D-Wave Quantum: A Federal Stake, a Legal Probe, and the Gap Between Orders and Revenue

D-Wave finalized a CHIPS Act deal giving the US a minority stake, as Kessler Topaz probes possible securities violations and revenue lags its order book.

A minority equity stake held by the US government, a law firm probing possible securities violations, and a revenue line that has yet to reflect a nine-figure order book — that is the unusual triad now shaping the investment case for D-Wave Quantum.

The Burnaby-based quantum computing group finalized a funding agreement with the US Department of Commerce last Thursday, unlocking up to $100 million from the CHIPS and Science Act. Washington's consideration is not a grant alone: the government receives a non-controlling minority stake, paid for with 7.1 million QBTS shares issued to the United States. The capital is earmarked for research and commercialization of D-Wave's annealing and gate-model systems — specifically an annealing machine targeting 100,000 qubits and a gate-model system designed to reach 10,000 qubits, 100 logical qubits and more than one million operations.

The structure mirrors deals the department struck with Rigetti Computing and Quantinuum, each also worth up to $100 million, bringing the combined CHIPS Act commitment to the three companies to $300 million. What sets the arrangement apart is the principle: Washington is not merely underwriting the technology, it is taking an ownership position in it.

Revenue Still Trails the Order Book

The commercial picture beneath that headline remains thin. Second-quarter 2026 revenue came in at just $3.1 million, with commercial customers accounting for 62.4 percent of the total. Bookings tell a different story — orders climbed 1,120 percent in the first half of the year, and remaining performance obligations jumped 668 percent to $40.7 million. That included a single system sale worth more than $20 million.

For a company at this stage of commercialization, a wide gap between signed orders and recognized revenue is not unusual. It is also precisely the ambiguity that invites competing readings of the business — and, in this case, legal scrutiny.

Kessler Topaz Opens an Investigation

Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check has launched a probe into possible breaches of US securities law at D-Wave, citing potential misrepresentations tied to the company's business trajectory. The firm's announcement points to two events — the second-quarter results and the departure of finance chief John Markovich — without asserting a direct causal link between them.

Markovich announced his resignation in late August, effective September 2. Greg Golkov, previously Senior Vice President Finance, stepped in on an interim basis as Acting CFO and principal financial and accounting officer. The handover lands awkwardly, arriving just as the federal government becomes a shareholder — a coincidence that raises questions extending well beyond a routine personnel change.

A Stock That Has Stopped Responding to Good News

The market's reaction has been muted in both directions. Since the quarterly figures roughly a month ago, the shares have shed about 8.1 percent. The CFO transition, by contrast, barely registered — the stock has actually added 1.8 percent since then. And despite the CHIPS Act announcement, the price has moved just 0.9 percent higher.

D-Wave closed Friday at EUR 14.49, sitting 11 percent below its 50-day average of EUR 16.21. Year to date the stock is down 36 percent, and it now trades 64 percent beneath its 52-week high of EUR 40.41, set last October. The message from the tape is that the legal investigation and the hangover from weak quarterly revenue are weighing on sentiment more heavily than federal backing.

Analyst sentiment has shifted too. Zacks Research downgraded the shares from Strong Buy to Hold on August 21 — a signal that was largely drowned out by the funding news but marks a break in what had been an unbroken bullish line.

What emerges is a pattern rarely seen with such clarity among listed quantum computing firms: the state as both financier and part-owner, technical roadmaps aiming at five- and six-figure qubit counts, and a CFO transition in the middle of it all. Whether Golkov is a permanent appointment or a bridge remains unresolved. What is clear is that D-Wave has become a test case for how far industrial policy and private capital markets can converge in quantum computing before the commercial substance catches up. For investors, the decisive question is not where the stock closed on any given day, but whether government-funded roadmaps eventually convert into paying customers.