Earnings call transcript: Energy Vault Q3 2025 reveals revenue miss, stock gains

Energy Vault Holdings Inc. reported its third-quarter 2025 earnings, revealing a revenue miss against forecasts but a significant improvement in year-over-year performance. The company posted an earnings per share (EPS) of -$0.10, which was below the forecast of -$0.04, marking a 150% negative surprise. Revenue came in at $33.3 million, missing the forecasted $48.99 million by 32.03%. Despite the revenue miss, the company’s stock rose by 3.2% in aftermarket trading, reflecting investor optimism about future prospects and strategic developments.

Key Takeaways

• Energy Vault’s revenue increased 27 times year-over-year, despite missing forecasts.
• Stock price increased 3.2% in aftermarket trading, indicating positive market sentiment.
• The company narrowed its adjusted EBITDA loss to $6 million from $14.7 million in the previous year.
• Energy Vault maintained a strong cash balance of $61.9 million, up 7% sequentially.
• The company launched the Asset Vault platform and acquired significant energy storage sites.

Company Performance

Energy Vault demonstrated robust year-over-year growth in the third quarter, driven by strategic acquisitions and product launches. The company reported a 27-fold increase in revenue compared to the same period last year, although it fell short of market expectations. The adjusted EBITDA loss was significantly reduced, reflecting improved operational efficiency. Energy Vault’s cash reserves also increased, indicating strong financial health amidst challenging market conditions.

Financial Highlights

• Revenue: $33.3 million (27x increase year-over-year)
• Earnings per share: -$0.10 (below forecast of -$0.04)
• Gross margin: 27% for Q3, 32.6% year-to-date
• Adjusted EBITDA loss: $6 million (narrowed from $14.7 million last year)
• Cash balance: $61.9 million (7% sequential increase)

Earnings vs. Forecast

Energy Vault’s actual EPS of -$0.10 was below the forecasted -$0.04, resulting in a 150% negative earnings surprise. The revenue of $33.3 million also fell short of the expected $48.99 million, missing the forecast by 32.03%. This underperformance contrasts with the company’s significant year-over-year revenue growth, highlighting the volatility in market expectations and execution challenges.

Market Reaction

Despite missing earnings and revenue forecasts, Energy Vault’s stock rose by 3.2% in aftermarket trading, closing at $3.643. This increase suggests that investors are focusing on the company’s long-term strategic initiatives and growth potential. The stock remains within its 52-week range, with a high of $4.56 and a low of $0.596, indicating room for further appreciation.

Outlook & Guidance

Energy Vault has set a full-year 2025 revenue guidance of $200-$250 million, reflecting confidence in its future growth trajectory. The company is focusing on expanding its energy storage projects, targeting 1.5 gigawatts of capacity, and expects significant contributions from its Asset Vault platform by 2027.

Executive Commentary

Michael Beer, CFO, emphasized the company’s focus on scaling development activities for the Asset Vault platform, stating, "We are now scaling up development activity and support services for Asset Vault." CEO Robert Piconi highlighted the dynamic market conditions, saying, "This year, for sure, has been quite volatile and dynamic." These comments underscore Energy Vault’s commitment to growth and adaptability in a rapidly changing industry.

Risks and Challenges

• Market Volatility: Fluctuations in energy prices and tariff uncertainties could impact future earnings.
• Customer Acquisition: Challenges in expanding the customer base amidst competitive pressures.
• Supply Chain: Potential disruptions in the supply chain could affect project timelines and costs.
• Regulatory Environment: Changes in energy regulations could pose risks to project viability.
• Merchant Market Exposure: With 25% exposure, market fluctuations could impact revenue stability.

Q&A

During the earnings call, analysts inquired about market volatility and customer acquisition challenges. The company confirmed new projects in Albania, which are not yet included in the backlog, and highlighted its agility in responding to market changes. This interaction reflects investor interest in Energy Vault’s strategic direction and market positioning.

