Mitchell Martan
Investment Researcher for The Long Investor, Economics/Finance Background
IonQ, D-Wave and Rigetti look like traps after spiking on US government equity stakes. The $2B attached to nine quantum companies is roughly $100M each, a rounding error that doesn't change whether the businesses work. D-Wave's last quarter brought in $2.86M of revenue and Rigetti $4.4M, about 600x revenue. Much of the pop was a short squeeze, not revaluation, and the group later fell 7-9% on no news. Unlike Intel, which the government bought cheap, these are bought on a story. x.comÂ
IonQ is priced as a story, not a company: with annual revenue under $50 million, its valuation bets on the most optimistic version of quantum computing a decade from now. The market now rewards narrative over earnings and punishes a single missed quarter. That can last a long time when liquidity is ample and risk appetite high, as dot-com stocks in 1999 and SPACs in 2021 showed, so a drop is not imminent. Buyers chasing it are buying how long sentiment lasts, not company value. x.comÂ
IonQ, Rigetti Computing and D-Wave Quantum have new government deals, which should drive a strong rally today after an initial pullback at the open. x.comÂ
The Shortlist targets companies it tags as pump-and-dumps, industry bubbles, constrained-float cases, potential fraud or overleveraged. Its Oct. 23 realistic-value estimates imply large downside, including 79% for ReAlloy, 53% for Critical Metals, 60% for Infleqtion and 62% for Quantinuum. x.comÂ
Rigetti Computing and Infleqtion are too speculative to own because neither has a moat yet. Bernstein flags both as high risk-reward quantum plays, but its own note says it is far too early to declare a winner and that different modalities have distinct strengths, so a new architecture could make their hardware obsolete. Quantum is also highly capital-intensive: Rigetti's roughly $590 million in cash is a runway being burned, not operating profit. For a quality investor, both are a pass for now. … Show more
IonQ, Rigetti and Infleqtion are the next stocks Trump is effectively calling, now that he says the US aims to have a quantum computer for scientific discovery by 2028. His earlier signals preceded big gains in Intel, Dell and Micron. x.comÂ
D-Wave Quantum is hard to justify as a $7B company trading at 50x 2028 sales in a highly speculative industry, and its CFO is resigning. x.comÂ
D-Wave Quantum's $5.2 billion valuation, or 325 times revenue, leaves substantial downside against just $1.50 per share in cash. The stock still has an estimated 80% downside. x.comÂ
Quantum computing is a race whose winners get pricing power over the hardest problems; Google's CEO says quantum is where AI was five years ago. IonQ leads with Q2 revenue of $80.1 million, up 287%. D-Wave alone is in commercial production; Rigetti grew revenue 173%. IBM targets fault tolerance in 2029, Alphabet's Willow began the cycle, Xanadu is photonic, Infleqtion has federal backing, Quantum Computing Inc. is speculative, Arqit sells post-quantum security; an ETF holds the field. x.com … Show more
IonQ trades at a trailing P/E of 665 while its real delivery is around 2030, so expect two mega crashes before then. It remains the strongest and most logical quantum computing company in the world, worth buying after those crashes for those who can resist FOMO. A reply notes the trailing P/E says little and forward figures matter more. x.com x.comÂ