Why Should You Pay Attention To QBTS Stock?

For questions about this article or underlying research, email help@trefis.com.

D-Wave Quantum (QBTS) now sells whole quantum computers, not just computing time over the cloud, and those sales may be what its bulls are betting on. Yet revenue over the last twelve months fell 44.2% from a year earlier. The drop came from a single quarter: March-quarter revenue fell 80.9%, while June-quarter revenue was essentially flat. A year earlier, that March quarter included $12.6 million of revenue from D-Wave’s first sale of an annealing system. The stock has also lost 63.9% over the past year, while the S&P 500 gained 13.3%. That is the contradiction: the company is selling whole machines, yet its revenue and its share price have both fallen. So how big are these computer sales next to the rest of D-Wave’s business?

D-Wave Sold One Computer For Over A Year’s Revenue

D-Wave sold an annealing quantum computer system to Florida Atlantic University for $20 million. That single deal exceeds the $12.4 million of revenue D-Wave reported over the twelve months ended June 30, 2026. Management prices these machines at $20 million to $40 million each, aiming the lower end at research labs and universities.

Most of that sale is still to come as revenue. During the June quarter, D-Wave reported about $300,000 in systems and other revenue, mainly from installation and site work for the Florida Atlantic machine, against $1.9 million from cloud subscriptions. Professional services added about $900,000.

Management maintains that D-Wave’s annealing systems are currently the only quantum platforms executing production commercial workloads, while competitors continue to test enterprise applications on gate-model architectures. On the fiscal Q2 2026 call, management said every other system in the industry is still in research, and that it does not expect significant cloud revenue from D-Wave’s own gate-model systems until around 2032. The rival systems management described all use the gate-model design, and D-Wave is developing gate-model machines alongside its annealing ones.

How Much Revenue Has D-Wave Already Signed?

D-Wave’s backlog of signed contracts still to deliver was $40.7 million at June 30, 2026, up from $5.3 million a year earlier. Management expects about 57% of that backlog to become revenue within the next 12 months. That comes to about $23 million, nearly twice the revenue D-Wave reported over the last twelve months.

Management expects to ship two annealing systems over the rest of 2026, both likely in the fourth quarter, and it expects fourth-quarter revenue to make up the majority of the year’s total. The Florida Atlantic machine is one of those two systems, and management expects some revenue from installing the machines in 2027.

The backlog is an answer to the fall in revenue, but not to the losses. D-Wave posted an operating loss in the June quarter of $53.3 million, against $26.5 million a year earlier. Investors are also paying a steep price: at the October 29 close, the shares traded at 345 times sales over the last twelve months, against 3.3 times for the S&P 500.

Multiples that high rest on what a business may become, not on what it sells today. Consider Tesla, valued at about $1.5 trillion largely on self-driving software that is in fewer than 1 in 170 American vehicles. Read Trefis Big Story: How Tesla Blundered.

What Could Go Wrong With D-Wave’s Computer Sales?

Deliveries could run late, and D-Wave sells only a few machines a year. D-Wave and certain executives are also named in a putative shareholder class action alleging misrepresentations regarding full-year 2026 revenue guidance; the company has not yet filed its formal response, and the claims remain unadjudicated.

Management expects to book two to three system deals annually. Both machines due in 2026 are expected in the same quarter, so if either shipped late, a large part of 2026 revenue would slip into 2027.

Orders also arrive in lumps. First-half 2026 bookings, which included the Florida Atlantic machine, reached $35.5 million, against $2.9 million a year earlier. In the June quarter alone, bookings were $2.1 million.

The losses show up in cash, too. Free cash flow over the last twelve months was minus $120 million, and D-Wave held $546 million in cash and short-term investments at the end of June.

D-Wave’s bookings, the value of new orders it signs in a quarter, are the figure to watch when the company next reports, expected in November 2026.

What Would Another Fall In D-Wave Quantum Do To Your Plan?

A fall hurts most when one stock is a large part of what you own, and selling it to spread the risk can bring a large tax bill. Our partner advisory firm offers a free strategy review of ways to put a floor under a large position and unwind it with less tax.

Request A Free Strategy Review

Spot an error or want more like this? Tell us in 10 seconds.