Plug Power (PLUG) Q1 2026 Earnings Transcript

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DATE

Monday, May 11, 2026, at 4:30 p.m. ET

CALL PARTICIPANTS

• Chief Executive Officer — Jose Luis Crespo
• Chief Financial Officer — Paul Middleton
• General Counsel & Corporate Secretary — Teal Vivacqua Hoyos

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TAKEAWAYS

• Revenue -- $163.5 million, up 22% year over year, driven by growth across material handling, electrolyzers, and hydrogen fuel.
• Gross Margin -- Improved to negative 13% from negative 55% year over year, reflecting a 42 percentage point increase due to cost actions under Project Quantum Leap.
• Electrolyzer Revenue -- Reached $40.8 million compared to $9.2 million last year, attributed to project milestone completions including 25 MW and 100 MW European projects and a new 275 MW project award in Canada.
• Material Handling Platform Growth -- Increased by 15% year over year (excluding customer warrants), with major customers Amazon and Walmart planning new deployments and large fleet refreshes starting late 2026.
• Hydrogen Fuel Sales -- Rose by 10% year over year, supported by increased deployments and improved plant utilization.
• Fuel Margin -- Rate improved by 54 percentage points, aided by plant performance, logistics efficiency, and benefits from a new third-party gas sourcing agreement.
• Service Cost Per Unit (GenDrive) -- Down 30% year over year, enabled by extended stack life and workforce optimization at customer sites.
• Total Cash Position -- $802 million as of quarter-end, split between $223 million in unrestricted cash and $579 million in restricted cash, with an expected release of $50 million per quarter over multiple years.
• Asset Monetization Initiatives -- More than $275 million in expected proceeds from stream data centers transactions, with $142 million anticipated to close in June.
• Adjusted EPS -- Negative $0.08 versus negative $0.17 last year, excluding approximately $140 million in primarily non-cash charges related to convertible debt warrant valuations.
• Operating Expense Run Rate -- Targeting approximately $75 million per quarter moving forward, excluding one-time charges.
• Inventory Strategy -- Aiming for at least a $100 million reduction in inventory by year-end, with most progress projected in the second half of the year.
• CapEx -- $7 million in the quarter, described as “very nominal” due to a completed hydrogen production network and a focus on leveraging existing assets.
• Tax Credit Monetization -- Sale of Section 48 investment tax credit for Louisiana joint venture expected to generate $39.2 million by May.
• 2026 Growth Guidance -- Full-year revenue increase expected at 13%-15%, with anticipated sequential gross margin improvement and Q2 revenue projected to be slightly higher than Q1.

SUMMARY

Plug Power (PLUG +11.70%) outlined accelerated adoption and execution across its core businesses, attributing margin improvement to structural cost actions and operational efficiencies already reflected in Q1 performance. Management confirmed the company’s liquidity strategy combines a multi-pronged cash release schedule from restricted funds with imminent asset monetization, positioning the company to fund its 2026 operating plan. Key customer refresh cycles, particularly with Amazon and Walmart, and a surge in large-scale international electrolyzer projects were presented as drivers of both near-term growth and stability in demand. Ongoing network and service cost optimization, along with explicit plans for further inventory reductions and margin expansion, were emphasized as supporting Plug Power’s roadmap toward positive EBITDA by year-end 2026 and operating income by 2027.

• Management described “increased activity” from aviation and synthetic fuels customers, with action steps including aircraft fuel initiatives in Uzbekistan and ongoing European deployments.
• Paul Middleton explicitly stated, “We ended with over 10% more cash than we initially anticipated,” highlighting working capital discipline ahead of internal projections.
• Company noted expansion with automotive customers in Europe, referencing refresh and new site deployments for BMW and Stellantis as contributors to segment penetration.
• Operational expense containment was directly linked to non-repeating charges, and management confirmed scrutiny to maintain the $75 million per quarter run rate.
• Direct reference to third-party merchant hydrogen sales and improved network delivery underscored early-stage diversification within the hydrogen supply business.
• Company confirmed that volume leverage and mix remain central to margin improvement, with second-half sales weighted to higher-margin equipment.

