D-Wave Quantum's Order Book Swells While Revenue Stands Still

D-Wave shares sit at EUR 14.02, down 38% this year, as a 1,120% bookings jump and a CFO exit overshadow flat Q2 revenue of USD 3.08 million.

D-Wave Quantum has spent the past several weeks assembling an impressive-looking roster of research partners, government backers and pilot programs. What it has not done is convert that activity into meaningful sales — and investors are treating the gap accordingly.

The stock closed Tuesday at EUR 14.02, down 38% since the start of the year and a long way from its 52-week high of EUR 40.41. A separate reading put the shares at EUR 14.01, a rounding difference that does nothing to change the picture: the equity has surrendered roughly two-thirds of its peak value.

A pipeline that keeps growing

The company's deal flow has been relentless. On Tuesday alone it announced two university initiatives. D-Wave will conduct quantum-powered logistics and supply-chain research at the University of Arkansas's Supply Chain Management Research Center, and Florida Atlantic University secured a USD 200,000 grant from the National Institute of Standards and Technology to build a regional cybersecurity ecosystem — one that includes plans to deploy an Advantage2 system with more than 4,400 qubits.

Those announcements follow a September 8 agreement with the U.S. Department of Commerce worth up to USD 100 million in CHIPS Act funding. Roughly two weeks ago, D-Wave also struck a partnership with CGI to fold the Advantage2 system and hybrid solvers into service offerings. And an August beta program for a gate-model quantum simulator, run through the company's Leap cloud platform, has drawn participants including the Jülich Supercomputing Centre and Spanish lender BBVA.

Bookings soar, revenue does not

The commercial scoreboard tells a more complicated story. Second-quarter 2026 revenue came in at just USD 3.08 million, essentially flat against USD 3.1 million a year earlier. Bookings, by contrast, rocketed 1,120% in the first half to USD 35.5 million.

That divergence is the crux of the bear case. A fat order book is only worth what it eventually invoices, and so far the backlog has not translated into dependable top-line growth. Many of the partnerships remain in testing or pilot phases; until they generate broad commercial demand, they function more as statements of intent than as revenue drivers.

Governance questions pile up

Adding to the unease, Chief Financial Officer John Markovich announced his resignation in late August, effective in early September — a departure at a delicate moment that has visibly rattled investor confidence.

Legal scrutiny followed. Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check LLP has opened an investigation into possible securities-law violations, while Pomerantz LLP is reviewing claims on behalf of shareholders. Both probes center on the gap between expectations and the weak second-quarter figures, as well as the stock's rich valuation. When management turnover in the finance function coincides with regulatory questions, investors tend to pull back and wait for clarity.

Valuation leaves little room for error

Even after the selloff, the shares are not cheap. D-Wave trades at a 12-month forward price-to-sales ratio above 81, against an industry average of roughly 4.4 — a multiple that assumes the bookings surge eventually becomes real revenue.

That is the bet the market is being asked to make. On one side sit federal grants, blue-chip research alliances and genuine technological promise. On the other sit stagnant sales, an abrupt CFO exit and unresolved legal exposure. Management's task is twofold: prove the order book can be converted into predictable income, and restore transparency before governance concerns erode confidence further. Until both boxes are ticked, the operational risks look heavier than the quantum future they are meant to fund.