Burnaby-based D-Wave is ramping up efforts to sell its quantum computer systems to U.S. government agencies with the launch of an American subsidiary.
The seven-person board of D-Wave Government Inc. includes four members connected to the U.S. security apparatus.
“We have been able to attract some real notable former government and [industry] people from the U.S. to be on the board,” D-Wave president Bo Ewald told Business In Vancouver.
“What it should do is make it easier for us to have contracts with U.S. government entities and agencies, particularly those dealing with national security.”
Ewald said the biggest market for high-performance computers is the U.S.
And within the U.S., he said, it’s government agencies that are the biggest clients.
Los Alamos National Laboratory, which specializes in designing nuclear weapons in the U.S., became D-Wave’s third customer in 2015.
Since then, the lab requested that D-Wave formalize its American presence to make it easier to do business with U.S. government agencies, according to Ewald.
Rene Copeland, D-Wave’s director of government sales, will serve as president of the U.S. subsidiary.
Board members include chairman Jeffrey K. Harris, the former director of the national reconnaissance office and assistant secretary of the U.S. Air Force.
Delores Etter, the former undersecretary of defense for science and technology and assistant secretary of the U.S. Navy, also sits on the board along with Frances Fleisch, the former executive director of the National Security Agency and special adviser to the U.S. Strategic Command.
Donald M. Kerr, the CIA’s former deputy director for science and technology, is the fourth board member with ties to the U.S. government.
D-Wave’s quantum computers differ from regular computers that use two bits – ones and zeroes – to make calculations.
Instead, quantum computers rely on qubits, which possess a “superposition” allowing it to be one and zero at the same time.
This means it can calculate all possible values in a single operation and greatly reduce the amount of time it takes to make complex calculations.
Other D-Wave clients include U.S.-based Google and NASA.
Despite all the American customers, Ewald said there’s “no question” the company will continue to be headquartered in Metro Vancouver.
“That’s where it was started, that’s where our RnD (research and development) facilities are,” he said.
“But the reality is, I think as we gain more customers we have to do business with them the way customers want to do business. If they’re in the U.S., we’ll be building up the organization in the U.S. to better serve the customers there.”
@reporton
