Quantum Computing Developments

Breaking Quantum News: Real algorithms, real data, real quantum machines HSBC, in partnership with IBM, has delivered the world’s first quantum-enabled algorithmic trading trial. Using live, production-scale data from the European corporate bond market, HSBC integrated IBM’s quantum processors with classical systems—achieving up to a 34% improvement in predicting the probability of winning trades compared with classical methods alone. Why it matters: - Bond trading is one of the most complex, data-heavy challenges in finance. - Classical models struggle to capture hidden pricing signals in noisy markets. - By augmenting workflows with IBM Quantum Heron, HSBC uncovered insights classical systems could not. As Philip Intallura Ph.D, HSBC’s Global Head of Quantum Technologies, put it: “This is a tangible example of how today’s quantum computers could solve a real-world business problem at scale and offer a competitive edge.” And as IBM’s Jay Gambetta emphasized: breakthroughs come from combining deep financial expertise with cutting-edge quantum algorithms—demonstrating what becomes possible as quantum advances. This is not hype. It’s not distant. Quantum is entering the market—today. #QuantumComputing #Finance #Innovation #PQC #QuantumReady

Yesterday, Google announced it had achieved something called a “verifiable quantum advantage”. The announcement might sound like marketing mush but it’s not. It represents one of the most interesting inflection points in the story of computing since the transistor. For decades, the dream of quantum computing has dangled like science fiction: machines that use the strange rules of quantum mechanics to solve problems that would take supercomputers millennia. In 2019, Google claimed quantum supremacy - meaning their quantum computer solved a problem no classical computer could feasibly do in a reasonable timeframe. But that problem was a glorified dice roll: random number sampling. A proof of principle, not of purpose Their latest claim - quantum advantage - goes further. It says a quantum machine has outperformed the best classical algorithms on a task that’s scientifically meaningful. In their experiment, Google’s Willow processor, a 105-qubit superconducting chip, ran an algorithm called Quantum Echoes to model how information spreads and decoheres - essentially, how order unravels into chaos inside quantum systems. That’s the kind of math that underpins chemistry, materials science, and condensed-matter physics. Willow completed the task 13,000x faster than the world’s best supercomputers, while remaining verifiable - that is, its output could be independently checked. In other words, the machine wasn’t playing a party trick anymore; it was doing science. Every era of computing begins with a strange, narrow demo that later looks obvious in hindsight. ➰ The Wright brothers’ first flight lasted 12 seconds - not exactly air travel. ➰ The first transistor amplified a single signal - not exactly an iPhone. ➰ The first webpage looked like a grocery list - not exactly the internet. Google’s quantum milestone feels the same. A narrow, technical victory that, decades later, we’ll point to and say: that’s when the impossible started to feel inevitable. Of course, the hype shouldn’t outrun the hardware. Quantum systems face 3 towering challenges: ▪️ Error correction: Qubits are noisy - one stray photon can flip a bit of reality. ▪️ Scalability: Doubling qubits isn’t like doubling transistors; coherence decays exponentially. ▪️ Integration: Quantum systems must coexist with classical infrastructure - data movement, cooling, algorithms, verification. For now, the near horizon is hybrid quantum-classical computing, where quantum processors handle intractable subproblems inside classical workflows. For the past 80 years, computing has been about logic - zeros and ones manipulating symbols. Quantum computing is about reality itself: entanglement, superposition, uncertainty. It represents a paradigm where the map is the territory - where we use the universe’s own rules to understand the universe. In that sense, the shift from quantum supremacy to advantage mirrors the shift from theory to instrument - from “it works” to “it works for us.”

The dirty secret of Quantum Computing… Materials are the limiting factor. Everyone talks about quantum algorithms, error correction, and qubit counts. But the real killer of quantum computing isn’t software, it’s materials. Superconducting qubits don’t decohere because we lack clever code. They decohere because: – Surface oxides introduce two-level system noise. – Impurities and defects act like microscopic time bombs. – Atomic-scale disorder destroys coherence before circuits can compute anything useful. That’s why the biggest breakthroughs aren’t happening in code, they’re happening in materials labs. → Google is building qubits with ultra-clean Al/Si interfaces to suppress noise. → IBM is investing in substrate purification to push coherence times further. → Labs worldwide are chasing epitaxial aluminum films with sub-ppm impurity levels. The “quantum revolution” is being held back by dirt, literally. Until we tame materials noise, scaling qubits is just scaling errors. Quantum doesn’t need another hype cycle. It needs a materials breakthrough. #QuantumComputing #MaterialScience #GrowthAndInnovation #DeepTech

