D-Wave executives are pushing back on the notion that quantum computing is still years away. They say the technology is already solving real-world public sector and commercial problems, and that agencies can start using it today.
In a recent interview with MeriTalk, Allison Schwartz, senior vice president of global government relations and public affairs at D-Wave, and Jack Sears, vice president of government business solutions, said agencies are beginning to explore quantum for mission-critical needs ranging from national security to law enforcement.
Sears said one of the most common questions from government leaders is whether quantum computing is “real” and available today.
“Somebody said to me, ‘We’re talking 20 or 30 years down the road, right?’ No, it’s here today,” Sears said. “We have customers around the world using our quantum computing technologies to return operational benefit.”
That reality is driving a shift across government agencies as they confront increasingly complex mission demands, tighter budgets, and rising energy constraints tied to emerging technologies like artificial intelligence (AI).
A tale of two systems
Schwartz and Sears explained that D-Wave is the only dual-platform quantum computing company, providing both annealing and gate-model systems. D-Wave’s annealing quantum computers are already commercial and in production applications today. Gate-model systems, which will address a different set of problems, remain in the development stage across the industry.
“Our differentiator as a company is being a dual-platform provider,” Schwartz said. “Different systems have different strengths, so if you have a problem set, come to us. We can help identify what problems are relevant for quantum computing and which system is best to address your complex problems.”
D-Wave is seeing growing interest from government customers looking to implement annealing quantum computing, which is uniquely suited for solving optimization problems in areas such as logistics, supply chains, telecommunication networks, emergency response, employee scheduling, and national security. These computationally difficult problems can become increasingly challenging for classical computers to address comprehensively.
“We’re currently working with several government agencies to develop proof of concepts for real-world problems, and, to date, they have seen beneficial results,” Sears said.
“The proof is in the pudding,” he added. “We’re showing capability. We’re showing benefit, and that is logically extending the conversation and opening up additional areas for consideration.”
Equally important for government buyers is how they can access the technology. Sears said one of D-Wave’s biggest differentiators is that agencies can access its technology today.
D-Wave is listed on the Department of Defense’s Tradewinds Solutions Marketplace, a digital contracting platform designed to accelerate procurement of emerging technologies like AI and quantum. Being deemed “awardable” through Tradewinds means government customers can more quickly evaluate and purchase D-Wave’s solutions without starting from scratch.
“One of the things that differentiates us from our competitors is D-Wave customers can utilize the technology through real-time cloud access, and we have a track record of having on premises systems that work,” Sears said.
Driving impact across the public and private sectors
D-Wave’s quantum computing technologies are being used by businesses, research institutions, and governments today.
Sears shared that D-Wave has been working with Davidson Technologies and Anduril Industries to develop quantum-classical hybrid applications for complex U.S. air and missile defense planning challenges.
According to a company press release, D-Wave’s Stride™ hybrid solver outperformed classical-only approaches to intercepting missiles. The Stride solver delivered at least 10x faster time-to-solution, a 9% to 12% improvement in threat mitigation, and the ability to intercept an additional 45-60 missiles in a 500-missile attack simulation.
“What we have discovered is the bigger the optimization problem gets, the better the results are using a quantum computer,” Sears explained. “Quantum computing increased efficiency and returned a better solution faster.”
D-Wave also recently helped create a solution for a public sector problem in the law enforcement space through a partnership with the North Wales Police in the UK.
“North Wales Police built a quantum application for resource placement, specifically to place law enforcement officers and their cruisers in forwardly deployed places,” Schwartz said, adding, “As a result, they found that they could reduce their response time by 50%.”
Other examples include work with the U.S. Army’s Engineering Research and Development Center to model wildfire prevention and grid resilience, as well as commercial deployments with NTT Docomo in Japan to optimize its mobile telecommunications network.
Everyday services are already being influenced by quantum, Schwartz said.
“In Western Canada, for example, D-Wave has an in-production application with a grocery store chain, Pattison Food Group, that optimizes e-commerce. If you get your groceries delivered by this store, the consumer has been touched by quantum,” she said.
A new approach to AI’s energy crunch
As agencies scale AI capabilities, energy consumption is becoming a growing concern. D-Wave executives believe that quantum computing can play a role in addressing that challenge.
“The ‘aha moment’ I have seen with a lot of the government folks is that quantum computing is energy efficient,” Schwartz said. “They assume if AI is going to eat up energy, so is quantum.”
Over six generations of quantum systems, D-Wave’s annealing quantum computers continue to only use approximately 12 kilowatt hours of energy. Schwartz said that quantum systems could complement AI by handling some of the energy-intensive pre-processing tasks more efficiently and thus potentially play a meaningful role in addressing the growing concern over energy consumption.
“Our systems are very fast, so if you bring quantum into an AI workflow for pre-work modeling, it could help to solve an important policy concern – the energy intensity of AI,” said Schwartz.
Cutting through the hype
Despite growing momentum, confusion and hype still surround quantum computing. Sears noted that many government leaders encounter conflicting narratives – from claims that quantum is decades away to assertions that it will solve every problem overnight.
“You can’t open LinkedIn … without getting the extremes,” he said. “So, step one, talk to us. A big part of what my team does is engage with customers and agencies. We share where quantum computing is today and work with them to help identify problems that could potentially be solved by quantum.”
“[Organizations] need to plan for quantum computing. It is here today, and I believe that it will be ubiquitous throughout government programs within a couple of decades, if not sooner,” Sears said. “
Schwartz emphasized that agencies need to ask practical questions when evaluating vendors, including system availability, queue times, and whether solutions are already delivering real-world results.
“The biggest problem that we have heard … is that folks spend time working on the wrong system for their particular problem,” she said.
A call to act now
For government leaders, the message from D-Wave executives is to take action on quantum now.
As agencies face constrained budgets, Schwartz said that they may find that quantum offers new pathways to efficiency and cost savings.
“D-Wave’s commercial customers are seeing ROI on optimization problems, and those efficiency gains could translate into real savings for taxpayers,” Schwartz said.
“If you’re not considering quantum, you need to start, and it’s not just about post-quantum cryptography,” she added. “It’s about using quantum computing to solve problem sets that your current classical solutions are either not capable of solving, or not capable of solving completely enough or quickly enough.”
Sears put it more bluntly: “It’s too late to start early, but it’s not too late to start.”
“Just get started. That’s the important part,” he said.