D-Wave Quantum Inc. (NYSE: QBTS) snapped a three-day losing streak on Monday, surging as much as 19.6 percent to $19.39 per share following two major announcements.
The quantum computing company confirmed it signed a commercial collaboration agreement with AT&T (NYSE: T) on the same day its shares were uplisted to the New York Stock Exchange.
The deal signals a broader shift in quantum computing, moving the technology beyond laboratory research and into real-world enterprise applications at scale.
AT&T plans to apply D-Wave’s annealing quantum computing technology to tools already powering its agentic AI solutions, particularly within its network operations division.
The telecom giant’s agentic tools have already demonstrated measurable results, having reduced customer downtime by 12 million hours last year alone.
D-Wave’s quantum technology is expected to build on those gains, as an early application with AT&T reduced processing time for a network optimization workload from one hour down to just under 15 seconds.
AT&T is planning to expand D-Wave’s technology across outage detection and response, technician routing, network build planning, and traffic management as it scales its converged fiber and 5G network.
“AT&T’s work with D-Wave is a powerful example of how leading enterprises are beginning to turn to quantum computing for solving real business problems,” D-Wave CEO Alan Baratz said.
“AT&T has incredibly complex optimization problems across its network operations, understands where classical computing is challenged, and is moving quickly to explore where quantum can make an impact,” Baratz added.
AT&T is also evaluating D-Wave’s forthcoming gate-model systems for potential applications in quantum security and quantum communications as part of its broader innovation strategy.
The strategy applies quantum computing, AI, automation, advanced analytics, and software-defined infrastructure to modernize how the network is built, run, and optimized.
D-Wave’s transfer to the New York Stock Exchange under the same QBTS ticker marks a significant milestone that could improve liquidity and visibility among institutional investors.
Hedge fund interest in QBTS showed a mixed picture, with 26 funds holding positions in the first quarter of 2026, up from 22 in the fourth quarter of 2025.
Despite that increase in the number of holders, combined hedge fund holdings fell sharply by 67.4 percent to $55.7 million from $170.8 million quarter-on-quarter, reflecting reduced conviction among institutional players.
