NEW YORK, April 16, 2026, 13:37 EDT
D-Wave Quantum Inc. shares climbed roughly 5% Thursday afternoon, building on Wednesday’s 22.6% surge that followed Nvidia’s debut of Ising—its new family of open AI models targeting quantum-computing applications. The stock last changed hands at $21.81, having earlier reached $23.35.
Nvidia’s rollout stands out because it targets two of the trickiest issues facing the sector right now: calibrating quantum processors and fixing the errors that crop up as fragile qubits falter. The company says Ising is designed to tackle both tasks, marking a tangible commitment from one of the largest chipmakers to push deeper into quantum technology.
D-Wave wasn’t alone in the rebound. IonQ and Rigetti both climbed on Thursday—adding to Wednesday’s double-digit rallies. Investors had been rotating into the group after a bruising stretch last year, triggered when Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang expressed skepticism about the timeline for commercial quantum machines.
D-Wave is grabbing headlines largely because it has real commercial traction—still small-scale, but tangible. Back in February, the company reported 2025 revenue jumped 179% to $24.6 million. By Feb. 25, first-quarter 2026 bookings had already cleared $32.8 million, helped by a $20 million system sale and a $10 million, two-year quantum-computing-services contract.
D-Wave has been moving to broaden its offering. According to an SEC filing, the company wrapped up its Quantum Circuits buyout on Jan. 20, putting down $250 million in cash and handing out 10.43 million shares. That acquisition brings gate-model tech into the mix—a more versatile quantum method—on top of D-Wave’s existing lineup of systems and cloud-based services for optimization problems like scheduling and routing.
Alan Baratz, the CEO, seized on this week’s attention to hammer his point. “If I was Nvidia, I’d be shaking in my boots,” he told Yahoo Finance. D-Wave said Baratz would press his argument at both the Semafor World Economy event and the QED-C Quantum Summit, insisting quantum computing is shifting from test phase to real-world business use. Yahoo Finance
Back in the early part of this year, Krish Sankar at TD Cowen pointed to D-Wave’s “leadership in quantum annealing”—a focus on optimization that he said was fueling gains in both system sales and cloud services. Then this week, MarketWatch reported Sankar flagged Nvidia’s latest models as a possible spark for faster commercialization. B. Riley’s Craig Ellis chimed in too, arguing these new chips could speed up adoption by stepping up error correction. StreetInsider.com
Still, there’s not much margin for error after the rally. D-Wave reported a $355 million net loss in 2025, according to Reuters figures, and its SEC filing on the Quantum Circuits merger flagged possible problems: tough integration, cost overruns, or disappointing synergies could weigh on performance and pressure the share price. Thursday’s close left the company valued around $8.4 billion.
Traders are reacting to Nvidia’s fresh technical update and a burst of bookings from D-Wave. The next test: whether the rally sticks as the company integrates Quantum Circuits and looks to press ahead on those initial deals.
