All About Our 14 Quantum Computing Hardware Developers: Their Progress And News

By Lorimer Wilson of munKNEE.com
Tuesday, October 24, 2023 9:15 AM EST

 

What Is Quantum Computing?

Quantum computing (QC), unlike classical computing where data is known as a bit which can be either 0 or a 1 thus giving it binary qualities, uses qubits instead of bits and they exist in any proportion of both states at the same time (superposition) and can be entangled or invisibly connected (i.e., if one qubit is altered, the other reacts at the same time allowing such computers to process vast amounts of information simultaneously) and this permits an enormous leap in processing power.

Imagine a problem that would take even the world’s fastest supercomputer years to solve being solved in seconds. This is the promise of QC but, while today’s lead QC firms still haven’t cracked the code on qubits, the subatomic particles that will eventually replace binary 1s and 0s, the next renaissance in computing might not be far off.

 

The Next Renaissance In Computing Might Not Be Far Off  

The QC industry is already pouring billions of dollars into research and development by companies and governments around the world but experts can't come to a consensus as to when this disruptive technology become mainstream due to the difficulties to engineer, build, and program QC systems, including noise, faults, loss of quantum coherence, and of course the high price tag associated with QC systems.

Some believe QC will be able to break any existing digital encryption as soon as 2029, representing a need to transition online infrastructure away from binary hardware while others speculate we won’t see commercially available QCs until 2050. Either way, however, this technology isn’t in the realm of impossibility. Whether the necessary breakthroughs arrive in a few years or a few decades, the age of QC seems inevitable.

The QC industry is a rapidly evolving and expanding field with significant potential for growth and development in the coming years.

  • According to Precedence Research, the size of the QC industry is expected to grow by over 12 times from $10.13 billion in 2022 to $125 billion by the end of this decade. This would reflect a compound annual growth rate of 36.9% from 2022 to 2030.
  • McKinsey has labelled QC as “one of the next big trends” in the field of technology and is projected to contribute approximately $1.3 trillion in value by the year 2035.
  • That being said, however, while the key players in the QC industry are expected to progressively enhance the qubit capacity of their computers, according to McKinsey's estimation, by 2030, the number of operational quantum computers is expected to reach only about 5,000, so practical quantum QC is still years away but it will change the world when it arrives.
  • Furthermore, the development of hardware and software capable of handling the most intricate problems may not materialize until 2035 or even later. This projected timeline underscores the challenges involved in advancing QC technology to its full potential.

There is no established leader in QC at this point and the development of quantum hardware that accurately makes computations and meets a reasonable return on investment thresholds is still ongoing.

 

10 Non-Mega Cap Companies Heavily Involved In Quantum Computing R&D

There are close to 200 companies whose primary focus is on quantum Software according to The Quantum Insider, while just over 20 companies are working on quantum computer Processors and Chips. This article examines 10 of the latter, presented in descending order as to their respective market capitalization, that trade on American stock exchanges, and are heavily involved in the research and development of qubits.

  1. Alibaba Group (BABA) has been investing heavily in QC research and made major progress in launching its QC chip, called the XuanTie C910, which is based on superconducting qubit technology.
  2. Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) focuses on CPUs and GPUs and is a major player in the embedded chip market. It will be launching its MI300X AI chip, the most powerful AI chip in history with the power of 2.4 times that of Nvidia's top devices in just one chip as well as 1.6 times the memory bandwidth, which will eliminate the need for half the chips AI companies desperately need.
  3. Intel (INTC) is investing heavily in QC research and development making significant headway in developing its QC hardware, software, and algorithms. Its chip is based on what it knows best - silicon chip technology - using some of the same techniques it uses to make classical computing chips but silicon is something of an underdog in the QC realm right now. QC is not central to Intel's plan to regain dominance in the semiconductor industry but it could become an important segment for the integrated chip design in the years to come if research yields positive results.
  4. IBM (IBM) has its own QC chips and systems, which are available for commercial use via its Quantum business unit and, in partnership with UC Berkeley, has presented evidence that noisy quantum computers such as its 127 qubits processor will be able to provide value sooner than expected, all thanks to advances in IBM Quantum hardware and the development of new error mitigation methods.
  5. Honeywell International (HON) is a new entrant in the QC industry, focusing on developing quantum computers based on trapped ion technology, which uses ions trapped in a magnetic field to perform quantum computations. Honeywell has spun off its quantum computer unit as a separate business and merged it with start-up Cambridge Quantum Computing into a standalone entity called Quantinuum in which Honeywell has a 54% ownership stake. It also supplies Quantinuum with hardware and software as it develops its QC technology.
  6. Micron Technology (MU) began sampling its own HBM3 chips in July which are a 50% improvement in bandwidth over currently available solutions with mass production expected to begin early in calendar 2024, and meaningful revenue from this product in fiscal 2024.
  7. Baidu (BIDU) is involved in the development of both QC hardware and software introducing its first superconducting quantum computer with a 10-qubit processor and a 36-qubit quantum chip in August, 2022. Additionally, Baidu has pioneered the development of a comprehensive quantum hardware-software integration solution, enabling access to a wide range of quantum chips through various platforms such as cloud services, mobile applications, and personal computers.
  8. IonQ (IONQ) develops QC hardware and is the first to have its computing systems available via all the major public cloud services. It generates little in the way of revenue right now and is not yet profitable and will need to continue spending heavily to develop its products and business for at least a few more years. It plans to build a network of quantum computers accessible via the cloud and is targeting rapid growth in 2023 as researchers begin using its hardware at greater scale.
  9. Rigetti Computing (RGTI) specializes in superconducting qubit technology and has developed a suite of software tools and algorithms for programming and simulating quantum computations.
  10. D-Wave Quantum (QBTS) is the leading provider of QC systems and software with a focus on quantum annealing technology which harnesses the power of quantum annealing to address complex optimization problems prevalent in various industries such as logistics, finance, and machine learning.

