Two earnings misses, two different reactions
Both companies missed earnings expectations. Only one stock rose.
D-Wave Quantum (NASDAQ: QBTS) gained more than 2% in early Wednesday trading, while Rigetti Computing (NASDAQ: RGTI) fell more than 4%. Their shares had already lost roughly 59% and 47%, respectively, this year.
The results offered plenty to explain the caution. Revenue remains small, spending is substantial, and large equipment orders can make growth uneven.
But the business is developing beneath that volatility.
Quantum’s strongest long-term case is becoming more tangible: customers are putting systems to work, hardware is improving, and funding is targeting the obstacles to larger machines. The sell-off has brought those developments far less attention than the earnings misses.
D-Wave’s order book reaches beyond this quarter
That bookings figure needs its proper timeframe. Third-quarter bookings actually fell 19% to $1.9 million. The company’s order intake is growing over the longer period, but it has yet to become consistent.
A more useful bridge to future sales is its $38.3 million in remaining performance obligations—contracted work not yet recognized as revenue. Management expects approximately 59% to become revenue within 12 months, equivalent to about $22.6 million.
That provides visibility beyond a single equipment sale, although delivering the work still matters. D-Wave also posted a $37.7 million adjusted EBITDA loss, underlining how far current revenue remains from supporting its spending.
There is evidence of customer value outside the financial statements.
Japan’s NTT DOCOMO has deployed a second production application using D-Wave’s hybrid quantum technology. The companies reported a 65.3% reduction in peak location-registration signals and a 7% reduction in paging signals, easing traffic within the mobile network.
These results come from a system combining quantum and classical computing. They demonstrate a practical deployment; they do not establish that quantum universally outperforms conventional computers.
A customer returning with another operational problem is nevertheless meaningful evidence of adoption.
The next quantum story may arrive as a customer deployment or a hardware milestone before it reaches an earnings headline. Wall Street Access follows those developments across the emerging companies building the industry.
Follow Quantum Beyond the Daily Stock Swings
Rigetti’s hardware moved forward while sales disappointed
Rigetti’s $1.4 million in revenue missed expectations of roughly $3.5 million. Its quarterly operating loss reached $33.2 million.
Yet its 108-qubit system achieved 99.5% median two-qubit gate fidelity, meeting a technical milestone.
Fidelity measures how accurately quantum operations perform. Adding qubits has limited value if the operations connecting them introduce too many errors.
Rigetti builds its system from 12 interconnected nine-qubit chiplets. Improving accuracy while linking smaller chips supports its approach to building larger processors, though it does not establish commercial quantum advantage.
The company also ended September with $497.1 million in cash and investments and no debt. That gives it resources to pursue development through uneven sales, while continuing losses consume that cushion.
Federal funding is addressing the machinery behind the machines
The Commerce Department’s finalized award of up to $100 million for Rigetti focuses on smaller readout electronics, expanded cooling capacity and manufacturing capabilities.
Those are practical constraints. Larger superconducting systems need infrastructure that can control more qubits and keep them operating at extremely low temperatures.
The funding also carries conditions. Rigetti’s filing says $43.9 million was initially made available, with later tranches dependent on milestones. Availability for eligible costs is different from unrestricted cash already received.
The opportunity in quantum is gaining substance, even as the financial results remain immature. Falling shares alone cannot establish value; repeat customers, reliable hardware and successful deliveries can strengthen the business behind them.
Rigetti’s next near-term test is concrete: its approximately $20 million full-year revenue outlook depends on C-DAC customer acceptance and associated revenue recognition in the fourth quarter. That would turn another stage of technical development into a recorded sale.
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