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U.S. quantum computing firm D-Wave Quantum has struck a deal with a company called Swiss Quantum Technology (SQT) to bring D-Waves Advantage2 quantum computer to Europe. The deal, which amounts to 10 million ($11.63 million), will see D-Waves quantum computer deployed in Italy, where it will play a role in supporting the Italians efforts toward large-scale digital transformation, D-Wave announced on Wednesday. It will be part of a joint effortcollectively called the Q-Alliance”between D-Wave and IonQ, another American quantum computing company. In its announcement on Wednesday, D-Wave said little about what SQT does, and scant information about the company is accessible online. When contacted for comment by Fast Company, a rep for D-Wave described it as “a Swiss company that has been established to focus on quantum hybrid applications and research.” Shares of Palo Alto, California-based D-Wave rose after the announcement and were up around 1.29% in early afternoon trading. The stock has had an astounding run since last year, growing more than 4,235% over the last 12 months as excitement around quantum computersseen by many experts as a transformative technologyhas hit fever pitch. “A very important day” D-Waves CEO, Alan Baratz, said during a short livestreamed announcement on Wednesday morning that it’s “a very important day for Italy, for the Q-Alliance, and for D-Wave as we are now bringing one of the worlds largest quantum computers to the region.” The announcement comes after D-Wave made waves earlier this year by announcing that it had achieved quantum supremacy, by knocking out computations that would have taken roughly 1 million years to solve on a classical computer. Accordingly, Baratz said that D-Waves Advantage2 is the only quantum computer in the world thats been able to solve an important, useful, real-world problem that could not be solved classicallyreferring to the quantum supremacy announcement, which involved D-Waves quantum computer simulating the properties of magnetic materials. This is what everybody [in the quantum industry] has been aspiring to, he said, and thats been achieved. D-Waves quantum computing technology is already being used in other parts of the world. A police department in Wales, for instance, is using it to predict and analyze police force deployments. Ford Otosan, a Turkey-based auto manufacturer representing a joint effort between Ford and Koç Holding, is using D-Wave tech as a part of its assembly process. And in Japan, a cellphone carrier is using it to improve its network performance. D-Wave announced the general availability of its Advantage2 in May of this year. News that it is bringing one to Italy may be seen as more evidence that the quantum industry is set for a breakoutdespite skepticism from some tech leaders who have contended that practical use cases are still years away.
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Elon Musk‘s lawyers will urge the Delaware Supreme Court on Wednesday to restore his $56 billion pay package from Tesla, as one of the biggest corporate legal battles enters its final stage nearly two years after a lower court judge rescinded the Tesla CEO’s record compensation. The outcome could have substantial consequences for the state of Delaware, its widely used corporate law, and its Court of Chancery, a once-favored venue for business disputes that has recently been accused of hostility towards powerful entrepreneurs. The January 2024 Court of Chancery ruling striking down Musk’s pay has become a rallying cry for Delaware critics. Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick ruled that the Tesla board lacked independence from Musk when it approved the pay package in 2018 and that shareholders lacked key information when they voted overwhelmingly in favor of it. As a result, she applied a demanding legal standard and found the pay unfair to investors. The defendants, current and former Tesla directors, denied wrongdoing and said McCormick misinterpreted the facts and the law. Musk is not expected to attend. Companies switch legal homes After the Musk pay ruling, large companies, including Tesla, Dropbox, and the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, switched their legal homes to Texas or Nevada, where courts are friendlier toward directors. Delaware lawmakers responded to the corporate departures, a trend known as “Dexit,” by overhauling its corporate law. If Musk loses the appeal, he will still reap tens of billions of dollars in stock from the electric vehicle company, which agreed in August to a replacement deal if his 2018 plan is not restored. The company said the replacement award was meant to retain and focus Musk, who said earlier this year he was forming a new U.S. political party, on transitioning Tesla to robotics and automated driving. Tesla is now incorporated in Texas, where it is far more difficult for a shareholder to challenge board decisions. Tesla’s board last month proposed a $1 trillion compensation plan, highlighting confidence in Musk’s ability to steer the company in a new direction, even as Tesla loses ground to Chinese rivals in key markets amid softening EV demand. The five justices on Delaware’s high court will consider the appeal of the pay ruling as well as the $345 million legal fee that McCormick ordered Tesla to pay to the attorneys for Richard Tornetta, who held just nine Tesla shares when he sued to block the pay deal. The court typically takes months to rule. Tesla estimated in 2018 that the stock options plan would be worth $56 billion if the company met operational and financial goals, which it did. Because the stock continued to appreciate, the options are currently worth closer to $120 billion, by far the largest executive compensation ever. Musk is the world’s richest person with a fortune of around $480 billion, according to Forbes. The defendants have argued that McCormick erred in finding social and business ties to Musk compromised their independence and said Tesla shareholders were informed of the economic terms of the pay deal before they approved the plan. The directors said she should have reviewed the pay package under the “business judgment” standard, which protects directors from second-guessing by courts. The directors have long argued the pay package performed as hoped – it focused the attention of Musk, a serial entrepreneur, and he transformed Tesla from a startup into one of the world’s most valuable companies. Several months after McCormick’s ruling, Tesla received shareholder approval a second time for the plan, which McCormick rejected as legally invalid. Tesla is also appealing that decision. Tom Hals, Reuters