INDUSTRY GLOSSARY

• Project Quantum Leap: Plug Power Inc.’s structured program for reducing costs and improving operational efficiency across its business platforms.
• GenDrive: Plug Power Inc.’s hydrogen-powered PEM fuel cell system targeting material handling electric vehicles.
• PEM Electrolyzer: A proton exchange membrane system built to generate hydrogen via electrolysis, tailored to enable clean hydrogen production at scale.
• Restricted Cash: Company funds set aside, often due to debt covenants or project requirements, expected to be gradually released for operational uses.
• Section 48 Investment Tax Credit: A federal incentive for renewable energy projects; Plug Power Inc. monetizes these credits by selling them to generate additional liquidity.
• BEDP: Basic Engineering Design Package; a critical early-phase engineering milestone for large infrastructure projects.
• SAF/eSAF: Sustainable Aviation Fuel and its electric variant, central to the decarbonization of aviation fuel markets.

Full Conference Call Transcript

Teal Vivacqua Hoyos: This call will include forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements concern our future results of operations, our financial position, or other forward-looking information. We intend these forward-looking statements to be covered by the Safe Harbor provisions for forward-looking statements contained in Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. We believe that it is important to communicate our future expectations to investors. However, investors are cautioned not to unduly rely on forward-looking statements, as such statements should not be read or understood as a guarantee of future performance or results.

Such statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results or performance to differ materially from those discussed as a result of various factors, including but not limited to risks and uncertainties discussed under Item 1A Risk Factors in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ending 12/31/2025, our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ending 03/31/2026, as well as other reports we file from time to time with the SEC. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the day on which the statements are made, and we do not undertake or intend to update any forward-looking statements after this call as a result of new information.

At this point, I would like to turn the call over to Plug Power Inc.’s CEO, Jose Luis Crespo.

Operator: Thank you, Teal. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us on our first earnings call of 2026.

Jose Luis Crespo: The first quarter results we announced today represent another important step forward in achieving the objectives we laid out for the year: delivering positive EBITDA in the fourth quarter and sustaining revenue growth directionally consistent with 2025. In the first quarter, revenue increased 22% year over year to $163.5 million, with growth across each of our three strategic focus areas: material handling, electrolyzers, and hydrogen fuel. Gross margin also improved substantially year over year, increasing from negative 55% to negative 13%, a 42 percentage point improvement.

The cost actions initiated under Project Quantum Leap are now substantially flowing through our P&L, and we expect gross margin to improve sequentially through 2026, supported by a combination of volume leverage, mix, and continued cost discipline. In material handling, we continue to see strong customer engagement driven by the combination of proven productivity gains, improved product reliability, and reduced dependence on the electrical grid. In addition, the reinstatement of the investment tax credit earlier this year has improved the economic attractiveness of hydrogen-powered solutions for many customers.

As a result, we continue to project increasing demand from both Amazon and Walmart through new deployments and fleet refresh programs, with activity levels increasing across both existing customers, including our automotive customers, and new customer accounts. Our electrolyzer business continues to demonstrate strong commercial and operational momentum. Electrolyzer revenue increased significantly, growing from $9.2 million in 2025 to $40.8 million in 2026. This reflects the timing of specific project milestones across our portfolio, with multiple large-scale projects now advancing through commissioning and delivery phases.

We are currently in the commissioning phase of the 25 megawatt project with Iberdrola MVP in Spain, and we are finalizing installation activities for the 100 megawatt project with GALP in Portugal—two of the largest PEM electrolyzer projects currently under deployment in Europe. In addition, we recently announced the award of the front-end 275 megawatt project with Hytogen in Canada, further strengthening our global project pipeline. We are also seeing continued advancements from Ally Green Ammonia on the 2 gigawatt project in Uzbekistan, where several important milestones were achieved during the quarter. In April, Ally Green secured a binding project implementation agreement with the Uzbekistan government, establishing the tax and customs incentive framework supporting the project.

