Will Australia's billion-dollar quantum computer bet pay off?
A huge investment in building an unproven quantum computer may help local science and industry, but the results are far from a sure thing writes QSI's Associate Professor Chris Ferrie.
The Australian government has announced a pledge of approximately A$940 million (US$617 million) to PsiQuantum, a quantum computing start-up company based in Silicon Valley.
Half of the funding will come from the Queensland government, and in exchange, PsiQuantum will locate its planned quantum computer in Brisbane, with a regional headquarters at Brisbane Airport.
PsiQuantum claims it will build the world’s first “useful” quantum computer. Such a device could be enormously helpful for applications like cracking codes, discovering new materials and drugs, modelling climate and weather, and solving other tough computational problems.
Companies around the world — and several national governments — are racing to be the first to solve the quantum computing puzzle. How likely is it Australia’s bet on PsiQuantum will pay off?
Read the full article in UTS Central News
Written by Christopher Ferrie, Associate Professor, UTS Chancellor's Postdoctoral Research and ARC DECRA Fellow, University of Technology Sydney’s Centre for Quantum Software and Information.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
