NASDAQ: LASR

Semiconductor Lasers

We design, manufacture and sell semiconductor lasers with a broad range of power levels, wavelengths, and output fiber sizes. Our semiconductor lasers are typically used as an integrated energy source for our OEM customers’ solid-state lasers, which are primarily used in a wide range of aerospace and defense and microfabrication applications. The core building block of our products is a compound semiconductor laser chip manufactured from a gallium arsenide wafer. We use our patented multiplexed single-chip architecture to combine and package multiple semiconductor laser chips into what we believe are the most brilliant semiconductor lasers commercially available.

Fiber Lasers

We offer programmable and serviceable high-power fiber lasers primarily for use in aerospace and defense and industrial applications. Our fiber lasers use a proprietary active fiber that is doped with a rare-earth element to amplify the light from multiple of our semiconductor lasers into a brighter, more powerful laser beam. Our single- and multi-mode fiber lasers enable fast, high-quality, and efficient processing of materials. Our fiber lasers offer many features, including all-fiber programmable beam sizes and shapes, programmable waveforms, high-speed waveform modulation capabilities, pulsed operation, hardware back-reflection suppression, operability in harsh environments, quick and easy serviceability, and exceptional power stability. The programmability and wide operating range of our fiber lasers make them easy for our customers to use and expands their applicability. For example, in some cases, a single programmable fiber laser with the ability to program the size and shape of its output beam can take the place of several less flexible lasers. We have also designed our fiber lasers to be easily field serviceable, which results in higher machine uptime, lower cost of ownership and improved customer experience.

Fiber Amplifiers

We design, manufacture and sell high-performance fiber amplifiers, offering high efficiency, compact design, and superior beam quality for a wide range of aerospace and defense, and industrial applications. These products amplify optical signals directly within optical fibers, eliminating the need for bulky free-space optics. By leveraging doped fiber cores, our fiber amplifiers deliver high power outputs with excellent thermal management, making them ideal for demanding aerospace and defense markets. We believe our latest generation of fiber lasers are best-in-class in delivering the highest power and brightness while minimizing size and weight, which are critical decision criteria for our laser sensing and directed energy customers. Our fiber amplifier technology remains central to our commitment to delivering cutting-edge laser solutions for our diverse set of customers.

1

Table of Contents

Advanced Development

Our Advanced Development segment is dedicated to driving innovation and expanding our technological leadership in the fields of directed energy and laser sensing. Our advanced development programs focus on research, design, and prototyping of advanced and next-generation laser technologies, leveraging our expertise in high-power laser technology development, beam control, and advanced optics. Structured to foster collaboration between engineering, research, and product development teams, our advanced development programs combine dedicated resources and facilities with deep technical expertise to deliver cutting edge solutions. Centered around providing governmental agencies with next-generation laser technologies and solutions, our capabilities include the development of custom high-power fiber lasers and advanced beam combining technologies. By aligning our innovation efforts with strategic growth and defense initiatives – directed energy and laser sensing, in particular – our Advanced Development segment plays a critical role in maintaining our competitive edge, driving long-term value creation, and protecting our nation’s most critical assets.

Markets

We sell our products into three primary end markets: Aerospace and Defense, Microfabrication, and Industrial.

Aerospace and Defense

Lasers are used today in a variety of aerospace and defense applications, such as range finding, imaging, communications, and directed energy weapon systems. Pulsed laser technologies are also increasingly being used for a wide range of sensing applications including long-range precision targeting, remote sensing, counter-sensor, communications, and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) applications. Directed energy defense systems utilize concentrated electrical or optical energy rather than chemical or kinetic force to incapacitate, damage, disable or destroy a wide range of threats. Compared to conventional weapons, directed energy weapons using high-power fiber lasers offer ultra-precise targeting, low cost per shot and a nearly unlimited magazine. Over the past decade, directed energy technologies have improved steadily, culminating in a series of successful demonstrations of significantly higher power, including multi-hundred-kilowatt systems. We have announced several Department of War sponsored programs that are focused on leveraging high-power lasers and advanced optics to develop and deploy next-generation defense systems.

