Alan Baratz of D-Wave Quantum (David Fitzgerald/Getty Images)

D-Wave CEO says recent tech breakthrough is bolstering its sales momentum

D-Wave Quantum CEO Dr. Alan Baratz also believes the company has minimal risk from tariffs and is well insulated from any turbulence in the global economy.

Luke Kawa

5/8/25 2:49PM

D-Wave Quantum is one of the best-performing stocks listed across all US exchanges on Thursday, soaring over 50% at its peak after an impressive set of first-quarter results in which more quarterly revenues were generated than all of 2024.

(The Tradr 2x Long QBTS Daily ETF is performing like the name suggests, more than doubling on the day.)

We sat down with CEO Dr. Alan Baratz to discuss the company’s rising pipeline of potential new buyers for systems (which drove this quarter’s huge jump in revenues), how the firm is navigating a world of uncertain tariffs and rising recession risks, and how D-Wave’s opportunity set is expanding beyond solving business optimization problems to AI and the blockchain.

Below are lightly edited responses from Baratz on D-Wave’s operations and business prospects. All emphasis added.

On how the three potential systems sales highlighted in the March Q4 earnings call are progressing:

I think that I indicated when we last spoke that those three were in the very early stages, and these are long timeline sales opportunities, so it was going to take a while for them to mature. What I can tell you is that those three are all progressing nicely, one of them actually quite nicely. Although, nothing to report at this time. And then we have added a couple of others, so we are making progress. The fact that the supremacy result has really generated a lot of interest among the supercomputing centers, combined with the fact that Julich was the first to take the plunge and actually purchased a system, has generated some very real interest from other supercomputing centers and national labs in acquiring systems.

On D-Wave’s supply chain risk from tariffs:

The answer is low to nothing. Most of the technology that we use to build our systems is either commodity if acquired externally, or developed internally by our own R&D. So the parts we acquire externally are essentially commodity. Now, let’s take China for example. We do have some parts in our system that are sourced from China.

They are low-tech things like connectors and frankly represent less than 10% of the cost of the system. So even if we had to pay 2x, 3x, 4x for those parts, it really would not significantly impact us. So it’s just not an issue.

On if there’s any sign of potential customers pulling back in light of concerns about the macroeconomic environment:

No impact at all, but let me explain why. We are actually seeing now more, larger companies with more complex applications wanting to do larger deals with us. Now, that’s driven primarily by the supremacy work that has caught the attention of a lot of companies, namely the fact that we are able to deliver real computational capability that you cannot get classically — so the supremacy result combined with customer references and the fact that we have already been able to deliver value to a number of different companies. Quite the opposite of seeing challenges, we are actually seeing a growing pipeline of better opportunities.

But perhaps the other reason why this is the case is you talking about CapEx going down due to uncertainty. When we sell professional services and quantum compute as a service, it’s OpEx, not CapEx. Now, when we sell systems, that is CapEx, but that’s more sold to supercomputing centers and government labs that don’t have the same kind of issues that commercial may be having right now.

On D-Wave’s total addressable market:

Optimization is a huge market opportunity. IDC put the market for quantum at about $8 billion to $9 billion in roughly three years, and they also said that they think optimization is the killer app for quantum computing. So there’s a a huge market opportunity for us just in the optimization space, and we’re the only ones that can go after that today.

But we’ve also started talking about some new application areas that are enabled as a result of the supremacy work; for example, blockchain. We built a hashing function based on the computation that we use in our quantum supremacy result, which enables a much more energy efficient proof of work for blockchain and cryptocurrency.

Now, we are not blockchain or cryptocurrency experts. So we are looking for partners who are experts in the area who are interested in leveraging that technology, and we have already engaged with a few that have come to us with an interest in leveraging this technology. That’s a whole new market opportunity area for us that isn’t at all baked into any of our thinking about the growth of the business.

The second is AI. We’re doing some very interesting work in how you can use the quantum computer together with classical to do AI model training and inference faster and with less electricity consumption. And we think that could also be a significant market for us.

What’s interesting about those two, blockchain and AI, is that unlike optimization, where it’s really quantum compute as a service — because all these businesses care about is “run my application” — in those cases, they need systems. So those are system sales opportunities.

Tasha Matsumoto

Semiconductors slump, dragging down stocks

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 fell as chip stocks and AI-linked names lost steam. Oil prices slid on the prospect of the Strait of Hormuz reopening.

Paige Oamek6h

Lionsgate closes higher on Netflix acquisition rumor

Shares for the film production company Lionsgate soared on Tuesday following rumors of a potential buyout.

