D-Wave Quantum (QBTS) Stock Plunges as Short Sellers Circle and Institutions Buy

As of Thursday, 13 November 2025, D-Wave Quantum Inc. (NYSE: QBTS) is back in the spotlight – and not in a calm way. The quantum computing pioneer’s stock is sliding sharply again, even as big-name investors file new stakes and the media debate whether the recent boom in quantum stocks is a bubble or a once‑in‑a‑generation opportunity.

Below is a full, news-style roundup of all the major D-Wave–related stories hitting today (13 November 2025), plus the context from last week’s Q3 earnings that’s driving the volatility.

QBTS stock today: double‑digit drop after a year of explosive gains

As of the latest quote this afternoon, QBTS is trading around $23.63, down roughly 10.5% on the day. Intraday, the stock has ranged between about $23.39 and $26.41, with heavy volume above 22 million shares.

That move comes on top of a brutal slide since late October:

The stock fell nearly 22% in the first full week of November, closing below $30 after Q3 earnings. ^[1]
Just yesterday (12 November), QBTS ended around $26.40, already down almost 9% for that session alone. ^[2]

Even after this pullback, D-Wave remains one of 2025’s wildest performers. Over the past 12 months, a $10,000 investment would have swelled to about $183,700, according to analysis by The Motley Fool – a gain of more than 1,700%, vastly outpacing the broader market. ^[3]

Yet today’s headlines show that not everyone believes the rally is sustainable.

All the key D-Wave (QBTS) headlines dated 13 November 2025

Here’s a concise roundup of D-Wave–related coverage specifically published today (13 November 2025) across major outlets.

1. “Could Investing $10,000 in D-Wave Quantum Make You a Millionaire?” – Motley Fool / Nasdaq

A widely shared column syndicated via Nasdaq asks whether D-Wave’s parabolic run can continue. ^[4]

Key points from the piece:

The article highlights that $10,000 invested in D-Wave a year ago would now be worth about $183,700, thanks to the stock’s enormous 12‑month rally.
The author stresses that commercially meaningful quantum computing could still be more than a decade away, meaning today’s valuation is heavily based on expectations rather than current profits.
It argues there is a “mismatch” between D-Wave’s current business fundamentals and its market capitalization, and concludes that while the upside is huge, so are the risks.

The tone is cautious speculative: yes, the returns so far are eye‑popping, but the article implies that simply extrapolating them into “millionaire” territory would be dangerous.

2. Short seller Andrew Left reveals a bearish bet against D-Wave – Business Insider

Business Insider publishes a feature in which famous short seller Andrew Left, founder of Citron Research, explains why he’s betting against part of the quantum boom – including D-Wave. ^[5]

According to the article:

Left confirms he is short both Rigetti Computing and D-Wave Quantum, despite both stocks being up triple digits in 2025.
He argues that quantum pure‑plays face massive R&D costs, long commercialization timelines and fierce competition from tech giants like Google.
For these smaller players, he sees valuation risk and execution risk as uncomfortably high, even if the underlying technology is promising.

This is a high‑profile vote of no confidence arriving on the same day that bullish commentators are still celebrating D-Wave’s year‑to‑date gains.

3. Three new institutional ownership headlines – MarketBeat 13F coverage

MarketBeat runs three separate pieces today summarizing recent 13F filings that show institutions adding to or initiating stakes in QBTS. These filings typically reflect second‑quarter positions but are only becoming public now, so they’re backward‑looking but still sentiment‑relevant. ^[6]

Across the three reports:

Los Angeles Capital Management LLC
- Disclosed a new position of 66,692 QBTS shares, valued at roughly $976,000. ^[7]
PFG Advisors
- Reported a new stake of 11,073 shares, worth about $162,000 at the time of filing. ^[8]
SBI Securities Co. Ltd.
- Increased its holdings by 24,524 shares, bringing its total to 207,188 shares valued at around $3.03 million. ^[9]

Across the coverage, MarketBeat notes that institutional investors now control roughly 42–43% of D-Wave’s outstanding shares, suggesting that a meaningful slice of Wall Street has been willing to underwrite the story, at least historically. ^[10]

4. Technical trading note: “Avoiding Lag: Real-Time Signals in (QBTS) Movement” – Stock Traders Daily

A technical analysis piece from Stock Traders Daily frames QBTS as short‑term bearish despite a constructive longer‑term story. ^[11]

The article highlights:

“Weak near and mid‑term sentiment” that may challenge the long‑term bullish narrative.
A mid‑channel oscillation pattern, suggesting the stock is stuck in a volatile trading range.
A headline‑grabbing stat: an “84.5:1 risk‑reward short setup” targeting roughly 24% downside vs 0.3% risk, based on their proprietary signals.

