First Solar reported its fourth-quarter and full-year 2025 financial results on Tuesday, highlighting annual net sales of $5.2 billion and providing guidance for 2026.
The US solar manufacturer simultaneously announced a patent licensing agreement with Oxford PV to advance the development of perovskite solar technology.
Importantly, expectations for 2026 were lower than analysts expected, leading to the price of First Solar’s NASDAQ-listed shares falling more than 12% in extended trading.
During the company’s earnings call, CEO Mark Widmar discussed the reasons for the lower expectations, which he said were partly due to the company’s strategic underutilization of its Southeast Asian factories. Widmar described the company’s strategy as “buying some time to see how these tariffs ultimately play out.”
Widmar also revealed that First Solar had filed a lawsuit with the U.S. International Trade Commission on the day of the call, alleging infringement of its TOPCon patents against ten “foreign-headquartered manufacturers.”
Financial results and guidance for 2026
First Solar’s full-year net sales represent a $1 million increase from the $4.2 billion it reported in 2024. The company attributed the growth primarily to a 24% increase in third-party module volume. For the fourth quarter of 2025, net sales were $1.7 billion – an increase of $0.1 billion from the previous quarter.
The company reported fourth-quarter net income of $4.84 per diluted share, bringing full-year net income to $14.21 per diluted share. First Solar ended 2025 with a gross cash balance of $2.9 billion and a net cash balance of $2.4 billion.
The increase in cash flow from the prior quarter was largely driven by proceeds from the sale of advanced manufacturing tax credits under Section 45X of the Internal Revenue Code, along with operating cash flows.
Looking ahead to 2026, First Solar expects net revenue of between $4.9 billion and $5.2 billion on a volume of between 17.0 GW and 18.2 GW of modules sold.
The guidance is nearly identical to the 17.5 GW of modules the company sold in 2025, a fact that Widmar attributes partly to the underutilization of the company’s facilities, and partly to the fact that it is shipping production equipment to the United States for use in future module production facilities.
In addition, the company’s CFO Alex Bradley discussed that First Solar’s component gross margins would remain historically low due to tariffs and material costs. Bradley said the company’s transition to its new CuRe thin-film (copper replacement) technology, which reduces degradation over time, will result in approximately 3 percent lower gross margin than the current technology.
The company expects the CuRe technology to be slowly rolled out to a limited number of facilities in 2026.
Oxford PV perovskite deal
In addition to the financial results, First Solar announced that it had entered into a non-exclusive patent licensing agreement with Oxford PV for the US markets. The agreement grants First Solar access to Oxford PV’s existing patents and pending patent applications for perovskite solar technology.
The license covers the potential production and distribution of solar photovoltaic installations using perovskite semiconductors for US utility, commercial, industrial and residential markets. The agreement excludes crystalline silicon semiconductors.
First Solar has invested more than $2 billion in thin film research and development, including perovskite technology. The company currently operates a perovskite development line at its campus in Perrysburg, Ohio.
In prepared remarks during the call, Widmar categorized Oxford PVs as “the most fundamental portfolio of perovskite-related patents.”
Later in the call, in response to a question from investors, he outlined the company’s efforts to bring the perovskite technology to commercial readiness, describing First Solar’s current test prototypes as “best in class,” but lamenting the condition of currently available products from China, which often exhibit problems with degradation and delamination of the encapsulant.
Widmar said First Solar has already established a pilot production line to make full-size perovskite modules, and expects the company will eventually be able to produce “commercial-ready” perovskite thin-film modules with an efficiency of 20% and bifaciality of 70% and an ultra-low temperature coefficient “in the mid-teens” (between one and two-tenths of a percent power loss per degree C).
Patent infringement and commercial matters
The First Solar call took place on the same day that the US Department of Commerce announced preliminary countervailing duties of between 80.67% and 125.87% on crystalline silicon solar cells from India, Indonesia and Laos.
Widmar’s prepared remarks included commentary on the CVD duties, noting that other upcoming anti-dumping tariffs (AD) likely in April will have an additive effect and “support a level playing field against the illegal and unfair trade practices of China-headquartered and other crystalline silicon manufacturers that are strategically circumventing U.S. trade laws.”
Widmar also pointed to the company’s filing of a complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission alleging infringement of one of First Solar’s TOPCon patents.
The ten companies mentioned in the application are: Axitec; Canadian Solar Energy; YES solar energy; JinkoSolar; Mundra Solar / Adani Green Energy; Philadelphia Solar; Hanwha Q cells; run energy; Trina Solar / T1; and VSUN/Toyo.
“If our case is successful,” the CEO said, “the ITC may issue a general exclusion order preventing the importation of infringing TOPCon products from foreign entities. In addition, the ITC may issue a cease and desist order preventing the sale of infringing TOPCon products currently in the United States.”
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