Microfabrication

Microfabrication refers to the process of creating three-dimensional microscale structures, typically by ablating, annealing, etching, drilling, or precision marking. Many of the microscale features incorporated into products in the automotive, electronics, medical, semiconductor and other markets are made commercially viable by laser-based precision manufacturing techniques. Preferences for brighter, more vibrant displays in mobile phones, tablets and televisions, and the desire for thinner products with improved battery life and energy efficiency are placing greater importance on the need for components that are smaller, more robust and less expensive, which we believe will continue to drive demand for lasers.

Industrial

The productivity, efficiency and versatility offered by programmable fiber lasers have been critical in making them a key part of the evolution of the industrial manufacturing ecosystem. Material processing applications, such as cutting, welding, additive manufacturing, cladding, and heat treating, comprise most of the industrial laser market. Programmable fiber lasers continue to displace CO2 lasers and other non-laser techniques for sheet metal cutting, due to their significantly faster speed, higher quality and lower cost when used across a wide range of metals. Programmable fiber lasers have also expanded into other applications such as cutting metal tubes and other three-dimensional parts, and are beginning to displace plasma for thick metal cutting.

Fiber lasers are also increasingly being used in welding applications, where they can achieve deeper penetration with fewer heat affected zones than traditional methods like arc welding. These advantages have enabled fast adoption of fiber lasers across the electric vehicle battery, automotive, and energy industries where system productivity, high level of automation, and versatility are critical.

In addition to improving traditional manufacturing processes, fiber lasers are also enabling new technologies such as metal additive manufacturing. Additive manufacturing is chosen for fabrication as it enables the manufacturing of designs not feasible with traditional technologies such as casting, forging or machining. Additive manufacturing can be integrated into existing production lines and help mitigate long lead-time issues and enhance performance in critical sub-systems. Fiber lasers provide the power needed to melt metal powders or wire to form functional

2

Table of Contents

products for use in industries such as aerospace, defense, automotive, medical, and energy. Advancements in laser technology are critical in enabling manufacturers to produce ever-larger parts with more complex geometries at faster speeds and lower costs. The need for larger, more productive machines has driven a trend towards multi-laser and programmable laser systems that are increasingly demanded by additive manufacturing customers. Overall, the trend towards an increased number of lasers in additive manufacturing machines is driving strong growth in the laser market.

Research and Development

Our research and development activities include the design of new products that address key market opportunities and improvements to existing products that enhance performance at reduced cost. While we seek to improve our products on all operating characteristics, we believe we lead the market in terms of semiconductor laser chip brilliance. Our programmable fiber lasers use a proprietary solution that allows our customers to program laser beam strength and shape and real-time pulse timing to optimize the performance of their solution for specific commercial and defense applications. We work closely with customers to develop products that meet customer-specific application and performance needs, making our research and development efforts more efficient. We also benefit from our vertically integrated business model, as we can conduct design cycles more rapidly through control of the full production process.

We intend to continue our commitment to research and development and to introduce new products, solutions, and complementary products to maintain and strengthen our competitive position.

Intellectual Property

Our success depends, in part, upon our ability to continue to innovate and invest in research and development to meet the needs of our customers, and to maintain and protect our proprietary technology. To accomplish this, we rely on a combination of intellectual property rights, including patents, trade secrets and trademarks, as well as customary contractual protections with our customers, suppliers, employees, and consultants that access our material intellectual property.

We have generated, and continue to generate and maintain, patents and other intellectual property rights covering innovations that are intended to create a competitive advantage, and to support the protection of our investments in research and development. Although we believe that our patents and other intellectual property rights have significant value, we do not believe that maintaining or growing our business is materially dependent on any single patent. Due to the rapid pace of innovation within the markets that we serve, it is possible that our protection through patents may be less important than factors such as our technological expertise, continuing development of new products and technologies, protection of trade secrets, market penetration, customer relationships, and our ability to provide support and service to customers worldwide.

