Google wants to win the quantum computing race by being the tortoise, not the hare
Time crystals and corporate starbursts: everything you need to know about Big G’s quantum ambitions
On your marks
Google’s working with institutions ranging from NASA to Stanford to develop the quantum computing systems of the future. Its work demonstrating quantum advantage ingate-based quantum systemsand the aforementioned time crystals breakthrough has cemented it as a stalwart member of the quantum physics world.
But research at the edge is hard to monetize. That’s why Microsoft recently partnered up with Pasqal to round out its cloud-based quantum access offerings while it continues to research its far out topographical qubit ideas.
And D-Wave spent decades developing useful quantum computers capable ofsolving problems right awaybefore it finally began researching futuristic gate-based systems in earnest.
Even IBM, Google’s closest running mate in the research field among big tech outfits, has prioritized cloud access for business clients over its own monumental research efforts.
Based on everything we’ve seen, Google’s as capable of fielding a functioning quantum-as-a-service paradigm as any other player in the field. And it may even be ahead of the pack when it comes to the race towards quantum advantage — a quantum computer capable of surpassing every supercomputer on the planet.
In fact Google Quantum AI, which was founded in partnership with NASA’s quantum labs, believes it’ll have a gate-based quantum computer capable of quantum advantage within the next decade.
Get set
Of course the competition — IBM, Microsoft, and D-Wave — have all made similar claims. And that makes this one of the most potentially-lucrative races in technology history.
As we’ve argued,IBM’s off to a head startandMicrosoft looks poised to dominate this marketin a matter of a few years. But Google’s got a few aces up its sleeves that could shake everything up.
Parent company Alphabet recentlystarbursted its SandboxAQ divisioninto its own company, now a Google sibling. It’s unclear exactly what SandboxAQ intends to do now that it’s spun out, but it’s positioned as a quantum-and-AI-as-a-service company. We expect it’ll begin servicing business clients in partnership with Google in the very near-term.
And, in doing so, Google will shore up its short-term quantum endeavors in much the same way Microsoft has recently. The major difference here is that Alphabet controls both Google and SandboxAQ, whereas Microsoft can cut its Pasqal partnership if the tide changes.
Go?
It’ll be interesting to see the likes of Alphabet and Microsoft spar over future government contracts for quantum services. Where Microsoft tends to outperform Google in the bidding arena, Big G already has close ties to NASA and is intrinsically involved in its quantum ambitions for the US space program.
At the end of the day, Google’s betting it all on its research arms covering a lot of ground over the next ten years. If time crystals and the company’s other gate-based quantum computing research veins don’t pan out, it could end up lagging too far behind the competition to matter.
Neural’s take:everything we’ve seen in the past five years tells us the exact opposite is likely to happen.
We can safely assume we haven’t seen the last of Google’s quantum computing research breakthroughs, and that tells us we could very well be living in the moments right before the slow-and-steady tortoise starts to make up ground on the speedy hare.
Story byTristan Greene
Tristan is a futurist covering human-centric artificial intelligence advances, quantum computing, STEM, physics, and space stuff. Pronouns:(show all)Tristan is a futurist covering human-centric artificial intelligence advances, quantum computing, STEM, physics, and space stuff. Pronouns: He/him
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