D-Wave Quantum Inc. has reported its Q3 results and said it achieved revenue of $2.56 million in Q3 compared to $1.71 million in Q2 and $1.69 million a year ago in Q2 2023. Operating expenses decreased to $19.9 million in Q3 from the $21.6 million the company had in Q2 and compared to $16.2 million in Q2 2023. Adjusted EBITDA loss was $11.6 million versus $4.9 million in Q2.

The company ended the quarter with $53.3 million in cash, the highest balance ever held by the company. The company started the quarter with $7.5 million in cash but raise approximately $62 million in cash during the quarter primarily due to its Equity Line of Credit (ELOC) arrangement with Lincoln Park Capital Fund and its four year loan term agreement with PSPIB Unitas Investments II Inc. As of this writing the D-Wave stock price (QBTS) was at $0.72 and the company faces a delisting (for the second time) from the New York Stock Exchange because its price is below $1 per share. The company has six months to cure the deficiency.

On the commercial side, the company announced it has signed new and expanded deals with a number of customers during the quarter including BBVA, QuantumBasel, NTT Docomo, Poznan Superconducting and Networking Center, and Satispay. The company also continued to show continued increase in quarterly bookings versus 2022 as well as continued increase in deal size per booking.

The company also reported continued progress on the technical side including progress in its gate model quantum computer development program, enhancements to its Constrained Quadratic Model (CQM) hybrid solver, research on error mitigation techniques for its forthcoming Advantage2 annealer, SOC Type 2 compliance for protection of customer data, and other administrative and operational software improvements.

Additional information about D-Waves Q3 2023 financial results is available in a press release posted on their web site here.

November 11, 2023

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D-Wave Reports its Q3 2023 Financial Results - Quantum Computing Report

Job Summary:The Departments of Physics & Astronomy, Chemistry, Computer Science, and Mathematics in the College of Science, and the Elmore Family School of Electrical and Computer Engineering in the College of Engineering at Purdue University invite applications for multiple faculty positions in Quantum Information Science (QIS) to begin August 2024. These positions will be assistant/associate professor level appointments. When appropriate, successful candidates may be considered for joint appointments across Departments or Colleges.

Quantum Information Science is at the frontier of several traditional research disciplines including but not limited to condensed matter physics, atomic, molecular, and optical physics, information theory, pure and applied mathematics, computer science, chemistry, electronics, photonics, and nanotechnologies. QIS strives to harness thedefining quantummechanical properties of superposition and entanglement to provide breakthrough advances for computing, sensing, secure communications, and novel device functionalities. As such, our QIS initiative is part of a large-scale interdisciplinary hiring effort across key strategic areas in Physics and Astronomy, Chemistry, Computer Science, Mathematics, and Electrical and Computer Engineering.

The College of Science is Purdues second-largest college, comprising the physical, computing, and life sciences. The College of Engineerings Elmore Family School of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) is the largest academic unit at Purdue and the largest ECE department in the US. These new faculty positions come at a time when both Colleges leaderships have committed to significant investment in QIS. Both Colleges are especially seeking to enhance our existing strengths in research at the interface of physical sciences (Chemistry and Physics) in tandem with Computer Science and Mathematics, and Engineering through strategic hiring of creative scientists and engineers to be part of the cutting-edge interdisciplinary environment at Purdue University, which has recently launched a new major initiative, Purdue Computes, that supports and connects computing, AI, semiconductors and quantum. The QIS community at Purdue will further benefit from the resources and support in Purdue Universitys Discovery Park and its interdisciplinary centers, particularly the Purdue Quantum Science and Engineering Institute (PQSEI) and Birck Nanotechnology Center (BNC).

Target Areas:Experimental or theoretical studies in quantum computing, quantum sensing, quantum communication or other areas of quantum science and quantum technologies. Examples of targeted areas of interest include but are not limited to: Design, modeling, fabrication, and characterization of physical platforms for QIS. Synthesis and novel experimental probes of quantum materials and quantum matter. Quantum and quantum-inspired algorithms and their scientific or practical applications. Quantum related pure and applied mathematics such as quantum invariants, quantum algebra and quantum simulation. Algorithmic foundations and programming paradigms of quantum computing; fault-tolerant quantum computation and error correction; quantum cryptography; quantum information theory.

