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D-Wave Quantum Inc.: Q1 FY2026 earnings call

What management said about Q1 FY2026, from the documents filed with the SEC on 12 May 2026: press release. Guidance figures: 3 new, 1 kept. The quarter’s numbers.

Key takeaways

  • Revenue fell on prior-year system sale: Revenue was $2.9 million, down 81%. The prior-year first quarter included $12.6 million from the company's first annealing system sale. Source
  • Bookings rose to $33.4 million: Bookings were $33.4 million, up 1,994% year over year and up 149% from the fourth quarter of 2025 ($13.4 million). The release headline calls this record quarterly bookings. Source
  • FAU and QCaaS deals drove bookings: Bookings included a $20 million system purchase by Florida Atlantic University and a $10 million, two-year QCaaS agreement with a Fortune 100 company. System revenue will be recognized in later quarters. Source
  • Remaining performance obligations reached $42.4 million: RPO was $42.4 million, up 563% from a year earlier and 216% from year-end 2025. About 54% is expected to be recognized in the next 12 months and 71% within two years. Source
  • Operating expenses rose 125%: GAAP operating expenses were $56.5 million, up $31.3 million. The increase includes $9.1 million of non-recurring Quantum Circuits acquisition costs and investment in product development and go-to-market. Source
  • Cash and securities of $588.4 million: Cash and marketable investment securities were $588.4 million, up 93% from $304.3 million a year earlier. Source
  • Quantum Circuits acquisition completed: The company acquired Quantum Circuits, a developer of error-corrected superconducting gate-model systems, to add gate-model capability to its dual-platform offering. Source

“As the only quantum computing company pursuing both annealing and gate-model quantum computing systems, we believe that D-Wave is uniquely positioned to participate in the full addressable quantum computing market.”

Dr. Alan Baratz, CEO of D-Wave

Guidance

AreaPeriodFigureAgainst last quarter
Quantum roadmap, dual-rail gate-model systems SourceEnd of 2028approximately 175 physical qubits and a design for a 1,000 physical qubit systemNew
Quantum roadmap, dual-rail gate-model systems SourceEnd of 20301,000 physical qubit dual-rail system with 10 logical qubits and a design for a 10,000 physical qubit systemNew
Quantum roadmap, dual-rail gate-model systems SourceEnd of 2032100 logical qubitsNew
FAU system installation SourceBefore end of 2026installation expected to commence before the end of 2026Kept

What changed from last quarter

  • New guidance: Dated roadmap milestones for 2028, 2030 and 2032 appear in this release; the prior release did not include them. Source
  • New: Company announced its first Investor Day, to be held June 1, 2026 at the New York Stock Exchange and by livestream. Source
  • New: Company collaborated with Postquant Labs on a quantum-classical blockchain Testnet, now publicly available. Source
  • New: Shionogi completed phase two of its Quantum AI drug discovery project and is moving to the next phase. Source
  • New: Stride hybrid solver now includes surrogate modeling, which lets customers add machine learning models to optimization workflows. Source

Results and growth drivers

  • Revenue fell on prior-year system sale: Revenue was $2.9 million, down 81%. The prior-year first quarter included $12.6 million from the company's first annealing system sale. Source
  • Bookings rose to $33.4 million: Bookings were $33.4 million, up 1,994% year over year and up 149% from the fourth quarter of 2025 ($13.4 million). The release headline calls this record quarterly bookings. Source
  • Net loss widened, tax benefit offset: Net loss was $18.4 million, or $0.05 per share, against $5.4 million, or $0.02, a year earlier. A $28.5 million income tax benefit tied to the Quantum Circuits acquisition partly offset the increase. Source
  • Adjusted EBITDA loss widened: Adjusted EBITDA loss was $32.8 million against $6.1 million a year earlier. The release attributes the increase to higher operating expenses and lower gross profit. Source

Demand and order book

  • FAU and QCaaS deals drove bookings: Bookings included a $20 million system purchase by Florida Atlantic University and a $10 million, two-year QCaaS agreement with a Fortune 100 company. System revenue will be recognized in later quarters. Source
  • Remaining performance obligations reached $42.4 million: RPO was $42.4 million, up 563% from a year earlier and 216% from year-end 2025. About 54% is expected to be recognized in the next 12 months and 71% within two years. Source
  • Quantum Circuits bookings closed pre-deal: Year-to-date bookings include $2.3 million of Quantum Circuits bookings closed immediately before the acquisition completed in January 2026. Source
  • Revenue drawn from over 100 customers: Revenue came from over 100 individual customers in the quarter, with over 50% of them commercial enterprises. Source

“Our acquisition of Quantum Circuits is expected to meaningfully accelerate our delivery of a scalable, error-corrected gate model system”

