D-Wave Quantum Inc. (QBTS) saw its shares fall more than 10% in premarket trading on Thursday after the company reported second-quarter 2026 results that missed Wall Street expectations on both revenue and earnings.

Revenue for the quarter ended June 30 came in at $3.07 million, well below the $4.03 million analysts had forecast and roughly flat year-over-year. The stock was trading around $18.80 in premarket, down from the prior close of $21.39.

The per-share loss of $0.13 also came in worse than the consensus estimate of $0.09.

D-WAVE $QBTS Q2'26 EARNINGS HIGHLIGHTS 🔹 Revenue: $3.1M (Est. $4M) 🔴; flat YoY 🔹 EPS: -$0.13 (Est. -$0.09) 🔴 https://pic.twitter.com/c2wKQGNF1A — Wall St Engine (@wallstengine) August 6, 2026

The result stood in sharp contrast to peer IonQ, which gained 4.9% the same day after reporting a nearly 300% jump in quarterly revenue and raising its full-year guidance. The divergence underscores the divergent commercialization timelines across the quantum sector, where companies are pursuing fundamentally different hardware approaches—D-Wave's quantum annealing systems are designed for optimization problems, while IonQ builds gate-based trapped-ion quantum computers intended for broader algorithmic workloads.

The revenue miss came amid elevated expectations heading into the earnings release. In the days prior, D-Wave had published a peer-reviewed paper in Nature detailing a two-qubit gate achieving 99.9% fidelity. The company had also announced a quantum computing agreement with Nasdaq Verafin aimed at financial crime detection. Additionally, Wedbush initiated coverage with an Outperform rating and a $40 price target.

Analysts had modeled approximately 39% sequential revenue growth from Q1's $2.9 million. The actual $3.07 million figure underscored what management has described as the "lumpy" nature of D-Wave's revenue cycle—a characterization that reflects the reality across the quantum computing industry, where enterprise sales cycles are long and individual contracts can materially shift quarterly results.

Bookings Surge 1,120%

Despite the top-line shortfall, the report included notable positives. Bookings surged more than 1,120% year-over-year, reaching $35.5 million for the first half of 2026. The company defines bookings as customer orders expected to generate future revenue.

Net loss narrowed to $48 million from $167 million a year earlier, though the operating loss widened to $53.3 million from $26.5 million. Management attributed the wider operating loss to increased spending on product development and go-to-market initiatives.

D-Wave counts defense contractor Anduril Industries among its customers, and CEO Alan Baratz has said that relationship has opened doors to additional partnerships.

Government Ties Provide Stability

D-Wave was among a small group of publicly traded quantum companies to reach a tentative agreement with the Commerce Department, exchanging a minority stake for federal funding. Baratz emphasized the company's government ties at its investor day in June—a point that carries added weight as the current administration increases investment in quantum technology. That federal push aligns with broader U.S. strategic efforts, including initiatives under the CHIPS and Science Act, to maintain competitiveness against China and the European Union in quantum information science.

D-Wave has operated in the quantum computing space since 1999 and is widely regarded as the first company to commercialize the technology, having sold a system to Lockheed Martin in 2011.

The broader tech market offered little support on Thursday, with the Nasdaq down 0.4% and quantum computing stocks broadly under pressure as investors continue to seek clearer signs of commercial traction. D-Wave's first-half 2026 bookings of $35.5 million remain the most concrete indicator of future revenue conversion available.