D-Wave Quantum: 3 Key Takeaways for Long-Term Investors
On its third-quarter 2026 earnings call, held on Nov. 10, 2026, D-Wave Quantum (QBTS -8.63%) announced that nine-month bookings jumped 611% year over year to $37.4 million. Commercial contract momentum gives the business predictable multiyear revenue as hardware deployments scale across corporate clients. Three things management said on the call stand out.
1. Contract Backlog Expanded Multi-Fold Year Over Year
Contract commitments surged as enterprise customers expanded system purchases and cloud services. D-Wave Quantum saw its remaining performance obligations (RPO) — contracted revenue that hasn’t yet been recognized on the income statement — expand significantly due to major enterprise agreements.
As of September 30, 2026, the aggregate amount of remaining performance obligations, or RPO, totaled $38.3 million, more than 13x the September 30, 2025 RPO balance.
— Greg Golkov, acting Chief Financial Officer
2. Government Support Secured Through U.S. CHIPS Act Funding
Non-dilutive federal funding helps de-risk long-term technology road maps without diluting equity holders. D-Wave Quantum finalized a major government agreement under the CHIPS and Science Act, a federal program designed to strengthen domestic technology manufacturing and research.
We executed a definitive agreement with the U.S. Department of Commerce following our previously announced letter of intent, providing access to up to $100 million of U.S. CHIPS and Science Act funding. The funding is intended to support development of our next-generation annealing and gate model quantum computers.
— Alan Baratz, Chief Executive Officer
3. Dual Hardware Strategy Targets Immediate and Long-Term Use Cases
Commercial viability relies on serving immediate optimization needs while building next-generation architecture. D-Wave Quantum develops both annealing quantum computers, which solve optimization problems, and gate model systems, which strive to achieve fault-tolerant calculations over time, meaning the computers can operate correctly despite the presence of computational errors.
As a reminder, D-Wave is the only dual platform quantum computing company, and that gives us a distinctive position in this market.
— Alan Baratz, Chief Executive Officer
Looking Ahead
Revenue grew 21% year over year to $4.5 million in the third quarter of 2026, and management isn’t hiding its enthusiasm about commercial progress. D-Wave Quantum holds structural advantages through established commercial customer relationships and a dual-platform product strategy, while management focuses on system sales execution and partner-led deployments.
So in summary, we are focused on expanding customer adoption, converting our pipeline into bookings and revenue, and delivering on our product road map. Our commercial results and technical progress reinforce our confidence in the opportunity ahead.
— Alan Baratz, Chief Executive Officer
As customer applications transition from pilots to full production, expanding partnership channels and scaling hardware fabrication remain essential priorities for long-term value creation.
We’re advancing a clear strategy: expand the commercial use of our annealing technology and execute on our path to fault-tolerant gate model quantum computing.
— Alan Baratz, Chief Executive Officer
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