Quantum computing is no longer speculative—it’s becoming an investment priority. In 2023, European quantum startups outpaced North America, raising $781 million (three times the $240 million raised in the US). Globally, quantum startups raised $2.2 billion, a massive jump from $522 million in 2019. This isn’t happening in a vacuum. Governments are fueling the momentum. The UK has committed $4.3 billion to quantum technologies, while Germany has pledged $3.7 billion. At the same time, VC interest is holding steady, even as funding dries up in other tech sectors.   Quantum technology will have a wide-reaching impact, from cybersecurity and financial modeling to drug discovery and materials science. Pharma will likely see the earliest impact (drug development and molecular simulations using quantum).   In 2022, Finnish startup Algorithmiq raised $4 million for quantum-powered drug discovery, while Paris-based Qubit Pharmaceuticals secured $17 million for molecular simulations. Another European company, Terra Quantum AG, based in Switzerland, raised $75 million to scale its quantum-as-a-service model, which has direct applications in pharma and beyond.   Big Tech is also all-in. Google, IBM, Intel Corporation, and NVIDIA are pouring resources into quantum hardware and software. Meanwhile, publicly traded quantum companies have seen their stocks surge, signaling growing institutional confidence.   At APEX Ventures, we invest in revolutionary quantum startups. We are partnered with kiutra, enabling the second quantum revolution with easy-to-use and sustainable cryogenics, and planqc, building quantum computers that store information in individual atoms.   For founders and investors, the question isn’t whether quantum will matter—it’s when. The trajectory is clear: capital is flowing, enterprise adoption is accelerating, and governments are fully committed. If AI dominated the last decade, quantum may own the next.   #Venturecapital #AI #Deeptech #Startups  Follow us at APEX Ventures and subscribe to our newsletter for exclusive content on groundbreaking Deep Tech startups:   🔗 https://t2m.io/EV2qHQuo

Today marks a historic milestone in quantum computing, as Microsoft and Quantinuum demonstrate the most reliable logical qubits on record. This breakthrough, with a logical error rate 800x better than the physical error rate, signifies a giant leap from the noisy intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) level (Level 1 – Foundational) to Level 2 – Resilient quantum computing.   This progress is significant as logical qubits are only useful when they have a better error rate than physical qubits themselves. The number of physical qubits is a misleading metric; it’s not how many qubits, it’s how good they are and how resilient the quantum system is to errors.   Using the logical qubits we created, we were able to successfully perform multiple active syndrome extractions, which is when errors are diagnosed and corrected without destroying the logical qubits. Active syndrome extraction helps quantum computers stay reliable even when operations are imperfect.   With the promise of a hybrid supercomputing system powered by these reliable logical qubits, we’re paving the way for scientific and commercial breakthroughs that were once deemed impossible.  This achievement is a testament to the power of collaboration and the collective advancement of quantum hardware and software.   You can learn more from my post on the Official Microsoft Blog https://lnkd.in/gnDfcUV6 and the companion technical post on the Azure Quantum blog by Dennis Tom and Krysta Svore: https://lnkd.in/gMRVPG3s. #quantum #quantumcomputing #azurequantum

🚨 New OMB Report on Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC)🚨 The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has released a critical report detailing the strategy for migrating federal information systems to Post-Quantum Cryptography. This report is in response to the growing threat posed by the potential future capabilities of quantum computers to break existing cryptographic systems. **Key Points from the Report:** 🔑 **Start Migration Early**: The report emphasizes the need to begin migration to PQC before quantum computers capable of breaking current encryption become operational. This proactive approach is essential to mitigate risks associated with "record-now-decrypt-later" attacks. 🔑 **Focus on High-Impact Systems**: Priority should be given to high-impact systems and high-value assets. Ensuring these critical components are secure is paramount. 🔑 **Identify Early**: It's crucial to identify systems that cannot support PQC early in the process. This allows for timely planning and avoids migration delays. 🔑 **Cost Estimates**: The estimated cost for this transition is approximately $7.1 billion over the period from 2025 to 2035. This significant investment underscores the scale and importance of the task. 🔑 **Cryptographic Module Validation Program (CMVP)**: To ensure the proper implementation of PQC, the CMVP will play a vital role. This program will validate that the new cryptographic modules meet the necessary standards. The full report outlines a comprehensive strategy and underscores the federal government’s commitment to maintaining robust cybersecurity in the quantum computing era. This is a critical step in safeguarding our digital infrastructure against future threats. #Cybersecurity #PQC #QuantumComputing #FederalGovernment #Cryptography #DigitalSecurity #OMB #NIST