There are an additional 4 mega-cap companies very active in QC research and development which are part of the Magnificent Seven companies, mainly:

  1. Microsoft's (MSFT) QC technology is based on a topological qubit approach, which uses quasi-particles to create a highly stable and error-resistant qubit and is developing a quantum machine using a proprietary control chip and a cryo-compute core that work together to maintain a stable cold environment. In addition, MSFT has also developed a suite of software tools and algorithms for programming and simulating quantum computations and is offering a portfolio of quantum computers from other hardware providers as a service to provide an open development environment for researchers, businesses and developers that enables the flexibility to tune algorithms and explore today's quantum systems.
  2. Alphabet (GOOGL) has made significant advancements in developing quantum hardware and algorithms with 762 outstanding patents related to QC. Google's Sycamore quantum processor contains 54 superconducting qubits and it has achieved quantum supremacy as it can perform a calculation in just 3 minutes and 20 seconds, which would require a classical computer 10,000 years to perform. In addition, it has built a programmable superconducting processor that is about 158 million times faster than the world’s fastest supercomputer.
  3. Amazon (AMZN) has partnered with the California Institute of Technology to foster the next generation of quantum scientists and fuel their efforts to build a fault-tolerant quantum computer.
  4. Nvidia Corporation (NVDA) is leveraging its software developed for GPUs to support the development of QC. It has released cuQuantum, a software development kit designed to help software developers build workflows on QC and is working on a QC software stack, as well as a hybrid QC unit in partnership with start-up Quantum Machines.

 

Investing In Quantum Computer Stocks

QC is still in the early stages of development, but plenty of research dollars are being funneled into this advanced tech. QC could eventually augment classic computers and dramatically accelerate technological developments in industries like healthcare, finance, and materials manufacturing. Although QC pure-play stocks are scarce, investing in technology companies with QC exposure could yield impressive returns in the decades ahead. That being said, however, it is still too early to determine the best QC stocks to invest in because the technology is rapidly advancing with several competing approaches.

 

What You Need To Know About Quantum Computing

Please read The WIRED Guide to Quantum Computing - Everything you ever wanted to know about qubits, superpositioning, etc. by Tom Simonite and Sophie Chen. It is the absolute best article you will ever read about QC - bar none! For a snippet of what they have to say check out the following excerpt:

  • What's a qubit?
    • A device that uses quantum mechanical effects to represent 0s and 1s of digital data, similar to the bits in a conventional computer.
  • What are they made from?
    • Qubits come in different designs. Some take the form of on circuits made of superconducting material. Others are devices that control individual atoms, individual charged atoms known as ions, or single photons.
  • How reliable are they?
    • Qubits don’t hold on to information perfectly because of interactions with the environment. In state-of-the-art hardware, this results in a computing error around once in every 1,000 operations.
  • Is that a problem?
    • The dream algorithms of the field require an error rate of about one in a billion operations. Researchers have developed codes to correct these errors, but they require a lot of computational power to implement. In the meantime, quantum computing experts are investigating how machines without error checking might still be useful.
  • What's a superposition?
    • It's the trick that makes quantum computers tick, and makes qubits more powerful than ordinary bits. A superposition is a mathematical combination of both 0 and 1. Quantum algorithms can use a group of qubits in a superposition to shortcut through calculations.
  • What's quantum entanglement?
    • A quantum effect so unintuitive that Einstein dubbed it “spooky action at a distance.” When two qubits in a superposition are entangled, certain operations on one have instant effects on the other, a process that helps quantum algorithms be more powerful than conventional ones.
  • What's quantum advantage?
    • The term refers to a quantum computer capable of performing a task—useful or not—faster than a state-of-the-art supercomputer. Also sometimes known as “quantum supremacy” or “quantum computational advantage,” the term is a moving target as researchers continue to improve classical algorithms...

The reason we don’t have useful quantum computers today is that qubits are extremely finicky. The quantum effects they must control are very delicate, and stray heat or noise can flip 0s and 1s or wipe out a crucial superposition. Qubits have to be carefully shielded, and operated at very cold temperatures—sometimes only fractions of a degree above absolute zero. (source)

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