Quantum News Nexus

Quantum Computing, Inc. (QCi) might be the poster boy for how the world currently perceives quantum technology start-ups–low revenue, high spending, and an interesting technology roadmap that could be a few years from really paying off.

Low revenue: QCi this week reported $198,000 in revenue for the fourth quarter of 2025, which sounds tiny, but is at least heading in the right direction, as it represents more than 200% growth over Q4 2024 revenue of $62,000. But, hold up: Analysts were expecting $393,000 in revenue for Q4 2025, so QCi’s posting represents a massive miss.

The miss obscures the positive news that QCi’s Fab 1 prototyping facility in Tempe, Arizona, “has begun to generate early revenue and customer engagement,” according to QCi Chairman and CEO Yuping Huang, who spoke on the firm’s earnings call Monday. (Huang was interim CEO for much of last year, but shed the “interim” tag at the beginning of 2026.) The opening up of this revenue channel certainly is a step in the right direction, although Fab 1 is not intended to be a “large-scale commercial production” facility.

QCi’s revenue opportunities also could open up even more as a result of the company’s $100-million-plus acquisition of Luminar Semiconductor, Inc. (LSI), a deal completed last month. QCi CFO Chris Roberts declined to provide revenue guidance, but commented on the call, “There have been several analyst reports that have projected that revenue would be in the $20 million to $25 million per year range [for LSI], and I think that is a reasonable estimate right now.”

However, it is not clear how soon QCi can expect to see that kind of revenue, or how much money it will need to invest in the business to fully tap that potential. Roberts said, “In terms of costs, we have some work to do with LSI. This is a company we acquired out of the Luminar Technologies bankruptcy, and they had a different shared services model, so we are reconstructing some things. It is probably not going to be profitable at this scale, but we are working on realigning and integrating the businesses, so we really do not want to be too specific at this point because we are trying to grow both the core LSI business and the Quantum Computing, Inc., business and develop synergistic products. There is a lot of spending that is going on around there. I think it is safe to say that we will be investing a fair amount of money in growing the business. We are not going to be trying to squeeze every nickel out of profitability in the near term.”

High spending: Roberts said as much, but the Q4 report presented the evidence in numerical form, with operational expenses, including M&A-related expenses, hitting $22.1 million during the quarter, well above the $8.9 million in expenses for the same period in 2024. And, there’s more to come, potentially in the form of more M&A, but also as ongoing investment in an expanding fab strategy and technology roadmap. 

Regarding M&A, some analysts appear to be expecting more beyond the LSI deal, though QCi officials didn’t comment directly on that topic when asked about it during the earnings call.

But the fab strategy did merit further discussion, as QCi is not stopping after getting Fab 1 up and running. Huang said, “…We are in the planning phase for our second fabrication facility, which is what we call Fab 2.” This facility will be more focused on manufacturing QCi’s quantum computers and other systems.

Roberts added later that Fab 2 will be separate from Fab 1, and not an expansion of the latter. “What we are looking for is a larger facility,” he said. “Whether we end up doing a build-to-suit or acquire an existing facility and modify it, we are exploring multiple options. We are not likely to incur a large cost this year because we still have a lot of design and evaluation work to do. So the larger cost would be two and three years out.”

He went on, “The cost is really hard to estimate at this point in time. Obviously, it is going to be several hundred million dollars to build any kind of sizable fab, but it is too early right now to be able to give you a hard number… but nothing substantial is likely to happen in terms of CapEx outlays this year.

The good news for now is that QCi continues to have a very strong cash and asset position after raising more than $1.5 billion last year. At the end of Q4 2025, the company had $738 million in cash and cash equivalents, while investments totaled $783 million, resulting in total assets of near $1.6 billion, well above the $153.6 million in assets reported at the end of 2024.

Technology roadmap: It is worth noting that QCi is one of few companies–and the only quantum computing company to my knowledge–with its own thin-film lithium niobate fab (Fab 1) for designing and manufacturing photonic integrated chips. These chips can operate at room temperature, and with lower power consumption, resulting in lower expense and smaller footprint requirements for quantum computers. While several companies are pursuing similar strategies, it’s still the early innings in the evolution of such systems.

QCi also has multiple computing platforms in the form of its Dirac entropy quantum computer targeted at optimization projects and its more recently announced Nuerawave photonic-based reservoir computer.

“We are building a differentiated technology platform based on room-temperature, low-power photonic and quantum solutions, and we believe Quantum Computing, Inc. is uniquely positioned to address growing demand for energy-efficient computing, secure communications, and advanced sensing technologies,” Huang said.

Huang also said that scaling the company’s fab operations will be a priority this year, stating that Fab 1 is expected continue to generate revenue by providing foundry services to some customers “and mainly functions as an internal innovation engine that feeds validated designs and process knowledge into downstream manufacturing partners as technologies mature.” He added that Fab 1’s capabilities for rapid design, fabrication, and test iteration also will help QCi “de-risk emerging designs ahead of volume manufacturing.”

The plan for Fab 2 is to have it “provide a domestic, vertically integrated processing capability to support Quantum Computing, Inc.’s internal technology roadmap, particularly the development and scaling of our photonic quantum machines and quantum-enabled systems,” Huang elaborated. “It will focus on producing specialized quantum and nanophotonic chips and will complement–not compete with–the broader silicon photonics ecosystem. We expect to engage external foundries as partners as technologies scale. By combining internal vertical integration with external foundry partnerships, Quantum Computing, Inc. aims to strengthen supply chain resilience, accelerate innovation, and support the responsible scaling of advanced photonic and quantum technologies.”

QCi’s stock price (NASDAQ: QUBT) stood at $7.92 per share late Tuesday, down more than 7% on a day when the stock market in general was rocked by the latest developments in the war with Iran.

Quotes are drawn directly from Motley Fool earnings transcript.

Image: QCi Chairman and CEO Yuping Huang (Source: QCi)

Quantum News Nexus is a site from freelance writer and editor Dan O’Shea that covers quantum computing, quantum sensing, quantum networking, quantum-safe security, and more. You can find him on X @QuantumNewsGuy and doshea14@gmail.com.