Top tech executive Emil Michael has always looked to the future to harness solutions for present-day issues. With an ongoing interest in artificial intelligence and robotics, Michael says he’s never underestimated the value of quantum computing. Emil Michael’s SPAC, DPCM Capital, raised $300 million before announcing its acquisition of D-Wave Systems. Canada’s first major commercial quantum computing company is now going public in an approximately $1.6 billion deal. D-Wave Quantum Inc. will soon be traded on the New York Stock Exchange under “QBTS.”
“We remain excited about the pending business combination with D-Wave and look forward to working with its talented team to accelerate quantum use cases into customer segments, including manufacturing, logistics, pharmaceuticals, finance, and government,” Emil Michael, CEO of DPCM Capital, said in a press release regarding the transaction, which is slated for the second quarter of 2022.
Emil Michael says he was initially attracted to working with D-Wave because it’s the only quantum computing company in the world building both annealing and gate-model quantum computers. “D-Wave is uniquely positioned as the only quantum computing company with full access to an expected $150 billion total market opportunity and is already delivering the significant benefits of quantum computing to major companies across the globe,” Michael says.
The Silicon Valley staple is no stranger to working with cutting-edge startups. He worked with Tellme Networks, which sold to Microsoft in 2007, and Klout, which sold to Lithium Technologies. He says he’s looking for the next big idea and has served as an adviser to multiple startups.
Emil Michael Bets on Quantum Computing
Emil Michael has compared the advantages of quantum computing to a bicycle versus a car. He believes today’s computers are very different than those we’ll use in the future. As tech moves forward, he says he sees quantum computing as the apparent medium to get there. “What we’re looking at is some of the big, deep, new technologies that are going to fast-forward artificial intelligence, deep learning, and robotics, and what you need for those are bigger, faster computers that work in a different way than classical computers,” Emil Michael says. “We’re looking at quantum computing and the incredible amount of stuff you could do. And you’ll need it for self-driving cars, planes, and robots that do all these new tasks. And so that’s my current area of focus.”
D-Wave CEO Alan Baratz told TD Ameritrade Network how excited he is about leveraging this transaction to continue building the quantum computing business.
“Quantum computing uses quantum mechanical effects to perform computations much faster than they can be performed classically,” Baratz said on the TD Ameritrade Network segment. “With quantum computing and D-Wave’s annealing approach to quantum computing, we can start delivering improved solutions to these problems today.”
According to Baratz, annealing quantum computing is also far less error-sensitive. “We’re able to compute good solutions to hard problems today without the need for error correction,” Baratz stated during a D-Wave investor presentation. “Annealing is very well suited to solving optimization problems, and optimization represents most of the important, hard problems that businesses need to solve. Annealing is the quantum workhorse.”
Looking to the future, Baratz says his company plans to invest in market activities to expand its customer base and invest in R&D programming. Baratz also says he has a top-notch R&D team in both hardware and software and a strong and complete management team leading the way for annealing quantum computers.
Emil Michael Sees Long-Term Value in Working With D-Wave
Emil Michael told Emily Chang on Bloomberg TV he liked that D-Wave has products in the market today and a tremendous intellectual property portfolio. He says he also appreciates the leadership at D-Wave and sees Baratz as an incredible technical and commercial leader.
During a D-Wave investor presentation, Baratz also stated that the portfolio contains more than 200 U.S.-granted patents and over 100 in-process worldwide, covering everything from superconducting circuit fabrication to quantum circuit design to hybrid solvers and applications.
“The annealing approach doesn’t solve every problem that quantum might have, but it can solve about $100 billion worth of total adjustable market problems, and no one else has that approach,” Emil Michael told Bloomberg TV.
Baratz told TD Ameritrade Network that D started with annealing quantum computing because D-Wave uses it to scale and solve hard optimization problems. “We’ve been able to get to the point where we are commercial today,” Baratz says.
“D-Wave, therefore, has the best chance of being the largest quantum computing independent player in the market,” Emil Michael stated during an investor presentation for D-Wave. “They have real customers today with real applications, delivering real revenue to the business.”
