Why D-Wave Quantum Stock Skyrocketed 74.3% in the First Half of 2025 -- and What Comes Next

Key Points

• D-Wave Quantum stock saw some big swings across the stretch, but it managed to post huge gains in this year's first half.

• The launch of the company's Advantage2 quantum computing system helped power a massive rally for the stock.

• D-Wave stock has continued to rally early in 2025's second half and is now up approximately 1,230% over the last year.

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

D-Wave Quantum (NYSE: QBTS) stock closed out 2025's first half with big gains. The quantum computing specialist's share price surged 74.3% across the stretch, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence. Over the same period, the S&P 500 index rose 5.5%.

Despite some huge volatility in this year's first half, D-Wave Quantum's valuation rocketed higher thanks to some big announcements and increasing optimism surrounding the outlook for quantum computing technologies. The stock has also continued to climb early in the second half of 2025, and it's now up roughly 1,230% over the last year.

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D-Wave Quantum's impressive rally continued in 2025's first half

After soaring 854% across last year's trading, D-Wave Quantum stock saw some volatility early in 2025's trading. The stock saw a big pullback after Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said that expectations for very useful quantum computers arriving within the next 15 years were probably optimistic, but its share price saw a big rally in March after Huang indicated that he was wrong about his previous timeline for the trajectory of the technology.

On May 20, D-Wave published a press release announcing that its 4,400+ qubit Advantage2 annealing quantum computer had been made available for commercial customers. The Advantage2 is capable of handling processing problems that are virtually impossible with traditional computers, and news the company had begun selling the systems helped spur a huge rally for the stock.

What's next for D-Wave Quantum?

With gains of 15.5% across July's trading so far, D-Wave Quantum stock has continued to be red hot early in this year's second half. Strong gains and new stock sales have pushed the company's market capitalization up to $5.3 billion, and the company is now valued at approximately 217 times this year's expected sales.

D-Wave Quantum has a promising early position in the quantum computing space and could be able to tap into massive growth opportunities ahead. On the other hand, charting how the quantum-computing industry will unfold involves a tremendous amount of guesswork. While it's possible that D-Wave Quantum and other specialized players in the category will emerge as big winners over the long term, there's also significant competitive risk from larger, more resource-rich tech giants including Alphabet, IBM, and Microsoft.

In the near term, D-Wave stock is likely to see high levels of volatility -- although there could be strong bullish support for its stock if it turns out that the Federal Reserve will issue multiple interest rate cuts this year. On a business-specific level, the company's next quarterly report is shaping up to be a very interesting one and could spur big moves for the stock. The report should provide investors with a look at the level of demand that D-Wave is seeing for its Advantage2 systems and offer some insight on what's next in the company's tech pipeline.

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Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors. Keith Noonan has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, International Business Machines, 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.