First Solar NASDAQ: FSLR reported a “strong start to 2026” in the first quarter, pointing to record first-quarter revenue, margin expansion, and continued strength in its U.S. and India businesses, according to management’s comments on the company’s earnings conference call.
Chief Executive Officer Mark Widmar said the company delivered “record first quarter revenue, record sales in India, meaningful margin expansion, and adjusted EBITDA above the top end of our first quarter preview range.” He also highlighted 1.9 gigawatts (GW) of gross bookings since the prior earnings call and progress on the company’s CuRe technology rollout.
Bookings and backlog
Chief Financial Officer Alex Bradley said First Solar ended the quarter with a contracted backlog of 47.9 GW at an aggregate transaction price of $14.4 billion, exclusive of technology adjustments, with deliveries extending through 2030. During the first quarter, the company sold approximately 3.8 GW, recorded 1.7 GW of gross bookings, and recorded 0.1 GW of debookings.
Bradley said First Solar’s India business is assumed to operate as a “book-and-bill market at near full capacity.” In the first quarter, the company sold about 1 GW in India at an average selling price (ASP) of approximately $0.20 per watt.
In the U.S., Bradley said domestic production is “substantially committed through 2028 under existing contracts,” contributing to “relative pricing clarity through this period.” The company continues to take a “highly selective approach” to incremental U.S. bookings as it awaits policy outcomes, including a pending Section 232 polysilicon derivatives tariff decision and proposed “FEOC” rulemaking. In the first quarter, the company’s U.S. gross bookings totaled 0.9 GW at an ASP of approximately $0.34 per watt, inclusive of adjustments.
On pricing, Widmar told analysts that the 1.4 GW of bookings “call to call” (since the prior earnings call) averaged $0.35 per watt, with roughly half booked before quarter-end and the remainder after. He also described “about another 700 MW or so that’s an option,” tied to customer acquisition activity and project development M&A, calling out “a lot of momentum” in customer engagement while emphasizing pricing discipline.
Addressing technology “adders” embedded in contracts, Widmar said the company is transitioning toward pricing CuRe’s expected performance attributes directly into the base contract price rather than structuring separate adders. He said entitlement adders remain “call it $0.03 or so,” but the recent booking mix included deals with no adders because “we’re pricing the technology.” He estimated a blended adder across the booked volume of “call it $0.015.”
First-quarter financial performance
Bradley said net sales were $1.0 billion, a record first-quarter result for the company and a 24% increase year-over-year, driven by a 31% volume increase and partially offset by lower ASP due to a higher mix of India deliveries.
Gross margin was 47%, expanding about 6 percentage points from the year-ago quarter. Bradley attributed the margin improvement primarily to a higher volume of modules qualifying for Section 45X tax benefits and “significantly lower sales rate costs,” including lower detention and demurrage. Sales rate costs were approximately $0.017 per watt, roughly half the level of the first quarter of 2025. He also said the company reduced warehouse costs by $22 million sequentially from the fourth quarter of 2025, as part of a plan to “rationalize warehouse costs to approximately $100 million by 2027.” These benefits were partially offset by lower ASP and higher tariff costs year-over-year, Bradley said.
Operating expenses totaled $141 million, including $67 million of R&D, which was up $15 million year-over-year due to perovskite development and ongoing CuRe launch work. Adjusted EBITDA was $520 million, above the company’s first-quarter preview range of $400 million to $500 million, with an adjusted EBITDA margin of 60%. Net income was $347 million, up 65% year-over-year, and diluted EPS was $3.22.
First Solar ended the quarter with $2.4 billion of cash, cash equivalents, restricted cash, and marketable securities and a net cash position of $2.0 billion, which Bradley said was at the high end of its targeted resilient net cash range. Operating cash outflows were $215 million, which Bradley described as typical first-quarter working capital dynamics and a substantial improvement from the prior-year period. Capital expenditures were $119 million, primarily related to the South Carolina finishing facility, and the company made a $45 million scheduled principal payment on its India DFC loan.
Manufacturing footprint and utilization
Widmar said First Solar produced 4.3 GW of modules during the quarter, including about 3.0 GW from U.S. facilities and 1.3 GW from its international fleet. He said U.S. facilities operated at approximately 96% utilization.
The company’s planned South Carolina finishing facility remains on track for a production start in the second half of 2026, with equipment installation beginning in the current quarter, Widmar said. He described the site as expected to provide finishing capacity for Series 6 modules initiated at international factories, with goals that include optimizing “freight, tariff, and domestic content outcomes” while benefiting from Section 45X module assembly tax credits.
