D-Wave Quantum Inc. ((QBTS)) has held its Q4 earnings call. Read on for the main highlights of the call.
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New trading tool for QBTS bullsD-Wave Quantum Inc.’s latest earnings call struck an optimistic yet cautious tone. Management highlighted surging revenue, record post-quarter bookings, and major technical milestones that suggest growing commercial adoption. At the same time, widening adjusted losses, lumpy system revenue, and supply chain concerns underscored that the path to profitability remains long and investment-heavy.
Explosive Revenue Growth and a Shift in Mix
D-Wave reported fiscal 2025 revenue of $24.6 million, a 179% jump from $8.8 million a year earlier, signaling accelerating commercialization of its quantum technology. The mix skewed heavily toward hardware, with $16.2 million from system sales, $5.5 million from QCaaS subscriptions, and $2.7 million from professional services.
Margins Surge as the Business Scales
Profitability at the gross level improved sharply, with GAAP gross profit rising 265% year over year to $20.3 million and gross margin climbing to 82.6%. On a non-GAAP basis, gross profit reached $21.1 million and margin hit 86%, suggesting that as utilization rises and pricing improves, the underlying unit economics of D-Wave’s business are getting stronger.
Pipeline Expands and Bookings Rebound
Commercial traction was a major theme, with management citing a roughly 1,500% year-over-year expansion in the sales opportunity pipeline. While fiscal 2025 bookings were $18.7 million, the company ended the year with a powerful rebound, posting $13.4 million in fourth-quarter bookings and closing more than $32.8 million in additional deals after year-end.
Flagship System Sales and Blue-Chip QCaaS Wins
D-Wave showcased marquee customer wins that bolster its credibility in both academia and enterprise. Highlights included the first Advantage system sale to the Jülich Supercomputing Center, a $20 million Advantage2 sale to Florida Atlantic University, and a two-year $10 million enterprise QCaaS contract with a Fortune 100 customer, underscoring growing trust in its quantum solutions.
Strategic Acquisition Anchors Dual-Platform Strategy
The company’s acquisition of Quantum Circuits marked a strategic shift toward becoming a dual-platform quantum provider. By pairing its annealing systems with a superconducting dual-rail gate-model platform, D-Wave aims to expand its addressable market and unlock early gate-model revenue opportunities, effectively positioning itself to serve a broader swath of future quantum workloads.
Technical Firsts in Annealing and Gate-Model Systems
On the technology front, D-Wave claimed quantum supremacy on a useful real-world problem using its Advantage2 system, differentiating itself from peers focused on more abstract benchmarks. The company also advanced its gate-model roadmap, demonstrating on-chip cryogenic control, offering an eight-qubit system to select customers now, and targeting a 17-qubit gate-model system later in 2026.
Growing Relevance for Government and Defense
A newly launched U.S. government solutions unit is aimed at tapping rising public-sector demand for quantum capabilities. In missile defense simulations, D-Wave reported 10x faster time-to-solution, 9%–12% better threat mitigation, and 45–60 additional intercepts in a 500-missile scenario, results that have sparked strong interest among government stakeholders.
Fortified Balance Sheet and Ample Liquidity
Despite heavy spending, D-Wave ended 2025 with a robust liquidity position, reporting $884.5 million in cash and marketable securities, up nearly 400% year over year. The company raised more than $800 million during the year through equity programs and warrant exercises, and management believes this capital provides a fully funded runway to execute its plan toward profitability.
Headline Net Loss Masked by Non-Cash Charges
The company’s GAAP net loss widened to $355.0 million, or $1.11 per share, from $143.9 million in the prior year, a figure that may alarm headline-focused investors. However, management stressed that $250.5 million of the loss was tied to non-cash, non-operating warrant remeasurement and related realized losses, which do not reflect core operating performance.
Adjusted Losses Widen as Investment Accelerates
On an adjusted basis, losses still increased as D-Wave ramped spending on R&D and go-to-market. Adjusted net loss reached $84.5 million, up 11.8% from the prior year, while adjusted EBITDA loss rose 28% to $71.8 million, signaling that the company is leaning into growth and technology development even at the expense of near-term profitability metrics.
Bookings Down Year Over Year but Improving
Full-year 2025 bookings of $18.7 million fell 22% from 2024, which had been boosted by a large one-time system sale, reminding investors that big-ticket deals can skew annual comparisons. Even so, the fourth quarter delivered $13.4 million in bookings, down 27% year over year but up a sharp 471% from the third quarter, suggesting momentum heading into 2026.
Rising OpEx and Lumpy Revenue Recognition
Management cautioned that operating expenses are set to rise roughly 15% sequentially each quarter through 2026 as it invests more heavily in R&D and government-focused initiatives. At the same time, system revenue will remain lumpy, with many deals recognized on a percentage-of-completion basis, which can create uneven quarter-to-quarter revenue even when underlying demand is strong.
Managing Foundry and Supply Chain Risk
The company flagged potential fabrication risk in light of recent industry moves involving key foundry partners. While D-Wave’s dual-rail fabrication is not currently at the facility in question and annealing production relies on it chiefly for wiring, management is actively seeking alternative fab capacity, highlighting the strategic importance of securing manufacturing redundancy.
Profitability Still on the Horizon, Not in Sight
Executives reiterated their belief that current liquidity can fund the journey to profitability but admitted that sustainable GAAP profits remain some distance away. With adjusted operating losses still widening and major investments such as the Quantum Circuits acquisition, the timing of large system sales and QCaaS revenue recognition will be critical to narrowing losses over time.
Outlook and Implied Guidance for 2026
While D-Wave declined to issue formal numerical guidance, management provided several directional markers for 2026, emphasizing that year-to-date bookings already exceed any prior full-year level and that more than $32.8 million in additional bookings closed after year-end. They expect stronger revenue in the second half versus the first, increasing percentage-of-completion system revenue, the start of gate-model QCaaS revenue in 2026 with system deliveries from 2027, significant R&D headcount growth, and about 15% sequential OpEx increases, all underpinned by what they view as sufficient liquidity to execute their plan.
D-Wave’s earnings call painted the picture of a company transitioning from pure promise to early-scale commercialization, with powerful revenue growth, fattening gross margins, and marquee customer wins validating its technology. Yet the story remains high risk and long term, with rising operating losses, lumpy revenue, and fabrication uncertainties that investors will need to weigh against the sizable upside of its expanding quantum footprint.