Non-classical (qubit) computing, its software, networking, quantum-safe crypto and components; classical AI accelerators are AI (10000000).
Contains
Theme index· base 100 · USD total return
No index history for this theme yet.
News & notes movingQuantum Computing
Quantum-Safe / Post-Quantum Cryptography▲
Bitcoin's First Quantum-Resistant Transaction Completed
Blockchain development firm StarkWare announced on August 26 that the first Bitcoin transaction resistant to quantum computer attacks has been completed on the mainnet. This was achieved without changing Bitcoin's consensus rules. The method used, called "Quantum Safe Bitcoin (QSB)," was introduced by the company's Aviv Levy in April. It combines the elliptic curve cryptography currently used in Bitcoin with mechanisms resistant to quantum computers. If a sufficiently powerful quantum computer emerges in the future, it is feared that current cryptographic methods could allow private keys to be derived from public keys, but QSB is said to enhance resistance to such attacks. However, this success does not mean that Bitcoin itself has gained quantum resistance; rather, it demonstrates that specific QSB transactions can be executed on existing Bitcoin. StarkWare indicated that in the long term, Bitcoin's protocol will need to be updated to introduce quantum-resistant signature schemes.
IonQ Adds Capital Markets and Chip Leaders to Board
IonQ has appointed two new board members, Dr. Eric Ball, a veteran finance executive, and Timothy Baxter, former SkyWater chairman and Samsung North America CEO, bringing deep capital markets and semiconductor leadership experience to its governance. The combination of Ball's large-scale financing and M&A track record with Baxter's chip industry and go-to-market expertise could be important as IonQ integrates SkyWater and scales its merchant quantum supply ambitions. The new board members do not materially change the near-term catalyst of converting government and defense programs into durable revenue, but may help with governance around execution and integration risks. IonQ's narrative projects $700.4 million revenue and $53.4 million earnings by 2029, requiring 55.3% yearly revenue growth and a $255.1 million earnings decrease from $308.5 million today, with a fair value estimate of $68.41, a 63% upside to its current price.
Investment bank Bernstein released a major report forecasting Bitcoin's rise to $150,000 by mid-2027 and $300,000 by 2029, driven by the sovereign debt crisis and institutional demand. The report highlights that reaching the higher target is contingent on solving quantum computing threats to Bitcoin's cryptography. Bernstein's analysts emphasize that institutional adoption and macroeconomic factors will fuel the rally, but the quantum problem remains a critical risk. The forecast underscores growing confidence in Bitcoin as a hedge against fiat currency devaluation.
D-Wave Quantum shares fell 8% to $17.79 in midday trading Wednesday after the company disclosed that CFO John Markovich will retire effective September 2, with Greg Golkov stepping in as acting CFO. The decline dragged IonQ down 3% to $40.68, while Rigetti Computing slid 5% to $16.12 and Quantum Computing Inc. slipped 1% to $8.35, though the Defiance Quantum ETF barely moved at $148.27, confirming the selloff as name-specific. D-Wave, which has a market cap of $6.57 billion and is pre-profit, reported Q2 revenue of $3.08 million, missing the $4.03 million estimate, while remaining performance obligations reached $40.7 million, up 668% year over year. The company stated the resignation was not due to any disagreement, and CEO Alan Baratz credited Markovich with raising over $900 million in capital and taking the company public in 2022.
Quantum X Labs Launches Qatacomb Quantum Security Research Initiative
Quantum X Labs Inc. has announced the launch of Qatacomb, a new research initiative through its QuantumQ Security operation to explore quantum-native approaches to protecting sensitive information. The program will investigate security architectures that combine efficient access for authorized users with security properties rooted in quantum physics, and will include theoretical validation, simulation, and proof-of-concept testing on quantum hardware. The company cites a growing strategic need as quantum computing reshapes cybersecurity, with the global quantum security market projected to grow from approximately $2.5 billion in 2026 to approximately $9.8 billion by 2030, a compound annual growth rate of about 40%. Prof. Nir Sharon, Chief Technology Scientist, emphasized the goal of making quantum physics an integral part of the protection architecture itself. The initiative expands Quantum X Labs' research into quantum security, complementing its work in quantum computing, software, simulation, and sensing.
