By Mackenzie Tatananni

Shares of D-Wave Quantum have tumbled over the past few weeks as investors seemingly lost confidence in quantum computing, despite a stream of encouraging news and scientific discoveries.

But it appears D-Wave's annual user conference may have riled up enough enthusiasm to send the shares higher -- at least, for now.

D-Wave kicked off its Qubits conference on Monday, the same day shares of the quantum computing company closed up 0.3%. They climbed even further on the second day of the conference, rising 5.7% to $8.03.

The latest gains can help D-Wave can breathe a sigh of relief. After boosting quantum computing stocks into the stratosphere over the past 12 months, Wall Street no longer seemed to be buying the quantum growth story.

D-Wave and peer stocks have wavered since Nvidia GTC's Quantum Day on March 21. While the event put the technology in the spotlight, it appeared to reignite concerns about the pace of quantum development and its sluggish proliferation on a commercial scale.

As D-Wave stock climbed on Tuesday, peers were also rising, though the size of these gains varied. IonQ spiked 10%, while Quantum Computing and Rigetti Computing rose 1.2% and 0.2%, respectively.

The highlight of the two-day conference was a keynote speech delivered by D-Wave CEO Alan Baratz, who kicked off the event lauding the company's recent accomplishments.

First were the company's quantum supremacy claims, which were accompanied by a peer-reviewed paper last month. D-Wave said it had demonstrated the first example of quantum advantage on a real-world problem after its Advantage2 system completed a materials simulation in 20 minutes that would have taken one of the world's most powerful supercomputers nearly a million years.

The claims were met with pushback at the time, but Baratz asserted that critics were "confusing the public" with their own scientific findings. He addressed this point again on Monday.

"We really do want to understand how well classical can do, so we can understand the boundary between classical and quantum, but it's really important that everybody be clear about the work that they've done," the CEO said.

Baratz pointed to another recent achievement, showing how D-Wave built a blockchain prototype running across four quantum computers and highlighting potential applications in the Trump administration's proposed Bitcoin treasury.

"The energy consumption required to do a blockchain of that magnitude would just make it unrealistic," Baratz said. "But with quantum proof-of-work rather than classical proof-of-work underlying the blockchain, we are actually able to do this with very little power consumption."

Other highlights included the sale of an Advantage2 machine to a German research center in February and record bookings in fiscal 2024, Baratz said.

"We announced that we will have record revenue in Q1 of this year and we have over $100 million dollars in the bank -- more than enough cash to achieve profitability," the CEO added.

Profitability has been a sticking point in the acceptance of quantum, as many investors turn to numbers for proof of success. D-Wave and other pure plays are pre-revenue, meaning they sink more money into research and development than they earn.

Baratz stressed that Advantage2 machine would be generally available later this year, and company would continue to strive to build bigger, better computers.

"As we look to the future, it's always about more qubits and connectivity, greater coherence," he said.

Meanwhile, there are plenty of use cases. Baratz cited work with customers such as Pattison Food Group, Ford Otosan, and Mastercard. The CEO also detailed the synergy between quantum computing and artificial intelligence for a project with Japan Tobacco's pharmaceutical division.

While Nvidia's backing had the opposite effect, D-Wave's user conference seems to have stirred up positive attention around the shares. While tentative, it is a sign the tides may be turning in their favor.

Write to Mackenzie Tatananni at mackenzie.tatananni@barrons.com

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April 01, 2025 14:25 ET (18:25 GMT)

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