Just this past Friday, Ally Green signed a memorandum of understanding with Uzbekistan Airports to collaborate on SAF and eSAF deployment initiatives. We are seeing increased activity across our approximately $8 billion electrolyzer opportunity funnel, especially within the aviation sector, where fuel availability due to ongoing energy supply constraints and geopolitical instability affecting global fuel markets is renewing interest in energy security and synthetic fuel production. Our fuel business delivered approximately 20% top-line growth year over year, driven primarily by new material handling site deployments, and with margin improving by 54 percentage points year over year. We continue to improve plant performance, logistics efficiency across the network, and plant utilization.

We still have a lot of work to do, but we are advancing in the right direction. From a liquidity standpoint, we ended the quarter with $223 million in unrestricted cash and $579 million in restricted cash, for total cash of $802 million. We continue to advance multiple asset monetization initiatives, including a stream data centers transaction that is expected to generate more than $275 million in additional proceeds, with the first transaction for approximately $142 million expected to close in June. Our first quarter results represent another important step towards achieving our stated objectives of positive EBITDA in 2026 and advancing our broader path towards long-term profitability. The foundation is in place.

Our focus is now execution, margin expansion, and converting scale into sustained profitability. With that, I will now turn the call over to Paul, our CFO, for a more detailed review of the quarter’s financials. Paul?

Paul Middleton: Thanks, Jose Luis. Let me start by emphasizing a few key takeaways for this call. First, demand across our core platforms remains strong, driving 22% year-over-year revenue growth. We continue to drive margin improvement, and the year-over-year progress reinforces our belief that we have hit an inflection point. Lastly, we believe we have more than adequate capital to fund 2026 based on our existing cash position, ongoing operational improvements, the varied asset monetization efforts, significant reductions in CapEx, and the quarterly restricted cash releases. Now let me dig a bit deeper into the sales growth. Year-over-year sales growth stemmed from traction across all core platforms and reflects strong customer interest, which positions us for continued growth throughout 2026.

Q1 results also stem in part from the timing of program deliveries and our conscious efforts to pull programs forward where possible. We will continue to focus on accelerating programs, but as of today we think the first half will be in the 40% range for the full year in the context of our overall guidance of full-year sales growth of 13% to 15%. More specifically, excluding charges for customer warrants, year-over-year the material handling platform grew by 15%, our electrolyzer platform grew by 343%, and our hydrogen fuel sales grew by 10%.

There will be ebbs and flows as we progress through 2026, but these results are indicative that we continue to expand our core markets, and we expect all the core platforms to continue growing. Regarding margins, the improvement we delivered in Q1 stems from a culmination of ongoing efforts to optimize and scale the investments we have made. We have made a conscious effort to focus on margin and cash flow improvement, and that includes the actions undertaken based on our product cost-down roadmap and conscious efforts to increase leverage on our OpEx. What you are seeing in Q1 is how those efforts are clearly showing up in the underlying economics of the business.

On a year-over-year basis, gross margin improved by 71%. The drivers are the same ones we have been talking about. First, sales growth drives operating leverage across the platform. Second, service continues to improve with quarterly per-unit cost down 30% year over year, driven by improved stack reliability and the pricing actions we continue to undertake. Third, our fuel margin rate improved by approximately 54 percentage points. We are getting better leverage out of our hydrogen platform, driving enhanced network efficiency, and the third-party gas sourcing agreement we signed last year continues to deliver cost reductions. There is still a lot of work to do, but these structural improvements are driving in the right direction.

Equally important to these overall results is the fact that we see continued progression as we drive towards our 2026 financial targets. We expect a full year of benefits from the actions undertaken last year, and we anticipate continued improvement: incremental leverage from growth in sales given our installed capacity, continued improvements in service cost profile, additional improvements in fuel efficiency and network leverage, and continued scrutiny over OpEx. Given these continued efforts, we expect the margin breakeven threshold to continue to lower, given traction in cost downs and our increasing ability to get more out of the platforms we have.

