Nangeng Zhang
Analyst · Ben Sommers from BTIG
Thank you, Gwyn. Hello, everyone. This is NG, CEO of Canaan. Thank you for joining our earnings conference call today. James, our CFO, and I am here at our Singapore headquarters to share our financial results and recent business updates for the first quarter of 2026. Q1 2026 was a very challenging quarter. Bitcoin prices dropped sharply from the height at the beginning of the year. and half price fell to very low levels. As a result, finance around the world became much more cautious with their investments. After entering in the second quarter, the market saw some recovery, but the recovery has still been limited. At the same time, uncertainties related to the Middle East situation, energy prices, global equity and the policies continue to keep the industry contract environment. For us, our company going through a transition period, this kind of environment created a lot of pressure. But today, I want to focus less on the gates we faced and more on what we did during the difficult times. I believe investors want to see whether we have strong execution, deplant operations and ability to navigate through market cycles. In the first quarter, we completed several concrete tasks. First, we completed the final stage of production, delivery and revenue recognition for our large order from a leading North American customer while entering the market downturn with a relatively light inventory position. Second, we continued expanding our mining business, which still generates positive cash contribution even under extremely low hard price conditions, while further increasing our digital asset treasury. Third, we completed the acquisition of ABC projects through a share exchange transaction, obtaining a 49% equity interest in 3 energies and operating mine site with low power cost invest taxes. Fourth, we continue to advance in the R&D of 16 series and our next-generation products to prepare for the next mining equipment update cycle. Fifth, we continue shifting the company's strategic focus from a pure mining machine business towards energy computing infrastructure. Taken together, these actions show that during a difficult market environment, we did not simply wait for the market to recover instead, we actively strengthened our survivability, improve our asset quality and expanding our long-term strategic options. In the quarter, we generated total revenues of USD 62.7 million, in line with our previous guidance range. As of the end of the quarter, we had 1,808 bitcoing and 30,952 Ethereum and our digital asset treasury reached another record high. In mining machine, industry demand was clearly under pressure in the first quarter. We sold 4.1 exahash per second of computing power is an average selling price of about 10.5 per terahash, generating USD 42.9 million in revenue. Many customers delayed fortress due to low cash price and high market uncertainty and the market pricing also came under pressure. In this environment, we did not pursue short-term sale growth through aggressive inventory buildup or lower quality orders. Instead, we raised higher priority on inventory control, cash flow management and all quality. This also reflects the operating discipline. We have emphasized over the past several quarters. In Q4 of 2025, we captured the market window and secure the large North American order with all the deliveries completed. In the first quarter of this year, we completed the final stage of execution through this -- the successful completion of this project. We further strengthened our brand reputation and customer base in the North American market. mining machine business may not be the hottest story in the capital market today, but it remains the formation of cane. As long as the is network continues to operate and low-cost power resources continue to exist around the world. Manas will continue to need machines that are more efficient, more reliable and easy to deploy. Our job is to run the mining machine business with stronger discipline and stay closer to the real needs of our customers. In the fourth quarter, we continued advancing customized products and system-level solutions. Recently, we expanded our collaboration with Tier by providing customized high-density tax for models for its next-generation emerging mining and unfit systems. This type of partnership shows that leading customers are shifting from pursuing single sand miners to see interpretive systems that are modular metal, gradable and adaptable to different operating scenarios. For Ken, this is exactly where our long-term strength in ASIC demand system engineering, supply chain management and the global progress delivery can create value. In addition, as we announced earlier today, we sold approximately 8 megawatts of hydro crude equipment to Nordic citing service provider to produce high-grade hot water for the strip heating systems. Projects like this show that mining machines are gradually expanding beyond pure mining use cases into broader energy utilization scenarios. The combination of computing power, heat recovery and the local energy infrastructure is also an area we will continue to explore going forward. In the consumer and SMB market, the main focus of having a home series in the first half year, has been channel expansion, customer reach and service system development. Since the beginning of this year, Aram products have entered platforms, including Best by Canada's online