Let's explore the high-stakes world of quantum computing. These three companies could change the future of computing, each in its own unique way.

Quantum computing may be the next big thing, and lots of people are talking about it. The potential to revolutionize industries from pharmaceuticals to finance has investors keeping a close eye on key players in this space.

But which companies are leading the charge?

To answer this critical question, a trio of Fool.com contributors with decades of high-tech analysis experience put their heads together and came up with three promising quantum computing stocks. Nvidia (NVDA -0.79%), IonQ (IONQ -2.98%), and D-Wave Quantum (QBTS -1.46%) offer very different approaches to the quantum market, but all three could make you a lot of money over the long haul.

So grab a coffee, sit back, and find out why these quantum computing stocks could be your next big investment.

Nicholas Rossolillo (Nvidia): I recently wrote a couple of articles about quantum computing and some breakthroughs happening in the nascent industry -- although "industry" is a bit generous. Quantum computing is more of a research and development initiative, not a full-blown industry.

Nevertheless, companies like Microsoftand start-up Quantinuum (majority-owned by Honeywell) have achieved incremental gains in quantum compute usefulness by pairing their quantum computers with classical computers. Why?

For one thing, the quantum mechanical measurements ("spooky" effects at the atomic level and smaller) are highly sensitive and prone to error. A tried-and-true classical computer can help correct those errors.

Thus, there may be no better classical computer right now than Nvidia's accelerated compute platform, powered by its GPUs and full stack of software libraries and artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms. In early spring 2023, Nvidia said it released a quantum computer control unit powered by its chips. And more recently, the company said multiple research supercomputers around the world have expanded their capabilities using Nvidia's CUDA-Q platform of GPUs and hybrid classical-quantum software algorithms.

And of course, Nvidia's latest Blackwell platform represents another exponential speed up in classical computing power. Researchers are already lining up for Blackwell to fuel their development of quantum, a potential "next big thing" at some point in the future.

To be clear, Nvidia's wild growth in the last year isn't because of quantum computing. This is but one of many applications developers are hard at work on, thanks to Nvidia GPUs. However, when trying to figure out a best place to invest today in the nascent quantum R&D initiative, Nvidia may be the simplest stock for most investors looking toward the future of the computing sector.

Whether quantum computers become a mainstream reality or not may actually largely depend on the pioneer of computing power today. I'm happy to keep holding my Nvidia shares, for quantum development and a lot of other tech breakthroughs too.

Billy Duberstein (IonQ): Quantum computing may seem like a speculative pie-in-the-sky bet. But quantum leader IonQ is actually making highly practical, tangible progress toward deploying quantum computing in real-world settings.

This has come down to the company's deliberate choices, such as deciding to use the mature technology of trapped ion qubits as the backbone of its current systems. While synthetically made qubits or alternatives may ultimately be faster or superior far down the road, these other technologies require temperatures near absolute zero to deploy, and have challenges that may not be overcome for years. On the other hand, atomic qubits can be deployed at room temperature and can run for longer periods of time.

The choice allows IonQ to sell systems to customers such as the U.S. Air Force Research Lab and QuantumBasel in Europe. Thus, the company generates revenue, and its adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) loss last quarter of $20.7 million seems manageable, given the company's cash pile of over $434 million.

Moreover, the company appears to be executing at a high level for the state of the business. Last quarter, even though the company only generated $7.6 million in revenue, IonQ beat its own revenue guidance, as it was able to recognize more revenue from a contract that was based on the completion of project milestones. And the company boosted its 2024 bookings guidance to a range of $75 million to $95 million, up from guidance of $70 million to $90 million one quarter ago.

This comes on the back of several technical achievements made earlier this year. These include reaching a working #AQ 35 system a year earlier than forecast in January, as well as achieving "ion-photon entanglements" in February, a technological achievement that will allow quantum systems to communicate with each other and scale quantum networks.

And the company also continues to attract top talent. In March, quantum algorithm expert Martin Roetteler joined IonQ from Microsoft and will head the company's efforts to develop real-world applications to run on IonQ's quantum computers. On the recent conference call with analysts, management noted its teams are making "serious headway" in advancing real-world quantum software applications.

I think IonQ's pragmatic and iterative approach is a good one, so that if quantum technology does manage to take off in the years ahead, it will likely be leading the pack.

Anders Bylund (D-Wave): I'm going way out on a limb here: D-Wave Quantum is about as risky as you can get in the quantum computing industry. It's a bona fide penny stock and barely large enough to talk about, with a market cap of just $200 million. The company is deeply unprofitable and its revenues skimpy, to the tune of merely $9.6 million over the last year.

So let's get real -- D-Wave is not a classic value investmentand too hot to touch for most growth investors, too. It's a speculative bet on the far future of quantum computing, and many things can go wrong along the way. Please keep your D-Wave investment small for now. If the company runs out of cash and goes out of business, make sure it doesn't hurt you.

But I'm talking about an established leader in the quantum computing sector here. It has produced actual systems with thousands of qubits. Its quantum software and consulting services are available on the Amazon Web Services Marketplace. And above all else, D-Wave holds hundreds of quantum computing patents and citations, second only to IBM in both cases.

D-Wave seems to be leaning away from the costly systems-building business for the moment. Instead, the company is focusing on monetizing its treasure trove of technology patents.

So maybe IonQ, IBM, or Nvidia will rule the world in terms of quantum computing hardware sales. Perhaps I haven't even heard of the sector's biggest long-term winner yet. But D-Wave looks poised to ride the coattails of whoever the final king might be, providing patent licenses and consulting services to unlock the full power of next-generation computers. These services should be in high demand in a few years.

And starting from this barely-there stock market footprint, D-Wave could be worth the risk. A small investment in this intriguing and incredibly low-priced stock may pay off handsomely as the quantum industry evolves.

