D-Wave Quantum: A 1,120% Bookings Surge, a Nobel-Grade Physics Paper, and a Stock Still 63% Off Its High
Published on 09/10/2026 at 10:10 | Editorial boerse-global.de
D-Wave Quantum finds itself in the peculiar position of a company whose scientific and commercial credentials are strengthening even as its share price sags. Fresh off securing a CHIPS and Science Act commitment worth up to $100 million from the US Department of Commerce, the quantum computing specialist is now drawing attention to both its second-quarter business figures and an imminent change at the top of its finance department.
Order intake goes vertical
Revenue for the second quarter of 2026 came in at $3.1 million, essentially flat year over year. The forward-looking picture was far livelier. Quarterly bookings climbed 59% to $2.1 million, while first-half bookings exploded 1,120% to $35.5 million, powered in part by a single $20 million system sale.
Remaining performance obligations — the backlog of contracted work not yet recognized as revenue — reached $40.7 million, up 668%. Management expects the bulk of that to convert into sales within the next two years.
The company reiterated its guidance to ship two systems this year, with the lion's share of annual revenue anticipated in the fourth quarter. Its next quarterly report is scheduled for November 5, 2026.
Those headline numbers sit alongside a less flattering detail: first-half revenue itself fell 67% to $5.9 million, because a large system sale from 2025 was absent from the comparison base. Within the second-quarter top line, 62.4% came from commercial customers and 47.7% from Forbes Global 2000 companies. The gap between soaring bookings and shrinking current revenue captures a pattern familiar across quantum equities — lumpy individual contracts distort the statistics, and a dependable revenue stream has yet to materialize.
Should investors sell immediately? Or is it worth buying D-Wave Quantum?
Science first, salesmanship second
Rewind to early August, and two announcements landed that may ultimately carry more weight for the business model than any subsidy cheque. D-Wave published peer-reviewed results in Nature describing a fast, high-precision two-qubit gate for its superconducting dual-rail architecture in the gate model. Fidelity came in at roughly 99.9%, with operation times of about 500 nanoseconds. Simulations suggest the dual-rail design could cut logical error rates by up to a factor of ten with each error-correction step.
The work underpins a roadmap targeting a system with 100 logical qubits and more than one million operations by 2032. This is not a marketing pledge but fundamental physics, vetted through one of science's most rigorous review processes.
Three days earlier, D-Wave had unveiled a collaboration with Nasdaq Verafin to explore quantum computing for improving financial-crime detection. Two announcements, one common thread: the company is positioning itself simultaneously as a basic-research outfit and a commercial partner — a balancing act few peers in the young quantum sector pursue as consistently.
Washington takes a seat at the table
Those two building blocks form the foundation for the more recent development: the agreement with the Commerce Department for up to $100 million under the CHIPS and Science Act. The funding is earmarked for expanding D-Wave's annealing and gate-model systems, including planned machines with 100,000 and 10,000 qubits respectively. In return, the department receives a minority stake without control rights. Further tranches will only be released once milestones in installation, manufacturing, process integration, and calibration are met.
State capital thus ties directly to technical substance. Absent credible physics advances such as the Nature results, it would be hard to justify a government agency taking equity in a still-lossmaking enterprise.
A CFO transition, absorbed calmly
Roughly a week ago, D-Wave disclosed the departure of finance chief John Markovich, who stepped down on September 2 after five years with the company. Greg Golkov, previously Senior Vice President Finance, has taken over on an interim basis as acting CFO and principal officer for finance and accounting. The stock has recovered about 5.0% since that leadership change, suggesting the market has so far taken the transition in stride.
D-Wave Quantum at a turning point? This analysis reveals what investors need to know now.
The price chart tells a different story
Despite the operational momentum, the share price remains well below last October's peak. The stock currently trades at EUR 14.95, some 63% below its 52-week high of EUR 40.41. Year to date it is down 34%, underscoring the disconnect between business momentum and market performance.
The picture sharpens further with additional data points. After closing at EUR 14.73 on Wednesday — a decline of 3.2% from the prior day — the shares sat roughly 64% under their twelve-month high of EUR 40.41 set on October 15, yet still 32% above their March 30 low. On a twelve-month basis the stock is up 7.4%, a testament to just how wild the ride in this sector can be.
Analysts at Zacks Research downgraded the shares from "Strong Buy" to "Hold" on August 21 — a cautionary signal worth heeding given annualized volatility of 78%, without dismissing the underlying technological substance.
For investors, two opposing forces are converging. On one side stand growing order books and government backing that point to rising interest in D-Wave's quantum computing technology. On the other, the stock's volatility — amplified by the finance-department shake-up — continues to weigh on the share price. The November numbers should reveal whether the backlog can genuinely translate into sustainable revenue growth. The real question is not whether D-Wave can publish in Nature or attract state money — both are documented. It is whether physical breakthroughs and pilot projects will eventually produce a revenue model that turns booking spikes into steady income. The earliest answer arrives with the next quarterly report on November 2.
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D-Wave Quantum Stock: New Analysis - 10 September
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