How QUBT Prioritizes Long-term Scalability Over Near-term Sales Growth

Quantum Computing Inc. or QCi QUBT is pursuing long-term platform dominance over short-term revenue acceleration. In line with this approach, the company is investing heavily in manufacturing infrastructure, starting with Fab 1, which is designed to qualify thin-film lithium niobate processes and support early customer programs. 

Building on this foundation, QCi plans to develop Fab 2 over the next three years, a facility intended to enable high-volume chip production and position the company for large-scale commercialization by the end of the decade. This positions QUBT as a unique U.S.-based integrated photonics foundry, expanding its potential adoption across telecommunications, defense, finance, artificial intelligence, and sensing markets.

However, this strategy also constrains near-term sales, as Fab 1 is not designed for scale and Fab 2’s revenue impact is back-end loaded. Customers may delay large commitments until volume capacity and yields are fully proven.

In the next three years, QCi plans to focus on small, customized deployments for a limited set of customers, including government agencies (e.g., NASA), financial institutions, and early enterprise adopters. While successful execution supports real-world validation and credibility, these deployments generally lack scale. Low unit volumes, lengthy sales cycles, and customization requirements limit repeatability and near-term revenue expansion.

Peer Update

Rigetti RGTI has built a revenue model that blends government contracts, cloud-based quantum services, collaborative research programs, and sales of quantum components. While government work often creates lumpiness in reported revenues, these multi-pronged sources provide balance and optionality. By aligning its commercial approach with its technology roadmap, RGTI is positioned to capture value as it scales its systems and broadens customer adoption. 

Rigetti strengthened its ecosystem through two notable strategic collaborations. The company partnered with QphoX and the Air Force Research Laboratory on a three-year initiative to advance microwave-to-optical conversion and joined NVIDIA’s NVQLink open platform, positioning its QPUs for seamless integration with AI supercomputing environments and future hybrid workloads.

IonQ IONQ continues to show rapid business momentum, highlighted by strong year-over-year growth in quarterly revenues, new highs in system performance metrics, and a much-improved balance sheet supported by recent capital raises and strategic deals. Its progress has been largely driven by sustained leadership in quantum technology. 

Yet, IonQ is still operating at a loss, and the commercial viability of large-scale, fault-tolerant quantum systems is yet to be proven. As a result, IONQ faces ongoing execution challenges, uncertain customer adoption, and the long development timelines typical of early-stage quantum technologies.

QUBT’s Price Performance

In the past year, QUBT’s shares have dipped 37.2%, underperforming the industry’s 9.2% growth. The S&P 500 composite has grown 19.7% in the same period.

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Expensive Valuation

QUBT currently trades at a forward 12-month Price-to-Sales (P/S) of 730.68X compared with the industry average of 5.55X.

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QUBT Stock Estimate Trend

Over the past 30 days, its loss per share estimate for 2025 has narrowed 4 cents to 15 cents.

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QUBT stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). 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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