John Mackey, former CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fools board of directors. Anders Bylund has positions in Amazon, International Business Machines, and Nvidia. Billy Duberstein has positions in Amazon, IonQ, and Microsoft. Nicholas Rossolillo has positions in Amazon and Nvidia. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Amazon, Microsoft, and Nvidia. The Motley Fool recommends International Business Machines and recommends the following options: long January 2026 $395 calls on Microsoft and short January 2026 $405 calls on Microsoft. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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Why These 3 Quantum Computing Stocks Are Worth the Risk - The Motley Fool

Insider Brief

PRESS RELEASE NXP Semiconductors N.V., eleQtron and ParityQC, working together in the QSea consortium of the DLR Quantum Computing Initiative (DLR QCI), revealed the first full-stack, ion-trap based quantum computer demonstrator made entirely in Germany. It will enable early access to real quantum computing resources and thus help companies and research teams leverage the advantages of quantum computing in applications such as climate modeling, global logistics and materials sciences. The new quantum computer demonstrator is located in Hamburg, further strengthening the citys role as an important technology and research location in Germany.

A broader understanding of the capabilities of quantum computing is required for this technology to be effective in solving complex challenges. The DLR QCI aims to build the necessary skills by creating a quantum computing ecosystem in which economy, industry and science cooperate closely to fully leverage the potential of this groundbreaking technology.

Quantum computers, with their exceptional computing power, will tackle complex problems crucial for societal advancement, such as weather modeling, medication development, and logistics optimization, and are expected to change the cybersecurity landscape. Despite the rapid evolution of quantum computers over the past years, the path towards industrialization remains challenging, as the industry lacks respective competencies.

NXP, eleQtron and ParityQC bring together leading knowledge of quantum computing, software and long-standing industry expertise to develop and build the first ion-trap based quantum computer demonstrator made entirely in Germany. It combines eleQtrons MAGIC hardware, ParityQC architecture and NXPs chip design and technology, and is complemented by a digital twin. This will allow for rapid innovation, design decisions and implementation, as the QSea I demonstrator will evolve to a quantum computer including a modular architecture, scalable design and error correction capabilities. The forthcoming phase of the QSea project will therefore focus on making the quantum computer increasingly powerful and industry-ready.

The demonstrator is set up at the DLR QCI Innovation Center in Hamburg and will be made available to industry partners and DLR research teams by the DLR QCI. With this collaboration, the three partners and the DLR QCI aim to foster and strengthen the development of an advanced quantum computing ecosystem in Germany. This will also support the strategic efforts of Germany and the European Union to strengthen digital sovereignty in this critical technology area.

Quotes

Lars Reger, CTO at NXP Semiconductors: Hamburg is one of our most important R&D locations. We are proud that, together with DLR and our partners eleQtron and ParityQC, we are able to present the first ion-trap based quantum computer demonstrator developed entirely in Germany. We are convinced that industry and research communities in Hamburg and throughout Germany will benefit from this project. It will help to build up and expand important expertise in quantum computing, to use it for the economic benefit of us all, and also to further strengthen our digital sovereignty in Germany and the EU.

Jan Leisse, Co-Founder & CEO at eleQtron: We at eleQtron believe that quantum computing will change our world for the better. The DLR Quantum Computing Initiative has the potential to become something truly great, and our pioneering MAGIC-based quantum computer lays the foundation for a vibrant ecosystem. As Germanys first quantum computing hardware company, we are proud to bring research excellence into the real world.

Dr.-Ing. Robert Axmann, Head of DLR Quantum Computing Initiative (DLR QCI): To achieve a leading international position in quantum computing, we need a strong quantum computing ecosystem. Only together will research, industry and start-ups overcome the major technological challenges and successfully bring quantum computers into application. The QSea I demonstrator is an important step for the DLR Quantum Computing Initiative and for Hamburg. It enables partners from industry and research to run quantum algorithms on real ion trap qubits in a real production environment for the first time. This hands-on experience will enable them to leverage the advantages of quantum computers and become part of a strong and sovereign quantum computing ecosystem in Germany and Europe.

Wolfgang Lechner & Magdalena Hauser, Co-CEOs at ParityQC: With the purchase of quantum computers by the DLR QCI, financed by the BMWK, Germany is consolidating its leading role in quantum computing. This is a critical pathway towards the successful commercialization of world-leading research and the creation of a sustainable quantum ecosystem that allows companies to scale and stay in Europe. As a quantum architecture company, we enable hardware developers to build highly scalable quantum computers and we are proud to be able to do this with our excellent partners in this consortium.

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NXP, eleQtron and ParityQC Reveal First Quantum Computing Demonstrator For The DLR Quantum Computing Initiative - The Quantum Insider

(TNS) Gov. Jared Polis signed new legislation at the University of Colorado Boulder on Tuesday to further support the quantum industry in Colorado.

The new tax credit bill, which aims to strengthen the quantum industry in the state, was signed at CU Boulder's JILA Research Institute. JILA is a joint institute between CU Boulder and the National Institute of Standards and Technology. JILA, which stood for Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics when it began in 1962, has expanded into a world-renowned and award-winning physics institute delving into cutting-edge research including quantum information science & technology.

"This bill will support the construction of a state-of-the-art quantum technology incubator, a facility that is poised to be unique in the world, and that will set our state apart," Massimo Ruzzene, CU Boulder vice chancellor for research and innovation, said in a statement. "It will foster the translation of technology and catalyze innovation, expanding educational and workforce opportunities while also creating jobs and economic benefits for all of Colorado."

In 2023, Colorado was designated as a Regional Technology and Innovation Hub, a designation that positions Colorado to apply for and secure federal funding opportunities to advance the industry.

"Quantum technology is the future of computing," Polis said in a release. "Today we proved that quantum is bigger and better in the West. As home to four Nobel Prize winners for quantum science, more than 3,000 quantum workers, and five of the top 20 quantum companies, Colorado is the clear future of quantum. I am thrilled to invest in this innovative sector and am excited for the bright quantum future in Colorado."

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Colorado Bill Aims to Strengthen Quantum in the State - Government Technology

Quantum is a strategic technology domain with multifaceted implications. Quantum computing offers promising applications in healthcare, environmental conservation, and artificial intelligence (AI)extending the boundaries of digital computing beyond current limitations. While quantum and post-quantum cryptography represent more established fields with existing economic players and commercial solutions, the standardization of post-quantum cryptography remains incomplete, albeit with fewer scientific and engineering unknowns compared to scalable quantum computing.

