For an industry that's allegedly 15- to 30-years from being useful there’s a lot of news being generated from quantum computing.
As previously noted, CxOs need to think through quantum computing and potential use cases even though there is a lot of noise surrounding the sector. The timeline to date goes like this:
- Quantum computing pure play stocks took off at the end of 2024 due to Google's Willow quantum processor, which is a long way from production. Stocks surged past any reasonable valuation, but the run was great while it lasted.
- Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang then said quantum computing is 15- to 30-years from being useful to corporations.
- The merry band of quantum computing stocks were halved in some cases as investors realized that they may be a bit ahead of themselves.
- Quantum computing vendors launched a flurry of news announcements about backlog, bookings and contracts. Quantum stocks rebounded.
You'd be forgiven for having a bit of whiplash over this quantum computing kerfuffle. However, we'd be remiss if we didn't highlight some of this week's quantum computing news, which is pretty significant.
- Nvidia GTC 2025 will feature its first ever Quantum Day, which will feature Huang and quantum computing vendors, on March 20. The discussion will feature "a comprehensive and balanced perspective" on quantum computing's future.
- Microsoft launched its Quantum Ready Initiative, which helps enterprises sort out use cases for quantum computing and get ready to deploy.
- IonQ, University of Maryland and State of Maryland announced a $1 billion investment to create the "Capital of Quantum." Under the initiative, IonQ will be an anchor partner as it continues to pursue federal government contracts. IonQ at the University of Maryland's Discovery District, which is near Washington, DC and Annapolis, MD.
- D-Wave said it will expand distribution of its quantum computing offerings via a partnership with Carahsoft, which is a premier distributor of IT to the government. Under the deal, Carahsoft will aggregate D-Wave's offerings as a reseller. The partnership will give D-Wave throughput under Carahsoft's contract vehicles.
Practical quantum computing advances ramp up going into 2025 | Quantum computing all in on hybrid HPC with classical computing
What now?
Going forward, you can expect a lot of volatility across the quantum computing sector. One thing I've been watching closely is the type of quantum computing technology used by vendors.
Given the various flavors of quantum computing it's not difficult to foresee a VHS vs. Betamax scenario emerging in the years ahead. You’d be advised to spread your use case bets.
Research:
- IBM Boosts the Software Side of Quantum
- Quantum Computing Platforms
- Quantum Computing Software Platforms
- Quantum Full Stack Players
Here's a look at the types of quantum computing and the vendors in that category.
- Superconducting qubits are seen as general quantum computing options and vendors in this category include IBM, Google and Rigetti Computing.
- Trapped Ion quantum computing has high fidelity and long coherence times. IonQ is the big player in this category along with Quantinuum, which was created by the merger of Honeywell's quantum unit and Cambridge Quantum.
- Neutral atom quantum computing has the potential to scale better and QuEra is a player here.
- Quantum annealing is designed for optimization over general purpose computing and D-Wave has championed this approach.
- Topological quantum computing has the potential to be more fault tolerant and is an avenue being pursued by Microsoft. Topological quantum computing uses a concept similar to semiconductors using "anyons," which can arrange qubits into patterns.
Today, quantum computing chatter talks about the sector as if all the vendors are all using the same technique. Ultimately, CxOs will have to ponder use cases and how they align to the various flavors of quantum computing.
As quantum computing matures, the focus will likely go to the software layer and ways to abstract quantum computing instances. Given that nearly all quantum computing resources will be delivered through the cloud, the various technologies may not matter enough as long as your cloud provider offers a broad range of instances.
- Quantinuum, Microsoft claim quantum reliability breakthrough
- Microsoft claims hybrid quantum breakthrough with Quantinuum, partners with Atom Computing
- IonQ’s bet on commercial quantum computing working, acquires Quibitekk
- IonQ's quantum computing bets: Quantum for LLM training, chemistry and enterprise use cases
- IBM upgrades IBM Quantum Data Center with Heron
- IBM Boosts the Software Side of Quantum
- Quantinuum, Microsoft claim quantum reliability breakthrough
- Microsoft claims hybrid quantum breakthrough with Quantinuum, partners with Atom Computing
- Quantinuum raises $300 million, valued at $5 billion
- Quantum Brilliance, Oak Ridge National Laboratory aims to meld quantum computing, HPC
