Daily Archives: February 9, 2022

A team member at D-Wave Systems, based in Burnaby, B.C.,, works on the dilution refrigerator system that cools the processors in the companys quantum computer. (D-Wave Systems Photo / Larry Goldstein)

Burnaby, B.C.-based D-Wave Systems, the quantum computing company that counts Jeff Bezos among its investors and NASA among its customers, has struck a deal to go public with a $1.2 billion valuation.

The deal involves a combination with DPMC Capital, a publicly traded special-purpose acquisition company, or SPAC. Its expected to bring in $300 million in gross proceeds from DPMCs trust account, plus $40 million in gross proceeds from investors participating in a PIPE arrangement. (PIPE stands for private investment in public equity.)

Quantum computing takes advantage of phenomena at the quantum level, processing qubits that can represent multiple values simultaneously as opposed to the one-or-zero paradigm of classical computing. The approach is theoretically capable of solving some types of problems much faster than classical computers.

Founded in 1999, D-Wave has focused on a type of technology called quantum annealing, which uses quantum computing principles and hardware to tackle tasks relating to network optimization and probabilistic sampling.

Physicists have debated whether D-Waves Advantage system should be considered an honest-to-goodness quantum computer, but the company says that question has been settled by research that, among other things, turned up signatures of quantum entanglement. D-Wave is included among the quantum resources offered by Amazon and Microsoft, and it also has its own cloud-based platform, known as Leap.

The SPAC deal has already been cleared by the boards of directors for D-Wave and DPCM Capital. If the transaction proceeds as expected, with approval by DPCMs stockholders, it should close by midyear. The result would be a combined company called D-Wave Quantum Inc. that would remain headquartered in Burnaby a suburb of Vancouver, B.C. and trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the QBTS stock symbol.

Today marks an inflection point signaling that quantum computing has moved beyond just theory and government-funded research to deliver commercial quantum solutions for business, D-Wave CEO Alan Baratz said in a news release.

Among the investors involved in the PIPE transaction are PSP Investments, NEC Corp., Goldman Sachs, Yorkville Advisors and Aegis Group Partners. Other longtime D-Wave investors include Bezos Expeditions as well as In-Q-Tel, a venture capital fund backed by the CIA and other intelligence agencies.

In what was described as an innovative move, the SPAC deal sets aside a bonus pool of 5 million shares for DPCMs non-redeeming public stockholders.

D-Wave says it will use the fresh funding to accelerate its delivery of in-production quantum applications for its customers, and to build on a foundation of more than 200 U.S. patents. The company is aiming to widen its offerings beyond quantum annealing by developing more versatile gate-model quantum computers.

Emil Michael, DPMC Capitals CEO, said the total addressable market for quantum computing services could amount to more than $1 billion in the near term, and rise to $150 billion as applications mature.

While quantum computing is complex, its value and benefits are quite simple: finding solutions to problems that couldnt be previously solved, or solving problems faster with more optimal results, Michael said. D-Wave is at the forefront of developing this market, already delivering the significant benefits of quantum computing to major companies across the globe.

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Quantum computing venture backed by Jeff Bezos will leap into public trading with $1.2B valuation - GeekWire

Today is the era of noisy intermediate scale quantum (Nisq) computers. These can solve difficult problems, but they are said to be noisy, which means many physical qubits are required for every logical qubit that can be applied to problem-solving. This makes it hard for the industry to demonstrate a truly practical advantage that quantum computers have over classical high-performance computing (HPC) architectures.

Algorithmiq recently received $4m in seed funding to enable it to deliver what it claims are truly noise-resilient quantum algorithms. The company is targeting one specific application area drug discovery and hopes to work with major pharmaceutical firms to develop molecular simulations that are accurate at the quantum level.

Algorithmiq says it has a unique strategy of using standard computers to un-noise quantum computers. The algorithms it is developing offer researchers the ability to boost the speed of chemical simulations on quantum computers by a factor of 100x compared with current industry benchmarks.

