D-Wave has just announced that they have signed agreements with NEC Corporation to drive development of hybrid services that combine the best features of quantum and classical computers, and make it easy to incorporate quantum capabilities into integrated workflows.
D-Wave and NEC plan to market and sell D-Wave’s Leap™ quantum cloud service, which includes hybrid tools and services, as well as new hybrid capabilities to be jointly developed. NEC has committed to invest $10 million in D-Wave.
The collaboration will focus on three key areas:
- Hybrid Services: NEC and D-Wave will jointly develop hybrid services that combine the power of NEC’s supercomputers and other classical systems with D-Wave’s quantum technology. The two companies will provide their customers with price and performance characteristics superior to those provided by solely classical systems. This work also complements D-Wave’s existing tools and software for hybrid development, including D-Wave Hybrid™, a simple open-source workflow platform for building and running quantum-classical hybrid applications available through Leap.
- Application Development: NEC and D-Wave will work with customers to develop applications that harness the power of their collaborative hybrid systems and solve practical business and scientific problems across a variety of industries. This builds upon the 200+ early applications customers have developed using D-Wave’s systems in fields ranging from automotive and manufacturing to machine learning and materials science.
- Sales & Marketing: NEC will be an authorized reseller of D-Wave’s Leap cloud service. Offerings include access to D-Wave’s ongoing hardware and software innovations, including the lower noise processor, Ocean SDK™, and the next-generation Advantage™ system when it is available in mid-2020. The parties plan to jointly develop, market, and sell new hybrid capabilities.
The collaboration with NEC builds upon D-Wave’s existing traction in the high-impact Japanese market. Japanese customers include such market leaders as DENSO, Toyota Tsusho, Recruit Communications, Groovenauts, Sigma-i, Tohoku University, and more. (D-Wave)
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