Qualifications:Candidates must have a PhD in physics, chemistry, computer science, mathematics, engineering, or other closely related field, with outstanding credentials that demonstrate potential to develop a vibrant independent research program, as well as a strong commitment to excellence in teaching. Successful candidates are expected to develop a vital and sustainable research program supported by extramural funding and teach courses at the undergraduate and/or graduate level.

The Departments and Colleges:The College of Science and College of Engineering and their departments and schools have launched initiatives in new emerging areas, and committed the resources necessary to make the new growth impactful. Under the QIS initiative and other related programs, over 12 new faculty members have been hired in the past 3 years in the College of Science and College of Engineering. To learn more please visit departmental websites: https://www.physics.purdue.edu

https://www.chem.purdue.edu, https://www.math.purdue.edu, https://www.cs.purdue.edu

https://engineering.purdue.edu/ECE.

Purdue itself is one of the nations leading land-grant universities, with an enrollment of over 49,000 students primarily focused on STEM subjects. For more information, see https://www.purdue.edu/purduemoves/initiatives/stem/index.php. The new Purdue Indianapolis campus may bring additional long-term opportunities based in Indianapolis.

Application Procedure

Applications need to be submitted to:

https://careers.purdue.edu/job-invite/28704/

and must include (1) a complete curriculum vitae, (2) a list of publications, (3) a statement of present and future research plans (4-page limit), and (4) a statement of teaching philosophy. The candidate should select an intended home department (from Physics and Astronomy, Chemistry, Mathematics, Computer Science, and Electrical and Computer Engineering) for the application (while successful candidates may be later considered for joint appointments involving additional departments when appropriate). In addition, candidates should arrange for at least 3 letters of reference to be sent to qissearch@purdue.edu. Questions regarding the positions and search may also be directed to qissearch@purdue.edu. Note there is also a concurrent search targeting senior (tenured associate/full professor level) appointments https://careers.purdue.edu/job-invite/28723/

Applications completed by January 5, 2024 will be given full consideration, although the search will continue until the position is filled. A background check is required for employment in this position.

Purdue University is an EEO/AA employer. All individuals, including minorities, women, individuals with disabilities, and veterans are encouraged to apply.

The rest is here:
Assistant Professor of Quantum Information Science job with Purdue ... - Nature.com

Development of Japan's first superconducting quantum computer is complete, Fujitsu and the country's scientific research institute RIKEN announced this week.

Superconducting quantum computers are among the most common today, and are employed by the likes of Google, IBM, and Rigetti. The design uses superconducting circuits operating at near absolute-zero temperatures to generate qubits.

The Japanese system, now deployed at the RIKEN RQC-Fujitsu Collaboration Center, features 64 superconducting qubits on an integrated chip.

The outfit claims the system is capable of 264 quantum superposition and entanglement states, which it asserts allows the computer to conduct calculations on a scale too challenging for classical computers. That said, the system will run alongside classical computers running quantum simulations to keep it in check.

"Quantum simulators, which can digitally imitate quantum computation, provide a bridge toward the development of practical fault-tolerant quantum computing (FTQC)," Fujitsu explained, noting a fault-tolerant system capable of generating reliable results is likely a decade or more out.

Quantum computers are finicky devices that need a good deal of error correction to be useful; that fault tolerance, allowing the computer to operate in a meaningful way, is a necessity, rather than a luxury, and it's still years away.

For now, pairing the quantum computer up with an HPC cluster that simulates 40 qubits should help scientists evaluate the systems ability to reliably generate accurate results.

The problem, Fujitsu explained, is that noisy intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) computers suffer from computational errors due to noise in the surrounding environment. Quantum simulations aren't prone to these same errors because the qubits arent real and are therefore immune to noise disruptions. The downside of quantum simulation is it's rather slow compared to the real thing. And also not the real thing.

Which is not to say that sims and this system arent useful. RIKEN and Fujitsu claim the hybrid system has already proven more accurate when applying quantum algorithms to chemical calculations. These calculations are a classic HPC workload and, as we've previously reported, a prime candidate for quantum acceleration in the near term.

An experiment involving this hybrid setup calculated the ground state energy of a molecule containing 12 hydrogen atoms. Using a combination of quantum algorithms, density matrix embedding theory a method of breaking up large molecules into smaller fragments and an AI model to help mitigate the effects of noise, Fujitsu and RIKEN say they were able to perform these energy calculations with higher accuracy than when using classical algorithms alone.

