Utility-scale Quantum Computers by 2033
DARPA is a research and development agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the development of emerging technologies for use by the Military. DARPA has waded into the Quantum field by selecting the firms it wants to partner with.
DARPA recently selected 15 companies to form a short-list of firms include to invest capital in and help develop Quantum computers. The list includes HPE, IBM, IonQ, Quantinuum, Rigetti, Xanadu, and others from North America, Europe, and Australia. This wide spread approach covers multiple development angles within quantum computing, including trapped ions, superconducting qubits, photonics, and silicon spin qubits. These firms were selected for the Quantum Benchmark Initiative (QBI) and funding will be distributed to these participants
DARPA revealed some of its roadmap. Which includes goals for 2030! They want to have 100 logical qubits, and with 100 logical qubits, it’s when you start scratching the tip of the iceberg in terms of creating value for very specific use cases. So we are not talking about full commercial interest, but starting to do things that are completely out of the realm of classical solutions.
Full list of DARPA 15 Companies:
- Alice & Bob — superconducting cat qubits.
- Atlantic Quantum — fluxonium qubits.
- Atom Computing — scalable arrays of neutral atoms.
- Diraq — silicon spin qubits.
- Hewlett Packard Enterprise.
- IBM — superconducting processors.
- IonQ — trapped-ion quantum computing.
- Nord Quantique.
- Oxford Ionics — trapped-ion qubits.
- Photonic-optically-linked silicon spin qubits.
- Quantinuum — trapped-ion qubits.
- Quantum Motion — silicon spin qubits.
- Rigetti Computing — superconducting tunable transmon qubits.
- Silicon Quantum Computing — precision atom qubits in silicon.
- Xanadu — photonic quantum computing
Anyone see Pro's and Con's with DARPA picking winners this early in the Quantum race?
Any Big Name Firms Missing from the complete list?
Microsoft was missing, but don't fret as they were already in the program. They moved from co-design stage to validation phase of the initiative already.
Summary
In my mind the DARPA QBI demonstrates how far Quantum hardware has evolved to the point it has not only captured DARPA's attention but funding was well. A very interesting time to be alive we might get to see Utility-scale Quantum Computers by 2033 if this stays the course. Are you ready to say goodbye to classical computers altogether or do you believe that they will co-exist for half a century?