Full transcript - Energy Vault Holdings Inc (NRGV) Q3 2025:

Conference Operator: Greetings. Welcome to Energy Vault’s third quarter 2025 earnings call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. Please note this conference is being recorded. I will now turn the conference over to Michael Beer, Chief Financial Officer. Thank you, sir. You may begin.

Michael Beer, Chief Financial Officer, Energy Vault: Thank you. Hello and welcome to Energy Vault’s third quarter 2025 financial results conference call. As a reminder, Energy Vault’s earnings press release and presentation are available now on our investor website, which we’ll be referring to during this call. This call is now being recorded. If you object in any way, please disconnect. A replay of this call will be available later today on the investor relations portion of our website. Please note that Energy Vault’s earnings release and this call contain forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties. These forward-looking statements are only estimates and may differ materially from the actual future events or results due to a variety of factors. Please refer to our most recent 10-K or 10-Q filing for a list of factors that cause our results to differ from those anticipated in any forward-looking statement.

We undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements except as required by law. In addition, please note that we will be presenting and discussing certain non-GAAP information. Please refer to the safe harbor disclaimer and non-GAAP financial measures presented in our earnings release for more details, including a reconciliation to comparable GAAP measures. Joining me on this call today is Robert Piconi, our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. At this time, I’d like to hand the call over to Robert.

Robert Piconi, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Energy Vault: Great. Thank you, Michael. Good morning and evening and afternoon to everybody that’s joining this call. Our third quarter of 2025 was one of the most pivotal in Energy Vault’s history. The quarter marked the formal launch of our Asset Vault platform, solid execution across our global project base, and the establishment of the financial foundation that will fuel our next phase of profitable growth. It was less than 18 months ago we outlined a bold strategy to execute a plan involving developing, building, owning, and operating energy storage assets over time, constructed at financially privileged or attractive points of grid interconnection to achieve top quartile investment returns. In that time, we have also built, commissioned, and now are operating for the first time the two initial projects in Texas and California, with the revenue included in all the Q3 results also for the first time.

While initially built using our balance sheet cash, we followed with two consecutive project financings closed in the last six months as we continue to put cash back on our balance sheet with now three consecutive quarters of growing cash. As you will hear from Michael and saw in our investor presentation, a large increase in cash is also expected for our fourth and final quarter this year. You’ll recall at our last earnings, we announced the framework of the new non-dilutive preferred equity platform to fund and put into operation an initial 1.5 gigawatt of energy storage IPP projects, unleashing over $1.1 billion in capital. We formally announced the close of the $300 million transaction just last month with Orion Infrastructure.

In the spirit of moving with speed and velocity, which are becoming table stakes now for success in this industry, we immediately put that capital to work last month with the purchase of a 150 MW interconnect site outside of Houston, Texas, from Savion, a U.S. division of Shell, coupled with the 125 MW site at Stony Creek in Australia, already closed earlier this year with the long-term energy service 14-year contract with the New South Wales government. That now brings our project total to four and 340 MW operating or in construction, which will be delivering a little over $40 million in recurring annual EBITDA for these initial projects as all come online in the next 12 to 24 months.

When I was in Australia last week, I shared for the first time as well at our investor and analyst day our deepening collaboration with the team at Crusoe, Crusoe the AI factory company. Chase, Cully, and the team there with their focus on energy first are innovating and redefining what it means to move with the speed and velocity that I referenced earlier in vertically integrating to deliver the largest AI data centers in the world in timeframes previously thought impossible, as the initial Stargate project in Abilene shows alone. I think an example for all of us for what is now becoming a requirement to be successful in this industry.

In a similar fashion, Energy Vault is vertically integrating and originating now, designing, building, and now owning and operating energy storage assets over longer timeframes, a synergistic endeavor with the same relentless focus on execution and now with greater speed and efficiency of getting capital deployed with the new Asset Vault platform. While these larger projects will take some time to be built and come online in the next 12-24 months, and then with the subsequent 10-15 year plus revenue streams, a reminder that it is Energy Vault that will be building these projects.

