D-Wave Quantum Inc., a leader in quantum computing systems, software, and services, and uptownBasel, a Swiss-based competence center for Industry 4.0, today announced an agreement that brings D-Wave’s quantum annealing technology solutions to the new uptownBasel Infinity Center of Competence for Quantum & AI. Designed to accelerate quantum computing understanding and adoption, the center provides organizations with quantum skills enablement and access to a variety of quantum computing systems and renowned industry expertise to help them harness the power of the technology to solve computationally complex business and societal problems.
D-Wave will serve as the quantum optimization technology provider for uptownBasel Infinity, giving the center’s tenants and customers access to its AdvantageTM annealing quantum computer via the LeapTM real-time quantum cloud service. Advantage, D-Wave’s fifth generation commercially available quantum computer with more than 5,000 qubits and 15-way qubit connectivity, excels at optimization problems ubiquitous in real-world commercial applications, such as manufacturing processes and reducing waste. In addition, the center’s customers can engage with D-Wave’s team of professional services experts to facilitate the analysis, formulation and ultimately creation of production-ready quantum computing applications.
“We’ve built the uptownBasel Infinity Center of Competence for Quantum & AI in order to serve as an innovative, collaborative and advanced hub that will facilitate technology-based solutions for industry,” said Damir Bogdan, CEO of uptownBasel Infinity. “Through our agreement with D-Wave, we’re delivering access to proven annealing quantum computing systems, products and services to give our customers the opportunity to tackle real-world optimization problems and create quantum-hybrid applications that will drive impact, today.”
“The uptownBasel Infinity Center of Competence for Quantum & AI will engage organizations in solving problems that ultimately could change business and society, and our missions are incredibly aligned,” said Dr. Alan Baratz, CEO of D-Wave. “At D-Wave, we harness the immense power of quantum computing technology to help companies find answers to their most complex and computationally intensive challenges. By joining forces with uptownBasel and serving as its annealing quantum computing technology provider, we look forward to helping fuel global quantum innovation, enablement and education.”
About uptownBasel and uptownBasel Infinity
uptownBasel is an international competence center for Industry 4.0 – networked with the world, anchored in Europe, and rooted in Basel. On the historic Schorenareal site in Arlesheim near Basel, an approximately 70,000 square meter research and production site is being built, where selected companies and their technologies will thrive. The focus is on healthcare, logistics and industrial production as well as the cross-sectional function of digitalization. The opening of Building 1 and its use by the two European technology groups Bouygues and Vinci (Axians and Actemium) have created 400 new jobs since 2021. In total, the housing of 50 to 100 companies with up to 2,500 jobs is planned. The investment volume amounts to over 500 million Swiss francs. uptownBasel is made possible by the private ownership of the family Monique and Thomas Staehelin and implemented by Fankhauser Arealentwicklungen.
uptownBasel Infinity, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the uptownBasel Group, runs the first commercial quantum hub in Switzerland. “QuantumBasel”, its Center of Competence for Quantum and Artificial Intelligence, offers access to Quantum and other high performance computing to the tenants and the ecosystem of uptownBasel. uptownBasel Infinity cooperates with various technology partners such as IBM, D-Wave and others. Furthermore, they are expanding their global network to research institutes and universities. Damir Bogdan was appointed as CEO. He has a long background in technology, strategy and management, is active in Silicon Valley advising companies in terms of innovation and transformation and on the board of several companies inside and outside Switzerland.
About D-Wave Quantum Inc.
D-Wave is a leader in the development and delivery of quantum computing systems, software, and services, and is the world’s first commercial supplier of quantum computers—and the only company building both annealing quantum computers and gate-model quantum computers. Our mission is to unlock the power of quantum computing today to benefit business and society. We do this by delivering customer value with practical quantum applications for problems as diverse as logistics, artificial intelligence, materials sciences, drug discovery, scheduling, cybersecurity, fault detection, and financial modeling. D-Wave’s technology is being used by some of the world’s most advanced organizations, including NEC Corporation, Volkswagen, DENSO, Lockheed Martin, Forschungszentrum Jülich, University of Southern California, and Los Alamos National Laboratory.