AT&T is using D-Wave’s quantum computing technology to shrink a network-optimization workload from roughly an hour of processing to under 15 seconds, D-Wave announced today. That’s about a 240X speedup on a real-world task, which sounds suspiciously like quantum advantage to me. As a result, AT&T has signed an agreement to expand its use of D-Wave’s quantum computing technology to attack optimization problems across its live network operations.
That’s quantum computing in the real world, not in a research sandbox. And it’s quantum computing running for one of America’s largest carriers.
“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,” Alan Baratz, CEO of D-Wave, said in a statement. “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.”
Quantum computing has spent the better part of a decade as a story about the future: promising in the lab, perpetually five years away from mattering, and priced by public markets on hope rather than revenue. And there’s a lot to look forward to in the future as well, based on the conversations I’ve been having with quantum computing executives.
But it’s exciting to see real results today.
Like any big carrier, AT&T has seriously challenging optimization problems, with hundreds of millions of devices accessing its network to connect to the internet. It’s already using AI agents to diagnose and fix issues. But now AT&T is embedding D-Wave’s annealing quantum computers into those AI systems and using them to compute some of its hardest optimization problems: things like network build planning, traffic routing and load balancing, deciding how to reroute traffic in case of outages, or spectrum and resource allocation. Doing any of those things in 15 seconds where classical computing takes an hour is huge, mostly because many of these optimization problems are constantly changing minute by minute. Answering many of these challenges with classical computing is a complete waste of time, because by the time you have the answer, the world has changed and it is no longer relevant to the new situation.
“D-Wave’s annealing quantum computing technology gives us a new way to approach optimization and high-intensity compute challenges across AT&T’s network operations,” AT&T’s Lucus Haugen said in a statement. “The speed we’re seeing with D-Wave challenges what’s currently possible. It has the potential to help us optimize faster, increase efficiency and scale more real-time operations, making quantum a practical tool for advancing how we run and modernize our network.”
AT&T is also evaluating D-Wave’s forthcoming gate-model machines for quantum security and communications, which would signal a longer-term bet in additional areas.
The announcement landed on a busy day for D-Wave: it marks the company’s debut trading on the Nasdaq under the ticker QBTS, after transferring its listing from the NYSE. Investors noticed, sending the stock up around 7% and lifting other quantum companies like IonQ and Rigetti along with it.
D-Wave now says more than 100 organizations across commercial, government and research use its systems, and it remains the only vendor offering both annealing and gate-model quantum platforms. That said, there’s plenty of competition coming in quantum, and plenty of well-funded competitors building their own technology.