When we talk about the $1.1 billion in CapEx that the $300 million preferred enables, that CapEx will be funding into Energy Vault to build and commission these projects, which results in another $100-$150 million in cash flow back to the parent company in the form of project margins, long-term service agreements, among other cost and profit recoveries. I realize I spent a little longer time given how busy it’s been the last 60 days since we last spoke at the quarterly earnings, but I do want to jump right in here to our quarterly results.

As you get a sense, there’s been just a lot going on that we’ve been executing as a company on a series of fronts and really proud of the team at Energy Vault and all of our partners, as well as the support of our board of directors that all supported in making this happen. Michael’s been covering the results in more detail. I would like to cover some of the top of the waves here on the results as we entered into the second half of our year and began to deliver the expected revenue ramp and what was a strong and expected performance for the quarter. Also, a reminder for everyone, there is a publicly available investor presentation that’s on the website that you can download, and we would be referring to some of the charts that are in that presentation.

As you saw, the contract backlog remains near $1 billion for us to execute upon in the years to come, which has more than doubled this year and about four times what it was from this time last year in 2024. The ramp started as expected with $33 million, a substantial increase on both a year-over-year and sequential quarter basis, and expecting an even larger job of about $150 million or thereabouts in Q4 with the deliveries in Australia and the U.S. That $33 million also includes some of the first recurring contributions now from our two energy storage IPP projects in Texas and California. We also delivered strong unit economics with gross margins of 27% in the quarter, bringing our year-to-date gross margins to almost 33%.

This reflects strong management of our project deliveries, of our supply chain, and just general execution competencies, which is one of the most critical core strengths of the company. We saw the EBITDA loss narrow to only $6 million for the quarter, noteworthy on only $33 million of revenue. We continue to find ways to optimize our OpEx and be as efficient as we can as we push to a full year profitability. Another good story on our cash creation. As we have every quarter this year, we continue to grow our cash balance and return cash to the balance sheet through the project financings completed and with the first phase of the Asset Vault platform just coming online.

Noteworthy here that we are still expecting now another $30 million-$40 million in investment tax credits as well to return to our balance sheet this quarter in Q4, hence the expected jump in our cash to $75 million-$100 million range as we close the year, setting ourselves up well for 2026. For us at Energy Vault, our results, of course, encompass more than just the financial side, but also the results and the impact we strive to make as a company, reflecting how we do our business and the sustainability of our solutions to enable prosperity for all humankind in a resilient way. I’m very proud to share today that we have continued to advance our leadership and sustainability with S&P Global’s latest release of their ESG scores.

Energy Vault continued along its improvement path year over year, placing again in the top 98% of all companies reviewed by S&P Global, while critically maintaining its leadership as the number one company in the energy storage segment. This speaks to the culture and the execution philosophy that we have as a company that really comes down to our purpose of what we seek to fulfill and the impact we are making and will continue to make in our global communities. I want to send out a special thanks to Edward Johnson and Michael Van Paris as well for their specific leadership within Energy Vault to make this happen, but also their humility, which reflects our humility as an organization to realize that we have much more work to do here.

The insatiable demand for power we see now will make this focus even more critical if we want to have a shot at improving the quality of life on Earth for decades to come. With that, I’d like to turn it over to Michael Beer, our CFO.

Michael Beer, Chief Financial Officer, Energy Vault: Thanks, Rob. Turning to Q3 2025 results on slides three and four in the attached presentation, we delivered Q3 revenue of $33.3 million compared to $1.2 million a year ago, representing a 27X increase year over year, driven by strong execution on Australia projects and the initial contribution from the Asset Vault assets. Q3 2025 GAAP gross profit of $9 million improved nearly 18 times versus the prior year, driven by increased revenue and favorable business mix, resulting in a Q3 2025 gross margin of 27% and 32.6% year to date. Q3 adjusted operating expenses were $16.2 million, flat quarter over quarter, but up modestly versus last quarter as ongoing cost reduction initiatives were generally offset by startup costs and development expense related to Asset Vault and growth in Australia.

