SkyWater's Minnesota fab secures a multi-year quantum chip manufacturing deal with D-Wave through October 2026, continuing a decade-long semiconductor part
Research Desk
SkyWater Technology, a Bloomington, Minnesota-based semiconductor foundry, and D-Wave Quantum Inc. have signed a multi-year manufacturing agreement, the companies announced on October 13, 2026.
The deal extends a partnership that has run for more than a decade at SkyWater's Minnesota fab, where D-Wave's superconducting quantum processors have been fabricated, and will continue to support D-Wave's dual-platform quantum computing roadmap through specialized semiconductor process development and manufacturing.
Under the terms of the new agreement, D-Wave will maintain its working relationship with SkyWater's Minnesota fab team, securing manufacturing continuity and continued access to the specialized process expertise built around its technology requirements.
The arrangement builds on the technical foundation the two companies have established over the years, and its terms include protections for D-Wave's intellectual property as the company advances its quantum systems.
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.
In his view, 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.
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 process development and manufacturing capabilities they need to advance their technologies.
D-Wave's collaboration with the process integration and manufacturing team at SkyWater's Minnesota facility stretches back more than a decade, producing a deep base of process knowledge around D-Wave's superconducting quantum technologies.
Each side brings distinct strengths: D-Wave contributes expertise in engineering superconducting processes and in designing quantum systems and processors, while SkyWater specializes in combining manufacturing steps into a single process, engineering materials, producing very thin material layers, and manufacturing semiconductors.
That joint technical work has carried multiple generations of D-Wave technology through fabrication, including 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.
Beyond the manufacturing relationship, the two companies ran a proof-of-technology project earlier in 2026 that applied D-Wave's annealing quantum computing technology to SkyWater's own fab operations.
The project targeted more efficient manufacturing processes, and the optimized maintenance schedule it produced reduced lot delays by up to 30%, improving factory throughput.
A forthcoming proof-of-concept will extend the model to account for resource availability, technician constraints, and additional fab-specific operational constraints.
The agreement arrives amid growing demand for semiconductor manufacturing infrastructure that can handle the specialized materials, processes, and integration requirements of quantum technologies.
SkyWater recently launched SkyWater Quantum Solutions, an initiative intended to help quantum companies move their technologies from development toward repeatable manufacturing. The company continues to serve existing quantum customers such as D-Wave across the broader ecosystem.
D-Wave Quantum Inc. trades on Nasdaq under the ticker QBTS and describes itself as a leader in developing and delivering quantum computing systems, software, and services.
It was the world's first commercial supplier of quantum computers and is the first and only company to offer dual-platform quantum computing products and services, spanning both annealing and gate-model technologies.
Its stated 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 rely on D-Wave to address complex computational challenges using quantum computing.
SkyWater Technology, headquartered in Bloomington, Minnesota, is the largest exclusively U.S.-based semiconductor foundry and describes itself as the first quantum foundry in the United States.
The company provides advanced development and manufacturing services, enabling customers to take differentiated technologies from concept to production.
Through its U.S.-based facilities, SkyWater offers specialized process development, wafer manufacturing, and advanced packaging capabilities, serving customers across quantum computing, aerospace and defense, automotive, industrial, biomedical, and other advanced technology markets.
Quantum Computing Manufacturing Partnership
North America
Semiconductor
13 October 2026
3 min read
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