The three major players in the US quantum computing space—D-Wave Quantum Inc. NYSE: QBTSRigetti Computing NASDAQ: RGTIand IonQ Inc. NYSE: IONQ-reported first-quarter earnings within days of May 2026. This gives investors an opportunity to easily compare three firms that are vying to be the leading name in this fast-growing industry. IonQ reported first, and Rigetti and D-Wave followed.
Investors hoping for a clear winner in this three-way race may be disappointed, as each company has some strengths and faces some obvious obstacles in the first three months of the year. All three also saw their stock prices drop immediately after their earnings were released. Below, we take a closer look at how each of these companies stacks up to mid-2026.
Rigetti: Big Sales Growth, Big Money, But Rising Costs
One of the highlights from Rigetti’s Q1 2026 earnings was its strong revenue growth. The company reported $4.4 million in revenue, nearly triple the $1.5 million it generated in the year-ago period. The sale of the company’s Novera QPU system helped drive this growth. On top of the year-on-year (YOY) gains in Q1, Rigetti also highlighted expected Novera sales in Q2 and major system sales in Q4 later this year.
Rigetti Computing Today
Rigetti Computing
- 52 week interval
- $10.30
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$58.15
- Target Value
- $29.18
While the revenue growth is impressive, in absolute terms, Rigetti still has very modest sales, especially for a company valued at over $6 billion. This issue, however, plagues the broader field of pure-play quantum computing.
ID-Wave may be known as a quantum player with a lot of cash on hand, but this quarter, Rigetti showed that it also has money to spend. It ended Q1 with approximately $569 million in cash and equivalents, which should allow the company to invest up to $100 million in the United Kingdom. Being debt-free also means that Rigetti may be ready for significant expansion and R&D development.
The company’s shares fell after the earnings, probably related to its big increase in operating expenses. At $27.3 million per quarter, these are significantly larger than sales, highlighting the profitability challenge Rigetti has yet to overcome.
ID-Wave: A Bad Title, But Some Bright Spots Underneath
D-Wave may come off the bottom somewhat in Q1 2026. The only one of the three companies to post a YOY decline in sales, D-Wave experienced an 80% drop in profits to $2.9 million. This may not be as worrying as it seems, however, given that last year’s sales were boosted by the sale of one major system.
Quantum Wave Today
- 52 week interval
- $10.60
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$46.75
- Target Value
- $34.67
However, this points to the evolution of the quantum space so far, where big-ticket sales can have a big impact on the results of the coming years.
Also promising is D-Wave’s recurring revenue through quantum-computing-as-a-service (QCaaS), which is growing rapidly and could help the company find a way to become profitable. The company’s earnings remained strong, even after its high-profile acquisition of Quantum Circuits Inc., for about $588 million at the end of the quarter. Management has not indicated intentions to continue with the company’s buyout plan, instead preferring to emphasize that they believe the company is fully funded on its path to profitability (although the timeline for achieving profitability remains unclear).
IonQ: Strong Sales Growth, But Losses Worry
By the way, IonQ had perhaps the best quarterly report of all these companies. A 755% YOY revenue improvement and a strong increase in full-year guidance were the two most prominent pieces of information from the release. The company posted $64.7 million in revenue for the quarter, which is an order of magnitude higher than the two competitors above.
IonQ today
- 52 week interval
- $25.89
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$84.64
- Target Value
- $68.63
IonQ appears to be a few steps ahead in terms of its ability to generate sales. With management now expecting a high end of $270 million in revenue for the fiscal year, IonQ is poised to accelerate sales growth even further.
Again, however, profit is an issue. Along with the big sales gains came an increase in adjusted loss per share, which more than doubled to 34 cents from 15 cents this time last year. Losses from operations are also increasing. One bright spot here is IonQ’s commercial customer business, which now drives the majority of revenue, and as an added bonus, customers are more inclined to buy more products. In addition, a full third of the company’s sales are to international customers, so it may have an advantage over competitors in that regard as well. However, despite these promising achievements, IonQ also faces some of the same obstacles as the above companies.
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