channel and Amazon. The consumer market is very different from the industrial mining machine market. Customers are not only about half rate, but also about noise level, stability product design, easy for installation and after-sales stories. We are currently working on the product upgrades for the -- for several or home models and hope to lock them in the second half of this year. We hope that better products, stronger sales channels and the year-end shopping season, together can help this business line contribute to higher core revenue. Now we move to our mining business. The mining environment in the first quarter was very challenging. In January, during the winter storm across North America. We materially power down and hotel operations in the certain regions to prioritize electricity supply to local residents and the power grid. We want to be trusted and responsible partner with labor computing load for the grid rather than adding additional pressure during a period of great stress. More importantly, even under a low has price environment, our mining business continued to show strong competitiveness. During the quarter, we generated 257 bitcoins in total and recognized $19.12 million in mining revenue. From a cash operating perspective, this business continued to contribute positive liquidity inflow to the company. By the end of the quarter, our global installed part reached 15%, up 66% year-over-year and 11% quarter-over-quarter. Our operating base continue to expand. While our power and hosting costs remained relatively competitive. In April, our non-JV installed hash rate remained around 11 hash per second with an average all-in power cost of about $0.044 per pear. At the same time, ABC JV program also add 4.82 ex hash per second installed cap rate, and 120 megawatts of installed power capacity. I believe these numbers show 1 important thing. The mining business still has value even during the low point of the cycle. It helped us to accumulate BDC and help us better understand the real operational needs and the pain points of minus. More importantly, it helped us to build real power consumption and operational capabilities. We continue to advancing energy and computing infrastructure future. The most important development this quarter was the ABC project in late February, we acquired EBITDA interest in par and Simonton products in U.S., Texas from Cyber through a share exchange transaction together with 6,840 Avalon A15 pro mining machines. The biggest advantage of the ABC products is highly competitive power cost, which is below USD 0.03 per kilowatt hour. Because of this cost advantage, the products maintained a strong profitability and a high uptime, even during a period of Bitcoin price volatility, which significantly improved over time. We have also been working closely with our partner, with HQ to steadily upgrade the mining fleet at a site. At the end of April, the projects installed hash rate increased from about 4.4 exhash per second to 4.82 exhash per second. In addition, the JV program has potential for future power load expansion, and we are currently evaluating related opportunities. Overall, the AT products operate and their hybrid mining -- power model, combining wind power and a electricity is total installed capacity of 120 megawatts and power cost below us and U.S. do per kilowatt hour. The projects currently have an in-store hash rate for approximately 4.82 per exhash second. We have maintained a strong long-term relationship with Cyber over the past years. The commission of the ABC Project transaction also reflects our ability to take over high-quality assets released during the doing CIOs business transaction. based on our longstanding cooperation, we believe high-quality power resources and the infrastructure accountabilities will become increasingly important competitive advanced advantages in the industry over the long term. The completion of ABC projects only future strengthened our footprint in North America energy and infrastructure, but also response represent is an important step in advancing our long-term Energy+ computing infrastructure strategy. Following the transaction, Cyber also become -- became an important shareholder of Canaan, lining the foundation for deeper cooperation between the 2 parties in the future. This product has very important meaning for us. First, these are low-cost power assets that are already energized already operating and already generating computing power in today's North American market assets with real operations are much more valuable than pipeline opportunities on paper. Second, program is concrete result of our energy strategy. In future, strengthens our access to low-cost power resources, mining operation experience, and the local partnership networks in the United States. Third, it also provides us with stronger infrastructure commodities and greater strategic flexibilities after we continue to explore future AI and ATC opportunities. Regarding our energy pipeline, we have indeed made some meaningful and encouraging progress. However, as a responsible public company, we do not believe these developments have yet reached the closure milestones required for us to provide more specific details publicly. So at this stage, I cannot share too much additional information. but I can reaffirm our site view high-quality power resources will become one of the most important barriers in future computing infrastructure. Our goal is to secure