D-Wave makes its quantum annealers available for national security work

D-Wave has made its quantum annealing computer available through a major defense contractor, offering expanded access to its quantum machines for federal defense customers.

Announced on Friday, the partnership with Davidson Technologies has made one of D-Wave’s Advantage2 annealers operational and available for government customers working on mission-critical tasks in the Department of Defense and aerospace sectors. The computer is installed on site at Davidson’s headquarters in Huntsville, Alabama. Users will be able to access the computer’s capabilities through D-Wave’s cloud software.

“This is a momentous day for D-Wave and, we believe, a significant step forward in accelerating the U.S. government’s use of quantum computing now,” Alan Baratz, CEO of D-Wave, said in a press release. “Together with Davidson, we can help the U.S. government apply quantum computing today to drive mission-critical decision-making, fuel operational efficiencies, and protect national interests.”

In quantum computing, annealing refers to a computer working to solve a problem by finding the minimum energy solution — or ground energy state — which corresponds to the optimal solution. Quantum annealing specializes in optimization problems, which look for the best solution from a set of all feasible outcomes, exploiting the superposition properties of qubits to generate those possible solutions.

Given the quantum annealer’s specialty with optimization problems, these solutions are not considered general purpose quantum computers; that is, they cannot solve a more diverse range of problems. A March 2025 paper published by D-Wave scientists said that the performance of their annealers outperformed classical computers in simulation experiments. 

The new installation in Alabama is geared toward supporting national security missions and workloads. Some of the use cases D-Wave has published include optimizing cargo loading at the Port of Los Angeles, developing an application for resupplying autonomous vehicles with Australia’s Department of Defence, and troubleshooting problems in leveraging artificial intelligence for space exploration. 

“The goal is for this advanced technology to equip national security agencies with unmatched capabilities to anticipate threats, secure critical systems, and maintain global technological dominance in an era of accelerating complexity,” Davidson Technologies President Dale Moore said in the press release. 

Earlier this month, The Wall Street Journal reported that President Donald Trump had his eye on stakes in D-Wave, along with other quantum computing companies Rigetti Computing and IonQ, in exchange for federal funding. 

D-Wave declined to comment on this when asked by Nextgov/FCW.