D-Wave Quantum (QBTS) had one of the roughest starts imaginable when it went public in August 2022 through a reverse merger with a special purpose acquisition company, known as a SPAC.
By the close of 2023, the quantum computing company had shed more than 90% of its value, leaving early investors nursing steep and painful losses.
Yet investors who held their nerve and waited until the end of 2023 to open a position found themselves in a dramatically different situation as the stock staged a remarkable recovery.
Investors who put $1,000 into D-Wave Quantum stock at the end of 2023 and held on now have an investment worth approximately $21,650.
The bulk of those extraordinary gains materialized in 2025, as growing real-world adoption of quantum computing technology began to drive meaningful investor enthusiasm toward the sector.
D-Wave’s quantum annealing computers attracted attention as companies discovered they could apply the technology to rapidly solve complex problems in supply chain logistics and portfolio optimization.
Despite the staggering returns, the stock carries considerable uncertainty, with competition emerging from peers such as IonQ and Rigetti Computing, both developing their own rival quantum computing systems.
Established technology giants including Google parent Alphabet and IBM are also investing heavily in quantum computing, adding further competitive pressure on smaller pure-play companies like D-Wave.
The company has thus far booked only modest revenues alongside massive losses, raising legitimate questions about the durability of its current market valuation.
D-Wave Quantum’s price-to-sales ratio sits at around 550, a figure so elevated it renders traditional valuation measures largely meaningless for analysts and investors trying to assess fair value.
That combination of explosive past performance, intensifying competition, thin revenues, and a sky-high valuation leaves investors wrestling with whether QBTS remains a compelling buy at current levels.
For those who missed the 2023 entry point, the calculus is considerably more complicated, with the risk-reward profile looking far less favorable than it did just a few years ago.