According to a person familiar with the possible merger and acquisitions deal, streaming giant Netflix is one of the companies that may be interested in buying Lionsgate Studios, per reporting by Semafor.

Neither Lionsgate nor Netflix confirmed the news, but nevertheless the stock climbed, closing up 14%.

Netflix closed lower on news that Fox will acquire Roku in an approximately $22 billion deal after it was also rumored that the streaming company was interested in that acquisition. “Netflix did not make a bid for Roku,” a spokesperson told Semafor. This comes after Netflix withdrew its buyout bid for Warner Bros. Discovery earlier this year.

Lionsgate’s shares are up 77% since January. Lionsgate owns massive franchises like “John Wick” and “The Hunger Games.” The film company has a market cap of approximately $4.7 billion, making it roughly 5x smaller than Roku and 13x smaller than Warner Bros.

Helena Cheng10h

Oil tumbles below $80 to 3-month low on US-Iran deal

Oil prices slid to their lowest levels in more than three months today after a preliminary ceasefire agreement between the US and Iran raised expectations that more crude could return to global markets and key shipping routes through the Strait of Hormuz could reopen.

Brent crude fell below $78 a barrel while West Texas Intermediate dropped to $73.31, extending losses as traders priced in lower geopolitical risk premiums tied to Middle East supply disruptions.

The preliminary pact announced by President Donald Trump and Iranian leaders establishes a 60-day ceasefire to end the active hostilities that have choked the Middle East since late February. A formal memorandum of understanding is scheduled to be officially signed in Switzerland this Friday, according to Bloomberg report.

Trump said on Sunday that the Strait of Hormuz would be opened when the agreement is signed in Switzerland on Friday, writing on Truth Social, “Ships of the World, start your engines. Let the oil flow!”

US Energy Department data, meanwhile, showed that America’s strategic oil stockpiles sank last week to their lowest level since 1983, indicating sustained demand to rebuild them even if the Mideast conflict ends.

Stocks that moved lower:

Devon Energy, Chevron, Occidental Petroleum, and Phillips 66 fell as oil prices dropped.

Helena Cheng12h

Eos Energy surges on commercial launch of second battery production line

Eos Energy Enterprises is surging in early trading after announcing the official start of commercial production at its second automated battery manufacturing line.

In a statement, the company said this milestone positions it to scale production of its proprietary zinc-based long-duration energy storage systems to meet rising commercial demand.

Management touted the enhanced efficiency of this facility, with design upgrades slashing raw material travel by 86% and shortening the physical production line length by 40% compared to Line 1.

“Battery Line 2 demonstrates our ability to continuously improve as we scale,” said John Mahaz, Chief Operating Officer of Eos. “It validates that our manufacturing system can be replicated and scaled with discipline.”

The battery energy storage company confirmed that while subassemblies will continue coming online through the early third quarter, full production capacity is targeted for the fourth quarter of 2026. The ultimate goal is to hit an aggregate 4 gigawatt-hours of annual manufacturing capacity by the end of 2026. Management also highlighted that Battery Line 1 already surpassed its full-year 2025 output within the first 164 days of 2026.

Today’s announcement builds on recent operational momentum for Eos, which posted better-than-expected Q1 sales and announced a joint venture with Cerberus Capital Management in May. However, shares are still down 37% year to date.

For the full year, Eos still expects to achieve revenues between $300 million and $400 million, in line with its previously provided guidance.

Luke Kawa6/15/26

Qualcomm reportedly in talks to acquire AI chip design company Tenstorrent

Qualcomm is in talks to acquire AI chip design firm Tenstorrent for $8 billion to $10 billion, according to The Information.

This transaction, if completed, would be another concrete signal of the San Diego-based chip company’s attempt to carve out a niche in the upstream AI space (data centers), rather than focusing on end-user devices.

Qualcomm’s key business of handset chips has fallen on hard times, particularly in China, due to the memory chip shortage.

Less than eight weeks ago, the chip company was the lowlight in the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index, down about 20% year to date.

Shares proceeded to surge over 60%, buoyed by optimism that the rising AI tide will lift all boats. With the release of Q2 earnings, CEO Cristiano Amon said that initial shipments of AI chips to a “leading hyperscaler” were on track for later this year, and to expect more on the company’s AI growth plans at its investor day on June 24 (next week). Last month, Bloomberg reported that Qualcomm is poised to sell “millions” of AI chips to TikTok parent ByteDance.

Established AI chip giants and hyperscalers alike have reached agreements with or gobbled up burgeoning AI chip companies as the boom rolls on. In December, Nvidia announced a major licensing deal with AI inference specialist Groq, while Meta bought AI chip startup Rivos in September.