Dr. Alan Baratz, CEO of D-Wave

Products and customers

  • Shionogi project moves to next phase: Phase two of the Shionogi drug discovery project produced a 10-fold increase in desirable molecules versus a classical machine learning algorithm. Shionogi is moving to the next phase. Source
  • Postquant blockchain testnet is public: The Testnet has 18,500 early users and over 1,600 nodes, mixing CPUs, GPUs and one Advantage2 QPU. The release says the QPU has outperformed classical nodes. Source
  • Stride adds surrogate modeling: The Stride hybrid solver now supports surrogate modeling, letting customers place machine learning models in optimization workflows for uses such as predictive maintenance and surge pricing. Source
  • Multi-color annealing research published: New arXiv research describes multi-color annealing protocols that enable some gate-model operations on the annealing system. Key customers received these features for quantum simulation research. Source
  • FAU training program started: D-Wave has started a training program at Florida Atlantic University so faculty can use quantum resources in research and curriculum. Source

Costs, margins and operating expenses

  • Gross margin fell on system sale mix: GAAP gross margin was 63.6% against 92.5%, and non-GAAP gross margin was 70.6% against 93.6%. The release attributes the decline to the higher-margin system sale in the prior-year quarter. Source
  • Operating expenses rose 125%: GAAP operating expenses were $56.5 million, up $31.3 million. The increase includes $9.1 million of non-recurring Quantum Circuits acquisition costs and investment in product development and go-to-market. Source
  • Personnel growth in sales and R&D: Of the $8.6 million rise in salaries and related personnel costs, 80% related to sales and marketing and research and development staff. Source
  • Non-GAAP adjusted expenses up 73%: Non-GAAP adjusted operating expenses were $34.8 million, up 73% from $20.2 million. The difference from GAAP is mainly non-cash stock-based compensation, depreciation and amortization, and non-recurring items. Source

“our record-setting $10 million quantum computing as a service agreement with a Fortune 100 company reinforced growing demand for our annealing systems.”

Dr. Alan Baratz, CEO of D-Wave

Capital, cash and share count

  • Cash and securities of $588.4 million: Cash and marketable investment securities were $588.4 million, up 93% from $304.3 million a year earlier. Source
  • Cash below year-end 2025 level: The prior release reported cash and marketable securities of $884.5 million at December 31, 2025, a record for the company at that time.
  • Operating cash outflow widened: Net cash used in operating activities was $45.0 million, against $19.3 million a year earlier. Source
  • Quantum Circuits acquisition used $250.8 million: Cash flow from investing shows $250.8 million for the acquisition of business, net of cash acquired. Source
  • Goodwill and intangibles added: The balance sheet shows goodwill of $342.6 million and intangible assets, net, of $215.3 million at March 31, 2026, against $915 thousand of intangibles at year-end 2025. Source
  • Shares outstanding rose to 370 million: Shares outstanding were 370,038,436 at March 31, 2026, up from 358,741,605 at December 31, 2025. Source

Strategy, roadmap and people

  • Quantum Circuits acquisition completed: The company acquired Quantum Circuits, a developer of error-corrected superconducting gate-model systems, to add gate-model capability to its dual-platform offering. Source
  • Dual-rail qubits pitched as combined strengths: The company says Quantum Circuits' dual-rail qubits combine superconducting speed with the fidelity of ion trap and neutral atom qubits, and believes no other company matches this. Source
  • Integration expected to speed gate-model systems: Management expects combining D-Wave's system scaling expertise with the Quantum Circuits technology to accelerate availability of large-scale, error-corrected gate-model systems. Source
  • Dated roadmap runs to 2032: The roadmap sets dated qubit milestones for 2028, 2030 and 2032, with more detail to be given at the Investor Day. Source
  • Quantum Matters podcast launched: The Quantum Matters podcast, hosted by Murray Thom, vice president of quantum technology evangelism, generated thousands of views, listens and downloads in four weeks. Source

Coming up, as management said on 12 May 2026

  • First Investor Day on June 1: The company will host its first Investor Day at the New York Stock Exchange and by livestream, with roadmap details to be provided there. Source
  • Postquant benchmarking study launching: D-Wave and Postquant Labs are launching a detailed benchmarking study to further quantify the QPU's advantage in mining. Source

Figures management reported

FigureReported
Remaining performance obligations Source$42.4 million as of March 31, 2026
Customer counts Sourceover 100 individual customers in Q1 2026; over 50% commercial enterprises
Large customers SourceFortune 100 company, $10 million two-year QCaaS agreement; Florida Atlantic University, $20 million system purchase

Risks management discussed

  • Demand: Gross margin depends on the mix of system sales, since the prior-year quarter's margin reflected a higher-margin annealing system sale. Source
  • Operational: The acquisition brought non-recurring costs and added Quantum Circuits expenses to operating costs after the January closing. Source
  • Financial: Operating cash use and the net loss increased compared with the prior-year quarter, while the acquisition used cash. Source
  • External: Management described the quantum computing sector as rapidly evolving. Source

Earlier plans management reported on

  • Not stated: The release gives installation start before the end of 2026, with the earlier wording being deployment by the end of 2026; no status was stated. Source

Other quarters

Summarised with AI from the documents the company filed with the SEC. Every point is checked against the filing before it is shown: management’s own words word for word, figures against the line or table row they come from. A point that fails the check is left out. Source opens the filing at that line.