D-Wave Quantum's Finance Reshuffle Exposes the Tension Between a Soaring Backlog and a Stalling Top Line
Published on 09/04/2026 at 02:42 | Editorial boerse-global.de
When D-Wave Quantum confirmed earlier this week that John Markovich had formally stepped down as chief financial officer — a departure announced the previous Wednesday and effective September 2 — the company was quick to frame the move as orderly and amicable. There were no disagreements over accounting practices, financial reporting, or management strategy, the firm stressed. Greg Golkov, who joined as senior vice president of finance in May 2023, now runs the finance function on an interim basis while the board searches for a permanent successor.
The transition hands Golkov the books at a delicate juncture. D-Wave's most recent quarterly report, released in early August, showed revenue of $3.08 million for the second quarter of 2026 — a miss against the $4.03 million consensus estimate. Operating losses more than doubled year over year, widening from $26.5 million to $54.7 million, even as quarterly sales held roughly steady. Management attributes the weak revenue recognition to a deliberate pivot toward larger system deliveries that generate income later in the cycle.
That explanation carries more weight when set against the bookings figures. First-half 2026 bookings reached $35.5 million, up more than 1,120 percent from the prior-year period, while remaining performance obligations climbed 668 percent year over year. The gap between what customers are committing to and what D-Wave can currently recognize as revenue defines the stock's present predicament.
The market has yet to reward that forward momentum. Shares trade at €14.35, roughly a quarter below where they stood 30 days ago and about 23 percent under the 200-day moving average. Annualized 30-day volatility sits at a striking 106 percent. A modest 1.8 percent gain yesterday offered some respite, but the selling pressure that followed the CFO news has left investors skittish.
Should investors sell immediately? Or is it worth buying D-Wave Quantum?
Against that backdrop, the board has been quietly reinforcing its financial oversight. Roughly three weeks ago, D-Wave appointed Kevan P. Krysler to both the board of directors and the audit committee. Krysler, currently CFO at Carbon Robotics, brings prior finance leadership experience from Everpure, VMware, and KPMG — credentials that look particularly relevant now that the company must navigate an interim CFO period and, eventually, a permanent hire.
There is also a counter-narrative gaining traction on the operational side. D-Wave recently announced a milestone with NTT DOCOMO, marking its second production quantum application. The network optimization use case cut location-registration signaling by 65.3 percent at daily peak times when users crossed tracking-area boundaries, while reducing paging signals by 7.0 percent. Reference deployments with a major telecom operator lend credibility to the argument that D-Wave's technology is moving beyond research settings into real-world operations.
The company also secured $1.57 million from the U.S. National Science Foundation for the ERASE project. Management has reaffirmed guidance for two system deliveries this year, with the bulk of annual revenue expected to land in the fourth quarter. Commercial customers accounted for 67.7 percent of first-half 2026 revenue, a dramatic shift from the 16.0 percent recorded in the same period last year — evidence that paying industrial clients are increasingly displacing pure research engagements.
One further data point rounds out the governance picture: Sophie C. Ames, the company's chief people officer, sold 23,850 shares roughly three weeks ago, generating about $505,000. D-Wave describes the transaction as non-discretionary, executed to cover tax obligations tied to vesting restricted stock units — a routine matter distinct from a strategic insider sale.
What investors are left weighing is an unusual combination: order books expanding at triple-digit rates, a revenue line that has yet to catch up, and a finance department in transition. The addition of Krysler to the audit committee suggests the board intends to manage that transition carefully. Whether Golkov can steady the ship without Markovich's experience — particularly the IPO-era institutional knowledge his predecessor brought — remains the open question as the search for a permanent CFO gets underway.
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