Is D-Wave Quantum a Buy?
Key Points
D-Wave's annealing systems are already running production workloads at companies like AT&T -- a commercial milestone no other quantum computing company has reached.
Free cash flow was -$119 million over the last four quarters, and the share count has doubled in two years as D-Wave funds operations through shareholder dilution.
D-Wave is probably the most reasonable pure-play quantum computing stock today, but the lofty valuation leaves little room for anything to go wrong.
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D-Wave Quantum (NASDAQ: QBTS) is a genuine rarity. It's a pure-play quantum computing company with actual paying customers, and its systems are already running production workloads.
Real customers, real results
AT&T cut a complex network optimization task from roughly an hour to under 15 seconds using D-Wave's annealing technology. That's not a demo. That's a useful business tool.
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Management discussed the AT&T project among several other deals on the recent Q2 2026 earnings call. Remaining performance obligations (RPO) hit $40.7 million at the end of June, up 668% year over year. More than half of this backlog should convert into revenue over the next year.
The business is also broadening. D-Wave's January acquisition of Quantum Circuits added a gate-model program to its established annealing platform. A peer-reviewed Nature paper published this summer validated key architectural claims about the resulting dual-rail approach. Management is targeting 100 logical qubits and over 1 million reliable gate operations by 2032 -- thresholds often seen as the minimum for large-scale commercial operations.
Image source: The Motley Fool.
Growing pains
But this year brought some turbulence alongside the progress. CFO John Markovich announced his retirement this week, effective Sept. 2. His interim replacement is a capable finance veteran, but leadership continuity matters. D-Wave's stock fell 9.5% on the day of that announcement.
The company is burning cash fast and spending heavily to build out a brand-new gate-model business. Is that the right time to install new financial leadership?
Early production deployments are not the same thing as a profitable business. Free cash flow was -$119 million over the last four quarters, up from -$76 million in fiscal year 2025 and -$45 million in 2024. The lights are staying on (and D-Wave was able to spend $250 million of cash plus $300 million in stock on the Quantum Circuits buyout) because the company isn't shy about asking shareholders for more money. The share count has doubled in two years, diluting the value of existing shares.
The safer quantum trade
Investors who want quantum exposure without massive financial and execution risks should look at tech giants like IBM (NYSE: IBM) or Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG) (NASDAQ: GOOGL) instead. These titans can afford to outspend specialists like D-Wave for years. Neither is engaged in annealing technology yet, but that could change in a heartbeat.
If pure-play quantum is nonnegotiable for a portfolio, D-Wave is probably the most defensible choice in that category -- it has real customers and a dual-platform strategy its peers lack. Just size it accordingly, because the valuation assumes everything goes right, and the CFO transition is a reminder that things don't always go right. Personally, I'm not comfortable with the 500x price-to-sales ratio.
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Anders Bylund has positions in Alphabet and International Business Machines. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet and International Business Machines. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
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