Is D-Wave Quantum a Buy?

Is D-Wave Quantum a Buy?

Anders Bylund, The Motley Fool

Sat, August 29, 2026 at 8:33 PM GMT+3 4 min read

D-Wave Quantum (NASDAQ: QBTS) is a genuine rarity. It's a pure-play quantum computing company with actual paying customers, and its systems are already running production workloads.

Real customers, real results

AT&T cut a complex network optimization task from roughly an hour to under 15 seconds using D-Wave's annealing technology. That's not a demo. That's a useful business tool.

Missed Nvidia in 2009? This Rare Signal Is Flashing Again. In 2009, a "Double Down" signal flashed for a little-known chipmaker called Nvidia. For the first time in years, that same "Total Conviction" signal is flashing for a company 1/100th the size of Nvidia. Continue »

Management discussed the AT&T project among several other deals on the recent Q2 2026 earnings call. Remaining performance obligations (RPO) hit $40.7 million at the end of June, up 668% year over year. More than half of this backlog should convert into revenue over the next year.

The business is also broadening. D-Wave's January acquisition of Quantum Circuits added a gate-model program to its established annealing platform. A peer-reviewed Nature paper published this summer validated key architectural claims about the resulting dual-rail approach. Management is targeting 100 logical qubits and over 1 million reliable gate operations by 2032 -- thresholds often seen as the minimum for large-scale commercial operations.

Growing pains

But this year brought some turbulence alongside the progress. CFO John Markovich announced his retirement this week, effective Sept. 2. His interim replacement is a capable finance veteran, but leadership continuity matters. D-Wave's stock fell 9.5% on the day of that announcement.

The company is burning cash fast and spending heavily to build out a brand-new gate-model business. Is that the right time to install new financial leadership?

Early production deployments are not the same thing as a profitable business. Free cash flow was -$119 million over the last four quarters, up from -$76 million in fiscal year 2025 and -$45 million in 2024. The lights are staying on (and D-Wave was able to spend $250 million of cash plus $300 million in stock on the Quantum Circuits buyout) because the company isn't shy about asking shareholders for more money. The share count has doubled in two years, diluting the value of existing shares.

The safer quantum trade

Investors who want quantum exposure without massive financial and execution risks should look at tech giants like IBM (NYSE: IBM) or Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG) (NASDAQ: GOOGL) instead. These titans can afford to outspend specialists like D-Wave for years. Neither is engaged in annealing technology yet, but that could change in a heartbeat.

If pure-play quantum is nonnegotiable for a portfolio, D-Wave is probably the most defensible choice in that category -- it has real customers and a dual-platform strategy its peers lack. Just size it accordingly, because the valuation assumes everything goes right, and the CFO transition is a reminder that things don't always go right. Personally, I'm not comfortable with the 500x price-to-sales ratio.

Should you buy stock in D-Wave Quantum right now?

Before you buy stock in D-Wave Quantum, consider this:

The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and D-Wave Quantum wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut are built for long-term growth and could produce monster returns in the coming years.

Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $440,710!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $1,335,252!*

That performance is why people listen. With a track record of beating the S&P 500 by nearly 5x, Stock Advisor offers a distinct advantage. Don't miss the latest top 10 list, available with Stock Advisor, and join an investing community built for the long haul.

See the 10 stocks »

*Stock Advisor returns as of August 29, 2026.

Anders Bylund has positions in Alphabet and International Business Machines. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet and International Business Machines. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Is D-Wave Quantum a Buy? was originally published by The Motley Fool