D-Wave partners with Nasdaq Verafin to test quantum-powered financial crime detection

D-Wave Quantum is testing its quantum computing systems with Nasdaq’s Verafin division to detect financial crimes. The collaboration pairs one of the most commercially advanced quantum computing companies with a platform that Nasdaq considered important enough to acquire for $2.75 billion back in November 2020. The partnership appears to be in its early pilot stages, with no public performance benchmarks or formal press releases yet. What D-Wave and Verafin are actually doing Verafin specializes in anti-money laundering and fraud detection, serving as a core piece of Nasdaq’s financial technology stack. D-Wave, meanwhile, builds quantum annealing computers, a type of quantum system particularly well-suited for optimization problems. D-Wave’s Advantage3 system operates with 100,000 qubits, making it one of the largest quantum systems commercially available. The company has positioned this hardware as particularly relevant for financial services and law enforcement applications. This isn’t D-Wave’s first foray into financial crime. The company previously partnered with Mastercard to explore quantum-hybrid applications targeting fraud management and anti-money laundering use cases. Th...