Beyond quantum computing, quantum cryptography has the potential to revolutionize encryption, but it poses implications for state sovereigntyparticularly safeguarding sensitive communications. In sensing applications, quantum exists as a real market but is still limited to niche applications. And compared to cryptography and sensing, the maturity of quantum computing is lagging. The feasibility of commercially viable quantum computers remains uncertain, both in the near-term noisy intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) and the long-term fault-tolerant quantum computing (FTQC) regimes.

Quantum technologies continue to be an active R&D and engineering topic for overcoming technological hurdles such as qubit noise, quantum error correction, scalability, and maintaining qubit quality. These uncertainties pose issues that still make for difficult economic and market forecasts. So the possibility of a quantum winter remains possible if NISQ systems fail to demonstrate tangible business value. This could potentially slow down investments across the quantum technology ecosystemaffecting public and private funding.

But, at Yole Group, we still believe quantum technologies and specialty computing will lead to an important market value in the medium and long term. In our Quantum Technologies 2024 report, we estimate the total quantum market value will be US$1.832 million in 2029, with US$617 million for sensing (see Fig. 1).1

Beyond 2030, we expect quantum computing will dominate. In fact, the quantum computing market will total US$3.736 million in 2035 (both hardware and service). Quantum as a service (QaaS) will hold the major share of this value, with most of the services running on quantum computers in the cloud. It will grow much faster than QC hardware (computers).

Qubits, the fundamental units of quantum computing, come in various forms. The most developed approaches include atoms such as trapped ions (IonQ, Quantinuum, AQT), cold atoms (Pasqal, Infleqtion, Atom Computing) such as rubidium, cesium, and nuclear magnetic resonance (although the latter is less favored for quantum computing; only one company in China sells this type, and its for educational purposes), superconductors, and photons. Electrons are also used, particularly in nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers, but with limited industrial players (Quantum Brilliance). Flying qubits, such as photon qubits (and flying electrons), provide alternative approaches to traditional qubits, with vendors such as PsiQuantum, Quandela, and Xanadu leading in photon qubits.

A quantum computer is based on these different types of physical qubits of a different nature, with each possessing advantages and disadvantages. Most efforts today focus on superconducting qubits, with challengers such as electron spin qubits, NV centers, cold atoms, trapped ions, and photons. No approach is ideal today, and future systems may combine several of them.

Qubits are the technological brick base for quantum computers, which come in different forms. Quantum emulators, used across a spectrum of computing devices from (non-quantum) laptops to supercomputers, execute quantum algorithms via large vector and matrix computationsproviding a means to test such algorithms without quantum computers.

Quantum annealing computers use an adiabatic property, with a set of qubits connected based on specific topologies (like Pegasus or Zephyr by D-Wave), initialized in the ground state of the Hamiltonianensuring convergence toward a low energy state (typically the ground state) and facilitating the search for energy minima to solve various problems such as simulations, optimizations, and machine learning. Meanwhile, digital or universal quantum computers are quantum gates-based. They use qubits equipped with quantum gates capable of executing all quantum algorithms, which makes them general-purpose quantum computers.

But gate-based quantum computers currently have a limited qubit number due to quantum noise. To mitigate this noise, logical qubits made of multiple physical qubits and quantum-error correction codes (QEC) are used. Until fault-tolerant quantum computers with logical qubits become widespread, these systems will rely on non-corrected qubits in NISQ devices. These NISQ computers support 50 to a few-hundred physical qubits and can execute algorithms with limited circuit depth due to qubit error rates.

Efforts are underway to improve their performance using quantum error suppression and mitigation techniques. Eventually, NISQ devices are expected to surpass the computing capabilities of supercomputers for specific tasks. In the future, fault-tolerant quantum computers with many physical qubits and more than 100 logical qubits will revolutionize quantum computing.

At Yole Group, we also see a quantum accelerator on the horizon, functioning as a quantum computer and complementing supercomputers or HPCs by executing variational algorithms where a classical part prepares data for the quantum accelerator and serves as an accelerator within the HPC system and requires close integration for batch loading and executing the quantum algorithm multiple times, typically containing a classical computer within itself.

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Quantum continues to be a buoyant field where photonics will play a critical role - Laser Focus World

PALO ALTO, Calif., May 29, 2024--(BUSINESS WIRE)--D-Wave Quantum Inc. (NYSE: QBTS) ("D-Wave" or the "Company"), a leader in quantum computing systems, software, and services and the worlds first commercial supplier of quantum computers, today announced that it has been featured in a Wall Street Journal article on quantum computing, which highlighted its technologys strengths in tackling real-world optimization problems.

The article, titled "Quantum Computing Gets Real: It Could Even Shorten Your Airport Connection," showcases how recent technological advances are enabling businesses and researchers to explore quantum computing for practical use cases. It specifically notes how D-Wave customers have used its annealing quantum computing technology to address optimization problems including grocery store driver delivery scheduling, cross-country promotional tour routing, and cargo-handling at one of the United States busiest ports. The article also highlights recent research from D-Wave, citing it as an example of a computational supremacy claim that, according to a source interviewed for the article, is "actually the strongest" of all the computational supremacy claims so far.

The story comes as D-Wave continues to be a leader in the commercialization of quantum computing. D-Waves Advantage quantum computer, currently the worlds largest quantum computer (5,000+ qubits), and its Leap real-time quantum cloud service are in market today, helping customers accelerate the adoption and deployment of quantum and hybrid-quantum applications. D-Wave has already taken a customers commercial application into production, meaning its systems are used to facilitate its customers daily operations. D-Wave is also the only company commercially offering annealing quantum computing, which is uniquely suited to solve optimization problems, challenges that are pervasive within commercial enterprises.

"This acknowledgment by The Wall Street Journal of quantums growing relevance and importance reflects what were seeing with our customers a steadily increasing appetite and enthusiasm to harness the power of quantum to solve their most computationally complex problems," said Dr. Alan Baratz, CEO of D-Wave. "We believe there is no other company right now in the world delivering the same level of commercial-grade, production-ready quantum technology as D-Wave. Its an incredibly important moment for the industry, and this recognition of D-Waves leadership is gratifying."

