Quantum computing firms IonQ, Rigetti, and D-Wave have announced their Q1 2024 earnings results.
All three companies continued to post losses as they seek to build systems capable of surpassing classical supercomputers.
IonQ: Manufacturing begins on first Forte Enterprise system
IonQ recognized revenue of $7.6 million for the first quarter, compared to $4.3 million in the prior year. Net loss was $39.6 million and adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) loss was $27 million.
Q4 2023 saw IonQ post $6.1 million in revenue. Quarterly net loss was $41.9 million and adjusted EBITDA loss was $20m.
IonQ achieved $300,000 in new bookings for the first quarter. Cash, cash equivalents, and investments were $434.4 million as of March 31, 2024.
“We kicked the year off with strong revenue results, once again outperforming the high end of our guidance range,” said Peter Chapman, president and CEO of IonQ. “I am also pleased to announce that our sales pipeline is expanding significantly in deal size and volume and increasing in timing visibility, allowing us to raise our full-year bookings guidance.”
During the earnings call, Chapman said the company’s Seattle manufacturing facility is now fully operational and is building the first production IonQ Forte Enterprise system that has been sold to a customer.
“We are currently planning to build five Forte Enterprise Systems in this production run. One of the five has already been sold to QuantumBasel,” he said. “We are in various stages of engagement for the remaining four. After this Forte Enterprise production run, we plan to swiftly turn our attention to manufacturing Tempos, the first of which has also been sold to QuantumBasel.”
Chapman also said that the company has “almost completed” construction of a new data center in Basel, Switzerland as part of the partnership with QuantumBasel.
Rigetti: Revenue down slightly, losses increase
Rigetti posted total revenues for the quarter of $3.1 million. Operating loss for the three months was $16.6 million, while net loss was $20.8 million.
Q4 2023 saw Rigetti post $3.4 million in revenue. Net loss was $17.2 million.
Rigetti has raised $32.9 million from the sale of 23 million shares under its prior Common Stock Purchase Agreement with B. Riley and current ATM program, including $23.9 million raised in the three months ended March.
At the end of the quarter, cash, cash equivalents, and available-for-sale securities totalled $102.8 million
“We are witnessing the emergence of a vibrant on-premises quantum computing market. Quantum computing researchers need hands-on access to quantum technology to gain a deeper understanding of how to work towards useful quantum computing. We launched the Novera QPU to address this need — and we are thrilled that our long-time partners at Horizon selected our hardware to advance their quantum computing journey,” said Dr. Subodh Kulkarni, Rigetti CEO.
During the earnings call, Kulkarni added he feels “pretty good” about the company’s pipeline of on-premise QPU sales.
“We are still very early in the development of on-premise QPU business or market, but certainly we are quite excited about the potential opportunities with US and UK, and we certainly are talking to other countries as they start looking into setting up their own quantum infrastructure,” he said. “We are certainly talking to a handful number of labs. I wouldn’t call them dozens. Overall, if you look at the number of customers, we have active discussions going on right now, it’s in the neighborhood of 10 to 15 customers.”
When asked if sales of lower Qubit Novera QPUs were cannibalizing sales of more expensive and higher-qubit machines down the line, Kulkarni said no.
“I don’t believe there is a trade-off involved here," he said. "I view it as a first and a necessary step for national labs and researchers to understand quantum computing. I think these are cumulative opportunities. So, when we enable narrow quantum advantage, I do believe the existing customers will come back and want to start either buying bigger devices or start using QCS services and they are not going to offset that against current purchases.”
D-Wave: Losses decrease
A D-Wave, revenue for the first quarter of 2024 was $2.5 million, an increase of $900,00, or 56 percent, from the fiscal year 2023. Net loss for the quarter was $17.3 million, while adjusted EBITDA loss was $12.9 million.
Net and adjusted EBITDA losses reduced from $24.4 million and $16.9 million in Q1 2023, respectively.
Revenue was down slightly on Q4 2023, and net loss was higher than Q4’s $16 million. Adjusted EBITDA loss for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2023 was $10.9 million.
First quarter 2024 bookings totaled $4.5 million, an increase of $1.6 million, or 54 percent, from Q1 FY23.
“D-Wave’s first quarter revenue and bookings reflect growing customer demand for quantum and hybrid quantum solutions that can drive measurable impact today,” said Dr. Alan Baratz, CEO of D-Wave. “Coupled with the significant technical milestones we’ve achieved with the Advantage2 prototype, we believe our progress leading the commercialization of quantum through our products, customer application development and accelerating adoption is evident.”
This month saw D-Wave announce a renewed multi-year partnership with the University of Southern California (USC). Under the deal, the USC Viterbi School of Engineering will continue to house a D-Wave Advantage quantum computer. The center has housed several generations of D-Wave’s quantum systems.
