There is a version of the narrative around D-Wave Quantum (NYSE: QBTS) that reads like science fiction turned into an investable reality.
Then there is the version where investors look at the cold, hard financial profile of the company
Right now, retail investors are trading on the first version of the story. But smart investors should focus on the second, and avoid following the optimistic crowd into D-Wave Quantum. What does D-Wave Quantum do?
Quantum computers operate in a way that is counterintuitive, and wildly different from how the classical computers that we are all familiar with do. While traditional devices hold and process all of their data in bits as binary code — 1s and 0s — quantum systems process information using “qubits,” which can also hold complex probability states through a property called superposition. Precisely how they capitalize on that property to perform computations is a level of detail most investors can skip — but the key point is that, in theory, quantum computers should be able to rapidly perform unusual and extremely complex computations that would take a traditional supercomputer years (or centuries) to complete.