D-Wave Quantum QBTS, or D-Wave, continues to see growing interest in its Advantage2 annealing quantum computer system. During the May 2026 earnings call, management raised its annual outlook for system sales, now expecting to close 2 or 3 system deals per year, with at least 2 system deliveries anticipated this year.
The stronger outlook comes on the back of record first-quarter bookings of $33.4 million, up 1,994% from the year-ago quarter and 149% from the fourth quarter of 2025. More than two dozen commercial customers accounted for more than 31% of quarterly bookings, while educational and research organizations made up the rest.
The largest transaction was the $20 million annealing quantum computer system sale to Florida Atlantic University in January, which D-Wave views as an important collaboration to further quantum computing experimentation and innovation. During the first quarter of 2026, the dollar value of the company’s sales opportunity pipeline more than doubled from the end of the fourth quarter of 2025, while the average potential deal size also more than doubled over the same period.
Management noted that system sales typically involve multiple stages, such as site preparation, delivery, installation and calibration, before customers begin using the systems. While a significant portion of revenues is recognized when a system is delivered, additional revenues are recognized over time as installation and calibration activities progress.
D-Wave also expects most system transactions to include multiyear revenue components, such as service and maintenance contracts, as well as access to its cloud service. These recurring streams expected to complement revenue generated from the initial system sales.
QBTS’ Peer Updates
Astera Labs ALAB has announced a significant expansion of its Taiwan operations and Cloud-Scale Interop Lab. This deepens ALAB’s engineering and operational footprint, and strategic coordination with customers and ecosystem partners in one of the world’s most important semiconductor ecosystems. In collaboration with several AI platform providers, Astera Labs will strengthen the validation and system integration work required to bring purpose-built AI infrastructure to market faster.
Arista Networks ANET has announced a new portfolio of 1.6T networking platforms designed specifically as the foundation for rack-scale AI infrastructure. The 7060XE7 Series represents Arista’s transition from providing high-performance switches to delivering comprehensive rack-scale systems. By addressing the extreme density, power and thermal efficiency requirements of the AI era, these platforms of ANET enable customers to build scale-up and scale-out AI fabrics optimized for air, liquid and hybrid-cooled environments, maximizing compute density per kilowatt of power.
QBTS’ Price Performance, Valuation & Earnings
Year to date, QBTS shares have declined 30.1% compared with the industry’s 4.5% fall.
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D-Wave is trading at a forward, five-year Price/Sales (P/S) of 103.29X, significantly higher than its 16.25X median and the industry average of 4.06X.
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The Zacks Consensus Estimate for D-Wave’s 2026 and 2027 loss per share has remained constant in the past 60 days.
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D-Wave currently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
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