Turning to cash, as a reminder, Q1 has historically been our heaviest cash usage quarter, given the seasonality of sales and timing of working capital flows. Q1 of this year is consistent with that pattern. There are two things I would flag specifically. First, we made strategic buyouts of certain operating lease liabilities associated with our legacy PPA business during the quarter, which added to outflows but is a net positive for us going forward. This is based on a conscious effort to accelerate the wind-down of the PPA business model; these efforts will be accretive to margins and cash flow going forward and serve as a means to accelerate the release of restricted cash reserves.

We expect more of these transactions as we progress through the year. Second, the underlying burn in Q1 tracked moderately better than our internal plan. We ended with over 10% more cash than we initially anticipated. This stemmed from many factors, including ongoing focus on margin enhancement and working capital leverage. We expect sequential improvement in cash usage across the balance of the year as we move towards our target of positive EBITDA run rates in 2026. CapEx was very nominal in the quarter, only about $7 million, which is consistent with what we said on the last call. Our hydrogen production network is built. We are now in a leverage-the-asset-base phase, and the CapEx run rate reflects that.

It postures us really well because as we talk about getting to an EBITDA-positive run rate in Q4 2026, the combination of margin progression and a very low CapEx run rate mathematically puts us in a position where the cash burn for the year is very manageable given our capital resources and liquidity management plans. On liquidity, we ended the quarter with over $802 million in total cash—that is $223 million in unrestricted cash and cash equivalents and approximately $579 million in restricted cash that is expected to release at a rate of approximately $50 million per quarter over the next several years. On top of that, we have several specific levers tracking through 2026.

The first is the asset monetization program we announced in the fourth quarter of last year, which includes the expected stream data centers transactions. We expect approximately $275 million in aggregate proceeds from these hydrogen project monetization efforts. In addition, we are underway with the sale of the Section 48 investment tax credit associated with the Saint Gabriel joint venture—the platform we have there in Louisiana. That is $39.2 million in total, currently targeted to close by May. We have an effectively unleveraged balance sheet given the debt restructuring we did in Q4 of last year, which also lowered our cost of capital and extended our maturity profile, so we have optionality.

Our working plan is that the existing capital plus the expected asset monetization proceeds, coupled with the restricted cash release schedule, collectively will provide adequate capital to fund the operating plan for 2026. Our adjusted EPS for Q1 2026 was negative $0.08 compared to adjusted EPS in 2025 of negative $0.17. Excluded from our adjusted EPS in Q1 2026 is approximately $140 million in primarily non-cash charges related to adjustments for convertible debt warrant valuations associated with changes in the stock market and the company’s stock price escalation. I think the progression in the adjusted EPS is illustrative of how operationally the company is making real progress.

To wrap up, Q1 was another step on the same trajectory we have been on. We are growing the top line. We are delivering structural margin improvement. We are being disciplined on operational expenses and CapEx. And we have multiple identified levers to fund the operating plans for the year. We continue to be laser focused on driving margin and cash flow improvement and achieving our fourth quarter goal of a positive EBITDA run rate, which sits within the roadmap Jose Luis described, including positive operating income in 2027 and full profitability in 2028. With that, I will turn the call back over to Jose Luis. Thank you both.

Jose Luis Crespo: So now we can go on the question section of the call.

Operator: Thank you. We will now open the call for questions. If you would like to be placed in the question queue, please press 1 on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press 2 if you would like to remove yourself from the queue. And as a reminder, please ask one question and one follow-up, then return to the queue. Our first question today is coming from Colin Rusch from Oppenheimer. Your line is now live.

Colin Rusch: Thanks so much, guys. Jose Luis, you are close to all these European customers. It is good to see some of the progress that you are seeing on the electrolyzer side. I am just curious about the urgency and what you can comment on that pipeline starting to move towards final investment decisions besides the projects that you have talked about—how we could think about that starting to materialize later this year or next.

Jose Luis Crespo: We continue working on, as I mentioned, all the projects that we have in the funnel. These projects are quite complex, as you know, Colin, and they require a lot of different parts of the projects to align to get to FID. I am just going to give you an example. I have a project in Australia. It is a 50 megawatt project, five-zero. The project is completely approved by the financial committee of the company that I am working with, and there is one permit that they need from a port—it is an easement permit—that is actually holding the FID of the project for a month or so.

