‹ Intuitive Machines
Ch 2 · The Cushion
Chapter 2 · Financial Health
Burning cash. Huge cushion. For now.
When a company isn't profitable yet, the question is how long they can keep going before they need more money.
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✦ The bottom line
Intuitive Machines lost $55M of cash in Q1 alone. They have $580M+ in the bank, just raised $175M more, and have $345M of low-interest convertible debt. Runway is years, not months.
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✦ Teach me
Real cash left over
Free cash flow = cash from running the business, minus cash spent on factories, equipment, and infrastructure. If revenue is the top line and net income is the accountant's view, free cash flow is what's actually in the bank account at quarter-end. When a company isn't profitable yet, free cash flow tells you the burn rate — how fast they're chewing through their savings.
Wall Street calls this
Free cash flow
For pre-profit growth companies, the formula is simple: *cash on hand* divided by *quarterly burn* = how many quarters of runway. Run out, and the story ends.
Cash on hand · end of 2025
$583
M
Working capital of $494M on top. Built up through 2025 from a $345M convertible note raise, $177M in warrant exercises, and $447M in net financing.
Source · 10-K · Liquidity and Capital Resources · FY2025 · Filed Mar 19, 2026
$583 million sitting in the bank is the cushion. But a cushion is only as good as how fast you're spending through it. Cash a year from now isn't the same number as cash today — whatever rate the company is burning chips away at that pile every quarter. So what's the burn?
Free cash flow · full year 2025
-$56
M
Cash out of the business after $42M in capital spending on new satellites and infrastructure. Better than 2024's -$68M. But Q1 2026 alone burned $65M — Lanteris integration costs are real.
Source · 10-K · Free Cash Flow reconciliation · FY2025 · Filed Mar 19, 2026
So they're burning roughly $15M of cash per month on the underlying business — and that's before the Lanteris integration. At that pace, $583M of cash would last ~3 years on the legacy burn alone. But here's the thing about pre-profit space companies: they don't just live off cash on hand. They raise more, regularly. February 27, 2026 was a textbook example.
From the 10-K · the $175M raise after year-end
On February 27, 2026, the Company completed a definitive securities purchase agreement with certain institutional investors relating to the issuance and sale of shares of Class A Common Stock at a price of $15.12 per share for an aggregate purchase price of $175.0 million.
↳ More cash in the bank. More shares outstanding ( 7% — the price of staying solvent before profitability.
Source · 10-K · Subsequent Events — Securities Purchase Agreement · FY2025 · Filed Mar 19, 2026
Watch
Big cushion. Real burn. The runway buys time to land IM-3 and integrate Lanteris — both of which need to work for the story to compound.
You just finished
Chapter 2 · FINANCIAL HEALTH
The Cushion
you now read: cash runway
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Then
Chapter 4 · MANAGEMENT
Three Founders, Still Here
Chapter 5 · BEHIND THE NUMBERS
The Story Behind the Numbers
Chapter 6 · RISK
What Could Break the Brief