D-Wave Quantum Inc. (NYSE: QBTS) has entered into a definitive merger agreement to acquire Quantum Circuits Inc. for a total purchase price of approximately $550 million. The transaction, comprising $300 million in common stock and $250 million in cash, is expected to close in late January 2026. This acquisition establishes D-Wave as the first commercial entity to possess a dual-platform strategy, integrating its established quantum annealing systems with high-fidelity, error-corrected gate-model superconducting technology.
The strategic core of the merger is the integration of Quantum Circuits’ hardware-native error detection with D-Wave’s scalable control infrastructure. Quantum Circuits, a Yale University spin-out led by superconducting pioneer Dr. Rob Schoelkopf, has developed a unique dual-rail qubit architecture. This modality utilizes microwave cavities to encode information, naturally converting common noise into detectable “erasure” errors. This capability will eventually allow for the development of full error correcting codes that require far fewer physical qubits to create a single logical qubit. By combining these dual-rail qubits with D-Wave’s recently demonstrated on-chip cryogenic control and multi-layer superconducting packaging, the company targets an accelerated roadmap to deliver its first commercial gate-model system by the end of 2026.
As part of the consolidation, D-Wave will work to expand the research and development center in New Haven, Connecticut, where Dr. Schoelkopf and the former Quantum Circuits technical team will lead the effort to scale the dual-rail processor. This expansion leverages Schoelkopf’s foundational expertise in circuit quantum electrodynamics (cQED) to bypass traditional scaling bottlenecks. For D-Wave, the acquisition represents an “industry leapfrog” maneuver, intended to offer customers a single superconducting stack capable of addressing both near-term combinatorial optimization and long-term fault-tolerant universal computation.
During a conference call announcing the merger, the companies also announced a roadmap for the development of dual-rail based quantum processors. Quantum Circuits currently has an 8 dual-rail qubit machine operational now which is being tested by a few alpha users. Later this year they will make generally available a 17 dual-rail qubit machine followed by a 40 dual-rail qubit version in 2027 and a 181 dual-rail qubit version in 2028. The 2028 machine will be large enough for researchers to test out various error correction techniques with the dual-rail qubits. In later they years they plan to develop a processor with about 1000 dual-rail qubits. D-Wave will be working to integrate these processors into their Leap Cloud Service so they can be accessed alongside D-Wave quantum annealers.
Read the official merger announcement here and the technical background on dual-rail qubit technology here.
January 7, 2026
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