Palm Beach County Bets About $15 Million in Public Money on Becoming a Quantum Computing Hub

Palm Beach County's economic development leaders have committed roughly $15 million in state, federal and local money to turn the county into a quantum computing hub, a two-year bet anchored by D-Wave Quantum's decision to move its corporate headquarters from California to Boca Raton, according to reporting by Stet News published by WLRN on Oct. 20.

The figure covers grants and incentives steered by the Business Development Board of Palm Beach County, the public-private agency that recruits companies to the county. It does not include Florida Atlantic University's separate $20 million purchase of a D-Wave quantum computer.

Where the money goes

The roughly $15 million breaks down as follows, according to Stet News:

BDB CEO Kelly Smallridge credited Florida Commerce Secretary Alex Kelly with lining up the state money and U.S. Rep. Lois Frankel, a West Palm Beach Democrat, with securing the federal dollars.

D-Wave's move to Boca Raton

D-Wave, which builds and sells quantum computers, announced in January that it would relocate its corporate headquarters from Palo Alto, California, to the Boca Raton Innovation Campus, the 1.7-million-square-foot technology complex originally built by IBM, and open a U.S. research and development facility there. The company had first looked at West Palm Beach, Stet News reported. In announcing the move, D-Wave CEO Alan Baratz said Florida represents one of the fastest growing technology ecosystems in the United States, and the company cited job growth and training incentives from the state and city. Smallridge said she expects the headquarters to be established in December or January.

Boca Raton's City Council unanimously approved up to $500,000 in performance-based incentives. To collect it, D-Wave must create 100 net new jobs within city limits over five years, paying an average annual wage of at least $125,000. WPTV, citing city documents, reported that the state's incentive letter to the company totaled more than $6.6 million, consistent with the grant and tax credit figures above.

D-Wave's machines are quantum annealers, designed for optimization problems such as logistics and scheduling. The company points to customers including AT&T, where an early application cut a network optimization workload from about an hour to under 15 seconds, and Ford Otosan, the Ford joint venture in Turkey, which uses a D-Wave-powered tool to cut scheduling time for 1,000 vehicles from 30 minutes to under five, according to Stet News.

FAU's $20 million quantum computer

Alongside the headquarters announcement, Florida Atlantic University signed a $20 million agreement to buy and install a D-Wave Advantage2 annealing system on its Boca Raton campus, with deployment expected later this year. FAU wants to become a leader in quantum research by offering access to the machine to students, researchers and businesses.

Under the partnership, FAU and D-Wave plan joint workshops and hackathons focused on public works, logistics, supply chains, transportation and emergency management, along with paid internships for FAU students. A separate memorandum of understanding could lead to a D-Wave Quantum Applications Academy at the university.

Training a quantum workforce

Palm Beach State College is using its roughly $7 million in state and federal grants to build a Quantum Innovation Center, a business incubator and job training program in a 1933 Mediterranean Revival building at 812 Fern St. in West Palm Beach, on the campus of the Dreyfoos School of the Arts. The building once housed Florida's first public community college. The state share includes $4.95 million from the Florida Job Growth Grant Fund, and the college received more than $2 million in federal funding secured by Frankel.

The center is being developed with the Business Development Board and Quantum Coast Capital, a Palm Beach-based firm founded by Matt Cimaglia that is a partner in the county's quantum strategy. The college already offers a free online introductory quantum course, and its Quantum Systems Certification training is scheduled to begin in spring 2027, according to the college.

The Business Development Board's own $1,031,000 federal award, announced in February, is the largest federal grant in the organization's history and supports quantum workforce efforts across the county.

A risky bet, by the BDB's own account

Courting quantum, defense technology, cybersecurity and artificial intelligence companies is a departure from the BDB's six traditional target industries and its 15-year "Wall Street South" push to lure New York financial firms. Smallridge said the county needs "to wrap our arms around technologies of the future" but acknowledged, "We will incur some risk." On a scale where she rates the Wall Street South effort at about an 8 or 9, she put quantum at "probably at Stage 3."

The science itself remains unsettled. Practical payoffs from quantum computing are still contested or several years away. In 2025, D-Wave reported that its machine outperformed a supercomputer on a materials simulation; two independent research teams said conventional computers could perform similar calculations, and D-Wave responded that their tests did not reproduce the full scope of its result. University of Florida professor Philip Feng, who co-leads the Florida Alliance for Quantum Technology, said quantum computers will complement, not replace, laptops, phones and data centers.

Part of a statewide push

Palm Beach County's effort is one piece of a broader race among Florida institutions. Florida universities formed the Florida Alliance for Quantum Technology at last year's Quantum Beach conference to coordinate their work, and Florida International University announced this month that it will install the state's first on-campus trapped-ion quantum computer, built by IonQ, in Miami.

What's next

The second statewide Quantum Beach conference, organized by the BDB, Quantum Coast Capital and partners, takes place Thursday in West Palm Beach. The next milestones are FAU taking delivery of its D-Wave system, D-Wave opening its Boca Raton headquarters around the turn of the year, and Palm Beach State College's first certification classes next spring. Whether the county's roughly $15 million produces the promised high-wage jobs will be measured against D-Wave's five-year hiring commitment.