D-Wave Quantum said its quantum computer has outperformed a classical supercomputer in solving magnetic materials simulation problems and proves quantum computational supremacy.
The breakthrough, published in Science, revolved around using D-Wave's annealing quantum computer, Advantage2, performed magnetic materials simulation in minutes. That problem would have taken nearly 1 million years for a classical supercomputer.
Quantum annealing is one flavor of quantum computing. Annealing is designed for optimization over general purpose computing and D-Wave has championed this approach.
Even though it's early in the year, 2025 appears to be the year of quantum already. In March, the news from the quantum computing industry continued to roll.
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In a statement, D-Wave said:
"An international collaboration of scientists led by D-Wave performed simulations of quantum dynamics in programmable spin glasses—computationally hard magnetic materials simulation problems with known applications to business and science—on both D-Wave’s Advantage2 prototype annealing quantum computer and the Frontier supercomputer at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The work simulated the behavior of a suite of lattice structures and sizes across a variety of evolution times and delivered a multiplicity of important material properties."
Dr. Alan Baratz, CEO of D-Wave, said the demonstration of quantum supremacy on a useful problem is an industry first. "D-Wave’s annealing quantum computers are now capable of solving useful problems beyond the reach of the world’s most powerful supercomputers," said Baratz.
The milestone took two years of collaboration across 11 institutions worldwide. D-Wave's Advantage2 prototype is now available via its D-Wave Leap quantum cloud service.
Constellation Research analyst Holger Mueller said:
"Quantum computing is maturing quickly, and the question enterprises need to watch is how capable the latest Quantum machines are, and then see which use cases can be automated. D-Wave's news here is of relevance as it puts all industries on notice that need simulation of new magnetic materials. If you don't have a quantum platform for this, you can no longer compete. Every enterprise that created new magnetic materials or want to simulate how magnetic material will interact with a larger product is now on notice."
D-Wave takes aim at rivals
D-Wave executives moved to defend its claims of quantum supremacy. That defense was a common theme on D-Wave's conference call.
Baratz on a conference call said:
"This was not just solving a problem that can't be solved classically, this was solving an important, useful real-world problem. It happens to be in the area of magnetic material simulation, and solving it in a matter of minutes, whereas it would take nearly a million years to solve on classical computers, and it would require more than the world's annual energy consumption."
He added:
"This is a first for the industry. The other physicist papers published this week do not come close to achieving what we accomplished on the D-Wave advantage to quantum computer, and their claims are just claim confusing the public."
Dr. Andrew King, Distinguished Scientist at D-Wave, noted that there have been other claims about quantum supremacy, but they didn't measure up to what D-Wave accomplished. "They didn't reproduce the suite of simulations we performed," said King. "You don't just need to do the easy simulations. You need to do the hard ones as well. And nobody has demonstrated that. This is why we call this quantum supremacy, because it's a problem that you cannot solve if you don't have a quantum computer."
D-Wave Chief Development Officer Dr. Trevor Lanting said it now has several research customers doing magnetic simulation work to accelerate scientific discovery and annealing systems for quantum simulation overall. Next up, D-Wave plans on launching its Advantage2 system to general availability. Baratz said the system will be available before the end of the year.
Q4 earnings and outlook
D-Wave also reported fourth quarter earnings. In the fourth quarter, D-Wave reported a net loss of $86.1 million, or 37 cents a share, on revenue of $2.3 billion, down 21% from a year ago. The non-GAAP net loss as 8 cents a share.
For 2024, D-Wave reported a net loss of $143.9 million, or 75 cents a share, on revenue of $8.8 million flat with a year ago. D-Wave ended the year with 135 customers, up from 133 a year ago.
As for the outlook, D-Wave said first quarter revenue will top $10 million due to the sales of an Advantage annealing quantum computer.
D-Wave ended the year with $178 million in cash. In the fourth quarter, D-Wave raised $161.3 million.