Story continues

About D-Wave Quantum Inc.

D-Wave is a leader in the development and delivery of quantum computing systems, software, and services, and is the worlds first commercial supplier of quantum computersand the only company building both annealing quantum computers and gate-model quantum computers. Our mission is to unlock the power of quantum computing today to benefit business and society. We do this by delivering customer value with practical quantum applications for problems as diverse as logistics, artificial intelligence, materials sciences, drug discovery, scheduling, cybersecurity, fault detection, and financial modeling. D-Waves technology has been used by some of the worlds most advanced organizations including Mastercard, Deloitte, Davidson Technologies, ArcelorMittal, Siemens Healthineers, Unisys, NEC Corporation, Pattison Food Group Ltd., DENSO, Lockheed Martin, Forschungszentrum Jlich, University of Southern California, and Los Alamos National Laboratory.

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements in this press release are forward-looking, as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements involve risks, uncertainties, and other factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from the information expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements and may not be indicative of future results. These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, including, among others, various factors beyond managements control, including the risks set forth under the heading "Risk Factors" discussed under the caption "Item 1A. Risk Factors" in Part I of our most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K or any updates discussed under the caption "Item 1A. Risk Factors" in Part II of our Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and in our other filings with the SEC. Undue reliance should not be placed on the forward-looking statements in this press release in making an investment decision, which are based on information available to us on the date hereof. We undertake no duty to update this information unless required by law.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240528062466/en/

Contacts

D-Wave Alex Daigle media@dwavesys.com

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D-Wave Quantum Featured in The Wall Street Journal - Yahoo Finance

The Superposition Guys Podcast, hosted by Yuval Boger, CMO at QuEra Computing

Nick Farina, CEO of EeroQ, is interviewed by Yuval Boger. They discuss EeroQs unique approach to building quantum computers using electrons on helium with a CMOS chip substrate, a technology researched for over 20 years but revisited by Farinas co-founder at Caltech. Farina outlines the companys journey from its founding in 2016, its strategic focus on hardware, and plans to release a functional prototype soon with a goal of achieving 10,000 qubits by 2026. They also explore the technical advantages, future plans, and the companys commitment to quantum ethics. Farina highlights challenges such as the funding climate and potential negative impacts of quantum technology, and endorses neutral atoms and silicon spin qubits as alternative modalities.

Listen on Spotify here

ere

Catherine Vollgraff Heidweiller, product manager at Google Quantum AI, is interviewed by Yuval Boger. Catherine describes the development of full-stack quantum computing, the importance of their 2019 quantum supremacy milestone, Googles product focus, and the early customers they work with. We discuss the evaluation of quantum usefulness, their error correction roadmap, the intersection of quantum computing and AI, the societal responsibilities of quantum development, and much more.

Yuval: Hello Nick, thank you for joining me today.

Nick: Thank you so much, I appreciate you having me on the show.

Yuval: So who are you and what do you do?

Nick: So my name is Nick Farina and I am the CEO of EeroQ. We were started in 2016, incorporated back in 2017. So weve been around for quite a while now in terms of quantum computing industry startups. We were originally spun out of Michigan State University. Weve been a little bit stealthy then and since.

But the first five years of the company was really a joint venture between myself working with some partners on providing investment funding to do sponsored research at Michigan State University. And ironically I came from a software background and our focus is 100% on hardware. So Im a lifelong entrepreneur, Im an angel investor and I came to quantum somewhat by accident.

Ill keep the story brief but I was on the board of directors of my co-founders wifes theater company in 2011 and I just became so fascinated. At the time he was a PhD student, later did a postdoc at Caltech and then got that professorship at MSU. But I became really enchanted by how magical quantum mechanics are and just not even thinking about quantum computing originally. I was just really mystified by the world of ultra low temperature experimental physics.

And then to keep the narrative rolling then in 2022 we felt that we were in a position to get to a 10,000 range quantum computer within five years. And Ill mention we had also brought on a CTO, Steve Lyon, who is a professor at Princeton. And Steve changed our trajectory in a few ways that we can discuss later but especially focusing on a CMOS compatible architecture. And the company itself does electrons on helium.

So there will be a lot to unpack there because on the one hand it sounds exotic and new. On the other hand its been in the literature since 1999. So its very old but also very new at the same time.

Yuval: So I understand that the company makes quantum computers or makes technology by which you can make quantum computers. Help me focus on that.

Nick: Absolutely. So we make quantum computers. So we are building a quantum computer that as with many other companies we envision having both on-prem offerings as well as cloud offerings.

There are as you know between seven to 10 different ways to build a quantum computer and electrons on helium using a CMOS chip as your substrate is a unique way out of those seven to 10. So one thing that makes EeroQ unique is that we are our only competitors. So electrons and helium has to work. And Im happy to describe how that system works in a minute. But we are our own lane.

And the reason that we chose this particular qubit modality is because its been researched theoretically and experimentally for over 20 plus years now. So we know a lot about the system. And similar to technologies like neutral atoms, its a next generation technology that is earlier stage in its development but at the same time offers some really compelling advances and advantages once someone is able to get it to work.

Yuval: I gather from the description of the CMOS substrate that the idea is that once you have this working as you describe then its easy to scale because CMOS chips are super well understood. There are so many places and you can make them and so the scaling part is almost solved. I know its far from solved but its almost solved once you have the basic building blocks in place. But Im curious, you mentioned that you are in your own lane. Is that because others are not aware of this technology? Is that because of IP protection? Why wouldnt you have additional competitors?

Nick: Thats a classic question to answer so Im happy to answer that one. But first Ill say that you did just give our sales pitch regarding CMOS which is essentially what we call it has been building a quantum computer in reverse. So no one has ever performed a two qubit gate with this system because we think thats actually the easier part and thats the part that were working in now.

But what weve done is the CMOS now has gone well beyond theory. So we work with a foundry called SkyWater up in Minnesota and SkyWater produced for us a chip where we can control ensembles of 2,432 electrons. So its similar to these large scale demonstrations in neutral atoms where you dont necessarily have 6,000 qubits but you have an array of atoms that can be controlled. So were at a similar stage there where weve proven the CMOS can work with the liquid helium. So were a scaling first company.