No assurance can be given that any of our patents will not be challenged, invalidated, or circumvented, or that the rights granted thereunder will provide us with a sustained competitive advantage. In addition, there can be no assurance that we will be able to protect our technology, or that competitors will not be able to independently develop similar or functionally competitive technologies, design around our patents, or attempt to manufacture and sell infringing products in countries that do not strongly enforce intellectual property rights.

Sales and Marketing

In the Aerospace and Defense market, we sell our products and services directly to end customers, including the U.S. Government, prime contractors, and defense subcontractors, through our dedicated sales, marketing and engineering teams located in the United States. Due to the stringent demands of our Aerospace and Defense customers, our sales and marketing organization includes engineering, manufacturing, service and support professionals who engage with our customers throughout their products' lifecycles.

In the Industrial and Microfabrication markets, we sell our products through our direct sales force located in the United States, China, South Korea and various European countries. To supplement our direct sales team, we also sell through independent sales representatives and distributors in Asia, Australia, Europe, the Middle East, and South America. We selected these independent representatives and distributors based on their ability to provide effective field sales, marketing communications and technical support for select products and markets in target geographies. Our sales and marketing efforts are conducted through an integrated process that involves our direct

3

Table of Contents

sales and marketing teams, engineering teams, customer service representatives and our senior management team.

We maintain customer support and field service staff in our major markets around the world. In addition, many of our independent representatives and distributors have service teams who have been certified by us to provide regional field service and support. We work closely with customers to service equipment and train customers to use and repair our products and explore additional applications for our technologies.

Customers

We sell to and support over 300 customers worldwide. A limited number of customers drive a significant portion of our revenues. In the aggregate, our top ten customers accounted for approximately 75%, 72% and 66% of our revenues in 2025, 2024 and 2023, respectively. Our top customers include BAE Systems, KORD Technologies, Mazak, Northrop Grumman, QinetiQ Limited, Raytheon Technologies, and the U.S. Government.

Information concerning revenue by end-market, geographic region based upon ship-to location, and segment appears under Item 7: Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations, and Notes 2 and 18 of the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements included in Part II, Item 8 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Backlog

Backlog represents firm orders that have been received for products, the remaining funded value of research and development contracts, and other services for which a contractual agreement is in place and delivery or performance is expected to occur. Backlog totaled $161.6 million and $167.0 million as of December 31, 2025 and 2024, respectively. All of the backlog as of December 31, 2025 is expected to be filled within the next 24 months. Our backlog is not necessarily indicative of revenues for any specific future period due to possible order cancellations or deferrals, and shipping or acceptance delays. Delays in delivery schedules or a reduction in backlog during any period could have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations.

Backlog excludes the unfunded portion of our government contracts because these contracts are typically only partially funded at any point during their term, and all or some of the work to be performed under these contracts may remain unfunded unless and until the contract is modified and additional funding is allocated to the contract. As of December 31, 2025, the unfunded value of our government contracts totaled $184.4 million.

Seasonality

Our quarterly revenues can fluctuate with general economic trends, holidays in foreign countries, the U.S. government fiscal year end, the timing of capital expenditures by our customers, and general economic trends. In addition, as is typical in our industry, we tend to recognize a larger percentage of our quarterly revenues in the last month of the quarter, which may impact our working capital trends.

Competition

The industries in which we operate have significant price and technological competition. We compete with companies that offer semiconductor lasers, fiber lasers, fiber amplifiers and other laser products such as IPG Photonics, Coherent, BWT Ltd., Raycus Fiber Laser Technologies, and Trumpf GmbH + Co. KG. We also compete with prime defense contractors and subcontractors in the Aerospace and Defense market, and with companies in the Industrial market that offer widely used non-laser production methods, such as plasma cutting, water-jet cutting and resistance welding.

Some of our competitors are larger and have substantially greater financial, research and development, managerial, sales, service and marketing resources than we do. These companies will likely be able to expand into broader products and end markets, which may result in additional competitive pressures on us. Certain competitors also have higher sales volume than we do, which can enable them to lower the prices of their products. Moreover, certain of our customers have internal laser technologies, which may present additional competitive pressure.