Q3 adjusted EBITDA, excluding stock-based compensation and other one-time items outlined on slide 11 of the earnings presentation, improved to a loss of $6 million from a loss of $14.7 million in the prior year-ago quarter, driven by higher revenue and gross profit. Regarding cash and project financings, cash as of September 30, 2025, was $61.9 million, up 7% sequentially and in line with our previous guidance. The company completed a securities purchase agreement for up to $75 million, of which $30 million has been drawn to date. Following the quarter, we closed a $300 million preferred equity agreement with Orion Infrastructure Capital for the launch of the owned and operated business called Asset Vault, which we’ll discuss in a moment.

Along with the large sequential increase in revenue and customer receivables anticipated during the fourth quarter, we also expect to receive $40 million of investment tax credit proceeds, which we’ve committed to those projects now placed in service. As it relates to the latest backlog and developed pipeline, as reflected on slide five, the company currently maintains a revenue backlog of $920 million, up 112% year to date, offset in part by the $50 million in recognized revenue this year, including the initial contribution from Calistoga and Cross Trails projects now included in Asset Vault. The backlog increase reflects new projects with Consumers Energy, a long-term service agreement with an existing customer, and long-term offtake agreements in the U.S. and Australia.

As highlighted in the press release, the company also recently acquired the 150-megawatt, 300-megawatt-hour SOSA project in Texas as part of the Asset Vault portfolio and entered into an agreement with EU Green for a 400-megawatt-hour project in Albania, subject to final Albanian legislative approval, both of which we expect to be included in backlog once finalized and key milestones are completed. Our total developed pipeline for advanced projects, third-party, and those within Asset Vault is around $2.1 billion, or roughly 8.7 gigawatt-hours. Turning to our business outlook, reflecting the timing of U.S. battery deliveries associated with Consumers Energy projects and other project timelines in Australia, we are estimating full year 2025 revenue of $200-$250 million within the prior guidance range. We are estimating full year 2025 gross margin of between 14% and 16%, in line with our historical averages.

From a cash and project financing perspective, we are estimating $75-$100 million in total cash at the end of this year, unchanged versus previous guidance. We are now scaling up development activity and support services for Asset Vault. With both Calistoga Resiliency Center and Cross Trails now in service, we expect these assets to contribute annualized adjusted EBITDA on a standalone basis of $10 million. As Rob had mentioned, on October 29th, management held its second investor and analyst date to provide additional detail around the recently launched Asset Vault business, Energy Vault’s fully owned subsidiary focused on global development, construction, ownership, and operation of energy storage assets. We also discussed strategic growth trends as the company leverages Asset Vault to build and manage an expanding portfolio of contracted and operational storage projects. That presentation and replay are available on our website.

With the backing of the $300 million preferred equity investment from OIC, Asset Vault creates a vertically integrated ecosystem that captures value across the entire energy storage lifecycle. That platform combines Energy Vault’s proven operational expertise with long-term asset ownership to generate predictable, recurring, and high-margin cash flows. With the launch of Asset Vault, Energy Vault is positioned to accelerate deployment of 1.5 gigawatts in attractive priority markets and upper-tier IRR projects as part of Fund One.

Fund One is expected to contribute roughly $40 million in recurring adjusted EBITDA by year-end 2027 from the four maiden projects, including the recently announced SOSA project and the Stony Creek project in Australia, both of which are in the process of commencing their respective project financing processes, and to achieve $100-$150 million in recurring adjusted EBITDA by year-end 2029 from attractive projects yet to be disclosed across high-growth markets in the U.S., Australia, and Europe. The project portfolio is prioritized with a clear monetization strategy supported by long-term offtake agreements with bankable partners and/or attractive merchant markets. We’re currently expecting our merchant exposure to be around 25%.

Further, by leveraging Energy Vault’s existing EPC integration capabilities, as well as a host of other services we provide today to our third-party customers, we can unlock notable synergies across the business, including larger volume commitments with suppliers, etc., adding incremental cash flows and liquidity to the parent company. Case in point, as Rob had mentioned, assuming a mid-teens average historical gross margin on a billion-dollar-plus of CapEx for internally developed projects, Energy Vault should generate additional cash flows that more than cover the associated equity investment. With that, I’ll hand it back over to Rob.

