Quantum Earnings Season Delivers a Split Verdict: IonQ Surges Past $80 Million as Rigetti and D-Wave Stay Small
The quantum computing sector just closed out its most consequential earnings week of the year, and the results underscored how unevenly commercial traction is being distributed among the publicly traded pure plays. IonQ posted record second-quarter revenue of $80.1 million, up 287% from a year earlier, and raised its full-year 2026 guidance to a range of $280 million to $290 million, according to reporting from Data Center Dynamics and the company's own release.
That top-line number puts IonQ in a different weight class from its peers. Rigetti Computing reported second-quarter revenue of $5.1 million, up 183% from $1.8 million a year earlier, with gross margin improving to 43% from 31%, according to figures reported by Investing.com. D-Wave Quantum, which reported alongside the group, generated $3.1 million in quarterly revenue, roughly flat sequentially, per Data Center Dynamics.
The bottom lines remain deeply negative across the board. Data Center Dynamics reported that IonQ's GAAP net loss for the quarter reached roughly $1.87 billion, with an adjusted EBITDA loss of $120.3 million — or $95.6 million excluding spending tied to its newly acquired SkyWater business — cushioned by a cash, equivalents and investments position of about $2 billion following the acquisition's close. Rigetti posted a GAAP net loss of $52.6 million against a cash and investments balance of $541 million with no debt, while D-Wave's net loss narrowed to $48 million from $167 million a year earlier.
D-Wave's headline weakness came with a notable counterpoint: bookings. The company reported first-half bookings of $35.5 million, up more than 1,100% year over year, and said commercial customers accounted for 62% of second-quarter revenue, up from 45% a year ago, per Data Center Dynamics. The company also drew attention in early August for an early-stage proof-of-concept collaboration with Nasdaq Verafin aimed at fraud and money-laundering detection — a partnership that, as 24/7 Wall St. noted, does not yet carry a signed revenue contract.
Rigetti paired its modest revenue with technical progress. The company highlighted its Cepheus-1-108Q system — 108 qubits assembled from twelve interconnected nine-qubit chiplets — with a median two-qubit gate fidelity of 99.1%, and said a smaller 36-qubit system reached 99.6%, according to Investing.com. Management is targeting 99.5% median two-qubit fidelity by year-end and, over three years, a roughly 1,000-qubit machine. Even so, Seeking Alpha reported the stock dipped after the mixed print, and Investing.com noted shares slid almost 4% after hours on August 6 to $15.88.
The reports landed after a bruising stretch for the group. In late July, 24/7 Wall St. reported that IonQ had fallen 39% over the prior month, with Rigetti and D-Wave each down about 30% and Quantum Computing Inc. off 24%, as investors pulled back from high-multiple, pre-profit technology names amid a broader valuation reset.
Sentiment turned in the first days of August. On August 3, D-Wave jumped 11% to $20.08 on the Nasdaq Verafin news, IonQ gained 9% to $39.62 after closing its SkyWater acquisition, and Rigetti climbed to $16.23 without a company-specific catalyst, according to 24/7 Wall St., which attributed part of the move to a broad risk-on session as Middle East tensions eased.
The sector's earnings calendar is not finished. Data Center Dynamics noted that Quantinuum was slated to report results on August 11 and Infleqtion on August 12, while newly listed IQM Quantum Computers disclosed a first-half order backlog of roughly €102 million and 26 full-stack systems sold. For investors, the week's takeaway was less about any single quarter than about a widening gap: one company now guiding toward a nine-figure revenue year, and a field of rivals still measured in single-digit millions.
