Quantum Computing Review Q3 2022

Welcome to ID Quantique’s Q3 quantum computing review. Every 3 months we look back at some of the interesting stories coming out of the quantum world, including the latest technological advances and new applications of quantum in everyday life.

There has been some significant movement in terms of performance improvement and roadmap announcements this month, with advancements from Quantinuum, Rigetti, Baidu and more.

Quantinium Ion Trap Machine

In September, Quantinuum announced another increase in the Quantum Volume for its Ion Trap machines. Quantum Volume (QV) is a metric used to measure the capability and error rate of a quantum computer.

It is a single-number metric that expresses the maximum size of square quantum circuits that can be implemented successfully. As such, it is a useful benchmark against which to compare the relative performance of quantum devices.

In his address at the IEEE Quantum Week event, Quantinuum President and COO, Tony Uttley, announced three significant milestones. In addition to new features on its H Series hardware, Quantinuum set a new QV record of 8192 – a doubling of their previous record announced in April 2022. Uttley also announced over 500,000 downloads of their open-source TKET software development kit (SDK).

Rigetti Quantum Roadmap

Rigetti has been a pioneer in the quantum computing field since it was founded in 2013. In a September release, the company announced a detailed roadmap and several new partnerships during an Investor Day presentation.

The roadmap extends to 2027 and beyond, with its next-gen processor (codenamed Ankaa) due for release in 2023. Ankaa is the company’s fourth generation of processors and will boast 84 qubits in a single chip. Ankaa also boasts a significant improvement in gate fidelity and qubit connectivity over the previous generation.

Quantum Computing Inc Subscription Service

Quantum Computing Inc (QCI) is a leader in accessible quantum computing. In September it announced the launch of a new subscription service that provides businesses with access to its Dirac 1 Entropy Quantum Computing system. Dirac 1 is the first system made publicly available by QCI and focusses on solving binary optimization problems. Dirac 2 is due for release later this year and will allow customers to run larger integer-number optimization problems.

China Quantum Computing activity

In August, AI and internet technology giant Baidu announced it was entering the quantum market with the introduction of its first superconducting quantum computer. Qian Shi integrates hardware, software and applications and was introduced alongside the world’s first “all-platform quantum hardware/software integration solution” named Liang Xi. Lang Xi will offer access to a range of quantum resources through private deployment, cloud services or mobile app.

Origin Quantum

Chinese quantum start-up Origin Quantum has raised US$148 million in a Series B round of funding, with the support of the government funded Shenzen Capital Group. Established in 2017, Origin Quantum has been been developing quantum processors based upon both superconducting and spin qubit technologies and have also developed a quantum computing software framework called Qpanda2.

Money to tackle the world’s biggest challenges

The Novo Nordisk Foundation has been awarded a US$200 million grant to establish Denmark’s first full-scale quantum computer. In partnership with the University of Copenhagen, the project is due for completion in 2034 and aims to provide support for key life science applications, including medical research and greater insight into climate change.

In other life science news, Finland’s IQM Quantum Computers has raised €128 million in Series A2 funding, led by World Fund, to accelerate product development of quantum processors to help tackle the climate crisis.

The Israel Innovation Authority is to invest US$29 million to establish the Israel Quantum Computing Centre. The project is expected to take three years and will be led by Quantum Machines as part of the broader Israel National Quantum Initiative.

Quantum collaborations

In other news, some major players have announced new collaborations as the quantum marketplace continues to mature.

IQM are involved again, this time as part of the memorandum of understanding signed in August by the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland and the National Quantum Office of Singapore. The MoU sees all parties involved commit to promoting research and development collaboration across multiple quantum technologies.

Two heavy-hitters, Amazon and Harvard University, announced a strategic alliance in September that aims to advance fundamental research and innovation in quantum networking.

“Quantum networking is an emerging space that can help to address challenges of growing importance to our world, such as secure communication and powerful quantum computing clusters. The collaborative initiative between AWS and Harvard will harness top research talent to explore quantum networking today and establish a framework to develop the quantum workforce of the future.”
– Antia Lamas-Linares, quantum networking lead at AWS.

The US and South Korea have announced the opening of six centres dedicated to collaboration on quantum research. The centres each have a specific area of focus and include error correction, entanglement-based networks, and quantum sensing.

In the financial services sector, D-Wave and Mastercard announced they would be collaborating on research and development of quantum-hybrid applications in areas such as consumer loyalty and rewards, designed to improve customer experiences.