IQM Confirms 2026 Outlook After Public Listing, Citing More Than €102 Million in Orders

Insider BriefIQM Quantum Computers said its public listing has strengthened its financial position and allowed it to reaffirm its 2026 outlook, according to a statement from the company.The Finnish quantum computing pioneer’s second-quarter and first-half 2026 report tells a familiar story of growing commercial activity alongside continued heavy investment and significant operating losses typical of the emerging industry.The company reported first-half 2026 revenue of €8.9 million and an operating loss of €60.5 million, while highlighting a rapidly expanding order backlog that exceeded €102.1 million as of Aug. 3, following its recent Nasdaq listing. The figures point toward both the commercial progress and the capital-intensive nature of companies seeking to build quantum computing businesses before the technology reaches broad commercial adoption.The results mark IQM‘s first financial report since becoming a publicly traded company on Nasdaq under the ticker IQMX. The company said proceeds from the listing increased its cash balance to €309.4 million as of July 2, giving it funding to continue expanding manufacturing capacity, product development and international operations.IQM also initiated full-year guidance, projecting new order intake between €65 million and €75 million and revenue between €42 million and €47 million.While first-half revenue remained modest, IQM pointed to accelerating commercial momentum as a key indicator of future growth.The company reported an order backlog of €69.1 million at the end of June. Since then, it added another €33 million in orders, lifting the backlog above €102 million by early August.Because many of IQM‘s products are large, custom-built quantum computer installations that can take months to manufacture, install and commission, backlog is often viewed as a more meaningful indicator of future revenue than quarterly sales alone.“Our public debut marks a historic milestone, demonstrating how technology leadership can capture global capital to transition quantum computing from research excellence into customer-ready computing infrastructure. IQM is operating from a position of verified commercial scale with 26 full-stack quantum computers sold, 17 delivered globally, and proven integration directly alongside AI supercomputers and high-performance data centers. As we execute our product roadmap and scale toward fault-tolerant quantum computing, our focus remains squarely on operational discipline, delivering real-world value, and strengthening our proposition as the partner of choice for sovereign and enterprise compute infrastructure,” said Dr. Jan Goetz, CEO.The company has now sold 26 quantum computer systems since its founding in 2018 and delivered 17 of them to customers around the world.Among the most significant recent deliveries was its first installation in the United States, a quantum computer deployed at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee in June.IQM also announced a major agreement with CSC – IT Center for Science in Finland to integrate one of its quantum computers into the LUMI AI Factory. The project will connect the quantum system with LUMI, one of Europe’s leading supercomputers, reflecting a broader industry trend toward combining quantum processors with traditional high-performance computing systems and artificial intelligence infrastructure.Like most independent quantum hardware companies, IQM remains unprofitable as it invests aggressively in manufacturing, research and product development.The company reported a first-half operating loss of €60.5 million while simultaneously expanding its production capabilities.IQM said it has invested more than €40 million in expanding its proprietary semiconductor fabrication facility, doubling cleanroom capacity and increasing manufacturing capability to as many as 30 full-stack quantum computers annually.Unlike many technology companies that outsource chip production, IQM manufactures critical components internally, a strategy the company believes gives it greater control over quality, product development and supply chains.The strengthened balance sheet resulting from the Nasdaq listing is intended to support those investments.“Our successful dual listing has fundamentally transformed our balance sheet, establishing a cash position of EUR 309.4 million that provides a robust financial runway well into the second quarter of 2028. Supported by strong commercial momentum, with our total order backlog surpassing EUR 102.1 million, we are confirming our full-year 2026 plan, with the momentum providing us confidence in our guidance. We are well-capitalized to strategically deploy cash into expanding our internal manufacturing capacity, accelerating on-premise system deliveries, and building long-term, sustainable market leadership in global quantum infrastructure,” said Jan Kuerschner, CFO.Beyond commercial activity, IQM highlighted several research and technology developments aimed at improving the long-term performance of quantum computers.The company said it continued advancing quantum error correction, the collection of techniques designed to detect and correct errors that naturally occur during quantum computations. Error correction is widely regarded as one of the many significant technical challenges facing the industry because today’s quantum processors remain susceptible to noise that limits the complexity of calculations they can perform.During the first half of the year, IQM introduced new “tile codes” and later refined them with what it described as “barbell codes,” a family of quantum low-density parity-check, or qLDPC, error-correction codes optimized for the company’s hardware architecture.The company also continued expanding collaborations intended to improve system performance and customer deployments.Among those efforts was work with NVIDIA using artificial intelligence models to automate qubit calibration. Calibration is the process of tuning quantum bits so they operate reliably, a task that traditionally requires substantial engineering effort.IQM also continued its collaboration with Hewlett Packard Enterprise to integrate superconducting quantum computers with HPE Cray high-performance computing systems, supporting hybrid computing environments that combine classical and quantum processors.Separately, the company reported progress on applied quantum computing projects, including work with Deutsche Bahn exploring hybrid quantum-classical railway scheduling using operational transportation data.IQM said it continued expanding internationally through new customer engagements in Japan and Spain while strengthening its leadership team and board of directors with several senior appointments during the first half of the year.The company also hosted its inaugural Capital Markets Day in June following its public listing.e.TopicsShare Get the latest research, company news, and market intelligence every week. MENTIONED IN THE ARTICLEIQM Finland builds scalable hardware for universal quantum computers, focusing on superconducting technology.More in Research