QBTS Stock Gains on Tangible AI Use Cases: More Upside Ahead?

D-Wave Quantum QBTS is accelerating its momentum across both real-world quantum AI applications and deep tech hardware innovation. In terms of application, the company’s quantum-enhanced AI is already yielding measurable gains across various domains.

Earlier this week, the company’s shares jumped following D-Wave’s announcement that Japan Tobacco, which leveraged D-Wave’s technology for quantum-assisted drug discovery, achieved superior results compared to traditional classical model training. Similarly, the Julich Supercomputing Centre in Germany reported improved accuracy in protein-DNA binding predictions. Added to this, TRIUMF, Canada’s national particle accelerator center, demonstrated significant simulation speedups by integrating AI with quantum systems. These early successes validate the practical advantages of combining quantum computing with artificial intelligence.

Complementing these use-case achievements is D-Wave’s strategic investment in advanced cryogenic packaging, an initial step in scaling both its annealing and gate-model quantum architectures. The company is collaborating with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) to develop superconducting bump-bond interconnects, a critical innovation aimed at enhancing the performance and manufacturability of quantum processors.

This initiative is expected to unlock multiple hardware advantages, including higher qubit density, extended coherence times and support for multichip quantum processor designs, all essential for progressing toward D-Wave’s ambitious 100,000-qubit roadmap.

During the first few days of August, shares of D-Wave rallied 6.5% backed by the above developments.

Month-to-Date QBTS Share Rally

Diverging Paths Among Quantum Computing Rivals

IonQ IONQ: It is advancing in quantum AI through its gate-based architecture, focusing on hybrid AI model training and partnerships with cloud providers. While strong in developer tooling and quantum machine learning, IonQ is yet to introduce a blockchain framework like QBTS, leaving a potential gap in its emerging markets strategy.

Rigetti Computing RGTI: The company remains hardware-focused, prioritizing qubit fidelity and government contracts via its QCS platform. Though exploring AI, Rigetti lacks blockchain-specific initiatives and domain toolkits like D-Wave’s PyTorch integration, making its approach more tech-centric and less diversified across emerging commercial applications.

Average Target Price for QBTS Suggests Near-Term Upside

Based on short-term price targets offered by nine analysts, D-Wave Quantum’s average price target represents an increase of 8.7% from the last closing price of $17.18.

D-Wave Quantum currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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