power infrastructure that is controllable, developable and available in regions that are compliant close to major customer markets large-in-scale capable for long-term grid connection and expandable over time. The United States remains one of our most important markets. We hope that in the future, once project conditions become more mature and discoder requires are met. We will be able to provide the market with more concrete and substantial updates. Now let me talk about our R&D and products. In the fourth quarter of last year, we officially launched the Avalon A16 XP. It delivers up to 300 terahash per second per machine with energy efficiency as well as 4.8 terahash per tons. During the first quarter, some customers received simple units and bigger testing. Based on the feedback we have received so far, the A16 series has performed well in castrate stability, energy efficiency, noise control and deployment capability. We have also seen growing attention from the mining community and the third-party reviewers towards the A16 Series, which has been very encouraging for our team. A16 Series will become the core of our future industrial mining machine product line. It is not only a performance upgrade but also represents our overall mobilities in system airing some more design formware, reliability and the cost control. Advanced semiconductor process are becoming increasingly expected and simply pursuing the voice oer Terahash does not always deliver the best returns on investment for customers. We pay more attention to the products for life cycle economics for the -- for customers, including machine pricing, power costs. operational stability, maintenance costs, delivery certainty and risk deal value. because we have secured a part of our key product capacity early and have maintained the long-term cooperation with our foundry and supply chain partners. We are still able to move forward with A16 series mass production and the future product introductions in a more stable and cost-controlled way. Even under the current environment where AI-related demand is competing for advanced semiconductor capacity. For our mining machine delivery, we leverage manufacturing capacity across Malaysia, the United States and Mainland China. This allow us to remain compliant while responding more flexibility to changes in the global trade environment and tariff policies. In -- particularly during the delivery of our large North American order, our manufacturing quality control and logistics teams worked closely together and successfully handled the pressure from concentrated shipments and tight delivery schedules demonstrating the resilience and execution capabilities of our supply chain team. In addition, assembly capacity for our Avalon home series has also been expanded to our Malaysia facility. Beyond the current A16 series, the R&D of our next-generation products has also entered the final stage. And some projects have recently completed tape-out for technical validation. After we complete product testing and the real operation -- operating conditions, we will close more detailed technical specifications to the market. We are confident in the performance improvements of our next-generation products. And we will continue to follow our principle. Customers are not just buying subscriptions for systems that can operate stably by over the long term and generate stable and reliable returns. Today, I also want to talk more systematically about our AI and HPC strategy. As AI computing demand continues to grow rapidly, power resources sale centers and the computing infrastructure are becoming increasingly important. The market is also paying close attention to mining companies moving into AI and HPC. We understand this interest many companies are talking about AI and HPC, but I hope investors will see can support -- we will be steadier and more practical. For AI HPC, our long-term strategy has 2 major pillars. The first pillar is energy. The compilation of the ABC product shows that we have already real progress in energy and infrastructure. These are not conceptual pipeline projects, but assets that are already energized, already operating and already generating computing power and cash flow. At the same time, we are also advancing large scale and a more controllable power resource development. Our goal is to gradually build the power infrastructure abilities that are financeable, developable and available by the company in compliant regions that are close to key markets and have long-term expansion potential. Energy infrastructure products, orally take a long time. The process from permitting land acquisition and a great connection to construction and operational or request time. Therefore, we will not make over aggressive promises based on the short-term market segment. But once these projects are completed step by step, we believe that will become one of the most important long-term mats for our future computing infrastructure strategy. The second pillar is our computing systems. Over the past decade, Canaan has been deeply involved in ASIC design, mining machine development, large-scale delivery and real-world mining operations. We are familiar with turning high-density computing equipment into products that are standardized, modernized mass productible remotely manageable and easy to deploy at scale. We believe broader AI and HPC infrastructure in the future will increasingly require these same capabilities. Our