D-Wave Quantum Inc. (NASDAQ: QBTS) has received up to CAD $300,000 in funding from the National Research Council of Canada to advance its quantum computing software for commercial use.
The funding comes through the NRC’s Applied Quantum Computing Challenge program, which unites government, industry, and academic partners to accelerate quantum technology commercialization.
D-Wave describes itself as the only dual-platform quantum computing company offering both annealing and gate-model systems, software, and services to customers worldwide.
The project will be led by D-Wave’s team based at its Quantum Centre of Engineering Excellence in Burnaby, British Columbia, working in direct collaboration with the NRC.
Engineers and researchers will develop next-generation graph minor-embedding algorithms specifically designed for D-Wave’s Zephyr topology, a core component of its Advantage2 systems.
These new algorithms will be integrated into D-Wave’s open-source Ocean software development kit, making them broadly accessible to developers and enterprise customers.
The embedding algorithms perform the foundational task of mapping complex optimization problems onto the physical topology of D-Wave’s Advantage2 annealing quantum computers.
Targeted use cases span a wide range of industries, including logistics, manufacturing, scheduling, resource allocation, machine learning, and quantum and materials simulation.
“Software innovation is essential to expanding the performance and commercial impact of quantum computing,” said Dr. Trevor Lanting, chief development officer at D-Wave.
“Through our collaboration with the NRC, we aim to develop next-generation software that extends the capabilities of our Advantage2 annealing quantum computers, enables customers to solve larger and more complex optimization problems, and strengthens Canada’s world-class quantum ecosystem,” Lanting added.
D-Wave says more than 100 organizations across commercial, government, and research sectors currently rely on its quantum systems to tackle complex computational challenges.
The company’s Leap quantum cloud service offers 99.9% availability and uptime, providing enterprise-grade access to its quantum computing infrastructure on a global scale.
The Applied Quantum Computing Challenge program is designed to position Canada as a global leader in applied quantum computing by accelerating the path from research to real-world deployment.
