John Belizaire
Analyst · H.C. Wainwright & Co
Thanks, Mike Tu. Hello, and welcome to Soluna's second quarter results and business update. This is our first quarterly earnings webcast, and we're glad to have you all here. Let me start with the thesis because everything else today sits underneath it. Power is the primary constraint in the AI era -- not chips, not capital -- power and how quickly you can reach it. Soluna has secured long-term behind-the-meter access to power at scale, and we convert that access into contracted data center flows and data center cash flows by building directly on the site of renewable generation with stranded power by bypassing long grid queues. Four numbers frame where we stand today. Revenue grew 145% year-over-year, our fifth straight quarter of sequential growth. We have 192 megawatts of capacity under management, a proven cash-generating operating base, and we expect that to increase this summer to 206 megawatts. We have over 650 megawatts across 2 AI campuses in development at Kati 2 and Dorothy 3, both on-track to secure leases and construction. And our renewable power pipeline grew 47% this year to over 6.3 gigawatts, the scarce input for AI sourced all behind the meter. Now let me spend a moment on the second and third of those because this is the quarter they connected. We like to say power is the asset and compute follows, and that's the Soluna Way. In the second quarter, we took it all the way through at Project Dorothy. On April 1, we closed the acquisition of the 150-megawatt Briscoe Wind Farm. On April 15, we acquired Spring Lane Capital's interest in Dorothy 1A. And on May 19, we acquired Navitas' interest in Dorothy 1B. Soluna now owns the generation and the compute across all 50 megawatts of Project Dorothy 1. Everyone in this industry is racing to secure power right now, signing PPAs, taking queue positions, negotiating with utilities for capacity that shows up in 2029. We acquired the wind farm. So when a hyperscaler or neocloud customer performing diligence on one of our sites asked 2 questions and decide everything. How fast can you get me power and what is my energy cost? We answer both with an asset we own outright. Now that model produces 5 revenue streams and the mix is shifting deliberately. Hosting for Bitcoin miners is our largest business today. We build and operate the data center, creditworthy mining companies bring their machines, and that is the driver of our revenue. Proprietary Bitcoin mining is our own fleet. We sell daily and hold no treasury. Grid ancillary services pay us to be flexible, interruptible load, and we are compensated for acting as behind-the-meter flexible load for the grid operator. And Soluna Wind is our new addition this quarter, on-site wind generation at Briscoe with ERCOT substation and grid interconnection. And of course, AI high-performance computing, colocation and hosting for companies that need AI-ready capacity is where this company is going. That is the segment Ryan was hired to build. Everything we are doing this year sits on the 4 priorities. First, develop AI. Advance Kati 2 and Dorothy 3 to shovel-ready and tenant-ready and build a pipeline of AI-ready campuses designed for rapid deployment. Next is optimizing our projects. We are focused on energizing and ramping Kati 1 and driving profitability across the operating fleet through uptime, operational efficiency and disciplined cost management. Next is capital formation. We intend to fund pipeline growth and AI development through project level financing and strategic capital partnerships while maintaining balance sheet flexibility. And finally, we are focused on growing our pipeline. As I said earlier, we reached 6.3 gigawatts this quarter with more than 300 megawatts of the growth coming from expanded term sheets at 4 sites already in our portfolio. I want to say something about capital formation because it is a question I get most. We raised $159.4 million in the second quarter and an additional $23.6 million on our ATM program since quarter end, issuing about 18.8 million shares. And here is what that accomplished. 100% ownership to Project Dorothy 1, a 150-megawatt wind farm, the Kati 2 joint venture and land for Dorothy 3 and a clean capital structure. We retired the Series B entirely this quarter and paid out the accumulated dividends. Every dollar of that went into assets that are now on the balance sheet today. Going forward, the large AI builds are designed to be funded predominantly with project level debt collateralized by the data center and underwritten against contracted tenant cash flows. Mike Picchi will take you through that structure. So let's get into the quarter. On the business side, 4 things. We were added to the Russell 3000 and Russell 2000 indices in the latest reconstitution and new sell-side research coverage