Is D-Wave Quantum a Buy?

Key Points

• The promise of quantum computing has stoked intense investor interest.

• Shares of D-Wave Quantum are up more than 1,700% over the past year.

• Yet, the small company is only bringing in a few million dollars a quarter.

• 10 stocks we like better than D-Wave Quantum ›

Much like its quantum computing peers, D-Wave Quantum (NYSE: QBTS) has been one of the biggest winners on the stock market over the past year. During that time, the stock has skyrocketed 1,711% as of Aug. 15, riding a wave of enthusiasm for the emerging technology even as D-Wave Quantum is still a development-stage company with little revenue.

Among the events that have sparked interest in the stock are President Donald Trump's election, which set off a surge across a broad range of speculative stocks; and Alphabet's announcement last December that its Willow quantum chip had achieved a new milestone in quantum computing, doing calculations that would have taken an ordinary supercomputer 10 septillion years to do.

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Now, in 2025, a number of high-profile tech CEOs, including Nvidia's Jensen Huang and Microsoft's Satya Nadella, have jumped onto the bandwagon, touting their own achievements or making forecasts for quantum computing's disruption potential. Huang, one of the most respected leaders in AI, said early in the year that "very useful" quantum computing was still 15 years ago. However, he reversed himself later in the year, saying the technology is reaching an inflection point.

D-Wave Quantum is one of four quantum computing stocks that have attracted attention on the stock market. Let's look at what makes the company unique and whether it's a buy.

Image source: Getty Images.

What is D-Wave Quantum?

D-Wave Quantum differentiates itself from other quantum computing stocks because of its focus on quantum annealing. In fact, the company says it is the world's first company to deliver commercial-grade annealing quantum computing solutions. Annealing systems are optimal for optimization problems.

The company has attracted a wide range of customers, including Mastercard, accounting firm Deloitte, and steelmaker ArcelorMittal, and it's demonstrated key advances in its technology, including showing off quantum supremacy on a useful real-world problem in March 2025.

D-Wave Quantum is still a small company. In its second quarter, it reported 42% growth into $3.1 million, but the underlying improvement in its technology may be more important to watch here. Bookings in the quarter grew 93% to $1.3 million, and the company said it had more than 100 revenue-generating customers over the last four quarters.

In the quarter, it released its sixth-generation quantum computer, the Advantage2 system, which can solve computationally complex problems that classical computers cannot.

On the bottom line, the company continues to lose money with an adjusted net loss of $25.3 million in the quarter, but it's well-capitalized with $819 million in cash on its balance sheet after raising $400 million in the second quarter. Through the first half of the year, it reported a free cash flow loss of $36 million.

Should you buy D-Wave Quantum stock?

After jumping more than 1,700% in the last year with still minimal revenue, D-Wave Quantum shares are expensive. The company now has a market capitalization of $5.8 billion, giving the stock a price-to-sales ratio of roughly 200.

At this point, buying D-Wave Quantum seems like a speculative bet on quantum computing because the company, which has been around for more than 25 years, has little to show financially, despite its technical advances. It's unclear when that technology is going to translate into significant revenue growth, but the company said in the recent earnings report that it expected expenses to go up and to make more acquisitions this year.

At this point, D-Wave Quantum and its quantum computing peers also appear to be benefiting from the bullish sentiment in the market, with stocks at all-time highs.

Given the inflated valuation for development-stage stocks like D-Wave Quantum and the lack of clarity about its growth, investors may be better off waiting for a better entry point in the stock or for greater visibility into the future of the business. While quantum computing is promising, it will likely be years before it translates to meaningful revenue for companies like D-Wave Quantum.

Should you invest $1,000 in D-Wave Quantum right now?

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Jeremy Bowman has positions in Nvidia. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Mastercard, Microsoft, and Nvidia. The Motley Fool recommends the following options: long January 2026 $395 calls on Microsoft and short January 2026 $405 calls on Microsoft. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.