How Could Federal Backing Advance D-Wave's Quantum Efforts?

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How Could Federal Backing Advance D-Wave's Quantum Efforts?

D-Wave Quantum QBTS, or D-Wave, received a major boost last month that could advance its superconducting annealing and gate-model technology development. The company signed a Letter of Intent (“LOI”) for $100 million in proposed funding under the U.S. CHIPS and Science Act. The LOI signals federal interest in D-Wave’s annealing and gate-model quantum computing technologies and their potential economic impact. If the award is finalized, the company would issue $100 million in shares of its common stock to the U.S. Department of Commerce.

The funding is set to support D-Wave’s work at its forthcoming research and development (R&D) facility in Boca Raton, FL, as well as its R&D centers in New Haven, Connecticut and Burnaby, BC, Canada. Specifically, it aims to help speed up the delivery of advanced superconducting quantum computers, including a 100,000-qubit annealing system and a 10,000-qubit gate-model system.

While D-Wave’s annealing quantum computers are already commercial, its gate-model system is expected to reach commercial viability with 10,000 physical qubits, enabling 100 logical qubits.

With the larger-scale and higher coherence annealing quantum computing systems, the company expects stronger performance gains for solving computational problems in optimization, materials simulation, blockchain and artificial intelligence applications. The larger-scale dual-rail gate-model quantum computer will allow dozens of logical qubits, providing a robust application development platform for a broad range of quantum chemistry and quantum artificial intelligence use cases.

Taken together, these efforts are aimed at building a more resilient, end-to-end quantum computing ecosystem, in line with the CHIPS and Science Act objectives to build domestic capacity in critical technologies and establish a robust and reliable pipeline for the components required to bring state-of-the-art quantum computing systems into the market.

Latest Development From QBTS’ Peers

IBM IBM has announced an expanded collaboration with ServiceNow to address two of the biggest barriers blocking enterprise AI at scale: the AI-ready data problem and the legacy application layer. The partnership aims to combine IBM’s AI, data and automation capabilities with the ServiceNow AI Platform to help enterprises break through outdated systems and put their data to work for AI.

IonQ IONQ announced Clavis XG Multiplex, a new addition to its Clavis XG Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) portfolio to make quantum security more practical and deployable across metropolitan fiber networks. The system enables high-performance, physics-based key distribution on a customer’s existing network infrastructure without requiring operators to redesign, isolate or dedicate optical networks for quantum security. IONQ also opened a new laboratory suite in Boulder, CO, which will house Quantum Computing R&D and semiconductor chip testing facilities.

QBTS’ Price Performance, Valuation & Estimates

Year to date, QBTS shares have plunged 11.5%, underperforming the industry’s 11.6% fall.

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D-Wave is trading at a forward, two-year, price/sales (P/S) of 132.67X, higher than its median and industry average.

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Here’s how estimates for D-Wave’s 2026 and 2027 loss per share are shaping up.

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Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

D-Wave currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Radical New Technology Could Hand Investors Huge Gains

Quantum Computing is the next technological revolution, and it could be even more advanced than AI.

While some believed the technology was years away, it is already present and moving fast. Large hyperscalers, such as Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Oracle, and even Meta and Tesla, are scrambling to integrate quantum computing into their infrastructure.

Senior Stock Strategist Kevin Cook reveals 7 carefully selected stocks poised to dominate the quantum computing landscape in his report, Beyond AI: The Quantum Leap in Computing Power .

Kevin was among the early experts who recognized NVIDIA's enormous potential back in 2016. Now, he has keyed in on what could be "the next big thing" in quantum computing supremacy. Today, you have a rare chance to position your portfolio at the forefront of this opportunity.

See Top Quantum Stocks Now >>

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International Business Machines Corporation (IBM): Free Stock Analysis Report
 
IonQ, Inc. (IONQ): Free Stock Analysis Report
 
D-Wave Quantum Inc. (QBTS): Free Stock Analysis Report

This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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