D-Wave Quantum Stock Pops on Analyst Praise, Government Push, and Quantum Race Buzz

D-Wave Quantum (NYSE: QBTS), a pioneer in quantum computing hardware and services, saw its shares climb sharply this week. The company builds and sells quantum computers—including the world’s largest ones with quantum processing units (QPUs)—that customers access on-premises or via cloud. Over 100 organizations use them for optimization, AI, and research problems, with more than 200 million submissions to date. It’s the first to commercially supply both annealing-based and gate-model quantum systems.

What’s Behind the Recent Gains

On December 4, shares rose 14.1% while broader indexes stayed flat, as The Motley Fool reported and TipRanks noted the rapid rise. A Nobel Prize-winning physicist, John Martinis, told Bloomberg China has closed the gap on U.S. quantum tech—down to “nanoseconds” behind from three years in 2019. He added the Trump administration is now prioritizing quantum after AI. Investors bet on possible government funding or direct investments.

The day before, on December 3, D-Wave announced a new U.S. government business unit led by Jack Sears Jr., a 25-year veteran in defense and aerospace sales. Sears will handle sales, app development, and secure products for federal needs. Shares jumped 11.5% on this news, per Insider Monkey and Nasdaq, tying into national security demands for quantum tech. Full details are in the company’s press release via TradingView News.

Evercore ISI kicked off coverage December 4 with an “outperform” rating and $44 price target—nearly 96% above the prior close—< a href="https://sherwood.news/markets/d-wave-quantum-rises-as-evercore-isi-initiates-with-outperform-rating-leading-industry-play/">per Sherwood News. Analyst Mark Lipacis called D-Wave a full-stack leader with revenue, services, software, hardware, and $830 million cash for development or buys. He sees it grabbing 12% of a $15 billion to $30 billion quantum market by 2035, per BCG estimates. CEO Alan Baratz noted plans to boost gate-model tech to widen the customer base.

Ties to Chip Manufacturing

D-Wave stands out in quantum chips, or QPUs, which power its systems with sub-second responses and 99.9% cloud uptime. Unlike classical chipmakers like those in semiconductors, D-Wave focuses on annealing tech (its core strength) while advancing gate-model systems. This positions it amid U.S.-China tensions over quantum supremacy, where custom quantum processors are key. Note: annealing differs from gate-model research like Martinis’s, so results may vary.

Commercial edge: Only public quantum firm with real revenues.
Government play: New unit targets defense optimization.
Cash buffer: Funds next steps without dilution pressure.