NEW YORK, May 24, 2026, 09:04 EDT
D-Wave Quantum wrapped up the week ahead of a U.S. market holiday with shares up 44.5%. Washington added the firm to a new federal quantum-computing funding plan. The NYSE-listed stock closed at $29.40 on Friday, gaining 14.22% after a 33.37% jump on Thursday.
Commerce shifts quantum focus, hands out $2B in CHIPS Act letters
Quantum computing is now on the industrial policy agenda for the U.S. Commerce Department, which said it signed letters of intent for $2.013 billion in planned CHIPS and Science Act incentives with nine firms. D-Wave is in line for $100 million in funding, the department said.
No U.S. cash-equity trading happened Sunday, and the NYSE will stay shut Monday, May 25, for Memorial Day. Investors have the two-day rally to consider before trade picks up again Tuesday.
D-Wave said it plans to use the proposed funding for its annealing and gate-model superconducting quantum systems. Annealing targets optimization problems, while gate-model machines are the general-purpose style many quantum firms are working on. If the final award documents go ahead, D-Wave would issue $100 million in common stock to the Commerce Department, the company said.
Chief Executive Alan Baratz described the proposed award as a “transformative moment” for D-Wave and the wider sector. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said the investments would lead to “high-paying American jobs.” Bill Frauenhofer, executive director of Semiconductor Investment and Innovation, said the program uses a “portfolio approach” that spans several quantum technologies. NIST
IBM will get $1 billion for a quantum-chip joint venture named Anderon, with GlobalFoundries taking $375 million for making quantum components, and Rigetti Computing set to receive about $100 million, Reuters reported. IBM CEO Arvind Krishna told Reuters that the new venture gives external customers access to the “exact same capability” IBM uses. Reuters
D-Wave’s rally tracked gains in the wider market. U.S. stocks climbed on Friday, with the Dow ending at an all-time high and the S&P 500 posting its eighth weekly win in a row. Investors showed some relief on progress in Middle East diplomacy and a solid earnings run.
D-Wave posted first-quarter revenue of $2.9 million, which is down 81% from a year ago. Bookings shot up by almost 2,000% to $33.4 million. The company’s net loss widened to $18.4 million, or 5 cents per share.
This is the main issue for the stock. Investors aren’t looking at today’s revenue; they’re betting on new orders, government backing, and a broader tech plan to come.
D-Wave is heading into a packed week. Executives will appear at TD Cowen’s technology conference in New York on May 28, then turn to the company’s first investor day June 1 at the NYSE. Management says it will talk about strategy, product roadmap, commercial momentum and growth plans.
The bear case is still clear. The award is not locked in; D-Wave has said the deal isn’t final, key documents aren’t signed yet, Commerce could pause or kill the talks, milestones may fall short, and handing shares to the government could hit current holders. If investors pivot back to revenue, cash burn or whether D-Wave can deliver after the break, the same thin-float trade that sent QBTS up could drop it just as fast.