IBM Completes Acquisition of HRL Laboratories to Accelerate Quantum Innovation
IBM announced today that it has completed its acquisition of HRL Laboratories, a leading research and development institution specializing in quantum computing, quantum sensing, advanced communications, electronics, manufacturing, and materials science. The deal brings together HRL's expertise in silicon-spin qubits with IBM's leadership in superconducting quantum computing, and adds capabilities in quantum sensing, quantum materials, cryogenics, control electronics, packaging, and interconnect technologies expected to strengthen IBM's quantum hardware roadmap. IBM's roadmap includes its fault-tolerant quantum computer IBM Quantum Starling, expected by 2029 to perform 100 million quantum operations, followed by Blue Jay, its next-generation fault-tolerant quantum computer targeted for the mid-2030s. HRL's silicon-based quantum technologies will also support collaboration with Anderon, IBM's pure-play quantum wafer foundry, to advance scalable manufacturing. Boeing and General Motors, HRL's former owners, will continue to partner with IBM and HRL on quantum applications and advanced technology development. Financial terms were not disclosed.
IonQ Expands Merchant Supplier Role With Nexus Photonics Acquisition
IonQ is strengthening its role as a merchant supplier to the broader quantum industry, most recently acquiring Nexus Photonics to add chip-scale integration of lasers, modulators and optical subsystems. The company has already been a key supplier of precision atomic clocks to quantum computing companies and government contractors, and following the $1.8 billion acquisition of SkyWater in May, IonQ says it has become the world's largest quantum merchant supplier. On its August 2026 earnings call, IonQ announced the Nexus Photonics deal, which supports miniaturization and mass manufacture of quantum systems and brings the company closer to data center-scale distributed quantum systems. IonQ plans to supply these critical components through the industry's first dedicated quantum photonics foundry offering at SkyWater. IonQ shares have dropped 8.1% year to date, significantly lagging the industry's 105.7% growth, and the stock currently carries a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell).
Ethereum developers propose new deposit contract to counter quantum computers
Ethereum's developer team submitted a new deposit contract proposal to the EIP repository on GitHub on the 24th, designed to prepare for the risk of signature decryption by future quantum computers. The proposal is registered under the provisional number EIP9999 and adopts a mechanism that specifies a scheme identifier for each deposit, with a design capable of handling variable-length public keys and authentication information. The contract's state is managed in three stages: inactive, active, and deprecated, and in the final stage it unilaterally stops accepting new BLS-based registrations. The proposal is in draft stage, and the formal EIP number and implementation schedule are undecided.
D-Wave Quantum's stock has dropped about 21% over the past three months even as its contracted backlog grew nearly eightfold to $40.7 million by the end of June. First-half 2026 bookings reached $35.5 million, six times the $5.9 million of revenue recognized in the same period, with revenue down from $18.1 million a year earlier largely because $13.7 million of that came from a single annealing system sale. Management expects to ship two annealing quantum computers in the fourth quarter, including a $20 million machine for Florida Atlantic University, and says the fourth quarter should carry most of the year's revenue. Six customer applications are now in production, supplying over 37% of first-half subscription revenue compared with 9.8% a year earlier, with AT&T cutting a network task from about an hour to under 15 seconds and NTT DOCOMO reducing location registration signals by roughly 65%. The company posted a first-half adjusted EBITDA loss of $69.9 million against $546.2 million of cash and marketable securities, and the stock trades at more than 600 times trailing sales.
Banks and Regulators Join Pilot to Transfer Crypto Against Quantum Hacking Threats
Banks and financial regulators in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia have joined a pilot project to test quantum-resistant infrastructure for digital asset wallets and blockchain transfers. The Responsible Fintech Institution, or RFI, and Safeheron, a crypto custody infrastructure provider, announced the project on Monday. It uses a multi-party computation protocol supporting ML-DSA-65, a post-quantum digital signature standard published by the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology, on the quantum-resistant NEAR test network. Participating regulators include Abu Dhabi Global Market, Bhutan's Gelephu Financial Services Authority, and the Malta Financial Services Authority, while Bison Bank and DK Bank joined as financial institutions. The banks will test wallet creation and transfers in a shared application environment, while regulators will observe in the first phase and join regulatory workstreams later. Organizers plan to publish a white paper covering the research, protocol design, and test results, and will eventually open-source the underlying technology. The pilot comes as financial regulators prepare for quantum computers that could break public-key cryptography. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority aims to make Hong Kong's banking sector fully prepared for quantum-related security risks by 2030, while a 2025 Bank for International Settlements report urged financial institutions to begin migrating to post-quantum innovations in a coordinated and phased manner.