The project is going to happen, but there is some bureaucracy around it. So my point is that there is a certain level of complexity getting all these things aligned on the FID of the project, and it takes time to get them to the point of final investment decision. We have a lot of projects now; in the last quarter in the SAF industry they have started accelerating. As you can imagine, the situation in Iran has created an issue with the availability of jet fuel in many areas of the world.

In Europe, companies like Ryanair announced a couple of weeks ago that they will have limited amounts of jet fuel available to run their operations, and they could run out of some of that fuel by May–June. This is leading many companies to push towards trying to accelerate these types of projects. Energy independence and security are becoming important again in Europe, and we see that these projects are beginning to accelerate a little more than we were seeing a couple of quarters ago.

Colin Rusch: That is super helpful. Thanks, guys. Paul, just on the cash—two questions. In terms of OpEx run rate on a cash basis, should we think about this fourth-quarter run rate being stable here going forward? And then secondly, the inventory levels continue to remain relatively high. I am just curious about how quickly you might be able to start drawing those down in a real meaningful way.

Paul Middleton: Thanks, Colin. On the OpEx, there were a few charges in there that will not repeat, so we are targeting roughly $75 million per quarter. That is where we expect that to land, and we are working hard to provide a lot of scrutiny over that so we can keep it contained and not grow that investment base. On the inventory, there was a slight reduction over the quarter, but the reality is you are going to see the big movement this year over the balance of the year. Each quarter we expect to grow sequentially, and even more so in the second half.

We are targeting about a $100 million reduction minimum this year in overall inventory levels, and we are working hard to beat that target. I think you will see the majority of that play out in the second half.

Colin Rusch: Perfect. Thanks so much, guys.

Operator: Thank you, Colin. Thank you. Next question is coming from Jason Tilchen from Canaccord Genuity. Your line is now live.

Jason Tilchen: Good afternoon, everyone. Thanks for taking my questions. Last quarter and even in prepared remarks, you talked about the value proposition for the material handling solutions only getting stronger with rising electricity prices. Just curious—could you talk a little bit more specifically to some of the conversations you have had with the prospective customers, not necessarily some of the core pedestals, but some of the ones that are either smaller current customers or prospective customers, and how those conversations have evolved over the past few months?

Jose Luis Crespo: Hi, Jason. Thank you for the question. The conversations are always around productivity; that is our traditional value that we bring to the table. The addition of the ITC, or the renewal of the ITC, definitely helps the business case. In the latest conversations that we are having with customers, there is an addition, which is the reduction of electricity demand on the site. Usually, in a site with 200 forklifts, you can reduce the demand on the site by about 2 megawatts, and that is really helpful given the constraints of utility power that we are seeing in the country due to demand from other industries like data centers. That is a huge value for customers.

Added to our traditional value on productivity gains, it creates an additional tailwind for the business case. Those are the main topics that we usually discuss with new customers and even with existing customers.

Jason Tilchen: Right. That is really helpful. And then just one follow-up. In terms of the gross margin improvement, I believe you called out specifically the GenDrive service cost reductions. Maybe talk to some of the specific operational improvements and blocking and tackling that you have done that are really driving those savings there.

Paul Middleton: Yeah. So it is multifaceted because there are lots of elements to it. But if you just think about it fundamentally, we have equipment, service, and fuel. On equipment, as we continue to grow sales, you are going to get volume leverage. There are a lot of things we are doing in our production processes. When you ramp electrolyzers as we have, as an example, we talked last year about a program we rolled out into the year which we called a new diffusion bonding process—that is just a microcosm example of cost-reduction opportunities. By using a new process, we were able to cut the cost of that component almost in half.

As you scale and you get more of those opportunities with volume, you can do more of those kinds of things. On the service front, we have rolled out a lot of programs that are driving that per-unit cost reduction. With fewer touches, we have actually been able to reduce the labor techs this quarter and increase the units-per-labor-tech rate. We have rolled out more programs and continue to expect more that will continue to drive increased reliability. On fuel, over the last year and a half you have seen a continued progression in the margin—every quarter continues to get better.

