SkyWater Technology and D-Wave Quantum Inc. announced on October 13, 2026, a multi-year agreement that extends their long-standing manufacturing collaboration at SkyWater's Minnesota fab.

The partnership will continue to support D-Wave's dual-platform superconducting quantum computing technology roadmap through specialized semiconductor process development and manufacturing.

A Decade of Collaboration

D-Wave's work with the process integration and manufacturing team at SkyWater's Minnesota facility spans more than a decade, creating a deep base of process knowledge around the company's superconducting quantum technologies.

The two companies bring complementary strengths to the relationship.

D-Wave knows how to engineer superconducting processes and how to design quantum systems and processors, while SkyWater is skilled at combining manufacturing steps into one process, engineering materials, making very thin layers of material, and manufacturing semiconductors.

That technical collaboration has supported multiple generations of D-Wave technology, including fabrication of the company's Advantage2 processors.

A D-Wave Advantage2 system fabricated at SkyWater was used in research published in Science in 2025 demonstrating performance beyond classical approaches on a useful quantum simulation problem.

Terms and Continuity

Under the new agreement, D-Wave will continue its relationship with SkyWater's Minnesota fab team, providing manufacturing continuity and access to specialized process expertise developed around its technology requirements.

The agreement builds on the established technical foundation between the companies, with terms that protect D-Wave's intellectual property as the company advances its quantum systems.

Thomas Sonderman, CEO of SkyWater Technology, said his team has developed profound process knowledge around D-Wave's highly specialized technology, demonstrating the value of close collaboration between quantum innovators and semiconductor manufacturers.

He added that the agreement reinforces SkyWater's commitment to providing D-Wave and customers across the quantum ecosystem with the unique process development and manufacturing capabilities they need to advance their technologies.

Dr. Alan Baratz, CEO of D-Wave, said the work with the SkyWater team has played an important role in powering the past decade of D-Wave's superconducting quantum annealing technology.

According to Baratz, the agreement provides continuity with an experienced manufacturing team and specialized process capabilities the company knows well as it builds the next generations of its quantum systems.

Quantum Technology Applied to Fab Operations

Separately from the new agreement, the companies collaborated on a proof-of-technology project earlier in 2026, applying D-Wave's annealing quantum computing technology to drive more efficient manufacturing processes at SkyWater's fab.

The optimized maintenance schedule produced under the project reduced lot delays by up to 30%, improving factory throughput.

A forthcoming proof-of-concept will focus on extending the model to include resource availability, technician constraints, and additional fab-specific operational constraints.

Broader Quantum Manufacturing Ecosystem

The agreement reflects growing demand for semiconductor manufacturing infrastructure capable of supporting the specialized materials, processes, and integration requirements of quantum technologies.

SkyWater recently launched SkyWater Quantum Solutions, an initiative designed to help quantum companies transition technologies from development toward repeatable manufacturing. The company continues to serve existing customers such as D-Wave across the broader quantum ecosystem.

About the Companies

D-Wave Quantum Inc., trading on Nasdaq under the ticker QBTS, is a leader in the development and delivery of quantum computing systems, software, and services.

It is the world's first commercial supplier of quantum computers and the first and only company to offer dual-platform quantum computing products and services, spanning both annealing and gate-model quantum computing technologies.

D-Wave's mission is to help customers realize the value of quantum today through enterprise-grade systems available on-premises and via its Leap quantum cloud service, which offers 99.9% availability and uptime.

More than 100 organizations across commercial, government, and research sectors trust D-Wave to address complex computational challenges using quantum computing.

SkyWater Technology, based in Bloomington, Minnesota, is the largest exclusively U.S.-based semiconductor foundry and describes itself as the first quantum foundry in the U.S.

The company provides advanced development and manufacturing services that enable customers to bring differentiated technologies from concept to production.

Through its U.S.-based facilities and specialized process development, wafer manufacturing, and advanced packaging capabilities, SkyWater serves customers across quantum computing, aerospace and defense, automotive, industrial, biomedical, and other advanced technology markets.

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