The Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights D-Wave Quantum, Rigetti Computing, IonQ, AstraZeneca, AWS and NVIDIA

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – August 18, 2025 – Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include: D-Wave Quantum QBTS, Rigetti Computing RGTI, IonQ IONQ, AstraZeneca AZN, AWS and NVIDIA NVDA.

Here are highlights from Friday’s Analyst Blog:

Quantum Stocks Q225: Are D-Wave, IonQ and Rigetti Funding the Future

As second-quarter 2025 earnings rolled in, three pure-play quantum computing companies, D-Wave Quantum, Rigetti Computing and IonQ, offered a snapshot of an industry that moves at light speed but still sees profitability as a distant horizon. The trio’s results revealed a common storyline, strong sales, bigger losses and huge cash reserves to fund the next big step in quantum computing.

D-Wave

D-Wave Quantum’s second-quarter 2025 revenues rose 42% year over year, driven by Advantage2 quantum processing unit sales, including the system installed at Julich Supercomputing Center earlier this year. The company expanded its customer base with contracts from GE Vernova, Nikon and NTT DOCOMO, and strengthened global ties through partnerships in South Korea.

Technological progress included an open-source PyTorch toolkit and quantum-assisted image generation demos. Collaborating with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory on advanced cryogenic packaging, D-Wave aims to accelerate its push toward a 100,000-qubit system, reinforcing its leadership in annealing quantum computing while broadening its international footprint.

Financially, the company ended the quarter with a record $819.3 million in cash—an over 1,900% year-over-year increase driven by a $400 million at-the-market equity raise, warrant exercises and credit facility proceeds. Gross profit grew 42%, while adjusted EBITDA loss widened 44% year over year due to higher operating expenses from aggressive R&D and market expansion efforts.

With strong liquidity, an expanding enterprise pipeline and parallel development in both annealing and gate-model architectures, D-Wave signaled that it is prepared to invest heavily in scaling technology and pursuing strategic acquisitions, while maintaining its ambition to be the first independent public quantum computing firm to achieve sustained profitability.

IonQ

IonQ delivered a standout second-quarter 2025, with revenues coming in 15% above the top end of guidance, reflecting accelerating commercial traction across quantum computing and networking. The company’s momentum was underpinned by high-profile partnerships, including a landmark $22 million deal to build America’s first commercial quantum hub with utility leader EPB, and a 20x performance speed-up in quantum-accelerated drug development alongside AstraZeneca, AWS and NVIDIA. However, the aggressive push into R&D, strategic acquisitions and talent expansion incurred steep costs. IonQ reported a net loss of $177.5 million and an adjusted EBITDA loss of $36.5 million for the quarter.

Despite being in the red, IonQ now commands one of the strongest balance sheets in the quantum sector, closing a $1 billion equity investment, priced at a premium that boosted its pro forma cash position to $1.6 billion as of July 2025. This war chest gives the company ample runway to execute on its roadmap, including integrating Oxford Ionics’ ion-trap-on-a-chip technology and scaling toward 800 logical qubits by 2027 and 80,000 by 2030.

With acquisitions like Lightsynq and Capella expanding its reach into photonic interconnects and space-based quantum key distribution, IonQ is positioning itself to lead the next leap in computing power while fortifying its role in the future quantum Internet.

Rigetti

Rigetti Computing’s second-quarter 2025 revenues reflected sequential growth but declined year over year due to the expiration of the U.S. National Quantum Initiative and delays in its reauthorization. Gross margin narrowed to 31% from 64% a year earlier, primarily due to revenue mix and lower-margin development contracts. The company incurred an operating loss and a net loss in the quarter, the latter impacted by non-cash losses tied to changes in derivative warrant and earn-out liabilities.

Management reiterated that hitting technology milestones remains central to its long-term profitability path, with Quantum Advantage targeted in roughly four years through scaling qubit counts, improving gate fidelity and advancing error correction.

On a positive note, the company’s balance sheet is notably fortified, following the completion of a $350 million equity raise during the quarter, bringing total cash, cash equivalents and available-for-sale investments to $571.6 million as of June 30, 2025, with no debt. This sizable war chest provides ample runway to fund R&D, scale commercial operations and potentially pursue strategic collaborations or acquisitions.

Rigetti intends to leverage its proprietary chiplet-based superconducting qubit technology to reach a 100-plus qubit system with 99.5% median two-qubit gate fidelity by year-end 2025, an important step on the roadmap toward fault tolerance and eventual commercial-grade quantum computing profitability.

Conclusion

Taken together, revenues are rising and technology is advancing, but cash burn is heavy and profitability is far off for these three stocks. In this race, massive cash reserves are the fuel, and the first one to deliver scalable, commercially viable quantum systems will be the winner.

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