That is a combination of leveraging our plants, taking advantage of the new supply agreement with a third-party provider, driving enhanced delivery, reducing delivery cost, and optimizing that network and driving network efficiency. We still have a long way to go there, but it is going the right direction. We expect those trends to continue. Those are some of the themes that we have been able to take advantage of and certainly consistent with what we are focused on to keep driving in the course of this year.

Jose Luis Crespo: And on services for GenDrive for material handling, I am just going to add that the stack life of the product—we have been able to double it and in some models even triple it. That helps with the cost of parts for services, which is really important, but also because we are doing fewer changes in the field and fewer touches, as Paul was saying, we have also been able to reduce the labor in each one of the sites by one tech in some cases or even two in some cases, which has had an incredible impact on the cost of labor for services.

Jason Tilchen: Great. That is very helpful. Thanks very much.

Operator: Thank you. Next question is coming from Eric Stine from Craig-Hallum Capital Group. Your line is now live. Hi, Eric.

Eric Stine: Hey. So maybe just on material handling as we think about 2026 and 2027—just curious your thoughts on how we should view the makeup: new versus existing customers? And then also, in your prepared remarks, you talked about, with Walmart and Amazon, that you have some new sites but also some refreshes. Just curious where you see things in terms of that refresh of sites that maybe you did five, ten years ago.

Jose Luis Crespo: Thank you for the question, Eric. On material handling refreshes, we are going to see in the next few years, specifically for Amazon, a refresh of the complete fleet. Our first site with Amazon was in 2016, and we are in 2026, and they basically are using the GenDrives for about ten years. Our first site, as I said, was in February 2016. We are going to begin to see big refreshes at the end of this year because the following year we did about 12 sites.

So we are going to see a refresh of 12 sites between 2026 and 2027, and then you will see a cadence of around 10 to 12 sites for the next five or six years or so. We are going to get refreshes of around 20 thousand units during that time frame. Walmart is similar. With Walmart, we have done refreshes in past years, and we are right now doing a substantial refresh of the installed base in 2026 and 2027. That is going to create an increase in demand for GenDrives, and as Paul was saying before, equipment margins are usually healthy, so we will see the impact of that in the next few years.

In terms of new and even growth with other existing customers, on the automotive side we are doing refreshes and new sites with BMW—a couple of new sites in Europe with BMW. We are also seeing some growth with Stellantis and other European automakers. And we are signing either second sites or new sites with other customers; for example, this quarter we signed a brand-new pretty large site with Southwire with a value of $11 million. We have seen activity everywhere.

We still see, obviously, our two main customers—Walmart and Amazon—and two of the largest companies in the world, so you are going to see a lot of impact from their demand in the next couple of years, and that is healthy. Then we have the diversification of all of our other products. We see the material handling market moving forward and growing this year and in the following years.

Eric Stine: Okay. I appreciate it. I will leave it there. Thanks.

Jose Luis Crespo: Thank you.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question is coming from Sherif Elmaghrabi from BTIG. Your line is now live.

Sherif Elmaghrabi: Hey, good afternoon. Thank you. Paul, you touched on this, but Q1 saw another big improvement in fuel margins, and the new gas contract is obviously helping with that. Have all of your legacy contracts with the IGTs rolled off at this point? I am trying to understand if there is room to increase utilization at your captive plants—Louisiana, Georgia, Tennessee.

Paul Middleton: The short answer to your question on the sourcing: the portfolio runs on different cycles in some of those contracts, and so they all terminate at different time periods. Today, consciously, it is roughly 50/50 sourcing—third party versus internally leveraging our plants. There is strategic reason why to keep that relationship in good standing and leverage those because our plants, as an example, are in the Southeast, and it can be expensive to truck hydrogen all the way over to California or up to the Northeast.

Fortunately, the agreement that we signed put us in a good footing with a substantial reduction in the cost per unit, as well as a means by which to work with them to continue driving improved efficiencies and network optimization. The drivers for us as we go forward are leveraging our plants as we continue to grow sales and more sites—we certainly will do that—and third-party sales. You have seen some smaller announcements recently where we are starting to sell into the merchant market, as an example, and take opportunistic opportunities there where we can. Leveraging those plants will continue to grow and scale and leverage that overhead.

