In August, Emil Michael’s blank check company, DPCM Capital Inc., merged with quantum computing company D-Wave Systems Inc., netting an estimated $1.6 billion market valuation. According to a Yahoo Finance report, the quantum computing market will expand at a compound annual growth rate of 30.2% through 2026.
Shortly after news of the merger hit the airwaves, DPCM Capital Chairman Emil Michael tweeted his enthusiasm for the deal. “A great introduction from @FutureJurvetson that led to a great outcome,” Emil Michael posted on Twitter. “[I ] am excited to join CEO Alan Baratz on D-Wave’s journey as a public company.”
CEO of D-Wave, Alan Baratz, says he sees the union of the companies as a growth strategy. “Today marks a significant milestone in our journey as we embark on our next phase as a publicly traded company,” Baratz told the technology website The Register. “The era of commercial quantum computing is here.”
D-Wave Quantum Inc. is now the umbrella company of DPCM Capital and D-Wave, with its stocks trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol QBTS.
Investorplace.com reports that QBTS is rated high by bullish analysts.
The Future of Quantum Computing Is Now
For those who aren’t in the loop about quantum computing, IBM describes it as “a rapidly emerging technology that harnesses the laws of quantum mechanics to solve problems too complex for classical computers.”
In real-life applications, Michael explains, “When I started thinking about quantum and D-Wave, I started thinking about Uber and optimizing routes. Where do you go to pick up the people? Where will cars go so they’re the most efficient ride for anyone? And we would do this with regular computers, which would take a long time.”
Google’s testing indicates the D-Wave 2X quantum computer is 100 million times faster than a classic processor. So how exactly do D-Wave’s 10-foot-tall, $15 million machines operate? They use quantum transistors to measure matter at the atomic level. Relying on quantum uncertainty, quantum computing occurs when nuclear particles are in two states simultaneously. D-Wave computers take advantage of this state by manipulating it to generate processing power.
Baratz says D-Wave has brought its technology to manufacturing, logistics, finance, and pharmaceutical industries.
Future-focused minds like Michael say the market for quantum computing will only grow as more industries recognize how superfast, supersmart computers can help them problem-solve with unparalleled proficiency.
The First and Only Commercial Quantum Computing Company
“D-Wave was the first and still is the only commercial quantum computing company,” says CEO Baratz. “We have over two dozen Forbes Global 2000 customers working on real business applications to support their business operations.”
Baratz adds that D-Wave serves customers like CaixaBank, Lockheed Martin, and Volkswagen. “We are commercial today and well ahead of anybody else in the quantum industry,” he adds.
Meanwhile, the company continues to pioneer in the quantum computing industry, namely for its work with quantum-annealing systems and quantum gate technology — it’s the only brand building such computer systems.
The company has ushered five generations of quantum computers to market and, in June, launched an experimental prototype of its sixth-generation machine called Advantage2. The Advantage2 quantum computer will increase connectivity and aims to deliver greater performance by reducing noise.
Emile Hoskinson, director of quantum-annealing products at D-Wave, says the Advantage2 quantum computer was completely reengineered from the ground up.
“The Advantage2 prototype is an opportunity for us to share our excitement and give a sneak peek into the future for customers bringing quantum into their applications,” Hoskinson says.
About 40% of large enterprises are already experimenting with quantum computing, according to dwavesys.com.
Over the past ten years, D-Wave has been developing quantum-annealing systems, which, in layperson’s terms, find the optimal solution from a large set of problems. Soon, D-Wave says its gate-model computers, which utilize algorithms with quantum gates, will be available by 2024.
“We know there are important problems annealing systems can’t solve, like differential equations,” Baratz said during a speech on the technology.
Emil Michael: Solving Real-World Optimization Problems
In February, Emil Michael told Emily Chang on Bloomberg TV that he liked D-Wave’s products on the market today.
“Because they’ve been around awhile, their IP portfolio is enormous,” Emil Michael says. “Their approach is the only approach that works for optimization problems such as employee scheduling. It can solve real-world optimization problems today, and they will build a new approach too, like Rigetti [Computing] and Google.”
Like those companies in quantum computing, Michael also has a long history of creating significant market value for tech brands. He is renowned for raising over $25 billion in capital and creating more than $100 billion in market value for various companies.
The capital-raising powerhouse is right at home with the quantum set.
“The annealing approach doesn’t solve every problem that quantum might solve, but it can solve about $100 billion worth of total addressable market, and no one else has that approach,” Michael says.
Asus mentioned in that congratulatory tweet in August that Michael was first introduced to Baratz through Steve Jurvetson, a SpaceX and former T, Isla board member.
The rest is history.
“When I looked at the quantum industry generally, I saw that this company was far ahead of the others in terms of its ability to commercialize, build a business, and solve real business problems today,” said Michael on the “SPACInsider” podcast. “And since those other companies were doing quite well, depending on the week or month … I thought this one was far ahead and the best, in my opinion, was really a good bet and proven out so far to be an exciting relationship that I’ve built with Alan and the team.”
