Shares in D-Wave Quantum (NYSE: QBTS) soared 25.93% to close at US$16.56 on Tuesday following the official release of its Advantage2 system—described by the company as its most advanced quantum computer to date.
The Advantage2 marks D-Wave’s sixth-generation quantum computing platform and is now accessible via the company’s Leap quantum cloud service or for direct installation. CEO Dr. Alan Baratz called the system “an engineering marvel,” citing substantial improvements in energy scale, noise reduction, and qubit connectivity.
“We’ve improved on all three: qubits and connectivity, coherence time, and energy scale,” Baratz said. “In going from Advantage to Advantage2, we went from degree 15 on connectivity to degree 20, doubled the coherence time, and achieved 40% greater energy scale.”
D-Wave says the system can solve practical business problems—such as magnetic sensor optimisation—that would be prohibitively expensive or time-consuming for classical supercomputers. The Advantage2 also uses fewer qubits to tackle problems due to its more connected architecture and reduced system noise, delivering a 75% noise reduction over prior models.
This release comes as interest in quantum computing intensifies. Tech giants like Google and Microsoft have recently unveiled their own quantum chips, but D-Wave has attempted to differentiate by focusing on near-term, commercially applicable systems rather than far-off general-purpose quantum supremacy.
Baratz also emphasised the synergy between D-Wave’s systems and artificial intelligence applications:
“We’re doing some very interesting work in how you can use the quantum computer together with classical to do AI model training and inference faster and with less electricity consumption,” he told Sherwood News.
The surge in D-Wave’s stock also lifted other quantum firms. Shares in Quantum Computing Inc., Rigetti Computing, and IonQ all moved higher as investors responded to the renewed optimism in the sector. However, some analysts remain cautious—Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang previously questioned the near-term utility of quantum computing, though he later softened those comments after pushback from Baratz and others in the field.
D-Wave said more than 20.6 million customer problems have already been run on Advantage2 prototypes via its cloud platform, and the company is now expanding its fleet of quantum systems globally. With quantum computing still in its early commercial stages, D-Wave is positioning itself as a leader in real-world, scalable applications.