Widmar noted that international facilities in Malaysia and Vietnam continue to run at “significantly reduced utilization,” citing trade dynamics and lower ASP expectations for modules produced end-to-end overseas. In response to analyst questions, management said Malaysia and Vietnam utilization will be lower in the second quarter than in the first quarter, which Widmar said will translate into “more underutilization charges” and be a sequential gross margin headwind.
On the longer-term decision tree for Southeast Asia, management said outcomes depend heavily on the Section 232 decision and related risk allocation. Possibilities discussed included maintaining end-to-end production and shipping finished goods into the U.S., adding incremental finishing capacity in the U.S., or potentially shutting down capacity if neither pathway is supported by demand and pricing.
Technology roadmap: CuRe rollout and perovskite pilot line
Widmar described CuRe as central to First Solar’s technology strategy, which he said emphasizes lifetime energy production rather than nameplate efficiency alone. He cited testing data supporting expected bifaciality, temperature coefficient advantage, and degradation profile. Widmar said CuRe is anticipated to deliver “up to 8% more lifetime specific energy yield than crystalline silicon TOPCon.”
He said the CuRe launch is complete in Perrysburg and the first Series 6 line is ramping “consistent with expectations.” CuRe is scheduled to be replicated across the Series 6 and 7 fleet through the first half of 2028. If achieved, Widmar said that would support “the potential realization of up to $0.6 billion of additional revenue from technology adjusters in the backlog,” with most anticipated in 2027 and 2028.
On perovskites, Widmar said the company is targeting a pilot line in 2027 with up to 1 GW of capacity in Perrysburg, intended to get product into the field for performance validation, durability assessment, and customer feedback. He said the pilot line will not reflect high-volume manufacturing cost entitlements and described it as a higher-cost product at launch. Widmar also said the company is evaluating different product paths, including whether to initially reduce complexity by focusing on validating perovskite performance before pursuing tandem integration.
Policy, trade dynamics, and intellectual property
In the U.S., Widmar said First Solar believes headwinds for crystalline silicon are building, pointing to trade remedy enforcement, possible restrictions from “FEOC” regulations, and intellectual property litigation. He said that in March the U.S. International Trade Commission instituted First Solar’s Section 337 investigation, with respondents representing “a significant share of top 10 modules currently imported into the United States.” Widmar said the company expects an initial determination in about 11 months and a final decision in about 15 months.
Discussion of tariff and trade policy centered heavily on Section 232 and tariff uncertainty for imported products. Bradley said the company’s guidance currently assumes Section 122 tariffs remain in place for 150 days from announcement (taking them into July) and does not assume replacement tariffs later in the year, though he noted the administration has launched several Section 301 cases that management believes may be intended to replace Section 122. Widmar said the company is engaging with the administration on potential structures for Section 232 outcomes, including cents-per-watt approaches or minimum import prices, and said feedback has been “very positive,” while also acknowledging the process continues to evolve.
On India, Widmar discussed regulatory proposals related to efficiency thresholds for inclusion in the approved list of models and manufacturers (ALMM) and other evolving requirements. He said First Solar plans to launch CuRe in India beginning next year, with its first Series 6 facility launch in India set to be CuRe, which he said would help address any potential revisions while the company continues dialogue with Indian authorities about the value of energy yield attributes.
In response to a question about potential TOPCon infringement if Tesla pursued that technology, Widmar said First Solar believes “effectively all” TOPCon product sold into the U.S. by multiple manufacturers has infringed on its intellectual property. He said the company is “more than willing” to enter commercial licensing discussions with counterparties and cited its prior licensing to Talon as an example.
Looking ahead, Bradley said full-year 2026 guidance remains unchanged. For the second quarter, First Solar expects volumes sold between 3.4 GW and 4.0 GW and adjusted EBITDA of $400 million to $500 million.
About First Solar NASDAQ: FSLR
First Solar, Inc NASDAQ: FSLR is a United States–based solar technology company best known for designing and manufacturing thin‑film photovoltaic (PV) modules that use cadmium telluride (CdTe) semiconductor technology. The company supplies PV modules and delivers integrated solar power solutions for utility‑scale projects, positioning itself as a provider of both components and complete solar energy systems rather than solely a parts supplier. First Solar was founded in 1999 and is headquartered in Tempe, Arizona.
Beyond module manufacturing, First Solar offers a range of project services including development support, engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) services, and operations and maintenance (O&M) for large-scale solar installations.
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