Operating cash flow remained around -$30.4M in 3Q26 with free cash flow margin at -4.6%, and cash fell from $72.3M in 4Q25 to $20.1M, implying the company has no internal funding capacity and depends on external capital.
Aeva Technologies, Inc. (AEVA) cash flow statement — 8-year operating, investing & financing cash flows
| Metric | TTM | Dec'25 | Dec'24 | Dec'23 | Dec'22 | Dec'21 | Dec'20 | Dec'19 | Dec'18 |
|---|
| Cash from Operations | -109.54M | -115.08M | -106.91M | -118.83M | -109.91M | -82.11M | -21.23M | -16.38M | -11.15M |
| Operating CF Margin % | - | -636.52% | -1179.4% | -2755.7% | -2621.92% | -886.18% | -438.39% | -1183.82% | -8260% |
| Operating CF Growth % | 11.55% | -7.64% | 10.03% | -8.11% | -33.87% | -286.72% | -29.58% | -46.93% | - |
| Net Income | -135.47M | -145.43M | -152.26M | -149.33M | -147.31M | -101.88M | -25.57M | -19.59M | -11.17M |
| Depreciation & Amortization | 7.52M | 8.49M | 8.94M | 7.73M | 6.15M | 3.1M | 798K | 634K | 476K |
| Stock-Based Compensation | 34.6M | 21.84M | 23.71M | 23.68M | 24.25M | 22.24M | 3.81M | 2.15M | 755K |
| Deferred Taxes | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1.79M | 0 | 0 |
| Other Non-Cash Items | -4.31M | 22.29M | -348K | 3.93M | 1.11M | -457K | -1.79M | 0 | 317K |
| Working Capital Changes | -11.88M | -22.27M | 13.04M | -4.83M | 5.89M | -5.11M | -265K | 423K | -1.53M |
| Change in Receivables | -5.6M | -2.54M | -559K | 2.26M | -546K | -2.2M | 228K | -369K | 0 |
| Change in Inventory | -2.22M | -3.94M | -1.11M | 353K | -2.55M | -844K | -865K | 603K | -957K |
| Change in Payables | 1.41M | -504K | 1.83M | -1.59M | 1.29M | 2.67M | 1.36M | 171K | 0 |
| Cash from Investing | -126.6M | 29.93M | 97.9M | 69.28M | 110.89M | -388.57M | -855K | -421K | -1.55M |
| Capital Expenditures | -4.15M | -4.61M | -5.11M | -6.1M | -7.44M | -8.35M | -855K | -421K | -1.55M |
| CapEx % of Revenue | 16.82% | 25.49% | 56.34% | 141.56% | 177.46% | 90.12% | 17.65% | 30.42% | 1151.11% |
| Acquisitions | 0 | 0 | 0 | -5M | -118.33M | 4.5M | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Investments | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Other Investing | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5M | 118.33M | -4.5M | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Cash from Financing | 210.59M | 128.58M | -671K | 20.68M | -369K | 512.86M | 73K | 35.99M | 12.91M |
| Debt Issued (Net) | 93.81M | 94.11M | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -80.81K | 0 | 0 |
| Equity Issued (Net) | 120.15M | 32.23M | 81K | 21.45M | 351K | 911K | 242.85M | 36.02M | 0 |
| Dividends Paid | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Share Repurchases | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Other Financing | -3.38M | 2.24M | -752K | -779K | -720K | 511.95M | -242.7M | -37K | 12.91M |
| Net Change in Cash | -25.56M | 43.43M | -9.68M | -28.87M | 610K | 42.19M | -22.01M | 19.18M | 209K |
| Free Cash Flow | -113.7M | -119.69M | -112.02M | -124.93M | -117.35M | -90.45M | -22.09M | -16.8M | -12.71M |
| FCF Margin % | -460.53% | -662.02% | -1235.74% | -2897.26% | -2799.38% | -976.31% | -456.04% | -1214.23% | -9411.11% |
| FCF Growth % | 4.51% | -6.84% | 10.33% | -6.46% | -29.73% | -309.56% | -31.43% | -32.27% | - |
| FCF per Share | -1.58 | -2.10 | -2.10 | -2.75 | -2.70 | -2.25 | -0.52 | -0.40 | -0.30 |
| FCF Conversion (FCF/Net Income) | 0.84x | 0.79x | 0.70x | 0.80x | 0.75x | 0.81x | 0.83x | 0.84x | 1.00x |
| Interest Paid | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Taxes Paid | -20K | 0 | 165K | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Quick answers to the most common questions about buying AEVA stock.
