KULR Technology Group Inc
AMEX:KULR
KULR Technology Group Inc
KULR Technology Group, Inc. engages in developing, manufacturing, and licensing next-generation carbon fiber thermal management technologies for batteries and electronic systems. The company is headquartered in San Diego, California and currently employs 62 full-time employees. The company went IPO on 2018-05-21. The firm is engaged in developing, manufacturing, and licensing carbon fiber thermal management technologies for batteries and electronic systems. For its aerospace and Department of Defense (DOD) application, the Company's solution targets high-performance applications in direct energy, hypersonic vehicles and satellite communications. For commercial applications, its focus is solution to battery safety and sustainability. This total battery safety solution can be used for electric vehicles, energy storage, battery recycling transportation, cloud computing and fifth generation communication devices. Its heat management products and services are divided into various categories, Lithium-Ion Battery Thermal Runaway Shield (TRS), CellCheck, KULR-Tech Safe Case, Fiber Thermal Interface Material (FTI), Phase Change Material (PCM) Heat Sink, Internal Short Circuit (ISC) Device and CRUX Cathode.
Earnings Calls
In the first quarter of 2025, KULR Technology Group experienced a 40% revenue increase, reaching $2.4 million, marking its highest trailing revenue ever. Product revenue surged by 89%, while the company recognized its first Bitcoin mining revenue of $250,000. Despite challenging gross margins at 8% due to unexpected project costs, KULR remains strong financially, with $24 million in cash and substantial Bitcoin holdings. Looking ahead, the company anticipates doubling revenue by the end of 2025. Recently, KULR partnered with German Bionic to develop exoskeletons aimed at addressing labor shortages in key industries while expanding its operations and production capacity to meet growing demand.
Welcome, everyone, to the KULR Technology Group First Quarter 2025 Earnings Call. I'm your moderator for the call, Stuart Smith. Before we begin the call, please listen closely to the following safe harbor statement covering this entire call. This call contains certain forward-looking statements based on the company's current expectations, forecasts and assumptions that involve risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements made on this call are based on the information available to the company as of the date hereof.
KULR Technology Group's actual results may differ materially from those stated or implied in such forward-looking statements due to risks and uncertainties associated with their business, which include the risk factors disclosed in their Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on April 12, 2024, as may be amended or supplemented by other reports the company files with the Securities and Exchange Commission from time to time. Forward-looking statements include statements regarding the company's expectations, beliefs, intentions or strategies regarding the future and can be identified by forward-looking words such as anticipate, believe, could, estimate, expect, intend, may, should and would or similar words.
All forecasts are provided by management on this call are based on the information available at this time, and management expects that internal projections and expectations may change over time. In addition, the forecasts are entirely based on management's best estimates of their future financial performance given their current contracts, current backlog of opportunities and conversations with new and existing customers about their products and services.
KULR Technology Group assumes no obligation to update the information included in this call, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Now the call will begin with opening statements from CEO, Michael Mo, followed by the Chief Financial Officer, Shawn Canter. After that, we will conduct a Q&A session made up of the questions e-mailed in and delivered to the company via social media. But with that, let me turn the call over now to Chief Executive Officer, Michael Mo. Michael, the call is yours.
Thank you, Stuart. This is Michael Mo. Thank you, everyone, for joining us today. 2025 is a transformational year for KULR, and the transformation is well on its way. With over $100 million in cash and Bitcoin holdings on our balance sheet and virtually no debt, we're well capitalized to grow our battery and AI robotics businesses, while our capital market activities in the foreseeable future are geared to turbocharge our Bitcoin acquisition strategy, establishing KULR as a pioneer BTC-first Bitcoin treasury company. What is a BTC-first company?
