While many companies are now offering access to general-purpose quantum computers, they’re not currently being used to solve any real-world problems, as they’re held back by issues with qubit count and quality. Most of their users are either running research projects or simply gaining experience with programming on the systems in the expectation that a future computer will be useful.

There are quantum systems based on superconducting hardware that are being used commercially; it’s just that they’re not general-purpose computers.

D-Wave offers what’s called a quantum annealer. The hardware is a large collection of linked superconducting devices that use quantum effects to reach energetic ground states for the system. When properly configured, this end state represents the solution to a mathematical problem. Annealers can’t solve the same full range of mathematical problems as general-purpose quantum computers, such as the ones made by Google, IBM, and others. But they can be used to solve a variety of optimization problems.