D-Wave published its second-quarter report on 5 August 2026. We are writing about it today, 6 August.
The number of the report
Bookings up more than twelvefold
Bookings in the first half of 2026: $35.5 million.
In the same half a year ago: $2.9 million.
An increase of more than 1,120%.
And why bookings rather than revenue? In quantum computing most revenue is recognised over time - so bookings are the leading indicator. They show what has been signed, before it reaches the income statement.
The customers
**The company reports that in the first half it recognised revenue from more than a hundred individual customers, and that over 50% of them are commercial enterprises.
And that is the point that makes this interesting. Quantum computing spent years as a field resting almost entirely on government and academic funding. A split in which more than half the customers are commercial says the field is starting to sell to people spending their own money.
And in addition: production revenue - actual use rather than experimentation - made up 37.3% of total quantum-computing-as-a-service revenue.
And what deserves qualifying
The gross margin eroded
GAAP gross margin in the quarter: 55.4%, against 63.8% a year ago.
A decline of 8.4 percentage points.
And that is logical precisely when bookings surge: selling systems and actual run-time services costs more than selling remote access to an experiment. As the company moves from academia to industry, the mix gets heavier.
But it does mean each new revenue dollar carries less profit than the last - and at a company still operating at small scale, that pushes breakeven further out.
And the context
D-Wave is one of two quantum computing companies that reported this week, alongside IonQ.
And the comparison is instructive: IonQ reported revenue of $80.1 million and growth of 287%, and also a $1.87 billion loss, most of it an accounting remeasurement. D-Wave is far smaller, but its bookings growth is faster.
Both prove the same thing: the field has moved from research to a stage where contracts get signed. What remains unproven is which of them reaches profitability, and when.
My Angle
A personal opinion of Ilan Abramov - not advice, not a recommendation
What interests me about D-Wave is not the size but the direction.
$35.5 million of bookings is a small sum. But growth from $2.9 million in a single year says something changed in the market, not in the company. Customers who did not sign before are signing.
And the figure I consider most important is that over 50% of customers are commercial enterprises. Quantum computing lived for years on research budgets. A commercial customer pays only if it sees a return, and that is the real test of a technology.
And what I flag as caution: the margin eroding by 8.4 points. At a company of this scale, a falling margin means breakeven recedes even as revenue grows. Booking growth is good news only if it is not bought with profitability.
And compared with IonQ - both tell the same story from different angles. The field has left the lab. But neither has yet shown it can make money from it.
