D-Wave said its Advantage2 annealing quantum computer has arrived in Lombardy, Italy, for installation at Villa Saporiti in Como. The company’s IR release is dated 15 October 2026. Funded by Swiss Quantum Technology SA (SQT), the system is called VoltaB1 inside the Q-Alliance ecosystem.
Arrival for installation is not the same as going live. D-Wave says researchers, universities and businesses will get access once the system is installed and that, once operational, it will be reachable through D-Wave’s Leap real-time quantum cloud service.
Inauguration, not go-live
A formal inauguration is scheduled at Q-Alliance’s “Quantum per l’Italia” event on 16 October 2026 at Villa Saporiti, with D-Wave CEO Dr Alan Baratz due to speak. The ceremony follows D-Wave’s signing of the Volta Declaration at the World Tech Conference in Milan in June 2026, which the company says established a cooperation framework on quantum, AI and sovereign computing infrastructure.
Deal terms
The arrival follows a €10 million agreement between D-Wave and SQT. Under that deal, SQT acquired 50% of the system’s capacity for five years and holds an option to purchase the full system. Thomas F. Darden, acting CEO of SQT, said the investment is meant to connect researchers and businesses with advanced resources and help build Italian expertise.
What D-Wave claims about Advantage2
D-Wave says Advantage2 features more than 4,400 qubits and is its most advanced annealing system. The company also claims the system has outperformed classical computing on a materials-simulation problem that would have taken a powerful classical supercomputer “nearly one million years” and the world’s annual electricity consumption. That supremacy-style line is D-Wave’s own claim — do not restate it as established fact. Likewise, “Italy’s first annealing quantum computer” is company framing.
Baratz said: “Bringing Italy’s first annealing quantum computer to Como marks a historic milestone toward making quantum computing a working capability for Italian innovation and industry.”
Ceremony context
D-Wave says the Como ceremony is part of the lead-up to the bicentennial of Alessandro Volta’s death — a symbolic frame for putting annealing hardware on Italian soil. The practical sequence still runs: physical arrival → installation at Villa Saporiti → inauguration remarks → Leap cloud access when the system is operational. Readers should not treat the 16 October event as proof the machine is already solving customer jobs.
Where annealing fits
Annealing systems are specialised for certain optimisation and sampling workloads; they are not universal replacements for gate-model machines of the sort IonQ emphasises, or for photonic systems such as ORCA’s PT-3. D-Wave markets itself as a dual-platform vendor (annealing plus gate-model). VoltaB1 is the annealing side landing in Lombardy under a capacity-sharing contract with SQT.
Why it matters
On-premises annealing hardware in Europe is still rare compared with cloud access. TSN has covered D-Wave’s SkyWater manufacturing agreement, IonQ’s Cambridge innovation centre, ORCA’s PT-3 in London and Qilimanjaro’s Spanish funding — different modalities and stages of European quantum infrastructure. VoltaB1 adds an Italian installation milestone; usefulness still depends on when Leap access opens and what applications SQT and Q-Alliance actually run.
Caveats
Not operational yet. Performance and “first in Italy” claims are D-Wave’s. Leap 99.9% availability figure in the release is a company service claim for the cloud product generally.
What to watch next
- Confirmation that installation is complete and Leap access is live
- Whether SQT exercises its option to buy the full system
- Named Italian industrial or academic workloads on VoltaB1
Sources
- D-Wave Quantum Inc. IR, “D-Wave Delivers Italy’s First Annealing Quantum Computer”, 15 October 2026. https://ir.dwavequantum.com/news/news-details/2026/D-Wave-Delivers-Italys-First-Annealing-Quantum-Computer/default.aspx
Related stories
- SkyWater and D-Wave Sign a Multi-Year Deal to Keep Making D-Wave’s Quantum Chips in Minnesota
- IonQ and the University of Cambridge Open the First University-Based IonQ Quantum Innovation Centre
- ORCA Computing Launches PT-3 Photonic Quantum Computer at Digital Realty’s London Lab
- Spanish Quantum Computer Maker Qilimanjaro Raises €19.6 Million From Indra and a State Fund
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