The world of technology is evolving so fast that it can be hard for many to keep up. Artificial intelligence (AI) is changing the ways in which people do many things, but it isn’t the only tech facet poised to make history.
Quantum computing has been in focus recently and for good reason. This type of technology may not be as widely understood as AI, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t worth paying attention to. On the contrary, companies in the space are doing things that may allow AI to keep growing as it is.
Late in 2024, several quantum computing stocks, some of which previously hadn’t been well known outside their industry, started to surge by significant amounts, some rocketing from penny stock levels to more than $20 per share.
Recently, one of those companies announced something that could represent a major step forward for the field.
According to one company, quantum supremacy is here
The list of those quantum computing stocks includes Quantum Computing (QUBT) , D-Wave Quantum (QBTS) , and Rigetti Computing (RGTI) . Yesterday, D-Wave made an announcement that has put the entire industry in focus as experts consider the next stage of quantum computing.
In a peer-reviewed paper called “Beyond-Classical Computation in Quantum Simulation published on March 12, 2025, D-Wave Quantum revealed something that caught the attention of the tech world. The company claims it has achieved “quantum supremacy” and made history in the process.
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What specifically does this mean? A statement released by D-Wave states that its “annealing quantum computer outperformed one of the world’s most powerful classical supercomputers in solving complex magnetic materials simulation problems with relevance to materials discovery.”
The company also notes that this achievement is validated in the published paper as the only recorded quantum computational supremacy demonstration on what is described as a “useful problem.”
In quantum computing, computational tasks are performed much faster by machines that can leverage the principles of quantum mechanics by utilizing quantum bits (qubits) of information. While a standard computer typically performs its calculations one step after another, a quantum system is able to carry out multiple tasks at once.
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Now it seems that D-Wave’s technology is taking these advanced computational capabilities even further. As the statement notes:
“D-Wave’s quantum computer performed the most complex simulation in minutes and with a level of accuracy that would take nearly one million years using the supercomputer. In addition, it would require more than the world’s annual electricity consumption to solve this problem using the supercomputer, which is built with graphics processing unit (GPU) clusters.”
The future of quantum computing is coming into focus
Dr. Alan Baratz, CEO of D-Wave, praises this achievement as a first for the industry, stating that while there have been other claims of quantum systems being able to outperform classical computers, they “have been disputed or involved random number generation of no practical value.”
As he sees it, this breakthrough demonstrates an important truth for the industry: that D-Wave’s quantum computers can solve problems beyond the capabilities of even the most advanced classical machines.
In January 2025, Baratz spoke to TheStreet about statements made by Nvidia (NVDA) CEO Jensen Huang, who claimed that “very useful quantum computers” are likely 15 years away. Baratz argued against that, claiming that his company’s technology disproved Huang’s thesis.
Now his company has even more evidence to support that, as D-Wave has demonstrated its technology does indeed have the ability to solve real-world problems. These quantum computing systems are likely to keep advancing from here.
Other experts share this optimism. “In an elegant paper, the D-Wave group has used a large-scale quantum annealer to uncover patterns of entanglement in a complex quantum system that lie far beyond the reach of the most powerful classical computer,” states Dr. Seth Lloyd, Professor of Quantum Mechanical Engineering at MIT.
“The D-Wave result shows the promise of quantum annealers for exploring exotic quantum effects in a wide variety of systems.”
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