Ginkgo Bioworks Q3 Earnings Call Highlights

Key Points

• Revenue declined while losses narrowed: Third-quarter continuing-operations revenue fell 6% year over year to $28 million, while net loss improved to $41 million from $73 million and adjusted EBITDA loss narrowed to $22 million from $53 million. Cost reductions from restructuring drove lower R&D and general and administrative expenses.
• Cash position and outlook: Ginkgo ended the quarter with $285 million in cash equivalents and marketable securities, no bank debt, and reaffirmed full-year cash burn guidance of $125 million to $150 million.
• New customer and technology wins: Novo Nordisk selected Ginkgo to build an autonomous lab, and the company reported projects with several universities and 20 new biopharma or biotech customers. Ginkgo also launched an antibody-data consortium and is pursuing demand for biological data from AI companies.

Ginkgo Bioworks NYSE: DNA reported lower third-quarter revenue but narrowed its loss as restructuring-related expense cuts took hold, while executives highlighted new customers for its autonomous laboratory systems and cloud-based lab services.

Revenue from continuing operations fell 6% year over year to $28 million in the third quarter of 2026. Net loss from continuing operations improved to $41 million from $73 million, and adjusted EBITDA loss narrowed to $22 million from $53 million, Chief Financial Officer Steve Coen said.

Coen said the quarter’s revenue rose from the prior quarter primarily because a modification to a large, long-term contract resulted in some revenue being recognized sooner. The company’s biosecurity results are classified as discontinued operations, and the financial figures discussed on the call relate to continuing operations.

Cost cuts and cash outlook

Research and development expense fell 48% to $27 million, while general and administrative expense declined 32% to $9 million, excluding stock-based compensation and other separately captioned items. Coen attributed the decreases primarily to restructuring efforts that were substantially completed by the end of 2025.

Adjusted EBITDA included approximately $14 million in carrying costs for excess leased space, unchanged from the prior-year quarter. Those costs include rent and other charges for unused space, net of subleasing income, Coen said.

Third-quarter cash burn was $27 million, compared with $28 million a year earlier. For the first nine months of 2026, cash burn was $120 million, down from $124 million in the same period of 2025. Coen said the 2026 figure included a $14 million payment to Google Cloud associated with a contract restructuring.

Ginkgo ended the quarter with $285 million in cash equivalents and marketable securities and no bank debt, plus $86 million in restricted cash equivalents and marketable securities. It reaffirmed its full-year cash burn guidance of $125 million to $150 million. The company also raised a net $7 million through its at-the-market equity program during the quarter; those proceeds are excluded from its cash burn calculation.

Autonomous lab customers

Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Jason Kelly said Ginkgo is selling its technology in two ways: installing autonomous labs for customers and providing services through its own lab infrastructure.

Kelly announced that Novo Nordisk selected Ginkgo to build an autonomous lab at its new research and development site in Waltham. He described it as Ginkgo’s first autonomous lab hardware contract with a large pharmaceutical company, although the two companies already have a services relationship.

Ginkgo also was selected by MIT, Caltech, the University of Maryland and Northwestern for university lab projects, Kelly said. The Caltech, Maryland and Northwestern projects are part of a National Science Foundation program through which close to $50 million is flowing; Kelly did not specify Ginkgo’s share.

Separately, Kelly said Ginkgo was selected as a subcontractor on an award of up to $17.5 million involving robotics for genetic medicine manufacturing. He also said Pacific Northwest National Laboratory had broken ground on a building that will house a previously announced 97-RAC system, while Ginkgo is developing and validating components for the installation.

In response to a question about revenue timing, Kelly said the company expects to recognize equipment revenue when a system is installed, followed by recurring services and software licensing revenue. He said customers typically expect installation about six to 12 months after ordering, depending on the project. Coen said Ginkgo is not providing revenue guidance or 2027 guidance yet and plans to address expectations for 2027 in February.

Cloud services and AI data

Kelly said Ginkgo added 20 new biopharma or biotech customer “logos” during the quarter—customers that had not previously engaged with the company. He also said its Boston lab, Nebula, has 105 RACs and supports cloud services as well as development of systems for external customers.

Ginkgo launched an Antibody Developability Consortium with AbbVie, argenx, Lundbeck and Takeda as founding members. Kelly said the companies submit antibody designs for testing, with partner Apheris providing a federated learning environment intended to let members train models on the combined data without seeing one another’s designs.

Kelly also said Ginkgo is working with several frontier artificial intelligence labs that are buying biological data. He sees potential demand both for data used to train biological models and for training data that could help reasoning models operate robotic labs. He cautioned that utilization of Ginkgo’s own system still drops overnight, despite its ability to run around the clock.

About Ginkgo Bioworks (NYSE:DNA)

Ginkgo Bioworks is a biotechnology company that develops and deploys biological systems for commercial and industrial applications. Its platform is designed to help customers program cells to produce a wide range of products, including pharmaceuticals, food ingredients, agricultural inputs, specialty chemicals and materials. The company combines biological engineering, automation, software and data science to design, build and test engineered organisms.

Ginkgo provides services through its cell-programming platform and biological engineering foundry, supporting activities such as genetic design, strain construction, laboratory testing and process development.

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