The second is really optimizing the delivery network—how you deliver, when you deliver, and how you manage that. There are tons of opportunities there. On efficiency and network, we made huge strides on improving efficiency of our storage systems and our dispensing capabilities, but there are still opportunities there as well. Those are the drivers as to why the margin continues to get better quarter after quarter, and they are the same themes we have a daily focus on across all those opportunities that will continue to drive improvement over the course of this year.

Sherif Elmaghrabi: Got it. That is helpful. Paul, I have one more for you. I missed how much you are expecting from the monetization of the Louisiana tax credit, and if you could share how that compares with Georgia, that would be helpful.

Paul Middleton: On an absolute value, it is actually a little bit more. On a gross basis, it is about $39 million. To clarify, it is for our joint venture that we have in Louisiana, so that is proceeds that the joint venture will get for selling that. We consolidate that into our results, and we will work with the JV partner on whether we leave that $39 million in the JV to fund, or whether they take their portion and we take our portion. If it goes that route, it is incremental—roughly $20 million for Plug Power Inc.—to fund operations, which is obviously very helpful.

We actually got better terms than we did in Georgia, just because of the passage of time and the learnings that we got out of the Georgia sale. So on a net basis, in terms of the gross tax credit, we got a better rate.

Sherif Elmaghrabi: Great. Thanks again. Thank you.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question today is coming from Dushyant Ailani from Jefferies. Your line is now live.

Dushyant Ailani: Yes, thanks for taking my question. Just one quick one. Talking about the revenue progression for the year, I think it implies that maybe Q2 might be slightly down quarter over quarter. Is that correct? Was there any demand pulled into Q1? And then also, if Q2 is going to be down quarter over quarter, how do we think about margin progression in terms of the volumetric leverage that you have shared previously?

Paul Middleton: Let me try—there are many parts to your question. Historically, we are somewhere between one-third to 40% in the first half of any year; it varies a lot based on timing of customer programs. Most times Q1 is lower than Q2, but let me be clear: we expect Q2 to grow sequentially. We are giving you directional guidance using that 40% in relation to our 13% to 15% growth rate for this year. It may only be slight growth off of Q1, but it is definitely going to be slightly better, and then you have the second half. The timing of that we will see as we progress through the year.

On the margin progression, we absolutely expect the margin rate to continue to improve sequentially quarter over quarter. All the cost-down efforts we are doing should continue to drive incremental benefit. Expect that margin rate to improve in Q2 and then continue to ramp from there. Volume makes a big difference, and the fact that the second half is roughly 60% of the sales means there are even more equipment sales in that second half, so it is even more accretive. I think what you are going to see is quarter-over-quarter growth in the sales number, and we expect growth in the margin rate.

Jose Luis Crespo: And I just want to reinstate what you said, Paul: Q2 will be a progression in terms of top line compared to Q1.

Dushyant Ailani: Got it. Thank you.

Operator: Thank you. Next question is coming from Christopher Dendrinos from RBC Capital Markets. Your line is now live.

Christopher Dendrinos: Thank you. I just wanted to circle back to Europe a little bit here. Looking at some of these refineries and the customer base there, are they ultimately settling out on a long-term partner and picking tech? Looking back over some of the competitors out there, it looks like there has been testing of different technologies, etc. I am curious what you are seeing on that front. Thanks.

Jose Luis Crespo: Specifically with the companies that we are doing business with on the refinery side, the largest ones that I mentioned during the call, we are seeing that they are looking at expansions in the sites that we have done and in other sites. We are seeing that the progression we are making on the commissioning of the product is very satisfactory, and we are looking with them at working together for some of those expansion projects.

Given the directives that the EU is pushing through every country through a process that they call transposition, which is the European law converted into a law in each one of the member countries, they have a mandate to convert a certain percentage of the hydrogen they use into green hydrogen. This is what is driving these projects. They are committing to do it, and we are working with them to satisfy those needs.