Quantum Computing Inc. reported second-quarter revenue of $5.6 million, more than 9,000% higher than the $61,000 it posted a year earlier, according to its SEC filing. Revenue grew 51% from the first quarter's $3.7 million, driven by photonics product sales across government, educational, and commercial customers. Net loss narrowed to $11.8 million from $36.5 million a year earlier, helped by a shrinking paper loss on warrant derivatives, while the company ended the quarter with a $42.5 million order backlog and $1.3 billion in cash. The quarter also included the acquisition of NHanced Semiconductors, which launched a second chip fabrication facility and contributed to a 114% rise in operating expenses to $21.8 million. The stock traded near $9 on Friday, Aug. 21, part of a rally that lifted seven quantum computing stocks, including D-Wave Quantum, Rigetti Computing, IonQ, Infleqtion, IQM Quantum Computers, and IBM.
Quantum Stocks Face Reality Check as QUBT and QNT Stand Out
Quantum computing stocks are entering a more demanding phase in the second half of 2026 as investors shift focus from qubit milestones to revenue visibility and commercialization. Quantum Computing Inc. reported second-quarter revenue of $5.6 million, up from $61,000 a year earlier, with a contract backlog of approximately $42.5 million, while Quantinuum's second-quarter revenue rose 279% year over year and it raised its 2026 revenue outlook to $28-$32 million. IonQ posted a 287% year-over-year revenue increase and raised its 2026 outlook to $280-$290 million, but carries a Zacks Rank #4, while D-Wave's first-half bookings surged 1,120% yet second-quarter revenue was only $3.1 million, essentially flat. Analysts' average price targets imply upside of 125.2% for Quantum Computing Inc. and 77% for Quantinuum.
Quantum stocks surge after Q2 results show significant improvement
Quantum computing stocks surged on Friday after second-quarter earnings reports showed significant revenue gains across the sector. D-Wave climbed 7% after BMO Capital Markets initiated coverage with an Outperform rating and a $35 price target, citing an addressable market opportunity of $450 billion to $850 billion. Rigetti jumped 9% as system and component sales reached $4.1 million, up from zero a year earlier, while Quantum Computing leaped 8% after revenue rose to $5.6 million from $65,000. IQM Quantum Computers popped 7% after second-quarter revenue increased 27% year over year to $7.8 million and it guided full-year revenue of $49 million to $55 million, and Infleqtion surged 9% on a 112% year-over-year revenue jump. IonQ increased 7.5% after announcing a partnership with the Canadian Microelectronics Corporation to expand quantum computing access to Canada-based researchers and businesses.
Rigetti Computing Q2 Revenue Soars 185.3% but Losses Widen
Rigetti Computing reported second-quarter 2026 revenue of $5.1 million, up 185.3% from $1.8 million a year earlier and 4.7% above the Zacks Consensus Estimate, driven by higher sales of 9-qubit Novera quantum computing systems. Gross profit rose 286.6% to $2.2 million with gross margin expanding about 1,120 basis points to 42.6%, but operating loss widened to $28.1 million from $19.9 million as research and development expenses increased 53.3% to $20.7 million and selling, general and administrative expenses rose 37.5% to $9.5 million. Customer concentration remained high, with the largest customer representing 64% of revenues and another 16%, while management expects results to fluctuate with contract mix and delivery schedules. The company expects to recognize revenues from an $8.4 million order for an on-premises 108-qubit system from India's Centre for Development of Advanced Computing in the fourth quarter of 2026 after installation and acceptance testing. Rigetti carries a Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell) with Value, Growth, Momentum, and VGM scores of F, F, D, and F respectively.
BMO Starts D-Wave Quantum at Outperform With $35 Target
BMO Capital initiated coverage of D-Wave Quantum with an Outperform rating and a $35 price target, implying roughly 85% upside from the latest close, sending the stock up 2% on Friday. Analyst Harsh Kumar sees D-Wave as relatively well positioned in quantum computing because it already generates commercial revenue and works across both annealing and gate-model systems, and he expects broader adoption as businesses move from experimentation toward practical applications. D-Wave reported $35.5 million in bookings during the first half of 2026, a more than 1,120% increase from the prior-year period, while remaining performance obligations climbed 668% to $40.7 million. Second-quarter revenue was about $3.1 million, below expectations, and the company posted a $0.13-per-share loss compared with the $0.09 loss analysts had projected.
