NEW YORK, December 31, 2025, 13:14 ET — Regular session
Shares of D-Wave Quantum Inc (QBTS) rose about 2.5% to $26.90 in early afternoon trading on Wednesday, outpacing other U.S.-listed quantum-computing pure plays. The stock traded between $26.08 and $27.42 and had seen about 22 million shares change hands. IonQ, Rigetti Computing and Quantum Computing Inc were up less than 1% each.
The move matters because quantum-computing stocks have become a high-beta pocket of tech, where shifts in risk appetite can show up quickly in prices. The final trading day of the year can also bring thinner liquidity, which tends to magnify swings in smaller, more speculative names.
The broader market was sluggish, with major U.S. indexes edging lower in the final session of 2025 as investors looked for profit-taking opportunities in low-volume conditions, Reuters reported. “I do not expect that the last few days will have so much bearing on the performance of the next year,” said Giuseppe Sette, co-founder and president of Reflexivity. U.S. markets are closed on Thursday for New Year’s Day. 1
D-Wave sells access to quantum computers through its Leap cloud service and also markets on-premises systems. Its core technology is quantum annealing — a method aimed at finding good solutions to complex optimization problems such as scheduling and routing — while it also says it is developing “gate-model” quantum computers that run algorithms built from quantum logic gates.
Investors are looking ahead to early-January visibility. D-Wave said this month it will sponsor CES Foundry at the Fontainebleau Las Vegas on Jan. 7-8, where it plans to show customer use cases and “hybrid” solvers that pair quantum processing with conventional computing. 2
The company has also set its annual Qubits user conference for Jan. 27-28 in Boca Raton, Florida. D-Wave said it plans to share product-roadmap updates across both annealing and gate-model programs, alongside customer and partner talks. 3
In its latest quarterly filing, D-Wave reported third-quarter revenue of $3.7 million and said it ended September with $836.2 million in cash. It also said it closed more than $12 million in additional bookings — a measure of contract value signed — after the quarter ended. The filing said a non-cash remeasurement of a warrant liability, an accounting mark tied to warrants that can convert into shares, swung reported results, while adjusted net loss was 5 cents per share. 4
Investors are watching whether that contract pipeline translates into repeatable revenue and whether margins hold as the company scales deliveries and cloud usage. Any fresh customer wins or public-sector awards could reset expectations for 2026, while the next earnings update will be the next key checkpoint.
The quantum cohort remains crowded and volatile, with IonQ and Rigetti pursuing different hardware approaches and Quantum Computing Inc focused on photonics. For D-Wave, the near-term debate centers on whether commercial demand for optimization workloads is durable enough to support valuation through 2026.
Trading desks also have one eye on how the first full week of January shapes up for high-beta tech. In names that trade on themes, a return of liquidity can either smooth out price action or sharpen reversals.
Short-term, traders will watch whether QBTS can hold the mid-$20s range as volumes normalize after the holiday stretch. A sustained pickup in turnover would signal that the year-end move is drawing follow-through interest rather than fading as the calendar turns.