A Bitcoin-first company treats Bitcoin not as a site asset or payment option, but as a core pillar of its identity, strategy, and mission. Our journey of transformation is riding the wave of the greatest digital transformation in the human history, intelligence, capital and energy. Digital transformation of intelligence is AI, digital transformation of capital and energy is Bitcoin. One of Michael Saylor's 21 rules of Bitcoin is need to know. In 2024, we were a struggling battery company that need to know how to survive. We were definitely in the need to know crowd. On December 2, 2024, we did a survey on X, asking if KULR should adopt a Bitcoin treasury strategy.
The survey received over 100,000 views and over 1,500 votes with 2/3 voting yes. We announced our first purchase of BTC on December 26 for $21 million. Since then, we have amassed over 716 Bitcoins in our treasury. We are now #30 in the world's top public companies holding Bitcoin according to HODL 15 Capital. BTC acquisition is like buying a digital monopoly business at one-time revenue and growing 60% a year. Would you do it? The answer is, of course, you would. Our new capital market activities are to turbocharge our Bitcoin treasury strategy for maximum BTC holding by acquiring this digital monopoly business.
We're getting ever more entrenched into the Bitcoin and blockchain ecosystems. We're entering into strategic BTC mining opportunities because we expect BTC pricing to be higher in the future. We expect our share prices to appreciate with our BTC treasury strategy and our growing businesses. Our mining arrangement is another way to accumulate BTC at favorable cost basis with less dilutive capital market activities into the future. We expect to increase our BTC yield and returns. We have launched a blockchain secured supply chain initiative to safeguard product data to our customers.
One of the initial products that will be recorded on the blockchain will include lithium-ion batteries [ screeneed ] to meet the NASA Work Instruction 37A testing methods. Each battery that KULR manufactures will have its metadata minted on an NFT on the blockchain. When a battery is purchased, the NFT can be transferred to the customer's on-chain wallet or moved to a burn wallet maintained by KULR to indicate ownership has been transferred. As you know, we've been investing in our KULR ONE battery platform. We're now reaping the benefits of that investment. KULR is entering a pivotal phase in battery innovation, marked by accelerated development cycles, increased production scale, enhanced capacity and growing technical validation across key sectors.
As part of our strategic growth plan, we have expanded our facility footprint to approximately 31,000 square feet, which doubled our battery production capacity. By integrating advanced manufacturing technologies with the in-house battery design expertise, we have compressed development time lines from years to as little as 6 weeks. A prime example of this capability is the successful delivery of our custom-certified KULR ONE Space X500 battery to AstroForge for their asteroid mining missions. This achievement highlights the readiness of our production team and the maturity of the KULR ONE Space platform to deliver mission-critical solutions on an accelerated schedule.
Our ability to respond rapidly to new customer requirements also support a capital-efficient business model for us to serve many new markets. Our design, testing, prototyping services are cost-effective to our customers while we maintain full ownership of the all-result intellectual property, ensuring long-term value creation for the company. Further validating our technical leadership, KULR was recently selected by the Texas Space Commission to receive a $6.7 million grant aimed to advance next-generation space battery systems.
This initiative supports the development of a Ruggedized battery technologies capable of operating in extreme environments, including temperatures as low as minus 60 degrees Celsius. The commission's strategic vision is to establish Texas as a global hub for space innovation. And a key component of that vision is ensuring a secure in-state supply chain for Spray-rated energy systems. KULR's deep expertise, combined with this brand and our expanded infrastructure in Webster, Texas, will play a critical role in fulfilling that objective. With our proven technical capabilities, scalable operations and strong financial foundation, KULR is well positioned as the premier source of fast turnaround space and defense grade battery systems delivered at cost-effective price points.
Physical AI and robotics will be a multi-trillion dollar market according to many industry giants. The global market for wearable robotics is projected to hit $42 billion by 2033, and we see huge potential across industries that have labor shortages and high physical demands. We believe that exoskeletons present one of the most immediate time to market and revenue opportunities to get into the robotics and physical AI markets. The Apogee is the world's most powerful exoskeleton designed to support and protect workers engaged in heavy and repetitive bending and lifting during the course of their workday.
