D-Wave beats on revenue, but costs drive a 7% stock decline

By Tom Whitfield

D-Wave Quantum (NYSE: QBTS) generated $4.51 million in third-quarter 2026 revenue, up 20.7% year over year, but its shares fell 7% to $10.68 in morning trading on November 10. D-Wave released the results before the opening bell. Investors focused on a $0.13 per-share loss under generally accepted accounting principles, worse than the $0.10 consensus loss, despite revenue exceeding the $4.34 million estimate.

Why did a revenue beat not lift D-Wave?

D-Wave exceeded the $4.34 million consensus for revenue, but its $0.13 GAAP loss per share was worse than the expected $0.10 loss. The combination left investors looking past the sales beat toward spending and profitability.

GAAP operating expenses rose 84% year over year to $55.9 million. Personnel costs, stock-based compensation and amortization tied to the January acquisition of Quantum Circuits drove the increase. GAAP gross margin fell to 52.9% from 71.4% as revenue shifted toward lower-margin professional services.

Q3 bookings of $1.9 million fell 19% year over year, although the acting finance chief said single-quarter bookings are uneven. Cash and marketable securities fell 40% year over year to $503.4 million, mainly because of cash used for the Quantum Circuits deal.

Management offered no quantitative financial guidance. The quarter closed with a revenue beat unable to offset faster cost growth, weaker bookings and a year-over-year decline in cash and marketable securities.

Does the backlog offset near-term cost pressure?

Nine-month bookings rose 611% to $37.4 million, and remaining performance obligations stood at $38.3 million as of September 30. Those bookings included a $20 million system sale to Florida Atlantic University.

The acting finance chief expects D-Wave to recognize most of that sale as revenue in Q4 2026. CEO Alan Baratz said: “Our triple-digit increase in year-to-date bookings and robust pipeline reinforce our confidence in the opportunity ahead.”

D-Wave also signed a definitive agreement for up to $100 million in CHIPS Act funding. Payments arrive in milestones, and the company had received none as of quarter end. The backlog supports the longer-term case, but its size does not remove the near-term delivery and funding test.

How did peers and markets react?

Rigetti Computing (NASDAQ: RGTI) traded at $12.56, down 3%, and IonQ (NYSE: IONQ) traded at $35.22, down 0.34%, on November 10. Rigetti had reported its most recent results, for Q2 2026, on August 6, so the move reflected sector sympathy rather than a fresh operating report.

Barron’s noted on November 9 that quantum peers had raised D-Wave’s earnings bar. IonQ helped set that bar by topping revenue and adjusted earnings estimates on November 5. The company had also raised full-year 2026 revenue guidance to $505 million to $515 million.

October’s Consumer Price Index rose 0.4% month over month, a macroeconomic factor that can weigh on speculative, unprofitable growth stocks. Quantum stocks tend to move together on sentiment, so a miss at one company can spread across the group. The small peer declines show that sector sentiment and broader risk appetite mattered alongside D-Wave’s results.

What distinguishes D-Wave’s hardware strategy?

D-Wave runs both annealing and gate-model quantum computers and says it is the only company offering both approaches. Its annealing systems target optimization work such as scheduling and logistics and already run in customer operations. The gate-model technology entered D-Wave’s portfolio through the Quantum Circuits acquisition.

Rigetti builds superconducting gate-model systems and makes its own quantum chips at its Fab-1 facility. IonQ builds trapped-ion systems and operates a foundry business through SkyWater, which counts D-Wave among its customers.

On the companies’ own descriptions, D-Wave has the broadest hardware mix, while Rigetti emphasizes in-house chip production and IonQ pairs trapped-ion hardware with foundry services.

What must D-Wave deliver in Q4?

D-Wave’s immediate test is whether the Florida Atlantic University system ships on schedule and produces most of the expected $20 million in Q4 2026 revenue. Investors also need to see whether the pipeline converts into bookings and whether milestone payments arrive under the CHIPS Act agreement.

The $38.3 million remaining performance obligation and $503.4 million cash and marketable securities balance support the stated roadmap. Against that, operating expenses are rising faster than sales, Q3 bookings declined, and D-Wave gave no quantitative guidance.

The next test is whether D-Wave can convert its pipeline into bookings and deliver the $20 million Florida Atlantic University system in Q4 while its costs keep rising. Investors will also compare that progress with IonQ’s $505 million to $515 million full-year 2026 revenue guidance.