QBTS earnings call summary

Prepared Highlights

• Revenue: Q1 2026 revenue was $2.9M, down 81% YoY from $15.0M (which included $12.6M from a system sale) (CFO). QCaaS subscription revenue was $1.8M, up nearly 15% YoY; professional services revenue was $1.0M, up over 26% YoY (CFO). Over 100 individual customers, over 50% commercial; commercial revenue constituted over 73% of total revenue (CFO).
• Bookings: Record Q1 bookings of $33.4M, up 1,994% YoY from $1.6M and up 149% QoQ from Q4 2025’s $13.4M (CFO). Over two dozen commercial customers comprised over 31% of bookings; the balance was from educational/research organizations (largest: $20M system sale to Florida Atlantic University) (CFO).
• Gross Profit/Margin: GAAP gross profit was $1.8M, down 87% YoY ($13.9M in Q1 2025). GAAP gross margin was 63.6%, down from 92.5% in Q1 2025 (both heavily influenced by prior-year system sale) (CFO).
• Operating Expenses: GAAP opex was $56.5M, up 125% YoY ($25.2M), driven by $9.1M nonrecurring Quantum Circuits acquisition costs, $8.6M higher personnel costs (80% in sales/marketing and R&D), and $7.4M noncash expenses (CFO). Non-GAAP adjusted opex was $34.8M, up 73% YoY ($20.2M) (CFO).
• Net Loss: Net loss was $18.4M ($0.05/share) vs. net loss of $5.4M ($0.02/share) in Q1 2025, partially offset by a $28.5M income tax benefit from the Quantum Circuits acquisition (CFO).
• Adjusted EBITDA Loss: Adjusted EBITDA loss was $32.8M, up $26.7M from $6.1M in Q1 2025 (CFO).
• Liquidity: Cash and marketable securities totaled $588.4M as of March 31, 2026, up 93% YoY ($304.3M). $250M was invested in cash for the Quantum Circuits acquisition. Management believes remaining liquidity supports a fully funded plan to profitability (CFO).
• RPO/Backlog: Remaining performance obligations (RPO) were $42.4M as of March 31, up 563% YoY ($6.4M) and up 216% QoQ ($13.4M). Approximately 54% expected to be recognized as revenue in the next 12 months, 71% in the next 2 years (CFO).
• Sales Pipeline: Dollar value of the sales opportunity pipeline more than doubled vs. Q4 2025; average potential deal size more than doubled over the same period (CFO).
• Quantum Circuits Acquisition: Closed in January 2026; dual-rail qubit technology provides built-in error detection (observed erasure rate 0.5%; >99.9% fidelity; reduces physical qubits needed for a logical qubit by up to an order of magnitude) (CEO).
• Gate Model Roadmap: Targeting 175 physical qubits by end of 2028, 10 logical qubits by 2030, and 100 logical qubits by end of 2032 (CEO).
• Annealing Business: Collaborated with Post-Quantum Labs on a quantum-classical blockchain testNet (now live; >18,500 sign-ups; >1,600 nodes; D-Wave’s Advantage2 QPU winning majority of blocks) (CEO). Shionogi project: second phase delivered a tenfold increase in desirable molecules vs. classical ML algorithm (CEO).

Official guidance (directional, not specific ranges):

• Q2 2026 revenue likely “up modestly” from Q1; substantial portion of full-year revenue expected in H2 2026 (CFO).

Mgmt quotes:

1. “We are the only company in the world that can participate in the full addressable market for quantum computing with both annealing and gate model quantum computers.” (CEO)
2. “Annealing quantum computing is better suited for optimization than gate model quantum computing. By its nature, it is uniquely built to solve optimization problems… an area that represents a significant share of the overall quantum computing opportunity.” (CEO)
3. “D-Wave is the first company to solve a hard computational problem beyond classical computing’s reach on a real-world useful problem, evidenced by our quantum supremacy results published in Science last March.” (CEO)
4. “Our dual rail gate model technology… brings together superconnecting speed, the fidelity associated with ion traps and neutral atoms, and a clear path to scale… a revolutionary approach.” (CEO)
5. “The 2026 second quarter is likely to be up modestly from the first quarter with a substantial portion of the year’s revenue recognized in the second half of the year.” (CFO)

Prepared Metrics

Q&A Batch (1-5 of 11)

Q1 — Shaw (for Quinn Bolton)

• Topic: 系统销售展望信心来源与产品线侧重
• Key points:
  • 管道在过去一年显著增长，已与多个未公开客户谈判系统交易。
  • 预计今年可实现2~3套系统销售，高度确信能交付其中2套。
  • 目前1套已确认（佛罗里达大西洋大学），另有商业化系统交易在推进中。
• Mgmt stance: 非常乐观（"very high degree of confidence"），基于管道扩容和谈判进展。

Q2 — John McPeake

• Topic: 2量子比特门保真度目标与路线图
• Key points:
  • 已实现99.9%保真度（当前小系统）。
  • 双轨量子比特有望比Google Willow（本身性能较强）提升约5倍保真度。
  • 2030年10逻辑量子比特、2032年100逻辑量子比特的路线图中，保真度将大幅改善。
• Mgmt stance: 乐观（"believe we'll be able to improve upon that by about 5x"），认为技术路线能带来更陡的改进曲线。

Q3 — Antoine Legault

• Topic: 退火量子计算竞争格局变化
• Key points:
  • 优化TAM根据BCG数据为1000亿~2200亿美元。
  • 已出现2~4量子比特的退火初创系统，以及运行退火协议的门模型公司。
  • 退火对错误不敏感、无需纠错，但门模型模拟退火存在速度和大规模问题限制。
• Mgmt stance: 自信且乐观（"always be the leader"），认为现有竞争不构成实质威胁，D-Wave在退火领域具先发优势。

Q4 — Unknown Analyst

• Topic: 系统销售的客户类型（政府/学术 vs 商业）及趋势
• Key points:
  • 今年预计2~3套系统销售中：1套商业、1套研究/学术。
  • 区块链和AI领域可能出现商业采购用于参数研究，但尚未成熟。
  • 商业转化关键在于区块链（Test Net与Post-Quantum Labs合作）和AI（Shionogi及其他类似项目）的验证结果。
• Mgmt stance: 谨慎乐观（"making good progress, but we're not quite there yet"），预期短期以学术为主，长期看商业突破依赖应用验证。

Q5 — Craig Ellis

• Topic: 门模型系统（QCI）客户需求反馈与商业化节奏
• Key points:
  • 现有少数客户对门模型系统感兴趣（云访问或预装），包括8或17量子比特系统。
  • 当前系统为8量子比特，预计年底前升级至17量子比特；客户不等待更大系统。
  • 今年可能产生初步销售，更多销售预计在2027年。
• Mgmt stance: 中性偏积极（客户主动寻求现成系统），但承认早期销售时间表有不确定性。