This is a rumor I've heard at the time. Take it with a massive grain of salt, it could be complete bullshit. Google purchased the D-Wave machines as a retentio

This is a rumor I've heard at the time. Take it with a massive grain of salt, it could be complete bullshit. Google purchased the D-Wave machines as a retention attempt of a few employees (probably former physicists) that were threatening to leave. The understanding was that they could play with the machines in their "20%".