Company: LIDRW
Filing Date: 2025-05-13
Form Type: DEFA14A
Source: 0000947871-25-000499
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Company: AEye, Inc.
Filing Date: 2025-05-13
Form: DEFA14A
Chunk 1
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May 13, 2025

Dear Fellow Stockholders of AEye, Inc.:

Thank you for your continued investment and interest in AEye, Inc. (“AEye” or the “Company”).

This year will mark our fourth annual meeting of stockholders
since becoming a public company, and we are excited by AEye’s strategic path and outlook to create and maximize long-term stockholder
value.

Since 2023, our Board of Directors (“Board”)
and new leadership team have executed on a clear strategy that generates fundamental growth for the business and that it believes best
positions AEye for long-term success. As you may be aware from prior communications, we are in the middle of a pivotal process of revitalizing
our business and refocusing our strategy to capture the significant opportunity in the lidar market. We are excited by our recent innovation
in advanced, market-ready lidar solutions, like Apollo, and our renewed ability to execute on our aggressive growth goals.

Our Chairman and CEO, Matthew Fisch, became CEO at a Company
that possessed great technological promise but was facing several significant challenges, including:

| · | Undisciplined Capital Allocation. The Company’s cash used                                                                                 
 in operating activities and capital expenditures were $56.7 million in 2021, $75.8 million in 2022, and $52.4 million in 2023. Following  
 the implementation of Mr. Fisch’s revised strategic plan in late 2023, such amounts were reduced to $27.0M in 2024. The Company’s         
 cash use or burn in the first quarter of 2023 was $20.1 million; by the fourth quarter of 2024, it was reduced to $4.6 million, providing 
 the Company with the runway needed to continue its operation.                                                                             |

| · | Long Product Development Cycles. Since the incorporation of the                                                                            
 prior operating company of AEye in 2013, the business had failed to meaningfully commercialize a product for over 10-year period. At the   
 time Mr. Fisch joined our Company, no product of the Company achieved meaningful market traction, as evidenced by minimal product revenues 
 of $1.0M in 2021, $1.7M in 2022, $0.5M in 2023, and $0.1M in 2024. Since 2023, under Mr. Fisch’s management, the Company focused