Aeva Technologies, Inc. (AEVA) generated $-115.1M in net cash from operating activities in 2025. This reflects the cash generated directly from core business operations.
Aeva Technologies, Inc. (AEVA) reported negative free cash flow of $119.7M in 2025, indicating capital requirements exceeded cash from operations.
Aeva Technologies, Inc. (AEVA) spent $4.6M on capital expenditures in 2025. CapEx represents the cash invested in physical assets like property, plant, and equipment to maintain or grow the business.
Key Metrics
Top Statement Risk
Persistent operating cash burn
Metrics are mathematically derived from official filings.
Net Income Diverges From Operating Cash Burn
According to the reported quarterly figures, AEVA's operating cash flow remained negative at roughly -$30M in 3Q26 while net income swung from a $107.5M gain to a $79.6M loss over recent quarters, indicating earnings are driven largely by non-cash and non-operating items rather than core cash generation.
The consistently negative operating cash flow across all ten reported quarters, even in periods with large positive net income such as 3Q25, suggests that reported earnings are not a reliable proxy for cash generation. The OCF-to-net-income ratio is erratic and in several quarters meaningless due to sign differences, which appears to reflect non-operating gains or losses rather than operating improvement. Investors should monitor whether the gap narrows as revenue scales, since the current pattern warrants further investigation into the drivers of the disconnect.
Free Cash Flow Margins Remain Deeply Negative
Based on reported figures, AEVA's free cash flow margin ranged from -4.2% to -14.9% across the ten quarters, with the latest 3Q26 margin of -4.6% showing modest improvement from the -11.7% to -14.9% levels seen in 2024 but no sustained move toward breakeven.
Free cash flow has been negative in every reported quarter, with burn consistently in the $23M to $33M range per quarter, which suggests the business is funding operations rather than generating surplus cash. The improvement in margin during 2025 and 2026 appears to reflect revenue growth outpacing cash cost growth, though the absolute burn has not declined meaningfully. This pattern may indicate that the company is still in an investment phase, and the trajectory warrants monitoring for evidence of genuine operating leverage.
Capital Intensity Stays Low Despite Scale-Up Claims
As reported in financial statements, AEVA's capital expenditures were generally modest at $0.2M to $2.2M per quarter, though CapEx-to-revenue ratios spiked to 79.3% in 4Q24 and 35.5% in 1Q26, reflecting the lumpiness of a small revenue base rather than sustained capital investment.
The low absolute CapEx levels suggest the company is not yet building out high-volume manufacturing capacity at a scale that would typically be expected for a silicon photonics production ramp. The periodic spikes in CapEx relative to revenue appear driven by denominator effects in quarters with low revenue, rather than by a structural increase in investment. Because depreciation and amortization have run around $2M per quarter, the asset base appears to be largely maintained at a low level, which may limit near-term cash drain from capital requirements but raises questions about readiness for planned production volumes.
No Shareholder Returns Amid Cash Burn
According to recent SEC filings, AEVA reported zero dividends and negligible buybacks across the reported periods, with the only capital deployment being a $183K acquisition outflow in 1Q25, meaning all cash generated or raised has been consumed by operations.
The absence of dividends and repurchases is consistent with a company in a cash-consumption phase, where capital preservation is the dominant constraint. The minor acquisition outflow in early 2025 is too small to indicate any meaningful strategic deployment. Given the persistent operating burn, the company's ability to fund ongoing operations depends on its existing cash balance and any future external financing, which investors should weigh carefully against dilution risk.
Stock Compensation Masks True Cash Cost
Based on the supplied data, AEVA's stock-based compensation of $11.4M in 3Q26 and $8.5M in 2Q26 represents a material non-cash add-back that may flatter reported operating metrics, while the underlying operating cash burn of about $30M per quarter remains the more accurate gauge of economic cost.
Stock-based compensation has consistently run between $4.6M and $11.4M per quarter, which suggests that a meaningful portion of employee compensation is paid in equity rather than cash, potentially diluting existing shareholders over time. Analysts should not treat the SBC add-back as evidence of cash efficiency, since the equity cost is real even though it does not appear in operating cash outflows. The gap between SBC and total operating burn indicates that even after excluding this non-cash item, the business consumes substantial cash, warranting further investigation into how the company intends to close this gap.