Robert Piconi, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Energy Vault: Thank you, Michael. I think we were going to open it up for some questions now.

Conference Operator: Thank you. We will now be conducting a question-and-answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press Star 1 on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press Star 2 if you would like to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the Star keys. We ask that you please limit to one question and one follow-up question. One moment while we pull for questions. Our first question is from Noel Parks with Tuohy Brothers. Please proceed.

Noel Parks, Analyst, Tuohy Brothers: Hi. Good afternoon. Just.

Conference Operator: Thank you.

Noel Parks, Analyst, Tuohy Brothers: Hi. One item I noticed in the P&L is it looks like R&D expense actually declined sequentially a bit. I was just curious if you had any updated thoughts on, with some of the structure changes, just how the expense lines might be affected as well if there’s more capitalization going on going forward or something.

Michael Beer, Chief Financial Officer, Energy Vault: Sure. Happy to take this one. I would say it’s a confluence of a handful of things. As you know, we’ve been tightening the belt from a cost perspective really over the last year. This is the reflection of some of those activities. Furthermore, the company was in a different phase following the IPO and in around that time where we were investing heavily in R&D. At this stage, we’re looking to harvest the benefits of some of those earlier investments. There is a little less focus around R&D and more around certain activities such as Asset Vault and so forth.

Noel Parks, Analyst, Tuohy Brothers: Great. Thanks. I guess I’m thinking a little bit bigger picture. We’ve had a fair amount of macro uncertainty in the quarter and in the months before that. Things like the shutdown certainly haven’t improved the clarity of where many things in the marketplace are heading. I’m just wondering if sort of your pace of discussions on the customer acquisition, biz dev side, I just wondered if you could kind of characterize customers feeling a sense of urgency and sort of pressing on unabated or whether there’s been some more hesitation introduced and thinking especially maybe as you’re doing with utilities at times. I just wondered what that pace has been like since the summer.

Robert Piconi, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Energy Vault: Yeah. Thanks, Noel. It’s Rob here. I’ll comment, and then I’m sure Michael may want to add a comment or two as well. Look, this year, for sure, if anything, has been quite volatile and dynamic between the tariff side of the equation, which obviously impacts a lot of the battery shipments that were coming from China and then up to and including the most recent shutdown and recent changes and ups and downs on tariffs. We’ve had to manage through that, as have our customers, and it’s required a lot more terms with customers in terms of the deal structures and trying to deal with it. I think that’s definitely caused some delays. Interestingly, on the Asset Vault side, meaning on the origination of the deals or looking at attractive assets, it is a buyer’s market from what we see.

I mean, we have opportunities getting thrown our way daily, looking at sites that have interconnects and projects. I think from an Asset Vault perspective, we’re seeing a pretty target-rich environment. Just obviously being careful on the ones that do make our list, we have a fairly formal and in-depth way that we evaluate these projects. Generally, I’d say from a U.S. market perspective, we have had a lot of stop-and-starts across the board. I think noteworthy, we’re holding our guidance. I think we’re one of a few companies in our space that are holding their guidance because of deliveries that we have underway and a lot to do next quarter. That’s what I share with you. Michael, do you have anything to add to that?

Michael Beer, Chief Financial Officer, Energy Vault: Yeah. We pride ourselves in having a nice diverse footprint and also being very agile. Earlier this year during tariff gate, I think on the earnings call, we had commented that only about 10% of our backlog was really subject to some of the volatility around U.S. tariff rates. Starting to prepare and protect ourselves against some of these shocks. The other thing is just being agile. Over the last five years plus, we’ve seen a 90% decline in battery prices, right, at the cell level. Being able to participate in the most attractive parts of the value stack and choosing to own and operate assets rather than simply being a third-party service provider has set us up exceptionally well.

Noel Parks, Analyst, Tuohy Brothers: Great. Thanks a lot.

