The third annual Quantum World Congress recently convened in Washington D.C., drawing top quantum researchers, investors, and government delegates. Although a practical quantum computer remains years away, the atmosphere was optimistic with exciting developments in quantum computing, quantum networking, and investments.
Major industry players IBM, Microsoft, and Boeing shared significant updates, suggesting a new stage of industry evolution. (Read more about Boeing’s initiative to deploy a quantum communications satellite.)
Historically, quantum computing primarily concentrated on hardware development, explains Jay Gambetta, IBM’s Vice President of Quantum Computing. However, the software aspect is crucial for actual business applications, as evidenced by IBM’s recent launch of what is essentially an application store for quantum software.
IBM’s Quiskit Functions Catalog offers six functions, including four that manage performance and improve error correction and two designed to simplify the use of quantum circuits for optimization and chemistry tasks.
“It’s a stepping stone towards libraries and a future application store,” says Gambetta.
Now people with expertise in specific business subjects can start to experiment with quantum computing without having to be quantum scientists themselves, he says. “It accelerates the race to find useful applications.”
Gambetta says that IBM has been making quantum computing available to customers since 2016, via the cloud, with hundreds of institutions using the platform.
“We’re going to focus on building the platform and we want all the innovators and the startups to do algorithm discovery,” he says. “We’ll have enterprise cases in the next few years. Until this announcement, I didn’t think it was really feasible.”
Meanwhile, Microsoft is also claiming to have the world’s most reliable quantum computing platform.
“The Azure Quantum Compute platform steps beyond our Azure Quantum Service and brings together more logical qubits and more reliable quantum computing,” says Krysta Svore, Microsoft’s vice president of advanced quantum development.
At last week’s Quantum World Congress, Microsoft announced that it partnered with Continuum to create 12 logical qubits, which, Svore says, is the most logical qubits on record. Quantinuum provided the quantum hardware and Microsoft handled the error correction.
These quantum computers are still too small to do anything that classical computers can’t do, but can already allow companies to experiment with use cases and test algorithms. “We have entered the era of reliable quantum computation,” she says.
According to Svore, around 100 reliable logical qubits are necessary for scientifically useful calculations, and approximately 1,000 logical qubits are required for a general-purpose quantum computer that can perform tasks beyond the capability of classical computers.
“We have also presented the world’s first demonstration of an integrated hybrid workflow that utilizes Azure HPC, logical qubits, and AI,” she explains. This development is crucial as, similar to GPUs, quantum processors are likely to serve as accelerators within computers, engaging specifically to address problems that are otherwise too complex.
Like IBM’s Gambetta, Svore anticipates achieving quantum advantage by the year 2030.
It is noteworthy that the recent 12 qubit computer triples the capacity of the four logical qubits from April, and more significantly, the count of physical qubits increased from 30 to 56. This indicates a faster growth rate in logical qubits compared to the required underlying physical qubits.
“What we’re showing is continued growth in the number of logical qubits,” said Jennifer Strabley, vice president and general manager at Quantinuum. “And the performance of the logical qubits is better than the performance of the underlying physical qubits.”
Strabley also believes that 2029 will be a significant year for the commercial deployment of quantum computing technologies.
Since one of the potential uses for this technology includes dismantling current encryption systems, the timing of NIST’s recent announcement on new quantum-resistant encryption standards this August was particularly opportune.
Gartner analyst Chirag Dekate suggests that it is sensible for businesses adapting a research and development approach to invest in a platform that integrates quantum computing with high-performance computing and artificial intelligence.
“The question they’re asking themselves is, do they want to be an innovator, or wait on the sidelines?” he says. “The combination of AI and HPC enables them to explore a larger design space, in health care, financial services, manufacturing, and beyond. And they identify inflection points where classical advantage ends and quantum advantage begins.”
Enterprises are teaming up with quantum platform providers such as Microsoft, IBM, and Amazon, he notes. “They get their hands on these systems and explore what it takes to develop applications in a quantum context. It’s a tough challenge, but these are real efforts that researchers and enterprises are actively involved in.”
Quantum investment expert Jennifer Addie, COO of VentureScope and strategic director at MACH37, a cyber accelerator program, expresses her enthusiasm about Microsoft’s recent announcement. “For those monitoring the progression, the advances are substantial and quicker than many anticipated,” she remarks.
It has often been thought that quantum computing is still a long way off, and that businesses have ample time to get ready. “Well, it’s closer than you might think,” she indicates.
And while quantum computing research is still mostly grant-based, the investment community has begun making bets, she says. “MACH37 is aimed at very early stage startups,” she says. “And we’ve invested in several different quantum companies.”
The fact that startups can now easily get access to quantum computers via cloud platforms has made it easier for new kinds of companies to enter the space, not just those working on fundamental physics issues. For example, she says, they might be working on cybersecurity and other applications of quantum computing.