And the reason now to answer your other question is theres a few reasons that we are in our own lane. The first is that the way that quantum computing had developed in the United States very broadly is that in the early 2000s there was quite a bit of money provided by the government to fund different approaches. And some of these approaches were successful like superconducting circuits and ion traps at their very early stages. And then as a result, a lot of investment began to pour into those areas because they had shown promising early results.

Electrons and helium didnt work. So when there were attempts made in the early 2000s is when the experimental work began, we just didnt have the mastery of the properties of electrons and helium. We didnt have the equipment needed. So now for example, we can work with partners out there, vendors like Bluefors, like quantum machines that provide tools that were not available at all when this was first experiment I started.

So then what happened was because it wasnt a system that was able to get up and running quickly, there was a drought of funding for it. So it wasnt pursued as heavily as it might have been and therefore it lost some traction and ground. And then where we came in is during my co-founder Johannes time at Caltech, he basically put two and two together and dusted off an old paper. And he said, Well, at Caltech, everyones talking about quantum computing.

He got very familiar with the other modalities because he had been a condensed matter physicist generally at ultra-low temperatures, not focused on quantum computing until he went to Caltech. And there he said, Look, everyones talking about the pros and cons of these technologies, but I remember a paper in Science from 1999 that proposed electrons and helium, which is an expertise of his, that really wouldnt have any of these flaws where you could have exceptionally long coherence times, you could have all-to-all connectivity, you could have mobile qubits on the surface of the helium.

And the fun scientific fact is that electrons floating above helium are attracted to their own image beneath the helium surface. So the trapping is natural and this provides for immense potential for scalability and no requirement for modular interconnects. So for those reasons, we decided that even though this technology is really early, it needs to get the same type of shot that everyone else did because this could be a really compelling second generation technology.

And its taken a long time. Once we brought it back initially with some funding from myself and my friends and then later from venture capital. So our lead investors, B Capital Group, theyre the strategic venture arm of the Boston Consulting Group. And a few other reasons that we are able to stay in this lane is that its a very, very small field. So theres probably 10 or so people in the world who are truly experts at electrons on helium and about seven of them work at EeroQ.

So we were able to create a moat around talent, a moat with IP and a moat with a head start to actually build a scalable computer. And thats the reason why we have this very, very deep moat. Now that doesnt mean someone is not going to start one of these companies as we become more successful. But we do feel that we have a pretty strong moat around it.

Yuval: This is liquid helium, right? So this would be about four Kelvin and the electrons would swim around in the helium?

Nick: Yeah. So were running around 10 millikelvins, so quite cold. And what happens is, so its superfluid helium and you have your bottom layer is your CMOS chip. And then we put a layer of bulk helium at the bottom, which crawls the walls as superfluids do. And then that coats that CMOS chip and the electrodes on the chip. And then we use a tungsten filament, just basically a light bulb, to spray electrons into the system.

And then control and readout is done very similar to superconducting circuits using CQED. And thats what the system looks like. And if your listeners want to compare it to another technology that exists thats better known, it would be silicon spin qubits. The advantage being that the comparison being that were both using single electrons as qubits and were both a CMOS compatible system, but with electrons on helium, that little additional layer of helium provides a protective barrier so that the qubits dont get stuck in the silicon and are therefore exposed to all the defects of silicon like trapped charges, valley splitting, and so forth.

Yuval: When can I use one? How far are you from demonstrating or showcasing to the outside world this computer?

Nick: Well, watch this space over the next couple of months. Weve got some pretty exciting news coming out regarding the basics of the system. We have a functional prototype of the scaling system in our engineering facility. Were based in Chicago. When can you use it? I would say aggressively sometime next year. Were working on building a simulator for it as well. Being able to use it in a simulation environment, the answer would be much sooner.

But 2025 and 2026 are really when we see this system fully come online in working with both cloud vendors and potentially, depending on the demand, on-premise installations. One advantage Ill mention there is that because theres no need for modular interconnects, if someones looking for an on-prem quantum computer, all they need to do is get one chip from us and a Bluefors. Thats the entire setup. In that way, it has the ability to have a very small footprint, similar to neutral atoms in that way.

Yuval: Can you give us a hint on how many qubits?

Nick: Yes, I can. Our goal is going to be 10,000 qubits at some point in 2026. How exactly we distribute that, again, the split between on-prem and cloud remains to be seen. But the whole purpose of the system, as you already noted, is that we can go from our upcoming two-qubit gate to simply adding it to a scaling layer that we have already proven out works with liquid helium and with our system. So thats what enables us to leapfrog so quickly and scale so quickly.

And then from there, because its CMOS, in terms of going beyond 10,000, its just a matter of making more features in the CMOS.

Yuval: What can you tell us about coherence time or clock speed or anything that people use to measure the performance of existing systems?

Nick: Yeah, absolutely. I will note, of course, this is all theoretical because we have to build the system and have it out there. But the reasons that were excited about this system are that you can get well over 10 seconds of coherence time. Three nines in terms of key fidelities. We have all-to-all connectivity, which allows you, in addition to mobile qubits, both of which allow us to run the state of the art in error correction, whatever that may be.

Clock speed is something that will change due to variations. So we dont usually give a precise number on that. And lets see, I covered all-to-all connectivity. And the other key advantage in terms of metrics and benchmarking is that, well, this falls a little bit out of the scope and more into the advantages, is were able to control all the electrons with a single voltage. So in terms of actually being able to practically operate the machine in terms of wiring, youre able to do with far fewer wires than with some other systems.

Yuval: That point about fewer controls is also an important selling point of neutral atom systems. In neutral atom systems, the qubits move around with optical tweezers. How do they move around in your system?

Nick: So we use RF pulses. So again, its very similar, its sort of a mixture of superconducting circuits and silicon spin qubits in some ways. But we use a pretty standard circuit-quantum electrodynamics toolkit to control and read out the qubit states. And whats nice about the qubits, I keep mentioning mobility, but its a really important point.

