D-Wave Quantum: Two Analysts Trim Their Targets While a Three-Course Curriculum Aims to Widen the Tent

Two price-target cuts in as many days have put a sharper point on the question hanging over D-Wave Quantum: how much commercial substance actually sits beneath the technical headlines? Wedbush lowered its target on the stock yesterday to $30 from $37 while keeping its Outperform rating, according to media reports. The move came a day after B. Riley Securities took a similar step, with analyst Craig Ellis cutting his target to $27 from $40 and maintaining a Buy recommendation.

Neither house abandoned its positive stance. What changed was the price each is now willing to pay for the story — a distinction that matters more than the label on the rating. A bullish call paired with a lower target is neither a full retreat nor an unqualified endorsement, and it leaves open the question of which operating developments drove the revision. No shared rationale has been disclosed.

Tools, Training and the Gap Between Them

The company's latest announcement landed squarely on the user side of the equation. D-Wave unveiled a learning path called "Applied Quantum Optimization," built around three courses on applied quantum optimization, aimed at accelerating adoption of the technology and complementing its own software development. It is an effort to lower the entry barrier for developers rather than to push the hardware further.

That distinction carries weight for investors. Better tooling and actual usage are separate steps, and broader uptake would not automatically translate into added revenue. Today's news concerns a training offering, not a customer order, so no immediate financial contribution can be inferred from it.

The technical backdrop is the previously announced upgrade to D-Wave's hybrid optimizer, Stride. In the company's own comparative tests, the revised version found better solutions within 15 seconds than its predecessor managed in 120 seconds. That is a concrete performance claim — and a comparison against earlier software, not proof of an economic advantage in every customer deployment.

A similar gap separates collaboration from committed business. The letter of intent signed with LG CNS roughly a week ago, covering work on enterprise optimization use cases and joint marketing opportunities, is explicitly non-binding. It signals planned cooperation, not a secured order.

November 10 as the Reckoning

D-Wave plans to report third-quarter 2026 results before the market opens on November 10, with a webcast to follow. That date is the next real opportunity to weigh the business against the technical announcements — and the lowered targets give it added weight.

The thread running through all of it is simple: technical merit, prospective customer interest and financial return are linked but not interchangeable. The new curriculum belongs in the middle category. It usefully extends the software story without, on its own, demonstrating a commercial breakthrough. Until the numbers arrive, the case for assigning economic significance to D-Wave's progress rests on the figures rather than the press releases.