has been initiated on the company in recent weeks. Together with more formal quarterly communications you are seeing today, these reflect a deliberate effort to elevate Soluna's visibility and accessibility to institutional investors. We closed the $53 million acquisition of Briscoe Wind Farm on April 1, as I mentioned, and it's our first direct ownership of a renewable generation asset. We consolidated 100% of Project Dorothy 1A and 1B, strengthening the path toward Dorothy 3, our new AI campus. On the project side, our teams delivered across all 4 campuses. Kati 2 reached a definitive joint venture with Metrobloks, completed design development and signed a tenant letter of intent. Dorothy 3 secured a definitive land purchase agreement and advanced utility coordination. Kati 1 completed substantial construction, and Dorothy 1A and Sophie held capacity through a heavy summer curtailment window. Ryan will take you through the AI project highlights in detail shortly. Now I'd like to talk about the pipeline, which is our core asset. As of August 1, the total pipeline is approximately 6.3 gigawatts. That's up from 4.3 gigawatts earlier this year, and I want you to see how it is structured. 192 megawatts is operating, energized and generating revenue today. 14 megawatts is under construction, the final phase of Kati 1. We expect this will take us to 206 megawatts operating by the end of the summer. Approximately 1.6 gigawatts is in planning and development where PPA negotiations, ERCOT planning, AI feasibility work, and land acquisition activities are underway. And approximately 4.5 gigawatts is in assessment with our power partners. One more piece of the model. Our behind-the-meter structure keeps our data centers flexible. We can draw power from the renewable plant and from the grid, and we can provide ancillary services back to the grid. That flexibility is what gives us rapid time to interconnection. And we will cluster. We plan to use multiple generation assets in proximity to a single data center site, which is how a footprint that would otherwise support a fraction of the capacity becomes a 300-megawatt campus. We are using that approach at Kati 2 and Dorothy 3, and you will see it in our other sites. Before I turn to the road map, I want to address the recent announcements coming out of Texas. On August 3, Governor Abbott directed the PUCT and ERCOT to audit every data center in ERCOT's interconnection queue before approving new projects. That is a response to roughly 474 gigawatts of pending requests, about 90% of which are data centers. That mandate targets new studied loads in the interconnection queue. I want to share 4 points on where we, Soluna sit. First, our direct exposure is limited. The audit targets new studied load, roughly 146 megawatts of our capacity in Texas is already energized and both Dorothy 3 and Kati 2 build off adjacent energized interconnections. Second, our model fits what the state is screening for: no costly transmission upgrades, flexible interruptible load, new wind and solar, minimal water by design. We fund our own electrical infrastructure. And third, we see this as a tailwind for operators with live capacity. With the queue frozen for the audit and ERCOT's August 7 dispatch delayed, energized capacity gains value. And fourth, we welcome the review. We support a rigorous and consistent review process, and we are cooperating fully with the PUCT and ERCOT. So I want to close with what's on tap for the balance of the year. We're focused on completing Kati 1 with the final 14 megawatts. We plan to move from design development to construction documents at Kati 2. We're advancing the Dorothy 3 development and begin marketing to potential tenants. New Bitcoin hosting announcements we expect to take place at Kati 1. And we are also looking at new power purchase agreements underway with Rosa, Hedy, Ellen, Annie and new projects. Those are the milestones, and we will report against them next quarter. All right. Before I hand it over, everything you've heard so far, the wind farm, the buyouts, the capital, exists for one reason: converting our power position into contracted AI megawatts, which brings me to the newest member of our leadership team. On July 16, we appointed Ryan Carver as our Chief Development Officer. Ryan joins us from Microsoft, where he was most recently serving as Senior Director of AI Construction and Site Development, leading a construction P&L in the tens of billions of dollars across the company's AI data center development. There are very few people who have delivered hyperscale AI campuses end-to-end, and Ryan is certainly one of them. His mandate here is deliberately broad from site selection and development to engineering and construction and operations, all in one organization reporting to me. Ryan, welcome to Soluna and take it away.