New York, May 28, 2026, 13:02 (EDT)
- D-Wave shares added 8.4% in New York, climbing faster than technology ETFs.
- The shift came after new company updates and investors watched a proposed $100 million funding agreement under the CHIPS Act.
- IonQ, Rigetti, and Quantum Computing Inc., all quantum peers, also moved higher.
D-Wave Quantum Inc. shares surged Thursday as traders piled back into quantum-computing names. The stock pushed higher, part of a shaky stretch for the sector, with investors eyeing any names with U.S. government support for the technology.
The stock climbed 8.4% to $29.79 in New York, hitting an intraday high of $30.21 earlier. Around 34.6 million shares changed hands. The company was valued close to $11 billion.
D-Wave’s gains are grabbing attention now since the stock is one of the more direct public bets on the White House’s quantum push. Trading on the New York Stock Exchange ran its normal hours, 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. ET, on Thursday. It was a regular day, not a holiday.
D-Wave is in line for a proposed $100 million funding package from the CHIPS and Science Act, the U.S. law designed to build out domestic technology supply chains. The company said last week it signed a letter of intent—a first-step agreement—where it would issue $100 million in common stock to the U.S. Department of Commerce after the final award is signed.
D-Wave CEO Alan Baratz said in a statement that U.S. government funding would push the country’s edge in quantum computing. He called the proposal “a transformative moment” for D-Wave, for quantum computing, and for the U.S. The comment came in the company’s release on the planned investment. D-Wave Quantum
D-Wave said this week it got second-year funding for a Microelectronics Commons project focused on superconducting qubits, the core units in some quantum computers. The funding will go to work at Quantum Circuits, which D-Wave bought. The goal is to push scalable fabrication, or making the hardware easier to produce at scale.
“This award reflects the growing recognition that quantum computing will play an important role in advancing U.S. microelectronics innovation,” Baratz said in the statement. D-Wave chief scientist Rob Schoelkopf said the project aims to move quantum fabrication “from lab-to-fab,” the term the industry uses for turning lab work into manufacturing. D-Wave Quantum
D-Wave shares got some notice after the company defended its earlier quantum-supremacy result, countering claims that recent classical-computing advances had challenged it. Quantum supremacy is when a quantum computer does something a classical system can’t handle practically. CEO Alan Baratz said D-Wave’s test “continues to hold up under careful scientific scrutiny.” Chief Development Officer Trevor Lanting argued that some classical approaches still do not solve the specific problem types in D-Wave’s research. D-Wave Quantum
Sector names traded up too. IonQ picked up 6.7%, Rigetti Computing added 8.3%, and Quantum Computing Inc. was up 6.4%. This trade looked like a sector move, not just D-Wave. Gains beat the bigger indexes—the SPDR S&P 500 ETF gained 0.5%, Invesco QQQ Trust rose 0.9%.
D-Wave is starting to see some commercial action, but it’s early. The company booked $33.4 million in the first quarter, a jump of almost 2,000% from a year ago; bookings are signed deals that haven’t hit revenue yet. Revenue dropped 81% to $2.9 million in the first quarter since last year’s period included a system sale.
But there are sizable risks. The Commerce Department deal is still waiting on final paperwork, and the coming stock issue would dilute holders. D-Wave keeps losing money, with negative EPS. A separate SEC Form 4 dated Wednesday showed CFO John Markovich sold 328,752 shares on May 22 at a weighted average of $27.7037. He still owns 1.44 million shares after that sale.
D-Wave is set to host its first investor day at the New York Stock Exchange on June 1. The company says it will give more detail on its technology roadmap, commercial momentum and long-term strategy. With shares moving this fast, investors aren’t likely to let vague targets slip by.