Sabrina Maniscalco, co-founder and CEO at Algorithmiq and a professor of quantum information, computing and logic at the University of Helsinki, has been studying noise quantum computers for 20 years. My main field of research is about extracting noise, she said. Quantum information is very fragile.

In Maniscalcos experience, full tolerance requires technological advances in manufacturing and may even require fundamental principles to be discovered because the science does not exist yet. But she said: We can work with noisy devices. there is a lot we can do but you have to get your hands dirty.

Algorithmiqs approach is about making a mindset shift. Rather than waiting for the emergence of universal fault-tolerant quantum computing, Maniscalco said: We look for what types of algorithms we can develop with noisy [quantum] devices.

To work with noisy devices, algorithms need to take account of quantum physics in order to model and understand what is going on in the quantum computer system.

The target application area for Algorithmiq is drug discovery. Quantum computing offers researchers the possibility to simulate molecules accurately at the quantum level, something that is not possible in classical computing, as each qubit can map onto an electron.

According to a quantum computing background paper by Microsoft, if an electron had 40 possible states, to model every state would have 240 configurations, as each position can either have or not have an electron. To store the quantum state of the electrons in a conventional computer memory would require more than 130GB of memory. As the number of states increases, the memory required grows exponentially.

This is one of the limitations of using a classical computing architecture for quantum chemistry simulations. According to Scientific America, quantum computers are now at the point where they can begin to model the energetics and properties of small molecules, such as lithium hydride.

In November 2021, a consortium led by Universal Quantum, a University of Sussex spin-out company, was awarded a 7.5m grant from Innovate UKs Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund to build a scalable quantum computer. Its goal is to achieve a million qubit system.

Many of todays quantum computing systems rely on supercooling to just a few degrees above absolute zero to achieve superconducting qubits. Cooling components to just above absolute zero is required to build the superconducting qubits that are encoded in a circuit. The circuit only exhibits quantum effects when supercooled, otherwise it behaves like a normal electrical circuit.

Significantly, Universals quantum technology, based on the principle of a trapped ion quantum computer, can operate at much more normal temperatures. Explaining why its technology does not require supercooling, co-founder and chief scientist Winfied Hensinger said: Its the nature of the hardware platform. The qubit is the atom that exhibits quantum effects. The ions levitate above the surface of the chip, so there is no requirement on cooling the chip in order to make a better qubit.

Just as a microprocessor may run at 150W and operate at room temperature, the quantum computer that Universal Quantum is building should not require anything more than is needed in an existing server room for cooling.

The design is also more resilient to noise, which introduces errors in quantum computing. Hensinger added: In a superconducting qubit, the circuit is on the chip, so it is much harder to isolate from the environment and so is prone to much more noise. The ion is naturally much better isolated from the environment as it just levitates above a chip.

The key reason why Hensinger and the Universal Quantum team believe they are better placed to further the scalability of quantum computers is down to the cooling power of a fridge. According to Hensinger, the cooling needed for superconducting qubits is very difficult to scale to large numbers of qubits.

Another startup, Quantum Motion, a spin-out from University College London (UCL), is looking at a way to achieve quantum computing that can be industrialised. The company is leading a three-year project, Altnaharra, funded by UK Research and Innovations National Quantum Technologies Programme (NQTP), which combines expertise in qubits based on superconducting circuits, trapped ions and silicon spins.

The company says it is developing fault-tolerant quantum computing architectures. John Morton, co-founder of Quantum Motion and professor of nanoelectronics at UCL, said: To build a universal quantum computer, you need to scale to millions of qubits.

But because companies like IBM are currently running only 127-qubit systems, the idea of universal quantum computing comprising millions of physical qubits, built using existing processes, is seen by some as a pipedream. Instead, said Morton: We are looking at how to take a silicon chip and make it exhibit quantum properties.