BMO starts chip coverage with Outperform on Nvidia, Broadcom, Micron
BMO Capital Markets initiated coverage of the semiconductor and quantum computing sector with an upbeat outlook, favoring AI-exposed names and analog chipmakers emerging from a post-COVID downturn. Nvidia is BMO's top large-cap pick with an Outperform rating and a $340 price target, as analyst Harsh Kumar said its AI systems are fully booked for the next 12 months and called the stock's 18x forward price-to-earnings multiple a discount. Broadcom was also rated Outperform with a $455 target, Micron at Outperform with a $1,300 target, and AMD, Marvell and Semtech at Outperform with targets of $550, $250 and $155 respectively. In analog, BMO initiated Analog Devices, Microchip and Impinj at Outperform with targets of $430, $95 and $220, while MACOM was started at Market Perform. The firm sees the DRAM and NAND market growing from $215 billion in 2025 to $780 billion this year, and in quantum computing initiated D-Wave at Outperform with a $35 target, while rating Skyworks Market Perform with a $70 target.
QuantumCTek's 2026 interim report shows net loss of 23.1754 million yuan, narrowing year-on-year
QuantumCTek released its 2026 interim report, with net profit attributable to the parent company at negative 23.1754 million yuan, a loss reduction of 614,600 yuan compared with the same period last year, marking four consecutive years of narrowing losses. The company's total operating revenue was 124 million yuan, up 1.83 percent year-on-year, rising for four consecutive years. Net cash outflow from operating activities was 38.5041 million yuan, an improvement of 38.2224 million yuan year-on-year. The company's latest asset-liability ratio was 9.61 percent, gross margin was 40.69 percent, and diluted earnings per share was negative 0.23 yuan.
Rigetti Shares Plunge After Major Leadership Shake-Up
Rigetti Computing shares dipped 5% Thursday after the quantum computing company reorganized its leadership structure around customer deployments and processor development. David Rivas, previously chief technology officer, is moving into the chief operating officer role, with responsibilities including systems delivery, fabrication operations, software, supply chain and government programs. Andrew Bestwick, who had led Rigetti's Quantum Systems group, is taking over as CTO, focusing on hardware engineering, chip fabrication and development of the company's quantum processors. The restructuring creates a dedicated Systems Delivery organization intended to separate customer installation work from the engineering roadmap, allowing technical teams to concentrate more heavily on future processor platforms, including its Novera and Cepheus architectures. Rigetti recently reported $5.1 million of second-quarter revenue and held $541.3 million in cash, cash equivalents and available-for-sale investments at June 30.
Two Under-the-Radar Quantum Stocks Catch Analysts' Attention
Two newly public quantum computing companies, Horizon Quantum Holdings and Xanadu Quantum Technologies, have caught the attention of Wall Street's top analysts. Horizon Quantum, which went public in March through a SPAC merger with dMY Squared, builds software infrastructure for quantum computing and has a market cap of about $908 million. Craig Hallum analyst Richard Shannon rates Horizon a Buy with a $21 price target, implying roughly 25% upside from its current price of $16.82. Xanadu Quantum Technologies, which merged with Crane Harbor Acquisition Corp. and began trading on March 27, uses photonic technology to build room-temperature quantum computers and has a market cap of $3.15 billion. Canaccord analyst Kingsley Crane rates Xanadu a Buy with a $34 price target, suggesting a 228% gain from its current price of $10.37.
IBM Integrates Two Cryogenic Systems for Scalable Quantum Computing
IBM has integrated two modular cryogenic systems into a shared environment, marking a significant engineering milestone toward building a large-scale, fault-tolerant quantum computer. The new cryogenic architecture provides the ultra-low-temperature environment needed for quantum computing while offering greater capacity for wiring and processor connections, and the company's L-coupler technology will enable separate quantum chips to communicate and operate together. IBM plans to install its Quantum Nighthawk processors in the new cryogenic modules later this year for performance testing, aiming to connect multiple processors to support a quantum computer with at least 1,000 programmable qubits, with future modules expected to accommodate thousands of qubits. The modular design will allow IBM to test and upgrade different components independently, helping improve system performance and speed up development, as the company targets launching Quantum Starling, its planned fault-tolerant quantum computer, by 2029. IBM faces competition from Microsoft, which is advancing its Majorana 2 chip for scalable quantum computers, and Alphabet, whose Google Quantum AI division is developing advanced quantum processors and error-correction technologies.
