Spire Global (NYSE: SPIR) posted a second quarter of contrasts. Headline revenue of $18.0 million missed the $18.5 million consensus and fell 6% year-over-year. GAAP net loss widened to $20.0 million from prior-year net income of $119.6 million, though that comparison is distorted by the $154.3 million gain on the maritime sale booked in Q2 2025. Non-GAAP EPS of -$0.31 also missed the -$0.29 estimate by a penny.
Strip out the divested maritime business, and the picture changes. Ex-maritime revenue of $16.6 million grew 16% year-over-year and 19% sequentially. The acceleration came from higher space services data deliveries and more radio-frequency geolocation (RFGL) data purchases. This core growth is the number management wants investors to focus on. It shows the underlying business is accelerating even as the reported top line shrinks.
Margins are where the quarter gets messy. GAAP gross margin contracted 16 percentage points to 34%; non-GAAP gross margin fell 14 points to 38%. The problem was the cancellation of the WildFireSat contract, a termination "for convenience" during the quarter. Its removal created a fixed-cost absorption issue: satellite manufacturing and launch costs once allocated to WildFireSat now hit a smaller revenue base, mechanically compressing margins. This is a one-time operational disruption, not a structural erosion of pricing or unit economics. It is real, and it explains why profitability lagged even as the core business grew.
Operating expenses offer a more encouraging narrative. Total GAAP operating expenses fell 21% year-over-year to $26.1 million. Research and development was down 20%, sales and marketing down 27%, and G&A down 18%. Stock-based compensation dropped from $6.2 million to $3.0 million, reflecting earlier restructuring actions. Adjusted EBITDA improved 16% to -$8.6 million, and cash used in operations improved 32% to $23.4 million. Management expects further sequential cash burn improvement in Q3 and Q4.
The balance sheet is a bright spot. Spire ended the quarter with $91.7 million in cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities. It carries zero debt. That gives the company runway to execute on its strategic priorities without near-term financing pressure.
Strategically, Spire announced partnerships with Schaeffler and Diehl Defence to build European space hardware and mission capabilities. It also signed four new international RFGL customers. A milestone was reached for its Optical Inter-Satellite Link program: a stable cross-plane laser connection across 5,000 kilometers at orbital velocity. If scaled, that technology could reduce Spire's dependence on ground station infrastructure and improve data latency for customers.
Full-year 2026 guidance was reaffirmed. The company still expects revenue of $75 million to $85 million, ex-maritime revenue growth of 42% to 61%, adjusted EBITDA of -$26.0 million to -$20.7 million, and a non-GAAP net loss per share of -$0.95 to -$0.81. Reiterating guidance despite a Q2 miss that could have justified a cut is management's way of signaling that the WildFireSat cancellation is a discrete event, not a trend.
What to watch next is the pace of RFGL customer additions and the trajectory of space services data revenue. These are the two growth engines that will determine whether Spire can hit the high end of its ex-maritime guidance. The O-ISL program is a longer-term catalyst. The near-term story is about converting the partnership pipeline into recurring revenue and managing through the WildFireSat margin hangover. If cash burn continues to improve as projected, Spire has the balance sheet to reach operating leverage without a capital raise. If it doesn't, the zero-debt cushion buys time, but not indefinitely.