D-Wave reaches 'significant milestone' with Fortune 100 company
D-Wave Quantum Inc. (QBTS) said on Tuesday that it has landed a two-year, $10 million contract with a "leading Fortune 100 company" to provide quantum computing as a service (QCaaS).
Under the agreement, the two companies will collaborate to develop and deploy several quantum-powered applications, according to a press release announcing the deal.
“This agreement marks a significant milestone in D-Wave’s annealing quantum computing enterprise adoption and impact,” D-Wave CEO Dr. Alan Baratz said in a statement. “No other company in the world has production-grade quantum technology in the market today, and this agreement is inarguably one of the most significant endorsements of how our solutions stand to benefit the world’s leading companies.”
D-Wave did not identify the company it will be working with on the project.
Also on Tuesday, D-Wave announced that it is collaborating with Davidson Technologies and Anduril Industries to develop quantum-classical hybrid applications for complex US air and missile defense planning challenges.
Davidson is a"mission-driven" technology company that supports the US Department of Defense and aerospace industries, while Anduril is a defense technology company focused on autonomous systems.
D-Wave said that an initial proof-of-concept used its quantum computing technology, Anduril’s defense simulations and Davidson’s mission-domain modeling and secure-computing expertise, to evaluate “complex missile-defense planning scenarios.”
The evaluation compared a classical-only approach against D-Wave’s Stride hybrid solver running on its Advantage2 system in order to benchmark solution quality, scalability, and time-to-solution.
According to D-Wave, the proof-of-concept showed that “while classical solvers performed effectively on smaller, less complex scenarios, the time to reach a solution increased significantly as problem size grew.”
But using D-Wave’s Stride hybrid solver, it delivered a performance that was 10X faster time-to-solution. This resulted in “a 9% to 12% improvement in threat mitigation, and the ability to intercept an additional 45–60 missiles in a 500-missile attack simulation.”
“Our collaboration with Anduril and Davidson marks an important milestone in applying quantum computing to US national defense strategies,” Baratz said in a statement. “Our initial work together shows that annealing quantum computing can be put to use today for mission-critical applications, enabling faster, more informed decision-making for complex problems.”
The three companies indicated that they are planning to expand the collaboration by exploring other large-scale defense optimization challenges, including contested logistics, scalable and distributed manufacturing, cyber defense, and courses of action generation.
“Quantum computing helps identify efficiencies to expedite execution in space, missile defense and joint force operations,” Davidson president and CEO Dale Moore said in a statement. “It rapidly evaluates millions of possible outcomes, determining the best course of action. We’re thrilled to collaboratively leverage this maturing technology and apply it to today’s national security challenges.”
D-Wave's stock gained nearly 4% on Tuesday and has surged 342.5% over the past 12 months.
Meanwhile, the company said last week that it had completed its previously announced acquisition of Quantum Circuits Inc., a leading developer of error-corrected superconducting gate-model quantum computing systems.
The acquisition “solidifies D-Wave’s position as the world’s first and only dual-platform quantum computing company,” that will allow it to build both annealing and gate-model computing systems, according to D-Wave.