The suit has onboard sensors connected to the cloud via an integrated cellular modem so that health and safety supervisors can use safety and ergonomic data through our enterprise-grade dashboard and analytics. The #1 MST is lower back pain, and the Apogee was expressly designed to address this huge problem in the workplace. Right now, there are 2 business models that German Bionics is selling into the European market. One is to sell the product for a little less than EUR 20,000 or customers can lease the product for about EUR 20 a day. I think the customer engagements are about 50-50 between product sales and the leasing model.
As the exclusive technology and distribution partner for the North American markets, we see this business model to be applicable to the U.S. market. We have a product sales and leasing model at aggressive price points. In the U.S., there are approximately 12 million workers in the manufacturing sector, $8 million in the construction sector and 1.8 million employees in the warehouse and storage sector. And we're facing significant labor shortages across these industries. Every day, these millions of workers across America engage in tough manual labor that include heavy and repetitive lifting as they unload containers, break down pallets, pick orders and rebuild pallets for distribution.
The Apogee with its powerful motors and band sensors seamlessly support this work by preventing assistance in lifting, lowering and walking. Workers wearing the suit will experience less fatigue, fewer injuries and will be more productive. For the health care sector, we have over 2 million nurses and nursing assistants in the U.S. Home health and personal care aids is about another 4 million workers. The Apogee suit being used in German hospitals has demonstrated that it can dramatically reduce the lower back strain of the nurses when they're helping patients to move around.
I'll give you a fun fact. The latest generation of the suit was developed in partnership with some of the most prestigious hospitals in Germany. One of the investments requested by the nurses was to have handles built into the suit for patients to hold on to. Without the suit, patients have been usually holding on to the nurse's neck, which can be awkward and not as effective. Frequently, patients are reluctant to ask for help because they don't want to bother the nurse. With the Apogee suit, patients are more proactive to ask for help, they get up and move around, go outside and therefore, recover better.
For the nurses, helping patients become much easier. It's a win-win solution. These suits have sophisticated machine-to-human interface with sensors throughout the suit that can collect data on how workers use them and how the suits impact performance and well-being. We're just scratching the surface on how to apply AI to all of these data points. I can give a few examples. Based on how the user moves and lifts things and how much weight they have lifted for the day, AI can provide recommendations on when the person may be close to fatigue and need to take a break.
They can also provide recommendations on stretch and cool down exercises for faster recovery and to prevent injuries. Just remember, these suits reduce the stress but do not eliminate them completely. So we still need to take care of the workers. The more the device is used and the smarter, the more adaptive it becomes. One of our customers in the paper cutting business have a couple of these suits in operation. It shows that over 10,000 pounds of weight was compensated during a 2-hour work session for its workers. That's equivalent to an average elephant in just 2 hours of work. That's 4 elephants a day and 20 elephants a week.
We're at the cross-section of the future of AI, capital and energy. We believe Bitcoin is not just a treasury play. It's a strategic and deliberate design choice on which we're anchoring our organization. BTC's properties, limited supply, decentralized control, ethical protocols, transparent governance, unprecedented growth and scale mirror the principles KULR is building around, resilience, independence, transparency and bonus. It's not about hype. It's about building an architecture that can last 100 years.
So rather than watching from the sideline, we're diving in, fully committed to the mission with clarity, long-term conviction and the courage to explore alternative systems. We're building a foundation that's fueled by digital energy and that prepares us for the future that will be increasing volatile, distributed and dynamic. I get asked a lot about how we [ summit ] the volatility in Bitcoin. Michael Saylor said the best, Volatility is vitality. In age of AI, where things are changing at [ blessing ] rates overnight, someone may call it the DeepSeek moments. We better get used to the volatility and avoid our own DeepSeek moment.
We fully understand and appreciate the unique position KULR is at in this exciting time in history. Peter Thiel said, Courage is a much shorter supply than genius. It takes courage to be different and take on the challenges of this new world. We appreciate you, our shareholders, to be on this journey with us as we navigate our way through this highly dynamic, volatile, chaotic and disruptive future. Next, Shawn Canter will go over financial and operational highlights. Shawn?