The fact that theyre mobile on the surface allows us to, if we have any bad qubits, simply move them around and reconfigure. Because a lot of efforts having bad qubits and getting around them can be quite a challenge. So the mobility there is also something that is a significant part of the control of the qubits. And then the electrons themselves, before theyre moved into the operation zones, to the gates, we store them in little microchannels that are etched onto the chip.

And then theyre taken to the operation zones where we apply voltages and do computation in the very near future.

Yuval: Tell me more about the company. You mentioned when you were founded and how this started, you mentioned your lead investor. How many people are you and what are you looking for?

Nick: So were about 15 people now. We are very proud to be located in Chicago, which I think is, we had a national search for a headquarters, given that we were all over the place. We had people, of course, in Princeton, in New York City, and Michigan as well. So I was originally from Chicago, but we chose Chicago not because of that, but because of the talent pool there. So we moved into, we have about a 10,000 square foot engineering lab. And it was actually a fun challenge to find because we needed something very, very stable to avoid any fluctuations of the liquid helium. And as you mentioned, it can slosh around. So we are headquartered in an old locomotive headlight factory.

One thing that makes the company unique is that we have a pure 100% hardware focus. So we view ourselves as a fabless semiconductor company. And this allows us to be very capital efficient because at the end of the day, we dont need to build out our own fabrication, our own machinery around that. We simply are, we design the chips and then we can have them produced by third party foundries.

Now that being said, we dont have to wait around, I shouldnt say waste, but we dont have to wait around for wafers to come back in order to test and prototype new designs. So we do local fabrication here as well to test and iterate on a weekly basis on new chip designs.

One other thing that makes the company unique is that weve been focused on quantum ethics and responsibility since before it was cool. So back in 2018, we put out a white paper written by a PhD from MIT in philosophy about the ethics and governance of quantum computing and why we should get ahead of that at that time. So we stay very focused on hardware, but we also have a focus on policy and making sure that quantum computing is something that is a force for good in the world. As you know, its a dual use technology, so there are good and bad things you can do with it. And were definitely on our way to making a quantum computer and were pretty confident in our path now and we want to make sure now that it feels inevitable that its used properly.

Yuval: So all these hardware things, not bad for a software guy.And as an entrepreneur, what keeps you up at night? What are you worried about?

Nick: Well, as an entrepreneur, youre always up at night because theres an endless amount of things to worry about. But one thing I dont worry about is the quality of our team. I love the people that we work with and the technological effort. I certainly worry about the funding climate in general for quantum computing and where were going to see. Now this has begun to change because even though the general funding climate is in a bit of a downturn now, weve seen strong investment in quantum computing. So that keeps me up a little bit less.

We are not raising money now, but you always have to be thinking about that as a CEO. And finally, Ill say the potentially negative consequences of this technology do keep me up a little bit at night. Thinking about, again, because we have a very high level of confidence that were going to be able to build this computer. And we also have confidence in other pathways. And I dont even want to call them competing pathways because I think there will be room for multiple different qubit pathways to exist and to be successful.

So knowing that, having such a bullish perspective on us being able to achieve quantum advantage perhaps quicker than some folks think, that certainly keeps me up at night a little bit. But Im very proud of what were building here.

Yuval: Speaking of alternative modalities, so if there were no electrons on helium, which modality would you endorse?

Nick: I would endorse neutral atoms and silicon spin qubits. I would do a dual endorsement because I think they both have key advantages. Silicon spin qubits, they both have a lot of brilliant people working on them. And silicon spin qubits, you have the CMOS, with neutral atoms, you have a small footprint, and you have a system that seems like it can scale in a way that others cant.

Again, were focused 95% on scalability. The type of two qubit gates were working on are very well understood. So for us its about how we can make this scalable in addition to having high quality. But those are the two that I would, and Im not just saying this because youre involved in the neutral atom world, but were big fans of those two. But we want to see everyone succeed.

Yuval: One measure that we forgot to talk about is gate fidelity. What are you looking to achieve in the near term in terms of single or two-qubit gate fidelity?

Nick: We think three nines is something that we can get to. That will be the first design perhaps, but by the time within the period of two years or so, we think we can get there. Especially given that were the combination of using the spin state of the electron magnetic field there, as well as the intrinsic purity of the environment. So were not afraid to say that in terms of fidelities that we would predict that.

Yuval: And last hypothetical, so if you could have dinner with one of the quantum greats dead or alive, who would that be?

Nick: Thats a great question. I would say someone who I know from quantum Twitter, Jens Eisert. I dont even know if Im pronouncing his name correctly. Could be Jens. But Im going to give a shout out to him. A lot of the work that hes been doing lately has been really, really interesting, particularly at the conversion of quantum computing and artificial intelligence, which is something that I dont say lightly because I know we dont really know if there is a speed up there, but hes been doing really great work in that area and thats something I know very little about. And hes accomplished quite a bit. I would put him down actually.

Yuval: Nick, thank you so much for joining me today.

Nick: Thank you so much. It was really a pleasure and always appreciate the show.

To subscribe to the audio podcast, please Spotify here

Originally posted here:

Superposition Guy's Podcast -- Nick Farina - CEO of EeroQ The Superposition Guy's Podcast: Workforce Development - The Quantum Insider

Insider Brief

Researchers from Responsible Technology Institute (RTI) at the University of Oxford, in collaboration with Ernst & Young (EY), report that quantum technology researchers and entrepreneurs are facing a high-wire act balancingthe ethical dimensions of quantum computing.

The team released a white paper Towards Responsible Quantum Computing that they hope provides a roadmap for ensuring the responsible development of quantum technologies.

The white paper emphasizes the need for a balanced approach to quantum computing, focusing on both its potential benefits and associated risks. The researchers found that a central need is to communicate about the capabilities and timelines of quantum technologies realistically and urge stakeholders to avoid the hype that often surrounds emerging technologies.

This measured approach can help set appropriate expectations for both the public and policymakers.

The report highlights several critical areas:

Responsible Communication: As mentioned, theres a pressing need for clear and accurate communication regarding the potential and limitations of quantum computing. Overhyping can lead to unrealistic expectations, while underplaying its risks can result in insufficient preparation for future challenges.