MIT Sets Quantum Computing Record with 99.998% Fidelity Researchers at MIT have achieved a world-record single-qubit fidelity of 99.998% using a superconducting qubit known as fluxonium. This breakthrough represents a significant step toward practical quantum computing by addressing one of the field’s greatest challenges: mitigating noise and control imperfections that lead to operational errors. Key Highlights: 1. The Problem: Noise and Errors • Qubits, the building blocks of quantum computers, are highly sensitive to noise and imperfections in control mechanisms. • Such disturbances introduce errors that limit the complexity and duration of quantum algorithms. “These errors ultimately cap the performance of quantum systems,” the researchers noted. 2. The Solution: Two New Techniques To overcome these challenges, the MIT team developed two innovative techniques: • Commensurate Pulses: This method involves timing quantum pulses precisely to make counter-rotating errors uniform and correctable. • Circularly Polarized Microwaves: By creating a synthetic version of circularly polarized light, the team improved the control of the qubit’s state, further enhancing fidelity. “Getting rid of these errors was a fun challenge for us,” said David Rower, PhD ’24, one of the study’s lead researchers. 3. Fluxonium Qubits and Their Potential • Fluxonium qubits are superconducting circuits with unique properties that make them more resistant to environmental noise compared to traditional qubits. • By applying the new error-mitigation techniques, the team unlocked the potential of fluxonium to operate at near-perfect fidelity. 4. Implications for Quantum Computing • Achieving 99.998% fidelity significantly reduces errors in quantum operations, paving the way for more complex and reliable quantum algorithms. • This milestone represents a major step toward scalable quantum computing systems capable of solving real-world problems. What’s Next? The team plans to expand its work by exploring multi-qubit systems and integrating the error-mitigation techniques into larger quantum architectures. Such advancements could accelerate progress toward error-corrected, fault-tolerant quantum computers. Conclusion: A Leap Toward Practical Quantum Systems MIT’s achievement underscores the importance of innovation in error correction and control to overcome the fundamental challenges of quantum computing. This breakthrough brings us closer to the realization of large-scale quantum systems that could transform fields such as cryptography, materials science, and complex optimization problems.

We may be standing at a moment in time for Quantum Computing that mirrors the 2017 breakthrough on transformers – a spark that ignited the generative AI revolution 5 years later. With recent advancements from Google, Microsoft, IBM and Amazon in developing more powerful and stable quantum chips, the trajectory of QC is accelerating faster than many of us expected.   Google’s Sycamore and next gen Willow chips are demonstrating increasing fidelity. Microsoft’s pursuit of topological qubits using Majorana particles promises longer coherence times and IBM’s roadmap is pushing towards modular error corrected systems. These aren’t just incremental steps, they are setting the stage for scalable, fault tolerant quantum machines.   Quantum systems excel at simulating the behavior of molecules and materials at atomic scale, solving optimization problems with exponentially large solution spaces and modeling complex probabilistic systems – tasks that could take classical supercomputers millennia. For example, accurately simulating protein folding or discovering new catalysts for carbon capture are well within quantum’s potential reach.   If scalable QC is just five years away, now is the time to ask : What would you do differently today, if quantum was real tomorrow ?. That question isn’t hypothetical – it’s an invitation to start rethinking foundational problems in chemistry, logistics, finance, AI and cryptography.   Of course building quantum systems is notoriously hard. Fragile qubits, error correction and decoherence remain formidable challenges. But globally public and private institutions are pouring resources into cracking these problems. I was in LA today visiting the famous USC Information Sciences Institute where cutting edge work on QC is underway and the energy is palpable.   This feels like a pivotal moment. One where future shaping ideas are being tested in real labs. Just as with AI, the future belongs to those preparing for it now. QC Is an area of emphasis at Visa Research and I hope it is part of how other organizations are thinking about the future too.