Pasqal and Bleichroeder Acquisition Corp. II Set August 25 Shareholder Vote
Bleichroeder Acquisition Corp. II will hold a shareholder vote on August 25, 2026 to consider its proposed business combination with Pasqal Holding SAS, a global leader in neutral-atom quantum computing. The vote follows the SEC's declaration of effectiveness of the parties' joint registration statement on Form F-4. Bleichroeder shareholders of record are encouraged to review proxy materials and submit voting instructions as soon as possible. The proposed business combination remains subject to approval by Bleichroeder shareholders and other customary closing conditions. Pasqal, headquartered in France, employs approximately 300 people and serves over 25 clients and partners including Saudi Aramco, LG Electronics, Crédit Agricole CIB, CMA CGM, OVHcloud, Thales, IBM, and Sumitomo, and is backed by more than USD 300 million in total funding.
D-Wave Quantum shares have gained just 0.6% since its Aug. 6 second-quarter earnings report, trailing IonQ, Rigetti and the S&P 500 as investors prioritize near-term financial execution over long-term technology milestones. Second-quarter revenues were essentially flat year over year and 19.5% below the Zacks Consensus Estimate, while adjusted EBITDA loss widened to $37.1 million. Bookings were only $2.1 million after a $33.4 million first-quarter haul, though first-half bookings surged 1,120% to $35.5 million. The outlook is improving with $40.7 million of remaining performance obligations, 57% expected to convert within 12 months, two system deliveries planned for 2026, and production applications already generating 37.3% of first-half QCaaS revenues. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for third-quarter 2026 revenue is $3.95 million, a 5.7% improvement over the year-ago reported number, with a loss per share expectation of 7 cents, narrower than the year-ago 41 cents loss. For full-year 2026, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is $38.63 million, a 57.1% improvement over the 2025 reported number, and the projected EPS loss narrows to 28 cents from $1.11 in 2025. The stock trades below both its 50-day and 200-day simple moving averages, with the 50-day average remaining below the 200-day average, offering no strong technical confirmation of a potential trend reversal. QBTS trades at a 12-month price-to-sales ratio of 110.17 times, compared with approximately 5 times for the S&P 500, and its three-year median P/S ratio stands at 87.89 times. The short-term average price target of $35.79 implies 71.49% upside from the last close of $20.87, and Zacks maintains a Rank #3 Hold rating, supporting a wait-and-watch approach until execution improves.
Rigetti Computing Reports Q2 2026 Revenue Surge and $100 Million R&D Support
Rigetti Computing reported second-quarter 2026 revenue of US$5.14 million, up from US$1.80 million a year earlier, while its net loss widened to US$52.61 million from US$39.65 million. The company also announced a letter of intent for up to US$100.00 million in U.S. Department of Commerce quantum R&D support. The results highlight Rigetti's growing role in quantum infrastructure for research, AI, and high-performance computing, including new commercial system deliveries with partners such as Nvidia and HPE. The federal R&D support strengthens the short-term catalyst around government-backed scaling but also sharpens the risk of dependence on public funding and rising losses.
Quantum Computing Stocks Show Strong Analyst Upside in August
Wall Street analysts see significant upside in three quantum computing stocks—Rigetti Computing, IonQ, and D-Wave Quantum—despite their speculative nature and recent volatility. Rigetti leads with an implied upside of about 81.4% based on a $28.81 target versus its $18.67 close, supported by a letter of intent for up to $100 million in CHIPS Act funding and a 185.3% year-over-year revenue jump to $5.14 million. IonQ posted record Q2 revenue of $80.05 million, up 286.8% year over year, raised full-year 2026 guidance to $280–$290 million, and carries a 68.19% implied upside from its $46.84 close. D-Wave's first-half bookings surged to $35.5 million from $2.9 million a year earlier, with AT&T integrating its annealing platform to cut processing time from one hour to under 15 seconds, though its implied upside is the smallest at 19.7%.
