D-Wave Extends Agreement with Aramco Europe to Explore Quantum-Powered Optimization of Geophysical Problems

Insider Brief

• D-Wave Quantum Inc. announced  it extended an agreement with Aramco to manage geophysical optimization problems through quantum technologies.
• Aramco Research Center in Delft, the Netherlands, has been working with D-Wave’s  quantum technologies on solving optimization problems involved in computationally intensive seismic imaging.
• The teams have seen performance gains over classical computers in both time-to-solution and scale.

PRESS RELEASE — D-Wave Quantum Inc., a leader in quantum computing systems, software and services announced  that it has extended its agreement with Aramco, a global integrated energy and chemicals company, to manage geophysical optimization problems through quantum technologies.

Aramco Research Center in Delft, the Netherlands, (the “Center”) is focused on developing advanced computing technologies to help address global energy challenges. For the past two years, it has been working with D-Wave’s powerful quantum technologies on solving highly complex optimization problems involved in computationally intensive seismic imaging, an ultrasound-like technology used to map the various geological strata many kilometers beneath the surface.

With support from D-Wave, the team has been able to create its first subsurface maps, using tens of gigabytes of seismic data as input, with the aim of processing a terabyte of seismic data with the D-Wave quantum computer in 2024. Using D-Wave’s quantum computers and hybrid solvers, accessible through the Leap quantum cloud service, Aramco’s team of researchers developed their own hybrid classical-quantum geophysical applications. Using D-Wave’s quantum technologies, the Center has seen performance gains over classical computers in both time-to-solution and scale

Marcin Dukalski, Quantum Applications Lead with Aramco Research Center in Delft said: “I’m excited to see how far we’ve been able to push quantum technologies to tackle such a large optimization problem as subsurface imaging. We look forward to expanding our work with D-Wave, which will be centered on reaping even greater tangible benefits from the Advantage2TM system.”

Trevor Lanting, D-Wave’s Chief Development Officer, said: “Together with Aramco, we are demonstrating our quantum technology’s ability to take on core data challenges in geophysical research. We look forward to helping Aramco researchers maximize quantum’s positive impact on their computational challenges as they look to turn data into usable knowledge of the subsurface.”