Quick Read
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D-Wave (QBTS) fell 4% as an 84% surge in operating expenses widened its loss to $0.13 per share, overshadowing a revenue beat.
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Sympathy selling dragged Rigetti (RGTI) down 2% and IonQ (IONQ) down 1%, even as IonQ lifted its full-year revenue guidance.
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Bulls point to a 611% jump in nine-month bookings and a $20 million university system sale expected to land as Q4 revenue.
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Wall Street is looking past a revenue beat at D-Wave Quantum( NYSE:QBTS ) and focusing on a wider loss and climbing costs. D-Wave stock is at $10.68, down 7% this morning. The company released its Q3 2026 results before the open on November 10, and the report gave both the bulls and the bears plenty to debate.
Expectations were high heading into the report. Barron's noted on November 9 that quantum peers had raised the earnings bar for D-Wave. That bar came largely from IonQ( NYSE:IONQ ), which topped revenue and adjusted earnings estimates when it reported on November 5.
What Pressured D-Wave After Its Q3 Beat
D-Wave's top line held up in the quarter. The company's Q3 revenue rose 20.7% year over year to $4.51 million, ahead of the $4.34 million consensus. On the bottom line, D-Wave posted a generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) loss of $0.13 per share, missing the consensus estimate of a $0.10 loss.
Spending explains much of that gap. D-Wave's GAAP operating expenses rose 84% year over year to $55.9 million on personnel costs, stock-based compensation and amortization tied to the January acquisition of Quantum Circuits. Margins narrowed, with GAAP gross margin falling to 52.9% from 71.4% a year earlier on a shift toward lower-margin professional services.
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Quarterly bookings added pressure, as D-Wave's Q3 bookings of $1.9 million fell 19% year over year, though its acting finance chief warned that single-quarter bookings are uneven. Cash and marketable securities dropped 40% year over year to $503.4 million, mainly because of cash used for the Quantum Circuits deal. Management didn't offer quantitative financial guidance.
Why D-Wave Bulls Point to Its Growing Backlog
Longer-term numbers tell a stronger story for D-Wave. The company's nine-month bookings jumped 611% to $37.4 million, and its remaining performance obligations stood at $38.3 million as of September 30. Those bookings include a $20 million system sale to Florida Atlantic University, which its acting finance chief expects to be largely recognized as revenue in Q4 2026.
CEO Alan Baratz leaned on that momentum, stating, "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, paid in milestone-based payments, though none had been received as of quarter end.
What the Peer Group Says About D-Wave
The selling extends beyond D-Wave. Rigetti Computing( NASDAQ:RGTI ) stock is at $12.56, down 3%. That drop fits a sympathy move with the sector, since Rigetti's most recent results, for Q2 2026, came out on August 6.
IonQ stock is at $35.22, down 0.34%. This is the softest decline of the three, and it comes after IonQ raised its full-year 2026 revenue guidance to $505 million to $515 million. Quantum stocks tend to move together on sentiment, so a miss at one name can spread across the group. Inflation data may add to the strain, as October's Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 0.4% month over month, which can weigh on speculative, unprofitable growth stocks.
How D-Wave's Dual-Platform Model Differs From Rigetti and IonQ
D-Wave runs both annealing and gate-model quantum computers, and the company describes itself as the only one offering both. Annealing systems from D-Wave target optimization work such as scheduling and logistics and are already used in customer operations, while its gate-model technology came through the Quantum Circuits deal.
Rigetti builds superconducting gate-model systems and makes its own quantum chips at its Fab-1 facility. By contrast, IonQ builds trapped-ion systems and now runs a foundry business through SkyWater, which counts D-Wave among its customers.
What Comes Next for D-Wave's Q4 Delivery and CHIPS Funding
D-Wave's next challenge is whether the Florida Atlantic University system ships on schedule and lands in Q4 revenue. Bulls can point to a growing backlog and a cash reserve that funds the company's roadmap. Skeptics note that D-Wave's costs are rising faster than its sales and that its quarterly bookings slipped.
Beyond that, watch for progress on converting D-Wave's pipeline into bookings and on CHIPS Act milestone payments. Investors researching D-Wave may want to track how its Florida Atlantic University delivery resolves.
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