BTQ Technologies Reports Quantum-Safe Milestones and Q1 2027 Silicon Timeline
BTQ Technologies Corp announced key milestones across its quantum-safe portfolio during its first quarter 2026 earnings call, including sending final design files for its QSIM chip to manufacturing partner ICTK with tape-out scheduled for August 2026 and first silicon samples expected in Q1 2027. The QSIM product achieved a record-low footprint of less than 100,000 logic gate equivalents for core post-quantum algorithms, four times smaller than the nearest open-source side-channel protected PQC engine. The company's QSSN was selected as the core post-quantum security infrastructure for Korea's first bank-led Korean Won stablecoin pilot, and its Denel pilot processed thousands of transactions with a 100% success rate and 0% fallback rate. Bitcoin Quantum, the quantum-safe Bitcoin fork, is on track for a mid-2026 mainnet launch with over 350,000 blocks mined and more than 150 open-source contributors. BTQ reported $12 million in liquidity and noted regulatory tailwinds from the upcoming CNSA 2.0 standard and EU Cyber Resilience Act, while acknowledging uncertainty around mass commercialization timelines and potential dilution from its base shelf.
IonQ and Quantinuum Pull Ahead in Quantum Computing Race
IonQ and Quantinuum are emerging as leaders in the quantum computing sector, driven by superior accuracy and strong second-quarter results. IonQ's revenue surged 287% to $80.1 million, beating estimates, with 60% from commercial customers and a backlog of $485 million. Quantinuum's revenue jumped 279% to $8 million, and its partnership with Oracle to integrate its Helios system into Oracle's cloud infrastructure is seen as a game changer. Both companies use trapped-ion technology, achieving over 99.9% two-qubit gate fidelity, far ahead of rivals like D-Wave and Rigetti, whose accuracy lags significantly.
Allot Chairs New Post-Quantum Communications Consortium
Allot Ltd. announced it is a founding member and Chair of a new Post-Quantum Communications Consortium dedicated to developing technologies that will secure communications networks and protect data against future quantum computing threats. Supported by the Israel Innovation Authority's Technological Infrastructure Division, the consortium includes Allot, Ceragon, Classiq, Gilat Satellite Networks, Heqa, Elta, NVIDIA, RAD, and Ribbon, along with academic partners Bar-Ilan University, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, The Open University of Israel, the Technion, and the University of Haifa. The consortium will develop and evaluate technologies based on Post-Quantum Cryptography, Quantum Key Distribution, and hybrid approaches, addressing multiple network layers including optical, Ethernet, IP, mobile, satellite, data center, and internet-based communications. Dr. Yaakov Stein, VP CTO of Allot and Chair of the Consortium Board, said the transition to quantum-safe communications is one of the most important cybersecurity challenges facing the world today.
Infleqtion Raises Q2 Revenue to $13.5M and FY26 Guidance to $45.1M
Infleqtion reported updated second quarter 2026 revenue of $13.5 million, up 157% year over year, and raised its full-year 2026 revenue guidance to approximately $45.1 million from $43 million. The revision reflects a shift in the timing of revenue recognition for two government contracts, with no impact to cash or underlying business fundamentals. GAAP operating loss widened to $29.9 million from $10.4 million a year earlier, while non-GAAP operating loss was $16.2 million compared with $7.6 million. The company also filed a Form 12b-25 for a one-day late filing of its Form 10-Q, and noted the adjustment reduces revenue recognized in 2024 and 2025. CEO Matt Kinsella said Q2 was a record quarter and the company remains on track for 30 logical qubits this year.
D-Wave Quantum Partners With Nasdaq Verafin on Financial Crime Detection
D-Wave Quantum has entered a partnership with Nasdaq Verafin to apply quantum computing to financial crime detection. The collaboration focuses on using D-Wave's quantum solutions to address complex financial crime analytics in the banking and financial services sector. The agreement marks an expansion of D-Wave Quantum's commercial work into real-world risk and compliance workflows beyond research settings. The partnership places D-Wave's quantum tools directly inside financial crime and compliance workflows in the banking sector, though it remains a proof-of-concept amid sizeable net losses and forecasts that do not yet point to profitability over the next three years.