4

Table of Contents

We believe that our vertically-integrated business model, technology innovation, engineering capabilities, functionality, quality and customer service enable us to compete successfully in the markets we serve, taken as a whole.

Manufacturing

We manufacture, package, and test the critical elements of our high-power semiconductor and fiber lasers, including semiconductor laser chips and optical fiber in-house. Our primary manufacturing facilities are located in Camas, Washington; Vancouver, Washington; Hillsboro, Oregon; Longmont, Colorado; and Lohja, Finland. Vertical integration enables us to control and protect our proprietary technologies and manufacturing processes, and we have invested in highly automated semiconductor packaging lines in our Camas, WA facility, which we believe is critical to serve the Directed Energy and Laser Sensing defense markets.

We also use a third-party contract manufacturer, located in Thailand, to package certain of our semiconductor lasers used in commercial applications. We outsource manufacturing, components and materials when we believe that a manufacturing process, or specific component to be manufactured, by itself, does not provide enough competitive advantage to warrant investment in the capital and human resources necessary for the process implementation or the component's manufacture. We work with our suppliers in these situations to ensure consistent quality and delivery performance. In many cases, components are custom manufactured for us based on our proprietary specifications.

We purchase certain raw materials and components used to manufacture our products and other components, such as semiconductor wafer substrates, fiber laser chip packages, optics, and other materials, from single or limited-source suppliers. We typically purchase our materials through purchase orders or agreed-upon terms and conditions, and we do not have guaranteed supply arrangements with many of these suppliers. To mitigate raw material supply risks, we take a variety of actions such as second source qualification, accumulation of safety stock and vendor surveillance.

Regulation

We are subject to significant regulation by local, state, federal and international laws in all jurisdictions in which we operate. Compliance with these requirements can be costly and time consuming. We believe that our operations, products, services, and actions substantially comply with applicable regulations in all jurisdictions. However, the risk of non-compliance cannot be eliminated and therefore there is no assurance that future costs related to these regulations will not be incurred. There is also the possibility that regulations will be retroactively applied, interpreted, or applied differently to our operations, products, services, and actions which will require significant time and resources. See the section of this report titled “Risk Factors—Risks Related to Litigation, Taxation and Regulatory Compliance” for additional information.

Human Capital Management

At nLIGHT, we fulfill our mission by fostering innovation, attracting talented people, and managing aspects of our business in an ethical manner that benefits our stakeholders, including the communities in which we operate. Our product innovation, community involvement and the overall success of our business are driven by continued engagement and motivation of our employees. Over the past twenty-five years we have developed and refined our core values that underpin our corporate culture. At nLIGHT we both recruit and review people based on three criteria we categorize in terms of Skill, Will, and Fit. We encourage collaboration, critical thinking, and respect and foster a workplace where each employee is contributing to the long-term success of the company.

As of December 31, 2025, we had over 800 full-time employees worldwide. Of our total full-time employees, approximately 700 were based in the United States. In Austria, employees have the legal capacity to make collective agreements, and in Finland, certain employees belong to labor unions for their specialty. There are no labor unions to which our employees belong in any other location. We have not experienced any employee-led work stoppages at any of our facilities. We consider our relationship with our employees to be good.

Corporate Information

We maintain a website at https://www.nlight.net. We make available, free of charge through our investor relations website, https://investors.nlight.net, our annual reports, quarterly reports, current reports, proxy statements and all amendments to those reports as soon as reasonably practicable after such material is electronically filed or

5

Table of Contents

furnished with the United State Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC. The reference to our website does not constitute incorporation by reference of the information contained at the site.

The SEC also maintains an Internet website that contains reports and other information regarding issuers, such as nLIGHT, Inc., that file electronically with the SEC. The SEC's Internet website is located at https://www.sec.gov.

We were incorporated under the name nLight Corporation in Washington in June 2000. We reincorporated in Delaware under the name nLight Photonics Corporation in August 2000 and changed our name to nLIGHT, Inc. in January 2016.