The team writes: Although largely (22 of 38, 57.9%) agreeing or strongly agreeing that it may be useful to generate some excitement in society and communities about novel technologies, most respondents (84%) believed that claims made around such technologies were very often overblown or exaggerated in popular discourse. This suggests that counteracting hype around such promises and engaging in responsible science communication may be a key element to consider amongst the expert community, with right-sizing expectations being more critical than generating enthusiasm.

Collaborative Innovation: The paper stresses the importance of collaboration across different industries, sectors and disciplines. No single entity, whether public or private, can drive quantum innovation alone. Such collaboration is seen as essential for building trust and ensuring balanced development.

Broader Risk Landscape: While much attention has been given to the cryptographic risks posed by quantum computing, the paper points out that this focus can overshadow other significant risks. One such risk is the potential for quantum technologies to exacerbate digital divides between nations, potentially leading to greater inequality.

Transformative Potential: Quantum computing has the power to dramatically alter various aspects of business and society. However, the exact nature of these changes depends on the steps taken today by those within the quantum ecosystem.

The white paper offers several recommendations aimed at fostering a responsible quantum future:

Manage Expectations: Its crucial to manage expectations regarding the timelines for achieving scalable quantum computing. This includes recognizing the ongoing engineering challenges and the uncertainty surrounding potential applications and their ethical implications.

Equitable Access: There should be a focus on ensuring equitable access to quantum computing resources, infrastructure and talent. This is seen as vital for fostering global collaboration and innovation.

The team writes: As a global society, the world faces many collective grand challenges on climate change, dwindling resources, and the need for new materials, amongst others. As such, it may be in the best interests of humanity and the environment to enable more equity of access to quantum talent and technology, given that quantum technologies stand to be a substantial differentiator in tackling some of these challenges.

Competitive Nature: In an issue ultimately related to access, the team writes that competitive dynamics of the quantum field need to be addressed to prevent capacity issues and digital divides both within and between nations. A more nuanced approach to competition can help mitigate these risks.

Government Role: Governments have a key role in absorbing risk, building markets, shaping governance, and leveling the playing field. Their involvement is crucial for the responsible development of quantum technologies.

The researchers list a number of governmental roles for the development of quantum computing, among other emerging technologies. These roles include providing governance frameworks, offering both direct and indirect funding, and creating commercial opportunities. Additionally, governments can shape the political ecosystem, act as early customers, and prioritize national or regional initiatives. They can also set up tax incentives, create infrastructural support, and support long-term risks. Furthermore, governments influence educational programs and build cross-departmental understandings to foster technological advances.

Long-term Perspective: Developing quantum technology should be viewed as a long-term endeavor, akin to a marathon rather than a sprint. Treating it as a race could hinder overall progress and lead to suboptimal outcomes.

But Act Now: The paper advocates for collective action by stakeholders from different sectors and disciplines. This collaboration is necessary to lay the groundwork for a responsible quantum future grounded in human-centered values. According to Mira Pijselman, Digital Ethics Lead at EY, and colleagues, the time to act is now.

The insights in the white paper are drawn from an expert survey conducted in 2023, the team reports. This survey included input from technologists, researchers, and policymakers from both academia and industry. The survey employed a mixed-methods approach, combining quantitative and qualitative questions to leverage participants expert knowledge. A Likert scale gauged responses to statements such as The government should be involved in funding the development of new technologies, with participants also invited to provide additional comments.

The researchers enriched the quantitative data with deeper insights. The survey received 38 expert responses, with 14 from industry, 19 from academia, and 5 from other sectors, and over 84% of respondents answered every question.

This is a summary of the key points according to the author but the white paper adds considerable depth to this important conversation. Please see the paper here for a deeper dive.

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Balanced Communication, Better Collaborations Needed to Ethically Navigate Quantum's Transformative Potential - The Quantum Insider

May 31 2024Reviewed by Lexie Corner

Recent findings from IBM and Cleveland Clinic researchersmay pave the way for applying quantum computing techniques to protein structure prediction. These findings are publishedin the Journal of Chemical Theory and Computation.This publication represents the Cleveland Clinic-IBM Discovery Accelerator collaboration's first peer-reviewed paper on quantum computing.

For many years, researchers have used computational methods to predict protein structures. A protein folds into a structure that controls its molecular interactions and mode of action. These structures determine numerous facets of human health and illness.

Researchers can create more effective treatments by better understanding how diseases spread through precise protein structure predictions. Bryan Raubenolt, Ph.D., a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Cleveland Clinic, and Hakan Doga, Ph.D., a researcher at IBM, led a team to discover how quantum computing can enhance existing techniques.

Machine learning techniques have significantly advanced the prediction of protein structure in recent years. To make predictions, these techniques rely on training data, a database of protein structuresdetermined through experimentation. This indicates that the number of proteins they have been trained to identify is a limitation. When programs or algorithms come across a protein that is mutated or significantly different from the ones they were trained on, as is frequently the case with genetic disorders, this can result in decreased accuracy levels.

A different approach is to model the physics involved in protein folding. Through simulations, scientists can examine multiple protein configurations and determine the most stable form, whichis essential for drug design.

The challenge is that these simulations are nearly impossible on a classical computer beyond a certain protein size. In a way, increasing the size of the target protein is comparable to increasing the dimensions of a Rubik's cube. For a small protein with 100 amino acids, a classical computer would need the time equal to the age of the universe to exhaustively search all the possible outcomes.

Dr. Bryan Raubenolt, Postdoctoral Fellow, Cleveland Clinic

The research team combined quantum and classical computing techniques to get around these restrictions. Within this framework, quantum algorithms can tackle problems that current state-of-the-art classical computing finds difficult, such as the physics of protein folding, intrinsic disorder, mutations, and protein size.

The accuracy with which the framework predicted, on a quantum computer, the folding of a small fragment of the Zika virus protein, compared to the most advanced classical methods, served as validation.

The initial results of the quantum-classical hybrid framework outperformed both AlphaFold2 and a method based on classical physics. The latter shows that this framework can produce accurate models without directly relying on large amounts of training data, even though it is optimized for larger proteins.