In short, today’s technical commentary frames QBTS as attractive for tactical bears, not dip buyers.

5. Sector perspective: quantum stocks “back in the spotlight” – Barron’s & others

A new Barron’s feature on quantum computing stocks notes that Rigetti, IonQ, IBM and D-Wave are all drawing intense investor interest again as they roll out Q3 results. ^[12]

The article (and similar roundups) emphasize:

Massive year‑to‑date gains across most pure‑play quantum names.
The tug‑of‑war between breakthrough‑driven enthusiasm and concerns about valuation bubbles in speculative AI/quantum names.

While the piece isn’t D-Wave‑specific, it’s part of the macro narrative shaping how investors interpret today’s QBTS moves.

6. Quantum tech recognition: D-Wave featured in “Top quantum breakthroughs of 2025” – Network World

Network World publishes a long feature, “Top quantum breakthroughs of 2025,” which includes D-Wave among the year’s standout advances. ^[13]

D-Wave’s mentions include:

A Ford Otosan logistics use case, where D‑Wave’s annealing system reportedly cut scheduling times from 30 minutes to under five minutes in production.
A discussion of D-Wave’s quantum annealing technology as a specialized, almost analogue‑style approach that excels at optimization problems like logistics and supply chain planning.
Survey data (sponsored by D-Wave) in which 81% of business leaders say they’ve hit the limits of classical optimization, and more than half plan to integrate quantum into their workflows. ^[14]

This is technology‑, not stock‑focused, but on the same day that traders are hammering QBTS, it reinforces the idea that D-Wave is still seen as a key technical player in quantum computing.

Why the backdrop matters: Q3 2025 results are driving the drama

All of today’s noise sits atop one central catalyst: D-Wave’s third‑quarter fiscal 2025 earnings, released on 6 November.

Revenue is growing fast…

According to the company’s official release and third‑party breakdowns: ^[15]

Q3 2025 revenue: about $3.7 million, up 100% year‑over‑year from $1.9M.
Sequential growth: roughly 8% higher than Q2 revenue of $3.1M.
Nine‑month 2025 revenue: about $21.8 million, up roughly 235% from the same period in 2024.

Gross profitability is improving even faster:

GAAP gross profit climbed to roughly $2.7 million, up 156% year‑over‑year.
GAAP gross margin improved to about 71.4%, versus 55.8% a year earlier.

On a non‑GAAP basis, margins look even stronger, with non‑GAAP gross margin near 78%, reflecting the high‑margin nature of software and cloud‑delivered quantum services.

…but GAAP losses are huge

The problem – and the focus of many bearish takes – is the scale of D-Wave’s net loss, especially on a GAAP basis. ^[16]

In Q3 2025:

GAAP net loss: about $140 million, or –$0.41 per share, versus a –$0.11 loss per share in Q3 2024.
The company attributes the jump primarily to roughly $121.9 million in non‑cash warrant‑related charges, rather than day‑to‑day operating performance.
On an adjusted basis, which strips out those non‑operating items, D-Wave reported a loss of about $0.05 per share, beating analyst consensus calling for a –$0.07 loss.

This accounting split explains why different headlines tell radically different stories:

MarketBeat and several bullish notes emphasize an “earnings beat” on adjusted EPS and revenue well above expectations. ^[17]
FX Leaders and some trading‑oriented outlets highlight the –$0.41 GAAP loss per share as a sharp “earnings miss,” stressing the widening headline loss and calling the update “weak earnings.” ^[18]

Both views are technically correct – they just focus on different definitions of “earnings.”

Commercial momentum: BASF, Italy, and real-world deployments

Behind the numbers, D-Wave is working hard to show that quantum is moving beyond the lab.

Recent updates include:

A proof‑of‑concept with BASF, announced 6 November, where a hybrid quantum solution optimized workflows at a liquid‑filling facility. The project reportedly cut scheduling time from 10 hours to seconds, reduced lateness by 14%, lowered setup time by 9%, and shortened tank unloading duration by up to 18%. ^[19]
A roughly €10 million contract for 50% of the capacity of its Advantage2 annealing quantum computer in Lombardy, Italy, with an option to expand – a multi‑year government‑backed deal that underscores enterprise and public‑sector demand. ^[20]
Deployment of additional systems in the U.S., including an Advantage2 system at Davidson Technologies in Huntsville, Alabama for defense‑related workloads. ^[21]
Continued emphasis on hybrid quantum‑classical solutions via its Leap cloud platform, which blends quantum processors with classical compute to tackle optimization and machine‑learning tasks. ^[22]

These deals and deployments are a big part of why some analysts are comfortable raising price targets even as losses remain steep.

