Who is leading the race to quantum computing? Despite the race being underway, there is still a lot of uncertainty about who are the frontrunners. Qubits are the smallest units of quantum information. They’re like atoms or subatomic particles, but they can exist in more than one state at once. The first computers used binary logic, which operates with only two possible outcomes — on or off. But new research in quantum computing is moving towards using qubits that can be both 0 and 1 at the same time. There’s a race to develop quantum computers — machines whose stored data is encoded as qubits instead of bits. The race is being led by China, but it also includes Europe and Japan.
Here’s what you need to know about who’s leading the race to quantum computing
There is a race to quantum computing is on IBM, Google, and Microsoft have all announced plans for quantum computers. In September, IBM said it would be able to build a 500-qubit system in five years, which would make it the first company to build a large-scale system.
D-Wave is also developing quantum computers, and has said it will be able to build a 1,000 qubit system within the next five years.
The company says its systems are already being used by NASA and Google. In February, Microsoft announced it would be releasing a programming language for quantum computers. The company has released an early version of the software and is looking for developers to test it out. Google has also been working on quantum computing, and in April announced it had built a 72-qubit system. The company has said that it may have to wait until 2024 before its systems are powerful enough to tackle real-world problems.
Who will win? And how long will it take?
Quantum computing is about making computers faster and more powerful than conventional computers by harnessing the power of quantum mechanics. This involves harnessing the strange behavior of particles known as qubits: quantum bits that can be in two states at once—0 or 1—rather than just 0 or 1. That means they can perform calculations more quickly and efficiently than conventional bits do because they don’t need to be reset when they’re used repeatedly. That makes them ideal for machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) tasks that require lots of data crunching.
They also make it easier to build bigger systems with more qubits than traditional computers do because you don’t need an enormous amount of space or power consumption to create one. The race to build a quantum computer is on, and companies from around the world are already investing heavily in the technology. In fact, there are so many companies that have now joined forces to form a consortium called the Quantum Artificial Intelligence Lab (QuAIL).
Here’s who QuAIL members are
Rigetti Computing Ltd, which was founded by Paul Benioff, who sold his company Salesforce to Oracle Corp., and Stephen Wolfram, creator of Mathematica software. Quantum computers aren’t here yet, but they’re on the cusp of becoming a reality. The first quantum computers are already in operation and researchers are racing to create more powerful models.
Who’s leading this race?
Some of the most prominent names in quantum computing are IBM, Google, and Microsoft. IBM and Google have invested hundreds of millions of dollars into quantum computing research over the last few years. And now Microsoft has jumped on board as well — it has announced plans to build a quantum computing research lab with over 100 scientists from around the world. IBM has been at the forefront of quantum computing technology for decades, starting with its famous “universal” computer in the 1970s (which was actually based on an earlier model). It recently launched a new system called Q Network that can perform some basic tasks using only one qubit (a unit of quantum information).
Google is also focusing on quantum computing research — it recently hired Scott Aaronson, who has worked extensively on developing algorithms for quantum computers. According to Google, it’s also working on “an application that could solve a problem that no classical computer can handle: the simulation of complex quantum systems.” This is an important step in the development of quantum computers, since they will be able to simulate other systems. For example, they could model things like molecules or even financial markets — which would help scientists understand how they work and provide new insights into how we can use them for practical purposes.
Google is also working on quantum computers of its own. Last year, the company opened a new lab in Santa Barbara, California dedicated to quantum computing research. The lab is part of a broader effort at Google to develop quantum computers that could be used for practical purposes. In its announcement last year, the company said it was looking at applications such as machine learning and optimization problems.
Conclusion
The field of quantum computing is still in its infancy, but there’s no doubt that it has the potential to revolutionize the way we live our lives. If companies like Google, IBM and Microsoft can develop practical quantum computers, it will open up a whole new realm of possibilities. They could be used for things like searching through massive datasets or designing complex molecules and molecular structures.