Last April, Quantum Motion and researchers at UCL were able to isolate and measure the quantum state of a single electron (the qubit) in a silicon transistor manufactured using a CMOS (complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor) technology similar to that used to make chips in computer processors.

Rather than being at a high-tech campus or university, the company has just opened its new laboratory just off Londons Caledonian Road, surrounded by a housing estate, a community park and a gym. But in this lab, it is able to lower the temperature of components to a shade above absolute zero.

James Palles-Dimmock, COO of Quantum Motion, said: Were working with technology that is colder than deep space and pushing the boundaries of our knowledge to turn quantum theory into reality. Our approach is to take the building blocks of computing the silicon chip and demonstrate that it is the most stable, reliable and scalable way of mass manufacturing quantum silicon chips.

The discussion Computer Weekly had with these startups shows just how much effort is going into giving quantum computing a clear advantage over HPC. What is clear from these conversations is that these companies are all very different. Unlike classical computing, which has chosen the stored program architecture described by mathematician John von Neumann in the 1940s, there is unlikely to be one de-facto standard architecture for quantum computing.

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Breaking the noise barrier: The startups developing quantum computers - ComputerWeekly.com

What if I told you that the laws of traditional physics arent enough to unlock the secrets of the universe?

What if I said that there are people devoted to a fundamentally new way of understanding science that could revolutionize the way we discover new drug therapies, map the cosmos, protect sensitive data, combat climate change and maybe even discover new forms of life?

What if I told you that youre living smack dab in the middle of the place where this new movement a technological and theoretical system ripped from the pages of a science-fiction novel is being puzzled out?

What if Boulder and the Front Range [was] the Silicon Valley of quantum computing? Maybe it is, ColdQuanta Inc. president Paul Lipman prognosticates.

Quantum has the opportunity to be as transformative for the world or more so than the internet, he told BizWest.

Quantum researchers are trying to get at the big questions in hopes of discovering and better understanding new types of physics that are beyond our current framework and theoretical understanding of the universe, Colorado State University physics professor Sam Brewer said.

The Boulder Valley with the world-class University of Colorado physics department, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and some of the most prominent quantum computing companies in the world has become, over the last three decades or so, the epicenter of the field.

You wouldnt know it unless youre in the industry or are really into this technology, but we really have a special thing going in Colorado, said Philip Makotyn, executive director of CUbit Quantum Initiative, a CU organization dedicated to catalyzing quantum research across the university community.

What is quantum?

Quantum theory attempts to explain the behavior of matter at atomic and subatomic levels.

At its most fundamental level, the universe is governed by the laws of quantum mechanics, said Lipman, leader of the Boulder firm developing quantum technology to freeze individual atoms to near-absolute zero, a point at which they produce minimal vibration. In this state, those atoms can be used to create sensors with extremely granular accuracy for use in satellite navigation, scientific research and other cutting-edge technological pursuits.

Quantum computing uses principles of quantum theory to build machinery with capabilities that far exceed traditional computers.

Classical computers use bits that can hold the value of either 1 or 0, which severely limits their processing ability.

Quantum computers are built with qubits, which harness the quantum property of superposition to hold the value of both 1 and 0 simultaneously.

If a bit is a coin sitting on a table, with the property of heads or tails, a qubit is a coin thats been flipped into the air and has yet to land it simultaneously has the properties of heads and tails.

Computing power is increased exponentially with each additional qubit.

Simply put or as simply put as can be given a field of science thats so new and potentially groundbreaking quantum computers are not going to give you faster video games or better accounting software, Lipman said. But it will enable computers to solve important, world-changing problems that are simply impossible to solve with conventional computing capacities.

Born at NIST

Quantum computings birth can be traced directly back to NIST and the 14th International Conference on Atomic Physics held there in 1994.

It was at this conference that certain scientific breakthroughs were made and it was agreed that quantum computers will be a thing, NIST physicist and CU lecturer Dietrich Leibfried said.