Robert Piconi, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Energy Vault: Thanks, Noel.

Conference Operator: As a reminder, it is Star 1 on your telephone keypad if you would like to ask a question. Our next question is from Sid Rajiv with Fundamental Research Corps. Please proceed.

Sid Rajiv, Analyst, Fundamental Research Corps: Hi. Just to confirm, the current backlog does not include the recently announced projects in Albania, right? Also, any plans to add these projects to Asset Vault in the future?

Michael Beer, Chief Financial Officer, Energy Vault: That’s right. The $920 million backlog today does not include either the SOSA project or the project that we’d announced with EU Green. The SOSA project is part of Asset Vault and will contribute to a lot of those recurring EBITDA numbers that we had guided previously.

Sid Rajiv, Analyst, Fundamental Research Corps: Okay. And.

Michael Beer, Chief Financial Officer, Energy Vault: One would expect those to be added to backlog. Yep.

Sid Rajiv, Analyst, Fundamental Research Corps: No, to Asset Vault.

Michael Beer, Chief Financial Officer, Energy Vault: They’ll be added to the backlog for the broader company, and it’ll also be part of Asset Vault. That’s correct.

Sid Rajiv, Analyst, Fundamental Research Corps: Okay. Just one more. The development pipeline showed a massive increase from 5.9 to 8.7 gigawatt-hour, $300 million added. Which projects specifically were added to this?

Michael Beer, Chief Financial Officer, Energy Vault: We’ve not disclosed the specific projects. These are what we internally classify as stage four or stage five opportunities where these have either been shortlisted or awarded opportunities. Obviously, as we curate the pipeline around Asset Vault, there certainly are some ins and outs, and that is likely reflected in that change.

Sid Rajiv, Analyst, Fundamental Research Corps: Okay. Thank you. Congrats on the Q3 results.

Conference Operator: As a reminder, it is Star 1 on your telephone keypad. If you would like to ask a question, we will just pause for a brief moment to see if there are any final questions. With no further questions, I would like to turn the conference back over to Robert for closing remarks.

Robert Piconi, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Energy Vault: Thank you, Operator. Look, I’m happy to be talking about this quarter now as the last 60 days in particular have been quite transformational for us in terms of executing on what we said we were going to do. In particular, with getting the Asset Vault platform in place, I think that was significant. In addition, and not to lose sight of the execution capabilities of this company and keeping our eye on the ball despite all of the various transactions that are going on around us between the project financings, between what it takes to get all the investment tax credits all organized and administered, just delivery of product around the world.

I think what’s going on in Australia right now is one of our larger projects, which Australia represented more than half of our revenue this quarter and will continue to play a large part, I think, in the next quarter. Getting there and delivering product toward our first what’s called an R2, which in Australia is your first grid interconnected project. That for us is the Stony Creek project. They’re a large customer, large partner of ours. We’re delivering a few projects for them right now. Q4 and into next year, we’ll play an important role in that for our future and the growth in the Australia market. I just want to thank all of our employees first. Our days start and end with all of you. Thank you, everybody, for your focus and dedication through what remains a pretty volatile time.

A lot of things going on around us that we do not control. However, we do have to plan and continue to plan for that as a company and ensure we have all the levers available to us to ensure we can respond and react and adapt as needed in the market while just staying focused on our strategy, which really starts with serving our customers. We feel really good about that. We have announced a few new projects, new collaborations, some things focused on the new AI infrastructure that is getting built out and excited about how those developments are going to proceed and impact our company as well. I also want to thank our board of directors who in the last quarter all participated in buying stock in the company during the non-blackout period, as well as some of the management and myself.

Hopefully, it’s not lost on you all, the investors who are listening in, but also the employees that you’ve got, management buying into the future of the company because of our faith and confidence in the prospects. Again, that really starts with the people of Energy Vault. Thanks to all of you. Operator, thank you for your support today.

Conference Operator: Thank you. This will conclude today’s conference. You may disconnect at this time. Thank you for your participation.

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