D-Wave Quantum Secures NRC Funding and Publishes Nature Gate Breakthrough
D-Wave Quantum announced in August 2026 that it secured up to C$300,000 in funding from Canada's National Research Council and published peer-reviewed Nature research on a high-fidelity, hardware-level error-correcting two-qubit gate already integrated into its dual-rail gate-model systems. The government-backed software project and fault-tolerant gate-model breakthrough underscore D-Wave's effort to commercialize both annealing and gate-model quantum platforms for complex, real-world optimization and simulation workloads. The Nature paper directly reinforces D-Wave's dual-platform story and its long-term gate-model roadmap, connecting the near-term push to make Advantage2 more useful through better software with a tangible hardware step toward fault tolerance. However, the modest NRC grant and gate breakthrough do not materially change the near-term picture, where the key catalyst remains scaling real-world deployments and the biggest risk is persistent heavy losses if rising R&D and go-to-market spend fail to translate into larger, recurring contracts.
Infleqtion Lands Quantum Grid Reliability Subcontract with Eaton
Infleqtion has entered a new subcontract with Eaton to apply quantum computing to power grid reliability and contingency analysis. The project will use Infleqtion's quantum algorithms to help utilities assess complex grid scenarios that are difficult to handle with classical computing, aiming to support more resilient grid planning as power networks become more distributed and data intensive. The work ties Infleqtion's neutral atom platform directly to a critical infrastructure workflow, alongside the company's existing focus on defense, sensing, and timing systems. Investors will watch whether this Eaton subcontract turns into follow-on utility or grid operator work that shows up in Infleqtion's reported sales, guidance, or disclosed contract wins over the next few quarters.
Quantum computer hardware now available for pay-as-you-go use with JPYC
Yuichiro Minato, CEO of quantum computing company blueqat, announced on X on August 15 that quantum computer hardware can now be used on a pay-as-you-go basis with the yen stablecoin JPYC. Using the actual hardware with JPYC does not require a monthly contract, and users pay only for what they use. With blueqat MCP, in addition to a simulator that reproduces quantum circuits on a computer, users can also request computational processing on actual quantum computers. The service is currently connected to a 32-qubit superconducting processor in the Tokyo region. blueqat has now made hardware usage fees available through metered billing with JPYC. The base fee is 10 JPYC per hardware job, plus 0.1 JPYC per shot. A single shot therefore costs 10.1 JPYC. blueqat treats 1 JPYC as equal to 1 yen, and payments are made using Polygon. blueqat also offers a free plan and a paid plan at 980 yen per month, but with JPYC pay-as-you-go, users can run hardware jobs without a monthly contract. The simulator remains free, and JPYC billing applies only to hardware jobs.
Oracle Expands AWS AI Database Partnership Amid Rising Debt-Funded Capex
Oracle and Amazon Web Services have expanded their collaboration to accelerate migration to Oracle AI Database@AWS, now available across 22 AWS regions. Oracle also announced a multi-year quantum computing partnership with Quantinuum and new AI-driven Fusion Agentic Applications for HR. The company faces credit downgrades, heavy debt-funded AI infrastructure spending, and a delayed gas pipeline for its New Mexico AI data center. Analysts project Oracle could reach $181.8 billion in revenue and $41.7 billion in earnings by 2029, implying a fair value of $248.15 per share, a 65% upside to its current price.
Q-Day: The Quantum Threat to Bitcoin Is Getting Closer to Reality
Advances in quantum computing from Google and IBM are bringing the Q-Day threat to Bitcoin closer to reality, with the potential to crack high-risk wallets worth more than 452 billion dollars. A Google white paper in March 2026 indicated that quantum computers could break encryption systems faster than expected, while security researcher Justin Drake estimates a 10 percent chance that private keys could be recovered from exposed public keys by 2032. Italian researcher Giancarlo Lelli successfully cracked a weakened elliptic curve key in April 2026, and the U.S. government announced a 2 billion dollar investment to develop quantum technology in May 2026. Several BIP proposals, such as BIP-360 and BIP-361, have been put forward to prepare the network, but upgrades take a long time and require community consensus, while abandoned coins worth around 180 billion dollars, including roughly 1 million Satoshi-era Bitcoin, remain at high risk.