This conference happened here for a reason and thats because these scientists were here in Boulder, he said.

But why NIST? Why was the government agency tasked with standardizing measurements a hotbed for quantum scholars?

The answer: clocks.

The institute is well known for its super-precise atomic clocks, and it turns out that the ideal setting for building quantum computers is much like the environment needed to build atomic clocks.

The first place you can describe quantum advantage as being achieved is in timekeeping, Lipman said. We can create clocks based upon quantum that are the most sensitive instruments ever created by humankind.

The importance of ultra-precise timekeeping is apparent in applications from investing in financial markets to developing autonomous vehicles and precision navigation to the measurement of the warping of time and space.

NIST furthered its involvement in the quantum space with research conducted by JILA, a partnership with CU formed in 1962 that was formerly known as the Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics.

It really is a special place, Makotyn said. It attracted the best talent that existed at the time in this precision measurement and spectroscopy area that eventually evolved into the quantum field.

The Boulder regions status in the quantum world has only grown in recent years after the passage of the National Quantum Initiative Act of 2018, in which the National Science Foundation declared quantum technology a national priority and established five centers of research across the country. One of those centers is at CU.

It was a very, very competitive search for those places and all of the most prestigious universities applied. CU was one of the first three awarded. That shows that we are truly a national leader in this stuff, Makotyn said.

The Quantum Economic Development Consortium, a group that brings together academics and business leaders to discuss ways in which quantum technology could benefit the American economy, is also run out of NIST.

From the ivory tower to the boardroom

From the ivory towers, thats where it started. Not in the commercial world, Leibfried said of the quantum revolution.

But it didnt take long for the commercial world to catch on, and the Boulder Valley region has since given rise to some of the biggest players in the industry. Examples include ColdQuanta; Quantinuum, a Broomfield company newly spun out of Honeywell International Inc. (Nasdaq: HON); Atom Computing; and LongPath Technologies Inc.

The whole genesis of our company grew out of the work that was being done at CU the first Bose-Einstein condensate, the fifth form of matter, was created in the labs, Lipman said. Thats what led to the creation of ColdQuanta.

While some companies spun out of CU, JILA and NIST, others sought out the region to share proximity with those major quantum players.

Theres talent in this area, and we came to them, Quantinuum president Tony Uttley said. We said, Were going to give you the kind of environment that you want to be working in, were going to give you access to the equipment thats state of the art. Were going to provide the resources and ambition to do things that are the first of their kind.

The interplay between the industry participants and academia has created a positively reinforcing cycle and venture capital is starting to take notice, Lipman said.

We are seeing a significant interest in quantum from a wide array of financial partners, he said.

Part of the reason for this interest is the seemingly endless number of applications for quantum technology many of the applications appear quite lucrative.

When you think of drug discovery today, its a multi-year, multi-billion dollar thing where molecules are being tested in labs to figure out what their behavior and effects are, Lipman said. The promise of quantum computing and were still a few years away from this being possible is the ability to model precisely what the interaction of these molecules will be. That will be absolutely groundbreaking in pharmaceuticals, in life sciences, in material sciences. When you think about impact for humanity, that will probably be the most visceral of the potential applications.

Labor challenges

Like nearly all industries, the Boulder Valleys quantum industry is facing a severe labor shortage.

When you talk about the biggest impediment to progress and this is not just for ColdQuanta its the pipeline of talent, Lipman said.

Its not just physicists that these companies need.

We need a diverse group not just physicists, Makotyn said. We need engineers, mathematicians, business people, a broad range of skill sets.

Familiarizing younger people with the opportunities presented by quantum technology is key, industry experts say.

Theres a place for us to do more on the state and local level in Colorado, Lipman said. That encouragement or education, the funding of education, pushing that education down into the high school level, is an important part of creating the necessary pipeline of talent.

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Quest for Quantum: Could the key to the secrets of the universe be discovered in Colorado? BizWest - BizWest