D-Wave Quantum Q2 2026 earnings: revenue and EPS miss, but bookings surge
D-Wave's Q2 2026 revenue and EPS both missed estimates, but bookings and backlog surged, pointing to stronger future demand even as losses widened.
| Q2 2026 | Reported | Expected | Surprise |
|---|---|---|---|
| EPS | -$0.10 | -$0.09 | -16.0% |
| Revenue | $3.1M | $4.1M | -25.1% |
Key takeaways
- Revenue came in well below what analysts had penciled in, and per-share losses were also wider than expected. Quarterly revenue was essentially flat compared to a year earlier, reflecting the lumpy, deal-by-deal nature of D-Wave’s business — big system sales can swing revenue sharply from quarter to quarter.
- Bookings — new orders and contracts signed, a forward-looking demand signal separate from revenue already recognized — jumped 59% from a year ago in the quarter, and were up more than eleven-fold for the first half of 2026, helped by a $20 million quantum-computing system sale that will show up as revenue in later quarters.
- The company’s backlog of signed-but-not-yet-delivered work (remaining performance obligations) grew sharply year over year, and the share of revenue coming from commercial (non-government/research) customers rose to roughly two-thirds of first-half sales, up from about 16% a year earlier — a sign D-Wave is selling more to paying business customers rather than relying on grants or pilot programs.
- The very negative operating and net margins in the fundamentals table reflect D-Wave’s stage as a small, R&D-heavy company: it earns healthy gross profit on what it sells, but spends far more than it takes in on product development, sales and overhead, producing large percentage losses relative to its still-small revenue base.
- D-Wave ended the quarter with about $546 million in cash and investments, down roughly a third from a year earlier; the company said most of that decline came from cash paid for its January 2026 acquisition of Quantum Circuits rather than from ongoing operating losses.
- Adjusted EBITDA loss (a measure of operating losses before certain non-cash and one-time items) widened by about 85% year over year, as the company increased spending on product development and go-to-market efforts.
- CEO Alan Baratz said the quarter “reinforced the strength and breadth of D-Wave’s leadership,” pointing to stronger bookings, engagements with large global organizations, and progress on the company’s roadmap covering both of its quantum computing technology platforms.
Q2 2026 in context
| Metric | Jun 2026 | Jun 2025 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $3M | $3M | -0.6% |
| Net income | -$48M | -$167M | +71.3% |
| Free cash flow | -$33M | -$16M | -105.4% |
| Diluted EPS | -$0.13 | -$0.55 | +76.4% |
| Gross margin | 55.4% | 63.8% | -8.4 pts |
| Operating margin | -1732.1% | -856.3% | -875.8 pts |
| Net margin | -1561.4% | -5406.4% | +3845.1 pts |
Figures for the quarter ended Jun 2026 and the quarter ended Jun 2025, as reported to the SEC.
How the stock took it
D-Wave Quantum Inc closed at $21.39 on Aug 5, 2026, the last session before the report, and at $20.76 on Aug 7, 2026, the first session after it — -3.0% across the report.
| Earlier report | Close before | Close after | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| May 12, 2026 | $24.03 | $21.44 | -10.8% |
| Nov 6, 2025 | $31.02 | $29.50 | -4.9% |
Closes from the market's daily record. Each figure spans the report date — from the last session that closed before it to the first that closed after — because a company may report before the open or after the close.
Fundamentals
| Metric | Value | Period |
|---|---|---|
| Gross margin | 66.3% | Trailing 12 months |
| Operating margin | -1155.6% | Trailing 12 months |
| Net profit margin | -2957.2% | Trailing 12 months |
| Pretax margin | -3185.9% | Trailing 12 months |
| EPS | -$1.13 | Trailing 12 months |
| Revenue growth (YoY) | -41.8% | Trailing 12 months |
| Return on equity | -44.0% | Trailing 12 months |
Sources: company report · The Quantum Insider · Ticker Brief analysis · TradingKey