Quantum Computing Inc. says 70-80% of revenue tied to government contracts
Quantum Computing Inc. disclosed that roughly 70 to 80 percent of its revenue is tied to government contracting, primarily through subcontracting arrangements. CFO Christopher Roberts revealed the figure during the company's latest earnings release, which showed second quarter 2026 revenue of 5.6 million dollars, up from 61 thousand dollars a year earlier. The growth was driven by the Luminar Semiconductor, NuCrypt, and NHanced Semiconductors acquisitions rather than organic demand. The company remains in the early stages of monetization, with contract structures typically running 12 to 18 months and causing uneven quarterly revenue.
Ethereum Foundation Abandons Poseidon in Favor of SHA
The Ethereum Foundation is stepping back from using the Poseidon hash function in its planned post-quantum architecture, according to Justin Drake, a researcher at the foundation, turning instead to widely accepted and robust alternatives such as SHA or BLAKE. Drake said advances in SNARKs technology have made traditional hash functions efficient enough to replace Poseidon in those planned systems, with a production-ready leanVM targeted for 2027, followed by deployment across Ethereum's consensus layer, data layer, and execution layer in 2028. Sreeram Kannan, founder and chief executive officer of Eigen Labs, said systems based on established hash functions have fewer potential attack vectors than other post-quantum approaches and can be adopted more quickly because they have been thoroughly scrutinized for many years.
D-Wave Quantum reports Q2 revenue flat at $3.1 million
D-Wave Quantum reported second-quarter 2026 revenue of $3.1 million, essentially flat compared to the prior year, while bookings jumped 59% to $2.1 million. The company's first-half revenue fell 67% to $5.9 million due to a non-recurring $13.7 million system sale in 2025, but first-half bookings surged 1,120% to $35.5 million, driven by a $20 million system contract with Florida Atlantic University. Remaining performance obligations reached $40.7 million, up 668% year over year, with 57% expected to be recognized as revenue within 12 months. Commercial customers accounted for 62.4% of second-quarter revenue, up from 45.1% a year earlier, and Forbes Global 2000 customers represented 47.7% of total revenue versus 20.4% in the prior-year quarter. The company maintained guidance for two system deliveries in 2026 and expects fourth-quarter revenue to comprise the majority of annual revenue.
IonQ reported second quarter 2026 revenue of $80.1 million, up 287% year over year and 20% above its own expectations, driven by deployments of its fifth-generation quantum computing systems. The company also raised its full-year revenue guidance to a range of $280 million to $290 million, reflecting strong first-half performance. IonQ completed its $1.8 billion acquisition of SkyWater Technology on July 31, 2026, creating a vertically integrated full-stack quantum platform company, and received its first fully featured quantum processing units from SkyWater, which are now undergoing testing. Remaining performance obligations reached $485 million, up from $122 million a year earlier, while GAAP net loss was $1.9 billion, including a $1.6 billion non-cash warrant valuation charge. The company ended the quarter with $3.0 billion in cash and investments, and expects to begin commissioning its 256-qubit systems in 2027.
Quantinuum and Oracle announce industry-first quantum computing partnership
Quantinuum CEO Rajeeb Hazra announced an industry-first partnership with Oracle to integrate its Helios quantum computer into Oracle's data center. The deal will place Helios, described as the world's most accurate quantum computer, into Oracle's compute infrastructure and offer it as a service. This integration aims to let Oracle customers deploy hybrid workloads combining AI and quantum computing seamlessly, without managing additional hardware.
Rigetti Advances Quantum Roadmap With Strategic Global Expansion
Rigetti Computing is advancing its quantum computing roadmap through new commercial deployments, strategic partnerships, and government initiatives. The company will deliver a 9-qubit Novera quantum computing system to Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center's new TangleLab testbed, expanding its collaboration with Hewlett Packard Enterprise and supporting hybrid quantum-classical high-performance computing systems. Rigetti is also advancing its on-premises quantum computing pipeline, including the previously announced 108-qubit system for C-DAC in India, and has a letter of intent with the U.S. Department of Commerce for up to $100 million in funding over three years, though the proposed funding would involve an equity stake for the government. On the technology front, its Cepheus 108 qubit system is currently achieving approximately 99.9% median single qubit gate fidelity, 99.1% median two qubit gate fidelity, and gate speeds of about 60 nanoseconds, with targets of roughly 1,000 qubits, 99.9% two-qubit gate fidelity, and sub-50 nanosecond gate speeds over the next three years. The company is also planning an investment of up to $100 million in the United Kingdom, building on its existing 36-qubit deployment at the National Quantum Computing Centre.