Stock Markets Face a Lose-Lose on Inflation From -2-

Quantinuum beat expectations in its first quarterly report as a public company but the real story may not be in the numbers. As an early-stage company, its revenue is heavily tied to individual contracts and milestone deliveries. Its cloud computing services drove the quarter's beat, signaling recurring demand.

-- Revenue nearly quadrupled to $8 million for the second quarter. The company has yet to turn a profit -- operating losses swelled to $555 million from $51 million a year ago -- but Quantinuum's deepening ties with federal agencies and corporations validate its standing as an industry leader.

-- The company announced that it had struck a partnership with Oracle to integrate quantum hardware with classical machines inside Oracle's data centers. Quantinuum CEO Rajeeb Hazra has championed this hybrid model as the future of the industry, and the deal will provide compelling proof of it in action.

-- Deploying Quantinuum's third-generation Helios quantum computer inside Oracle Cloud Infrastructure gives the companies the opportunity to create a "deeply integrated environment for hybrid workloads, explore enterprise use cases with customers, and accelerate commercial adoption," Hazra said.

-- Quantinuum in May was selected to receive $100 million in federal funding in exchange for a direct equity stake in the company. The company's IPO in June came more quickly than expected, and investors are pinning long-term value to technical milestones expected by the end of the decade.

What's Next: Quantinuum's management issued an upbeat full-year outlook, with revenue between $28 million and $32 million. The midpoint of the range was comfortably above the $26.5 million Wall Street had anticipated.

-- Mackenzie Tatananni

Dear Quentin,

I read with interest the letter from a female retiree regarding Social Security (" We are more likely to be living in poverty: Social Security is a lifeline for women, so why are we ignored?") and I would like to offer a piece of advice for women who are or have been married. Because the federal government recognizes same-sex marriage, this advice should apply to both opposite-sex and same-sex couples.

If your spouse or ex-spouse retires before you do, you may be eligible to collect spousal benefits. Once a person has retired, their spouse -- or ex-spouse, if the marriage lasted at least 10 years and the ex-spouse has not remarried -- may be entitled to receive up to 50% of the worker's benefit beginning at age 62, even if they are still working. (There are additional rules, so it's important to review the eligibility requirements.)

My Social Security payments are higher than my husband's benefits. He was downsized, and when his unemployment benefits ran out, he began collecting Social Security one year before reaching his full retirement age. This additional income enabled me to delay claiming my own Social Security benefits until 70. I was able to claim several months of retroactive benefits, so it still worked out quite well for me.

-- Happy Female Retiree

Read the Moneyist's response here.

-- Quentin Fottrell

-- Newsletter edited by Liz Moyer, Patrick O'Donnell, Rupert Steiner

This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

August 12, 2026 06:53 ET (10:53 GMT)