Last year, the United Nations proclaimed that 2025 would be the “International Year of Quantum Science and Technology,” marking 100 years since the initial development of quantum mechanics, and bringing renewed focus on the research in the field as well as its real-world applications. Chief among these is the advent of quantum computing, a nascent technology whose development has become something of an arms race, as researchers, private industry, and states around the world seek an edge in what they perceive to be a new technological frontier.
Conventional computer chips today operate with classical computing, meaning they use bits that are in one of two binary positions (i.e. the 0s and 1s of binary code), represented by electrical or optical impulses. Quantum computing works on qubits: subatomic particles like photons or electrons that exist in a quantum “superposition” state which enables them to be both 0 and 1 at the same time, allowing for calculations through a vast number of potential outcomes simultaneously. What’s more, the “quantum entanglement” relationship between qubits–whereby one qubit’s position changes instantaneously based on changes in another’s, even at a distance–permits exponential increases to processing power with every added qubit to the system, while adding bits to a conventional chip only offers linear increases (i.e. you have to double the bits to double the processing power of the system).
Right now, the race is on to build a quantum computer that can achieve “quantum supremacy,” performing calculations that the world’s best conventional supercomputers would never feasibly be able to solve. The competition is fierce enough that some might be jumping the gun with their findings. The Palo Alto-based D-Wave Systems recently claimed to have used quantum computing techniques to run a magnetic materials simulation in 20 minutes that “would’ve taken a state-of-the-art classical computer, like one of the world’s leading supercomputers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, almost a million years to do,” according to the team’s lead scientist. Another researcher at the Flatiron Institute in New York, however, claims to have achieved the same results in two hours with a laptop computer.
Nonetheless, the technology is advancing enough to at least keep pace with the progress made on classical computing systems, as quantum computers and conventional supercomputers have traded the lead in their ability to crunch staggeringly vast and complex calculations. Google’s Sycamore quantum computer, introduced in 2019, was able to perform calculations that would have taken conventional supercomputers tens of thousands of years–that is, before scientists in Shanghai achieved the same result on a classical system in less than 15 seconds last year. Researchers at China’s University of Science and Technology recently unveiled a new 105-qubit system that they claim to be a quadrillion times faster than the world’s best conventional supercomputers. It remains to be seen if that claim will hold up as developments continue on the classical side.
In the meantime, policy is being mobilized in countries seeking to gain a foothold in this burgeoning field. Multiple initiatives have been announced in India, with various regional governments promising support and information-sharing programs to attract investment. IBM has already jumped in on a collaboration with Tata Consultancy services in Andhra Pradesh. U.S. interests have framed the quantum computing race as another way in which the country must “beat China,” according to former Senators Kent Conrad and Saxby Chambliss, who jointly published an op-ed on Friday. “We need a national framework that aligns private-sector investment with federal research and development, supports technologies like AI, semiconductors and quantum and removes bottlenecks to scale.”