The most computationally intensive part of the calculation usually involves modeling the lowest energy conformation for the fragment's backbone, which the researchers accomplish using a quantum algorithm. After that, classical methods were employed to translate the quantum computer's output, rebuild the protein along with its sidechains, and refine the structure one last time using force fields from classical molecular mechanics.

The project illustrates how problems can be broken down into smaller components for better accuracy. Some components can be addressed by quantum computing techniques, while classical computing methods can handle others.

Working across disciplines was crucial to creating this framework.

One of the most unique things about this project is the number of disciplines involved. Our teams expertise ranges from computational biology and chemistry, structural biology, software, and automation engineering to experimental atomic and nuclear physics, mathematics, and, of course,quantum computing and algorithm design. It took the knowledge from each of these areas to create a computational framework that can mimic one of the most important processes for human life.

Dr. Bryan Raubenolt, Postdoctoral Fellow, Cleveland Clinic

The teams combination of classical and quantum computing methods is essential for advancing our understanding of protein structures and how they impact our ability to treat and prevent disease. The team plans to continue developing and optimizing quantum algorithms that can predict the structure of larger and more sophisticated proteins.

This work is an important step forward in exploring where quantum computing capabilities could show strengths in protein structure prediction. Our goal is to design quantum algorithms that can find how to predict protein structures as realistically as possible.

Dr. Hakan Doga, Researcher, IBM

Doga, H., et al. (2024) A Perspective on Protein Structure Prediction Using Quantum Computers. Chemical Theory and Computation. doi.org/10.1021/acs.jctc.4c00067

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Unveiling Protein Structures with Quantum Computing - AZoQuantum

As AI grabs headlines, another transformative technologyquantum computingis making a significant impression behind the scenes. Heather Higgins of IBM Quantum underlined the huge potential in a recent interview: McKinsey actually in a recent report put out that there are use cases that will create value capture for industry up to $2 trillion by 2030.

So, what are these valuable use cases? Higgins outlined three main categories enterprises should watch:

We talk about advanced mathematics and working with complex business structures, she began. A second category would be working with search and optimization. And the third category would be simulating nature.

Within those buckets, quantum computing can tackle challenges like AI model training, supply chain optimization, and material design.

You can think in biotech protein folding, said Higgins, giving one example of simulating natural processes.

But adopting quantum requires careful strategy.

Higgins advised: We start with the broad area. We whittle that down to about twelve problem types that were focused on today and we start to look at what those time scales are so that they can make purposeful investment decisions.

The key, she explained, is understanding the incremental or disruptive impact sought, and an organizations risk appetite.

Its not bad to be starting on incremental instead of disruptive, she noted, as quantum requires rethinking how computations are approached.

With heavyweights like IBM leading the charge, quantum computings time is coming for enterprises aiming to gain an innovative edge.

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IBM's Heather Higgins on Quantum Computing Rising to Tackle Enterprise Challenges - The Quantum Insider

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Researchers from Lancaster University and Radboud University Nijmegen have managed to generate propagating spin waves at the nanoscale and discovered a novel pathway to modulate and amplify them.

Their discovery, published in Nature, could pave the way for the development of dissipation free quantum information technologies. As the spin waves do not involve electric currents, these chips will be free from associated losses of energy.

The rapidly growing popularity of artificial intelligence comes with an increasing desire for fast and energy efficient computing devices and calls for novel ways to store and process information. The electric currents in conventional devices suffer from losses of energy and subsequent heating of the environment.

One alternative for the "lossy" electric currents is to store and process information in waves, using the spins of the electrons instead of their charges. These spins can be seen as the elementary units of magnets.

Lead author Dr. Rostislav Mikhaylovskiy from Lancaster University said, "Our discovery will be essential for future spin-wave based computing. Spin waves are an appealing information carrier as they don't involve electric currents and therefore do not suffer from resistive losses."

It has already been known for many years that spins can be kicked out of their equilibrium orientation. After this perturbation, the spins start to precess (i.e. rotate) around their equilibrium position. In magnets, neighboring spins are extremely strongly coupled, forming a net magnetization. Due to this coupling, the spin precession can propagate in the magnetic material, giving rise to a spin wave.

"Observing nonlinear conversion of coherent propagating magnons at nanoscale, which is a prerequisite for any practical magnon-based data processing, has been sought for by many groups worldwide for more than a decade. Therefore, our experiment is a landmark for spin wave studies, which holds the potential to open an entire new research direction on ultrafast coherent magnonics with an eye on the development of dissipation free quantum information technologies."

The researchers have used the fact that the highest possible frequencies of the spin rotations can be found in materials, in which adjacent spins are canted with respect to each other.

To excite such fast spin dynamics, they used a very short pulse of light, the duration of which is shorter than the period of the spin wave, i.e. less than a trillionth of a second. The trick for generating the ultrafast spin wave at the nanoscale is in the photon energy of the light pulse.

The material of study exhibits extremely strong absorption at ultraviolet (UV) photon energies, which localizes the excitation in a very thin region of only a few tens of nanometers from the interface, which allows spin waves with terahertz (a trillion of Hertz) frequencies and sub-micrometer wavelengths to emerge.

The dynamics of such spin waves is intrinsically nonlinear, meaning that the waves with different frequencies and wavelengths can be converted into each other.

The researchers have now for the first time realized this possibility in practice. They achieved this by exciting the system not with only one, but with two intense laser pulses, separated by a short time delay.

First author Ruben Leenders, former Ph.D. student at Lancaster University, said, "In a typical single pulse excitation experiment, we would simply expect the two spin waves to interfere with each other as any waves do. However, by varying the time delay between the two pulses, we found that this superposition of the two waves does not hold."

The team explained the observations by considering the coupling of the already excited spin wave with the second light pulse. The result of this coupling is that when the spins are already rotating, the second light pulse gives an additional kick to the spins.

The strength and the direction of this kick depends on the state of the deflection of the spins at the time that this second light pulse arrives. This mechanism allows for control over the properties of the spin waves such as their amplitude and phase, simply by choosing the appropriate time delay between the excitations.

More information: Ruben Leenders et al, Canted spin order as a platform for ultrafast conversion of magnons, Nature (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-07448-3. http://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07448-3

Journal information: Nature

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New study is step towards energy-efficient quantum computing in magnets - Phys.org