New York, January 16, 2026, 20:27 EST — Markets are closed.
Shares of D-Wave Quantum Inc. (QBTS) edged up 0.5% to $28.83 Friday, after fluctuating between $30.12 and $28.29 on roughly 40.6 million shares traded. Insider filings revealed CEO Alan Baratz offloaded 35,013 shares and CFO John Markovich sold 9,179 shares to cover tax withholding on vested stock awards. Chief legal officer Diane Nguyen sold 20,000 shares under a pre-arranged plan from August 2025, plus another 4,519 for tax withholding. Other U.S.-listed quantum stocks also gained: IonQ climbed 6.8%, Rigetti rose 3.7%, and Quantum Computing Inc was up 4.0%.
U.S. markets remain closed Monday for Martin Luther King Jr. Day, pushing the next update on QBTS to Tuesday’s session. Insider-sale disclosures often carry weight in smaller, more volatile stocks, sometimes sparking headline risk all on their own.
Rule 10b5-1 plans allow executives to prearrange trading instructions, designed to limit reliance on material non-public information. It’s also common for companies to automatically sell a portion of newly vested restricted stock units — stock awards — to cover payroll taxes, with no input from the executive on timing.
D-Wave is pushing to finalize its $550 million acquisition of Quantum Circuits, and the details explain why the stock can swing sharply. The deal calls for $250 million in cash plus $300 million in stock. The stock portion’s share count hinges on a 10-day volume-weighted average price, capped between $39.03 and $22.30. If the deal isn’t closed by April 6, 2026, either side can walk away, according to SEC filings.
When the companies revealed the deal earlier this month, Baratz called it a move that “unequivocally cemented” D-Wave’s standing in superconducting quantum computing. Rob Schoelkopf, chief scientist at Quantum Circuits and Yale professor, said fault-tolerant, error-corrected quantum computing is “within our reach.” The firms aim to launch a gate-model system by 2026. dwavequantum.com
D-Wave is primarily recognized for quantum annealing, a quantum computing approach focused on optimization problems. Gate-model systems, by contrast, tackle a wider range of calculations but face greater challenges in scaling and error correction.
Once trading picks up, investors will watch closely to see if the insider-selling chatter settles down into typical tax-related activity or continues sparking new debate. Any news on the Quantum Circuits timeline might quickly shake up positions as well.
D-Wave’s Qubits 2026 conference, set for Jan. 27-28 in Boca Raton, Florida, stands as the next major event. Executives and clients are slated to lay out product roadmaps there. If QBTS continues reacting to news, traders are likely to refocus on this date.