Thanks, Mike. Let's cover some key highlights now for the first quarter of 2025. Revenue was up 40% from the same quarter last year to $2.4 million. Trailing 12 months revenue ended Q1 2025 is the highest trailing 12-month revenue KULR has ever generated and the third straight quarter of increasing that record. For the first quarter of 2025 versus the first quarter of 2024, product revenue was up 89%. Service revenue was down 8%, and we recognized our first Bitcoin mining revenue of $250,000. For the first quarter of 2025 compared to the first quarter of 2024, overall revenue per customer was up approximately 64%, product revenue per customer was up 195% and service revenue per customer was up 7%.
Gross margin for the first quarter of 8% was down primarily due to unanticipated labor hours needed to complete technical projects. For the same period year-over-year, operating expenses were up due to, among other things, increases in marketing, insurance, noncash stock-based compensation and a one-time noncash adjustment in the carrying value of an asset. A few points on our balance sheet now. At the end of the first quarter, our cash balance was $24 million. Our current accounts receivable was $2.9 million, and we held $55 million worth of Bitcoin.
Our total assets were $94 million. Additionally, we had no material financial debt. We ended the first quarter of 2025 with 670 Bitcoin worth over $55 million, as I mentioned above. And as an update, as of May 10, when I started to prepare these remarks, KULR holds 716 Bitcoins valued at about $74 million. As a reminder, you'll see an approximately $9.7 million nonoperating noncash expense on the quarter's income statement. This is simply a mark-to-market of our Bitcoin holdings as compared to 12/31/2024. This does not represent a realized loss. It does not represent that we sold many Bitcoin.
In fact, we did not sell any Bitcoin. With the price of BTC over $103,000 as I write this, this unrealized loss would be reversed if marked to market. Two remaining notes. The first regarding our recently announced strategic relationship with German Bionic and their amazing exoskeleton suit. Yes, just like an Iron Man suit. This is a large addressable market. According to SkyQuest Research, the exoskeleton market is about $2.5 billion and projected to be about $24 billion in 2031. Due to the reshoring of manufacturing in America, this market is only likely to grow.
Again, according to emerging strategy, at the end of 2023, there were 601 unfilled manufacturing positions in the United States. According to Forbes and Manufacturing today, by 2030, the United States manufacturing sector may face a shortfall of up to 2.1 million workers, costing as much as $1 trillion. With our debt-free and strong balance sheet, we can now play offense when special opportunities arise. Through Mutual Connection, we were introduced to the GB team. We were impressed with the team, the product and their deep willingness to learn and understand how the human user relates to the mechanical suit and vice versa.
By combining the experienced, well-trained human user with the power and safety features of a robotic assist, we are pushing more resources to the point and moment of work so that the user can be more productive and safer without having to compromise one or the other. This decentralization theme, pushing resources to their most local use can be seen across our platform. We are direct and clear in our belief in the long-term value of Bitcoin and our long-term plans to be acquirers and holders of BTC. We are a leader in the delivery of safe, responsible power across multiple environments and applications via our battery business.
Now via our German Bionic relationship, we are empowering and protecting the individual in each moment of work by combining his or her human capability and energy with AI-enabled mechanical energy. If you work in logistics, manufacturing, transportation and baggage handling, construction, warehousing and fulfillment, food and beverage logistics or health care, let's get you in a suit, turn on Ultramode and show you what we can do for you and your team.
Now one last point. A question had previously been asked about our San Diego facility. As we said at the time, once a decision has been made and it was appropriate to share, we would. Well, that time has come. We will not be extending our San Diego lease when it expires in November. We will be consolidating the activity that is in our San Diego facility into our Webster, Texas facility. Back to you, Stuart.
All right. Thank you for that. Now let's move on to the question-and-answer portion of our conference call today. So Michael, here is the first question. Is KULR still pursuing a deal with UPS for SafeCase?
Yes. We continue to pursue a deal with UPS on SafeCase on these large-sized batteries. Yes.