Christopher Dendrinos: Got it. Thank you. And as a follow-up, on the opportunity with Ally Green and Uzbekistan, and maybe in Australia as well, can you speak to the potential timing and how you see that playing out over the course of the year? Thank you.

Jose Luis Crespo: I can speak to the timing that I discussed with Alfred from Ally Green in the last discussion I had with him last week. Now, these timings, as I said before, because of the complexity of this type of projects, usually change. Right now, the objective would be to do a BEDP on the Uzbekistan project in 2026—and BEDP is the basic engineering design package—and then his target is to get to FID in the following months, with a potential notice to proceed to Plug Power Inc. earlier than that.

I do not want to create an expectation that I cannot live up to because there are so many things that are outside of my control in these projects, but in the last conversations, it is a project that should be moving forward in the next twelve months, with a BEDP happening before and a likely notice to proceed also in that time frame.

Christopher Dendrinos: Got it. Thank you very much.

Operator: Thank you. Next question is coming from Craig Irwin from ROTH Capital Partners. Your line is now live.

Craig Irwin: Hey, guys. It is Andrew on for Craig. Thanks for taking my questions. I have been hopping across a couple calls, so I apologize if this has been asked already. You called out expansion with Amazon and Walmart with material handling, but can you talk to any new-logo pipeline expansion and then the overall mix between site expansion with existing customers versus new customer wins?

Jose Luis Crespo: Our team was at MODEX—the largest event for manufacturing and supply chain—in April, and our team met with a large number of companies, new companies and new logos that were interested in the material handling business case, given the points that I made before, mainly associated with productivity, the ITC, and the advantages associated with reducing the grid demand. At this moment, the majority of the growth that I see in 2026 is related to existing customers—mainly Amazon and Walmart—and also associated with automotive. We have new projects with BMW and projects with Stellantis and other European automakers. We closed another second site with Southwire, as I mentioned before.

That is not a new name, but it is a second site that we closed with them. We have a fairly healthy pipeline of new names and new customers. At this moment, I am not in a position to tell you that we are going to get orders for certain specific names, but I can tell you that the team is working on a few new potential accounts that could be added between now and the end of the year for projects in 2027.

Craig Irwin: Great. I really appreciate the color there. Second for me, in the same vein, I noticed the GenDrive cost per unit was down 30% year over year. Can you talk about the potential to leverage cost reduction throughout your installed base?

Paul Middleton: Our anticipation is that unit cost will continue to come down, and it comes from three key drivers. First, parts cost continues to go down as we get the units to continue to run longer, so you just need fewer parts to keep them up and running. Second, as that happens, you need fewer touches of the units throughout the year. When you need fewer touches, you can manage the fleet with fewer labor techs, and as Jose said earlier in the call, we are able to reduce in some cases one tech per site, in some cases even two techs per site. We expect that leverage to continue as we grow and scale.

Third, as you sell more units and grow your sales base, you can leverage the overhead for that service business, so that continues to scale and ramp as well. We expect that rate per unit will continue to go down in the course of the year, and we expect that to continue to drive in the right direction.

Craig Irwin: Understood. Appreciate the detail, and congrats on the continued progress.

Jose Luis Crespo: Thank you so much.

Operator: We have reached the end of our question and answer session. I would like to turn the floor back over to Jose Luis for any further closing comments.

Jose Luis Crespo: Thank you everyone for the questions, your engagement, and your support. The first quarter results that we just announced provide a solid foundation for the balance of the year. Our priorities for 2026 remain unchanged: drive continued sales growth, execute with discipline, continue improving our cost structure, reduce cash usage, and deliver positive EBITDA in the fourth quarter. The underlying business fundamentals continue to improve, demand drivers across our core markets are strengthening, and now it is about consistent delivery. We appreciate your continued support and look forward to updating you on our progress next quarter. Thank you, everyone. Have a nice evening.

Operator: Thank you. That does conclude today’s teleconference and webcast. You may disconnect your line at this time, and have a wonderful day. We thank you for your participation today.