Carolyn DiPaoloBusiness Development Board leverages nearly $15 million in state and federal money to get in the game.
Local leaders are encouraging quantum computing’s top companies and customers to ride the field’s development wave to Palm Beach County.
The county’s top business recruiter, Kelly Smallridge, points to four steps in establishing the area as a player in what experts call the “second quantum revolution.”
Smallridge is CEO of the Business Development Board, the county’s public-private economic development agency. Two years into the BDB’s bet on quantum computing:
- D-Wave Quantum has announced it is moving its headquarters from Palo Alto, Calif., to Boca Raton. The company builds and sells quantum computers.
- Florida Atlantic University will spend $20 million to host a D-Wave computer on its Boca Raton campus.
- Palm Beach State College secured $7 million in state and federal grants to create a quantum business incubator and a job training program in West Palm Beach.
- In February, the BDB won a $1 million federal grant to support its quantum computing strategy.
The Business Development Board, and its partners, including Palm Beach-based Quantum Coast Capital, are convening the second statewide Quantum Beach conference Thursday in West Palm Beach to build on the momentum.
About $15 million in taxpayer money is committed in grants and incentives to the effort, including $7.1 million in state and city incentives to D-Wave. FAU’s $20 million purchase comes on top of that.
“If this county wants to continue to be attractive to outside investment, we need to wrap our arms around technologies of the future,” Smallridge told Stet News.
She credits Florida Commerce Secretary Alex Kelly and U.S. Rep. Lois Frankel, D-West Palm Beach, for embracing the vision. Both lined up the government cash to help put Palm Beach County in the quantum game.
“We will incur some risk,” Smallridge said. “What if quantum is not a thing? Although I don’t feel that way. With AI and cybersecurity, quantum is right there.”
Florida’s business-friendly tax structure and Palm Beach’s concentration of wealth is a powerful draw for entrepreneurs seeking capital, Smallridge said.
What is quantum computing?
Quantum computers use the physics of atoms and subatomic particles to process information.
The science is advancing fast, but practical payoffs remain contested or a few years out.
D-Wave reported in 2025 that its machine outperformed a supercomputer on a materials simulation. Two independent research teams said conventional computers could perform similar calculations.
D-Wave responded that the critics’ tests did not reproduce the full scope of D-Wave’s result or solve the hardest problems in the work.
Potential applications include drug discovery and logistics.
- Related quantum technologies, such as ultra-precise sensors and clocks, could improve navigation and timing for vehicles, satellites and airplanes.
- Powerful quantum computers could break many of today’s encryption standards driving a shift to new, quantum-resistant encryption.
D-Wave Quantum
Smallridge worked with the D-Wave executives who committed to establish their corporate headquarters in Palm Beach County and create a research and development hub here.
The company first looked in West Palm Beach, she said, but chose the Boca Raton Innovation Campus, also known as BRiC. The sprawling corporate campus is celebrated as the birthplace of IBM’s personal computer.
“It was just so serendipitous that the ultimate building with the right infrastructure and power going to it was in BRiC,” Smallridge said.
The state offered D-Wave $5.3 million in grants and $1.3 million in tax credits. Boca Raton kicked in $500,000 in exchange for a pledge to create 100 jobs in the next five years at an average salary of $125,000.
D-Wave counts airlines, chemical companies, mobile carriers and healthcare companies among its clients.
Here are two examples the company shared with Stet News:
- AT&T signed an agreement to expand its use of D-Wave’s quantum computing technology after an early application reduced processing time for a network optimization workload from approximately one hour to less than 15 seconds.
- Ford Otosan, a joint venture between Ford Motor Company and Koç Holding in Turkey, is using a D-Wave-powered application to reduce scheduling time for 1,000 vehicles from 30 minutes to less than five.
Smallridge anticipates D-Wave’s headquarters will be established in December or January.
Florida Atlantic University
FAU leaders expect to receive their $20 million D-Wave computer this year. Hosting such a computer on campus is a step in the university’s goal of being a leader in quantum research and development by offering access to students, researchers and businesses.
FAU’s machine is a quantum annealer, a specialized type built for optimization problems like logistics and scheduling.
The university reports that it and D-Wave will explore the potential of quantum computing in areas such as public works, supply chains, transportation and emergency management.
Paid internships for FAU students will be part of the partnership.
Palm Beach State College
PBSC’s quantum incubator and job training will be developed in the same Mediterranean Revival building in West Palm Beach that was home to Florida’s first public community college in 1933. It’s on the campus of the Dreyfoos School of Art at 812 Fern St.
The $7 million in state and federal grants directed to Palm Beach State College will support the project it is pursuing with Quantum Coast Capital and the BDB.
The college is offering a free online introductory course on quantum computing and trends. Starting in the spring 2027 semester, it plans to launch a certification in quantum systems.
A new revolution
Last year’s Quantum Beach conference drew leaders in business, government and higher education. At the one-day gathering in West Palm Beach, representatives from Florida universities sealed an alliance to coordinate their quantum technology work.
University of Florida professor Philip Feng co-leads the Florida Alliance for Quantum Technology. In an interview with Stet News, he outlined quantum computing’s promise and its hype.
The second quantum revolution arrives more than a century after Max Planck, Albert Einstein and their peers pioneered quantum theory.
It’s driven in part by diminishing returns from conventional computers as chipmakers approach the physical limits of shrinking transistors, Feng said.
He said this moment in quantum development echoes the 1950s, when the forerunners of today’s computers filled entire rooms.
He reports success at UF in breaking through “fear” of this often counterintuitive science by offering quantum classes to engineering students that used to be found only in the physics department. A $2 million grant from the National Science Foundation supports that work.
“It’s very important to lower the barrier to access and understanding for engineering students, so that they can communicate and discuss breakthroughs with linear quantum physicists and researchers,” he said.
Quantum computers won’t replace laptops, phones or data centers, Feng added. The emerging field would complement everyday technology, he said.
Wall Street South and Quantum Beach
Smallridge is about to begin her 39th year with the Business Development Board. She sees the quantum strategy as part of a push to bolster an innovation culture in Palm Beach County.
Courting defense tech, cybersecurity, AI and quantum businesses is a departure from what the BDB did for 30 years, she said. Historically, the board has pursued six sectors: communications and information technology; aerospace and engineering; agribusiness; business and financial services; medical, pharmaceutical and healthcare; and tourism, recreation and entertainment.
Smallridge reflected on the BDB’s 15-year-old vision of becoming Wall Street South by targeting New York financiers.
“If you take a scale of one to 10, I would say Wall Street South we’re like at an 8 or 9,” she said. “With quantum, we’re probably at Stage 3. We have a ways to go.”
