D-Wave Quantum Faces Dual Pressure: Legal Scrutiny and a Leadership Vacuum at the Finance Helm

D-Wave Quantum faces a securities class-action investigation after weak Q2 revenue and CFO exit. Interim CFO appointed as stock drops.

The timing could hardly be more awkward. Just as D-Wave Quantum installs an interim chief financial officer following the planned departure of John Markovich, the company now finds itself in the crosshairs of a securities class-action investigation. Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check has opened an inquiry into potential federal securities law violations at the quantum computing firm, adding a fresh layer of legal uncertainty to what was already a turbulent stretch for the QBTS ticker.

Markovich, who helped steer the company through its 2022 public listing, formally stepped down on September 2, with Greg Golkov — previously senior vice president of finance — assuming the role on an interim basis. The company has been at pains to stress that the exit was amicable and unrelated to any disagreements over accounting practices, financial disclosures, or operational strategy. CEO Alan Baratz publicly thanked his departing finance chief for his contributions.

A Sequence of Events That Caught Attention

The investigation did not materialize in a vacuum. Its roots trace back to August 6, when D-Wave reported second-quarter revenue of just $3.08 million — a figure that came in well below the consensus range of $4.03 million to $4.08 million that analysts had penciled in. The stock shed more than 9 percent in response.

Less than three weeks later came the CFO resignation announcement. For firms that specialize in shareholder litigation, that particular sequence — a missed earnings target followed swiftly by a finance chief's exit — tends to trigger a closer look. The pattern is now the subject of formal examination.

The financial picture that emerges from the company's own disclosures does little to quiet the concerns. First-half revenue came in at $5.93 million, a steep drop from the $18.10 million posted in the comparable period a year earlier. Operating cash burn reached $73.5 million. Meanwhile, the quarterly operating loss widened from $26.5 million to $54.7 million year over year, even as quarterly sales remained roughly flat.

The Backlog Story Tells a Different Tale

Yet the operational narrative is not uniformly bleak. D-Wave's bookings for the first half of the year surged more than 1,120 percent to $35.5 million, and the company attributes its weak near-term revenue to a deliberate strategic shift toward larger system deliveries that take longer to recognize. Management remains committed to its guidance of two system shipments this year, with the expectation that the fourth quarter will deliver the bulk of annual revenue.

There are also signs that commercialization is gaining genuine traction. Commercial customers accounted for 67.7 percent of first-half revenue, a dramatic jump from just 16.0 percent in the same period last year. The recent milestone announced with NTT DOCOMO — roughly a week before the CFO transition — underscores that the technology is finding paying industrial users beyond the research community.

That mixed picture has left the market decidedly unimpressed. The shares currently trade around €14.35, having lost roughly a quarter of their value over the past 30 days alone. The stock sits about 64 percent below its 52-week high of €40.41 reached in October 2025 and trades roughly 23 percent beneath its 200-day moving average — technical signals that suggest the medium-term trend has broken rather than merely wobbled.

Governance Shifts Amid Sector-Wide Scrutiny

The finance leadership change is not the only recent adjustment in the boardroom. Just over three weeks before Markovich's departure was announced, D-Wave added Kevan P. Krysler — the sitting CFO of Carbon Robotics — to its board of directors and audit committee, bringing outside financial expertise into the governance structure.

D-Wave is hardly alone in facing this kind of investor inquiry. Similar investigation notices have surfaced around other high-flying growth names, including AST SpaceMobile and Rackspace Technology, reflecting a broader moment of reckoning for stocks that rode last year's momentum waves.

For shareholders who bought into D-Wave on the strength of the quantum computing sector's broader tailwinds — the billions in US government research funding, IBM's latest processor unveilings, and fresh capital flowing to smaller players like Quantum Motion — the current situation offers an uncomfortable lesson. A booming industry narrative does not shield an individual company from its own operational realities.

The central question now is whether Golkov can steady the ship without Markovich's institutional memory, at least until a permanent CFO is found. With a formal investigation pending and the market already punishing the stock, the burden of proof has shifted squarely onto the company's near-term execution.