D-Wave shares have surged alongside the broader market, boosted by Nvidia's new Ising AI models and a $100 million federal funding award.
Despite the stock rally, D-Wave's financials remain concerning, with just $24.6 million in revenue last year against an operating loss exceeding $70 million.
Commercial quantum computing likely years away, the stock carries significant speculative risk, and it may face steep declines in a market correction.
Quantum stocks are back, it seems, and D-Wave Quantum (NYSE: QBTS) is no exception. Shares of the quantum "pure play" are up 109% in the last two months.
A broader market rally has helped -- the S&P 500 is up 15.6% in the last month, the Nasdaq Composite is up 23.8% -- but some key catalysts have renewed investor faith in the sector.
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First, Nvidia announced Ising, a new family of open-source AI models designed to accelerate quantum computing research. And the U.S. Department of Commerce announced a new $2 billion quantum investment program. D-Wave will receive $100 million in federal funding.
The catalysts are encouraging, certainly, but they don't fundamentally change the picture in my eyes.
At present, D-Wave's financials aren't great to say the least: $12.5 million in sales over the last 12 months and a more than $100 million normalized loss during the same period.
Image source: Getty Images.
Despite this, the company's market cap is now north of $11 billion. There is a massive amount of faith baked into the stock price. That can work if D-Wave makes some serious leaps forward soon in the development of its technology, but it's likely real commercial quantum is many years -- maybe decades -- away.
If, in that time, there is a major market correction, investors will flee speculative stocks like D-Wave, and its share price will plummet. I think there will be serious buying opportunities in the future, and I would avoid D-Wave right now.
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Johnny Rice has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Nvidia. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.