thinking is how to gradually make AI computing systems, which may become the largest source of new computing demand in the future, more like mining machines with a scalable divestment, standardized operations and clear economic models. This growth process will not have overnight, but we believe the direction is becoming increasingly clear. I don't believe BTC mining and AI HPC are completely separate businesses. For Kena, blockchain computing is a proven workflow today that already generates cash contribution and help us validate power assets and operational capabilities. AI and HPC represents future computing demand with larger scale and higher into structure standards. The cost transformation is already fully underway internally. Our power infrastructure planning is being designed for long-term and higher-density computing demand. while our chip and system abilities are also gradually expanding towards broader computing platforms. But at this stage, we performed to spend less time talking about concepts and more time building real asset products and engineering come abilities. What we want to do is gradually expect our existing strength in mining, energy, chip and system engineering into broader and the broad chain computing infrastructure. We believe the right approach is to first build a strong condition in power sources and operations and then gradually integrate new types of computing system when the timing is right. In this way, the company can continue benefiting from the cash contribution and the flexible low value of BTC mining while also creating long-term opportunities in AI HPC and in variable and settlement enabled digital economic network in the future. This past fits well with the foundation we have built over the years. We believe we already know where the industry is heading. In the future, Scott resources will gradually shift from GPUs themselves to compliant low-cost power, this patch for loads to mass specific texture-based AI computing systems and long-term organizational mobilities. The hardest part is finding the right path from where we are today to the future. what now, including the ABC products, direct power pipeline development, chip demand, system engineering and organizational efficiency improves. This essentially building the foundation for that part. Finally, I want to talk about our organization and cost structure. Since the fourth quarter of last year, we have continued optimizing our organization in Q1 of 2020. The result of these efforts already started to appear in our operation -- operating expenses. Going forward, we will continue to focus on our resources on core products, key projects and areas that can build long-term competitive advantages. At the same time, we are also introducing AI tools more deeply across the company, including R&D collaboration, coding and testing, supply chain planning, financial analysis customer support and operational management. My view on AI is very practical. AI is not only a market that we may serve in the future, but also a tool that helps us to improve our on organizational efficiency today. We want to achieve more go deeper and deliver higher-quality work with a leaner organization. Going forward, we will continue management expenses with stronger discipline while improving business responsiveness and futuring the efficiency. We believe these are critical probabilities for the company to successfully navigate industry cycles. In March this year, James and I also purchased companies ADS in the open market using our personal funds. The amount itself is not a key point. What matters is that management stands on the same size as all shareholders. to this market environment is in deeply challenging, but we remain confident in the covenants long-term direction and our ability to execute. Looking ahead to the second quarter, we remain cautious. Although Bitcoin price and cash price have recovered somewhat from the lowest to the first quarter -- in the first quarter. miners globally are still taking a conservative approach to the investment. In addition, energy prices and the geographic -- and the geopolitical uncertainties may continue to affect customer decisions. Therefore, we expect total revenues for the second quarter of 2026 to be between USD 35 million and USD 45 million. This outlook is based on the card market and operating conditions, and actual results may differ due to changes in the market conditions, policies, compliances and customer demand. In the short term, China is still going through a difficult transition period. We do not award this reality, but I also want to make it clear that the company is not standing still. We are reducing inventory, controlling costs, advancing new products, expanding sales channels, strengthening money operations, securing low-cost power resources advancing our U.S. power infrastructure pipeline and exploring long-term opportunities in AI and the PC computing systems. The industry cycle will continue to fluctuate and market segment will continue to change. But we can control, but what we can control are our situation, this plan cost structure products asset quality and long-term direction. As long as we continue improving in these areas, we believe Ken will become stronger in the next cycle. My -- that conclusion is in my remarks. Thank you again for your continuous support. I will now turn the call over to our CFO, James, to discuss our financial results in more detail. Go ahead, James.