Bulls vs. bears: how today’s news splits the market

The bullish case (and why some price targets jumped)

Analysts who are optimistic on QBTS point to: ^[23]

Rapid revenue growth (doubling year‑over‑year, triple‑digit growth year‑to‑date).
Strong and improving margins suggesting a scalable, software‑ and cloud‑heavy business model.
A growing roster of blue‑chip customers and government projects, from BASF to Italian regional governments, airlines, semiconductors and financial institutions. ^[24]
A large cash balance (reported in some coverage as over $800 million, though figures vary by source and period) giving the company runway to keep investing in R&D. ^[25]

Following Q3, several firms boosted their price targets – with some research houses moving from $20 to $35–$41 and maintaining “Buy” ratings. ^[26]

Across coverage aggregated by MarketBeat, 11 analysts currently rate QBTS a Buy, one a Hold and one a Sell, with an average target price around $28.7 – above today’s trading level but well below the recent highs near $46. ^[27]

The bearish case (and why short sellers are circling)

Bears – including Andrew Left and some quant‑trading desks – counter with several concerns: ^[28]

GAAP losses are extremely large, driven in part by warrant‑related charges but also by rising operating expenses, especially R&D and stock‑based compensation.
Even after the pullback, QBTS trades at a very high multiple of current revenue, making it vulnerable if growth slows or if the macro backdrop for speculative tech worsens.
Competition from deep‑pocketed tech giants (Google, IBM, etc.) could compress margins or limit D-Wave’s long‑term moat.
Short‑term trading models see weak sentiment and bearish setups, with some technical services explicitly promoting high‑reward short trades against QBTS.

Add in the fact that many quantum and AI names have seen 700–6,000% surges in a short period – a pattern some commentators explicitly describe as a potential “bubble” – and you get a recipe for intense volatility. TechStock²+1

What today’s institutional headlines really mean

It’s tempting to read today’s Los Angeles Capital, SBI Securities and PFG Advisors stories as “smart money is buying the dip today.” The reality is more nuanced:

The 13F filings reflect positions that these firms held during the second quarter of 2025, when prices and sentiment were different. ^[29]
That said, the fact that multiple institutions independently decided to establish or expand positions in QBTS supports the notion that D-Wave isn’t just a meme trade – it’s on the radar of mainstream asset managers.
With institutional ownership north of 40%, price moves are being shaped by a mix of retail traders, hedge funds, and long‑only institutions rather than just one group. ^[30]

In other words: today’s filings don’t tell you what these funds are doing right now, but they do show that QBTS has already been an institutional story for months.

Key things to watch after 13 November 2025

For investors tracking D-Wave after today’s roller‑coaster session, several signposts stand out:

Price action and support levels
- Technical commentary points to a downward bias in the near term, with some traders targeting further downside if current levels fail to hold. ^[31]
Follow‑through on major contracts and proofs of concept
- The Italian Advantage2 deal, BASF deployment, Ford Otosan project and Comcast’s quantum network lab are all real‑world tests of whether quantum can deliver repeatable business value – and whether customers will scale their spending. ^[32]
Bookings and cash burn
- Future quarters will be scrutinized for bookings growth, conversion of large deals into recurring revenue, and the pace at which D-Wave burns through its sizable cash pile. ^[33]
Analyst and rating changes
- After such a violent re‑rating of the stock, any downgrades (or further upgrades) to price targets and ratings could quickly sway sentiment. ^[34]
Macro risk appetite for speculative tech
- Quantum names have tended to move in lockstep with speculative AI, crypto and high‑beta tech. A change in broader market risk appetite could help or hurt QBTS regardless of company‑specific news. ^[35]

Bottom line

On 13 November 2025, D-Wave Quantum sits at the intersection of:

Explosive growth and genuine technical progress,
Towering valuations, and
Rising skepticism from short sellers and tactical traders.

Today’s headlines capture that split perfectly: Motley Fool asks if QBTS can mint millionaires, Business Insider profiles a high‑profile short, MarketBeat highlights institutional buyers, and technical services flag fresh short setups – all on the same day.

For readers and potential investors, the takeaway is clear:

D-Wave is no longer a niche quantum science story – it’s a high‑beta, high‑risk, high‑reward stock where news flow, sentiment, and execution all matter enormously.

As always, this article is for information and news purposes only and does not constitute financial or investment advice. Quantum computing – and QBTS – may have enormous upside, but anyone considering the stock should do their own research, consider their risk tolerance, and, if needed, consult a qualified financial professional.

D-Wave Quantum: Is This the AI Moment? #shorts

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References

D-Wave Quantum (QBTS) Stock Plunges as Short Sellers Circle and Institutions Buy – All the Key News on 13 November 2025