positive learning for us as we think about driving institutional momentum toward funding: helping the core lab see that their internal customers have a desire to get access to the tech. That type of momentum can be really helpful when working through where the funding proposal sits among all the other capital equipment they are looking at. On pricing, we have announced the price. We have not heard any pushback. I would not expect to at this point for two reasons. First, if you are thinking about PTM applications, those folks are often using very high-end mass spec equipment that can cost upwards of $1 million or more. Us sitting at $425 thousand is really attractively priced compared to what they might be spending on one of the high-end mass spec machines. Second, we have not given people enough information today that someone has to really make the decision on the price. The good news is no one is hearing it and running away, so we are not too high. We will get more nuanced feedback as we continue to put out more data or they are able to start getting sample evaluations in hand. Thus far, no one has been concerned. People have thought it is very reasonable for its capabilities, and we will keep driving home the message around the capabilities at $425 thousand versus having to go all the way up over $1 million for a mass spec that can do the same thing. Charlotte Mauer: Great, thank you. And one last question: looking ahead to expectations for 2027 and some of your capital deployment, you mentioned utilizing key external partners for certain development-related activities. Where in the process do you expect to use these partners the most, and how should we think about this reduction in capital deployment relative to your 2026 levels given a full year of spending on commercialization efforts for Proteus? Jeffrey Alan Hawkins: Let me start, and then I will pass it to Jeff for a little additional color. We are using these partners today across some of our consumable development efforts, our optic system that is inside of Proteus, and instrument development. We have partners who are working with us across those various R&D efforts. Some of those partners will flip into our manufacturing partners next year. They will be with us, but it will be more in terms of building inventory and supporting that. Maybe, Jeff, you can give a little feel for how we think about the burn-down after we launch. Jeffry R. Keyes: Regarding total OpEx as we move forward into 2027, we will need some of these partners to help stabilize the program shortly after launch, which is typical for a new development project. But after that, since we are using a significant amount of partners, we are going to be able to ratchet down that R&D spend specifically. As I noted earlier, we would be able to either bank that savings or redeploy it, but we are going to look for opportunities between R&D and other activities to ratchet down our OpEx, and we will gauge that relative to how Proteus uptake goes in 2027. We will be able to manage it going forward. It is definitely on our radar, and external partner R&D spend is the first obvious step, followed by other items we can look at going forward. Jeffrey Alan Hawkins: And, consistent with what we did this year, as we look at our guidance in 2027, we will be able to be more quantitative when we get there in terms of how we think about our adjusted OpEx or cash use. We will continue to provide that guidance. It is just a little early to be providing it right now, but you can gather from Jeff’s and my feedback how we are thinking about rotating those dollars off in R&D, some deployment perhaps into other initiatives, and banking the majority of that savings. Charlotte Mauer: Awesome. Thank you so much for all the time. Jeffrey Alan Hawkins: Thank you. Operator: This concludes the question and answer session. I would now like to turn it back to Jeffrey Alan Hawkins for closing remarks. Jeffrey Alan Hawkins: Thank you for attending our call today. We look forward to providing additional business updates on our next earnings call. Operator: Thank you for your participation in today's conference. This does conclude the program. You may now disconnect. 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