D-Wave Quantum Inc. (NYSE: QBTS) snapped a three-day losing streak on Monday, surging as much as 19.6 percent to $19.39 per share after securing a major new enterprise partnership.
The quantum computing firm announced a commercial collaboration with AT&T on the same day its shares were formally uplisted to the New York Stock Exchange.
The deal signals a broader shift in the quantum computing sector, as the technology moves beyond laboratory research into practical, large-scale commercial deployments.
AT&T plans to apply D-Wave’s annealing quantum computing technology to tools already powering its agentic AI solutions, with a focus on improving network operations.
The telecom giant’s agentic tools have already demonstrated meaningful results, having reduced customer downtime by 12 million hours in the prior year alone.
D-Wave’s technology is expected to amplify those gains further, with an early application already cutting the processing time for a network optimization workload from one hour down to under 15 seconds.
AT&T is planning to deploy D-Wave’s quantum computing technology across a broader set of use cases, including outage detection and response, technician routing, network build planning, and traffic management.
The expanded deployment is intended to explore how faster processing could translate into quicker and more accurate planning as AT&T scales its converged fiber and 5G network to meet growing AI-driven demand.
D-Wave CEO Alan Baratz said “AT&T’s work with D-Wave is a powerful example of how leading enterprises are beginning to turn to quantum computing for solving real business problems.”
Baratz added that “AT&T has incredibly complex optimization problems across its network operations, understands where classical computing is challenged, and is moving quickly to explore where quantum can make an impact.”
AT&T is also evaluating D-Wave’s forthcoming gate-model systems for potential applications in quantum security and quantum communications, broadening the scope of the partnership.
The agreement forms part of AT&T’s wider innovation strategy, which combines quantum computing, AI, automation, advanced analytics, and software-defined infrastructure to modernize how its network is built, run, and optimized.
The NYSE uplisting, which took effect on the same day as the AT&T announcement, represents a significant milestone for D-Wave, with the potential to improve liquidity and visibility among institutional investors.
Hedge fund interest in QBTS has shown a mixed picture, with 26 funds holding positions in the first quarter of 2026, up from 22 funds in the fourth quarter of 2025.
Despite the increase in the number of funds, combined hedge fund holdings fell sharply by 67.4 percent to $55.7 million from $170.8 million quarter-on-quarter, suggesting reduced conviction among institutional players looking to limit capital at risk.