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E-Commerce
A startling message came over the radio from an air traffic control tower near Los Angeles less than a week into the federal government shutdown: “The tower is closed due to staffing.”Without enough air traffic controllers to guide planes into and out of Hollywood Burbank Airport, the tower went dark for almost six hours on Oct. 6, leaving pilots to coordinate their movements among themselves. Flight delays averaged two-and-a-half hours in one of the first visible signs that the shutdown was already taking a toll on the nation’s aviation system.Since the shutdown began Oct. 1, the Federal Aviation Administration has reported controller shortages in cities across the U.S., from airports in Boston and Philadelphia, to control centers in Atlanta and Houston. Flight delays have spread to airports in Nashville, Dallas, Newark and more.And already there has been an increase in unscheduled absences among security screeners at some airports. The union representing Transportation Security Administration employees says the absences haven’t yet caused major disruptions, but it warned longer lines at security checkpoints could soon become a reality after workers received their final paychecks over the weekend.Experts and union leaders say the disruptions are a stark reminder that the aviation system is already stretched too thin by chronic understaffing and outdated technology. They warn the cracks in the system could rapidly deepen the longer the shutdown drags on and critical aviation workers are without their regular paychecks.“It’s like having a drought the year after you had a drought,” Greg Raiff, CEO of Elevate Aviation Group, told The Associated Press. Problems have persisted for years These concerns aren’t new. In 2019, the aviation system buckled under the weight of a 35-day government shutdown the longest in U.S. history during President Donald Trump’s first term.Around the three-week mark, air traffic controllers, many of them working up to 60 hours a week, sued the government over their missed paychecks. One terminal at the Miami International Airport was forced to close because security screeners were calling out sick in large numbers. Some even quit altogether.“Here we are so many years later, and the problems have not been addressed,” said aviation attorney Ricardo Martinez-Cid, a Florida Bar-certified expert on aviation law who regularly represents crash victims. “Now we’re in a worse position when we had been put on notice. We had the opportunity to address it.”Since then, the country has faced repeated warnings. In January, a mid-air crash over the Potomac River involving a commercial jet and a military helicopter killed 67 people. A series of equipment failures and radar outages this year also highlighted the need for upgrades. Controller shortage at a ‘critical’ point Before the latest shutdown, both the FAA and TSA were already dealing with staffing shortages. That includes a shortage of about 3,000 air traffic controllers.Nick Daniels, president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, has said staffing levels have reached a “critical” point, the lowest in decades. The shortage is so severe that even a few air traffic controllers missing work can disrupt operations at already understaffed facilities.“And on top of that,” he said, “they’re working with unreliable equipment.”The shutdown began just as the FAA was starting to make some progress on addressing the shortage of controllers and modernizing the outdated equipment they rely on that keeps disrupting flights when it malfunctions.The agency says it topped its goal of hiring 2,000 controllers this year after streamlining the application process at its academy in Oklahoma City, but it will take years still to eliminate the shortage. And it had just begun looking for companies to help oversee a $12.5 billion effort to overhaul its aging and complex technology systems.Now, the shutdown is delaying those long-needed efforts. And union leaders say the staffing shortages may be worse by the time the government reopens. Shutdown could increase gaps in staffing Johnny Jones, secretary-treasurer of the American Federation of Government Employees chapter representing TSA workers, expressed concern that the shutdown could drive even more security screeners to leave the agency, especially given the uncertainty that the workers already have faced this year. That includes the Trump administration’s attempts to revoke their collective bargaining rights.Daniels, meanwhile, warned it could stoke fear among newer controllers and trainees who might reconsider the career entirely to avoid working in future shutdowns.It’s a long-standing concern. In 2019, after the 35-day shutdown ended, a congressional committee hearing dug into the impacts on air travel.“All of these air traffic controllers and aviation safety professionals were used as pawns in a political fight that had nothing to do with aviation. This is wrong and must not be allowed to happen again,” warned the union leader representing air traffic controllers at the time.At the hearing, there were also bipartisan calls for reform to keep the FAA funded “without interruption, even when the rest of the government shuts down,” as one lawmaker put it. Stories were shared of controllers and TSA agents taking on extra jobs to pay rent, mortgage and other bills despite working longer shifts to fill the gaps in staffing.Lawmakers and industry officials who testified agreed: The shutdown made the aviation system less safe.“We implore all involved, please heed not only our warnings but the entire stakeholder community’s warnings. This vicious budgetary cycle of stops and starts with little to no stability or predictably has simply got to stop,” said Nick Calio, then-president and CEO of Airlines for America, an industry trade group representing airlines including Delta, United and Southwest.And yet the system remains vulnerable to shutdowns seven years later, Martinez-Cid said.“We’re long overdue for a wake-up call.” Associated Press transportation reporter Josh Funk contributed to this report. Rio Yamat, AP Airlines and Travel Reporter
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