D-Wave Quantum’s first-quarter bookings came in at $33.4 million — a nearly 2,000% leap from a year earlier and 149% above the prior quarter. That single figure is the clearest sign yet that the company, and the quantum computing sector as a whole, may finally be moving out of the laboratory and into the income statement. A $20 million system sale to Florida Atlantic University and a $10 million enterprise license agreement accounted for the bulk of the haul, but the underlying pipeline tells an equally striking story: the average potential deal size doubled, and the total value of the sales pipeline more than doubled during the quarter.
D-Wave now counts more than 100 paying customers, with commercial enterprises representing over half of that base. Commercial revenue accounted for 73% of total quarterly sales — a mix that suggests the company is no longer dependent on government research grants for its survival.
All of this sets the stage for Wednesday’s Qubits Europe 2026 conference in London, where D-Wave will attempt to cement its narrative under the banner “Quantum Realized.” The event comes just two weeks after the company held its first-ever Investor Day at the New York Stock Exchange, a back-to-back scheduling that underscores the urgency behind D-Wave’s commercial push. The London timing is deliberate: European governments, research labs and corporations are opening their procurement budgets for quantum technology, and King Charles III explicitly cited quantum computing in his late-April address to the U.S. Congress, linking the technology to the future prosperity of both nations.
Two Platforms, One Bet
What sets D-Wave apart from rivals such as IonQ and Rigetti is its decision to develop two quantum architectures simultaneously — annealing and gate-model. Most competitors commit to a single approach. D-Wave argues that whoever masters both modalities will capture a larger share of the market once quantum computing matures. Usage of its Advantage2 annealing systems jumped 314% over the past year, providing tangible evidence that the annealing side is already generating commercial demand.
On the gate-model front, the company laid out a concrete roadmap. It plans to deliver a fault-tolerant superconducting system with 100 logical qubits capable of executing more than one million operations by 2032. Intermediate milestones include systems with 17, 49 and 181 physical qubits between 2026 and 2028, followed by 10 logical qubits by 2030. The acquisition of Quantum Circuits Inc. is meant to accelerate this timeline; its error-detecting dual-rail qubits could reduce the number of physical qubits needed for logical operations by an order of magnitude.
First gate-model systems are expected to become available later this year. If D-Wave can integrate both platforms into a single commercial offering, it could challenge IBM directly in enterprise segments that demand both optimization and general-purpose quantum workloads.
Should investors sell immediately? Or is it worth buying D-Wave Quantum?
Stock Moves and Insider Caution
The stock has climbed roughly 40% over the past 30 days, trading at €22.88. That puts it 20.78% above its 50-day moving average and more than 105% above the March low of €11.12. Yet the 52-week high of €38.48, reached last October, remains nearly 40% out of reach, and the share is still slightly in the red on a 12-month basis.
The relative strength index of 55.1 suggests the recent rally has room to run without becoming overheated, but the annualized 30-day volatility of nearly 144% is a reminder of the stock’s wild nature. Analysts have a consensus price target of €31.38, implying roughly 37% upside from current levels. Several analysts raised their targets after the Investor Day, which sent the shares up more than 14% on the following Monday.
Not all signals are entirely bullish. Following a surge tied to government quantum funding, executives from both Infleqtion and D-Wave sold more than $30 million worth of stock. The insider transactions drew investor scrutiny, though analysts have so far maintained their constructive outlook on the company.
A CEO’s Challenge
At the Investor Day, D-Wave’s chief executive made an unusual admission: quantum mechanics is hard, he said, and that very difficulty makes it easy to sell things that aren’t real. He urged investors to ask companies about their customers and published scientific results — a remarkable stance for a CEO on his own stage, but one that reflects the market’s growing demand for proof over promises.
Wednesday’s London conference will put that philosophy to the test. The agenda is built around use cases, live demonstrations and hardware updates, with an emphasis on what is already deployed, already tested, already measurable. D-Wave enters the event with a record bookings quarter, a dual-platform strategy that few can match, and a management team that has publicly dared the industry to move beyond hype.
Whether that combination is enough — and arrives fast enough — will become clearer as the next few quarters unfold. For now, the company has given investors a coherent answer to the question that has dogged quantum computing for a decade: where is the revenue?
Ad
D-Wave Quantum Stock: Buy or Sell?! New D-Wave Quantum Analysis from June 16 delivers the answer:
The latest D-Wave Quantum figures speak for themselves: Urgent action needed for D-Wave Quantum investors. Is it worth buying or should you sell? Find out what to do now in the current free analysis from June 16.
D-Wave Quantum: Buy or sell? Read more here...