All right. Very good. Next question, Michael, does KULR still have a licensing deal with Amprius?
Well, we have a technology design partnership with Amprius. They are working on some very exciting, high energy and high-power batteries. So it's a great partnership to work with them and go to market together with our joint markets. We're all -- together, we're focused on space, DoD, drones, robotics and industrial applications. So super exciting stuff there.
All right. Great. The next question is about SpaceX. And it says, is KULR paying SpaceX to take their tech into space in 2026? Or is SpaceX interested in what KULR has to offer?
Yes. We are paying SpaceX to take our [Indiscernible] and our battery into space. This will happen actually in 2027, together with our ultra-low temperature battery program, which I mentioned earlier in my prepared remarks about the Texas Space Commission program for the low temperature. So all these things are coming together on the SpaceX platform.
All right. Very good. Which of the partnerships or collaborations that have been reported this year do you think will be the most profitable in the short term?
Yes. So it's a hard one to say which one, but I am equally excited about our KULR ONE Space development as well as our new AI robotics exoskeleteal opportunity. And I think that both of them have really good promise.
Very good. I think this next question needs a little context for some of our brand-new investors. It's -- the question is what is the California facility used for now? Those that may not know, the main operations of the company have moved very close to NASA here in the great state of Texas and the town of Webster. So Michael, the question is specifically though, what is the California facility used for now?
Right. Well, thanks for giving that context store to some of the new shareholders and listeners. We are in the process of transitioning all of our California activity, including currently the thermal products, the battery cell screening products as well as some other business activities to our Webster, Texas facility. And that's all going to happen between now and end of the year.
Okay. All right. Next question. What do you say to investors who have been waiting on sales agreements and contracts now that we're in the month of May in the -- here's a quote new production-ready facility. That was talked about so much last year.
Yes. That's a great question. As I talked about in the prepared remarks, we have been expanding our facility in Webster, Texas now to 31,000 square feet, and it's getting it production ready to serve more customers faster, like the example that I gave, which is AstroForge that we went from design to deliver the product in 6 weeks, not in 6 months or 6 years. So we expect more of these customer engagements to get them through the pipeline into production faster and higher cadence.
Very good. This next question is about our last earnings call, and Michael, it says this. Last earnings call, Michael claimed that they expect revenue to at least double by the end of 2025. Did this quarter give you confidence in that regard?
Yes. We still expect this to happen in 2025.
Okay. Next question. What are KULR's vision and plan for tapping into providing batteries for the EV industry where battery life and safety has to be a big concern. And it also goes on to say Tesla had issues with battery fires that have affected their business. Boy, it's not just Tesla, Michael, battery fires, as we all know, are a big problem. That's the question, though, Michael.
Yes. Well, we have provided a lot of battery testing services for large automotive OEMs throughout the years. But the EV battery business in itself is a -- we believe it's a very challenging one, has razor thin margins. Sometimes, I think from an operating basis, it's very hard to make money. So you can see in the marketplace, it's very tough. So we have intentionally stayed away from EV batteries as a provider, but we have done a lot of testing for, I think, pretty much all the EV vendors in the industry.
Very good. Here's our final question for the call today. Does KULR have plans for other battery needs besides the current battery solutions for current customers? An example would be portable generators that don't use gas for propane, small portable battery packs for consumer electronics and mobile phones, et cetera.
Right. We are focused on our KULR ONE platform for Space, DoD, robotics and other industrial applications at this time. So the question seems like -- seems to be pointing towards more consumer-oriented products, which is not the focus for KULR at this moment.
All right. Very good. Well, once again, that is our Q&A portion of the call today, which also is our final portion of the call today. I would like to thank both the guests from KULR Technology Group, the CEO, Michael Mo; as well as the CFO, Shawn Canter. With that, I will turn the call back over to our operator.
Thank you. This does conclude today's conference call. You may disconnect your lines at this time, and have a wonderful day. Thank you once again for your participation.