With the system now deployed, Fujitsu and RIKEN are now opening it up to outside companies and institutions including Fujifilm, Tokyo Electron, Mizuho-DL Financial Technology Co., and Mitsubishi Chemical to conduct joint research.

Fujitsu and RIKEN are already developing technologies necessary to scale the system up to 1,000 qubits, thanks to a vertical wiring scheme that Fujitsu explained on Thursday.

More:
Fujitsu, RIKEN open Japan's first superconducting quantum 'puter to eggheads - The Register

A quantum computing chip made by IonQ, a startup based in Maryland. | Walker Steere / IonQ

The hype around quantum computing has grown exponentially forgive the math pun as of late, even as good old ones-and-zeroes-based artificial intelligence has had its world-changing moment in the sun.

The power, promise, and quandary of quantum computing are all contained in the difference between a quantum computer and a standard one. Whereas even the most powerful supercomputer does its work through a binary system of ones and zeroes, a quantum computer programs the subatomic state. In that state, mere particles are a platform for computation, allowing for an almost infinitely more powerful, speedy, and sophisticated series of calculations.

The quantum computers that might follow from that innovation, some say, can do practically anything: Theyll solve climate change, and make modern cryptography obsolete. They might revolutionize drug discovery, or make gene editing as easy as a simple cardiogram. They could even allow you to witness the age of dinosaurs or the crucifixion of Jesus Christ as they really happened. (Okay, that last one was from a cable miniseries, but you get the point.)

Recent years have seen companies including Google and a university in China claim to have reached quantum supremacy, or the demonstration of capabilities far beyond that of a classical computer; this years second annual Quantum World Congress claimed to bring a quantum-ready future into focus. But what does that even mean? How close are we to living in a world where everything from cybersecurity to medicine is utterly transformed by that revolution in how computers work at a subatomic level?

The people who need to raise huge amounts of venture capital or government funding have this enormous interest in making it appear like this is all going to happen next year, says Scott Aaronson, the director of the Quantum Information Center at the University of Texas at Austin. I spend a lot of my time both arguing against people who claim that quantum computing is going to revolutionize everything next year, and also against the people who say that its impossible.

You dont have to get bogged down in the details of physics or mathematics to see why quantum computing could be a boon, or danger, to society. As early as 1994, the physicist Peter Shor showed that quantum computers could theoretically break almost any code known to man, eventually leading the National Institute of Standards and Technology to hold a worldwide contest to develop quantum-proof new systems. Aaronson says quantum technology could someday simulate complicated scientific problems, leading to breakthroughs in battery and chemical technology. And, of course, quantum computers could help solve long-standing questions in particle physics, the very field that makes them possible.

Before quantum computers do all that, however, they have to do something a little more prosaic: Actually beat their classical counterparts at anything useful at all.

A huge amount of the recent investment in quantum computing has been driven by what we could we could generously call aspirational quantum algorithms, Aaronson said. Conceivably, they would exponentially outperform a classical computer. Will they actually do that? Well, you know, who has any idea. But no one can prove that they wont.

Getting quantum computers to that point depends in part on the way the systems are built and maintained the conditions under which they maintain programmability are so fragile that IBMs quantum computers, for example, need to be held at a temperature a hundredth of a degree above absolute zero, although methods for dealing with quantum decoherence vary.

Physicist Wesley Campbell leads a group at the University of California Los Angeles researching trapped-ion quantum systems, where the delicate environment required to sustain those systems is created by confining those ions to a vacuum. He said that despite the extent to which this research is already a boon to physics, he expects it to be a long time before it has any real practical application.

Companies used to do R&D, and basically now they just do D, Campbell said. All of quantum computing right now is still R.

Luckily for quantum mavens, governments across the world are eager to give them a leg up in that department. Here in the U.S., the National Quantum Initiative Act was signed into law in 2018, authorizing more than $1 billion for quantum-related research and standing up new quantum-focused offices across various federal agencies. That act expired on Sept. 30 but is widely expected to be re-authorized this Congress, and last years CHIPS and Science Act authorized its own slate of pro-quantum funding.

Europe isnt lagging on this front either, authorizing its own 1 billion research project to stake a claim in the quantum race. The nascent state of quantum computing research means that theres plenty up for grabs for any nation with the brainpower and cash to invest in it.

A courtroom sketch from Sam Bankman-Fried's fraud trial. | AP

Sam Bankman-Fried is on trial in Manhattan, but hes a problem on the Hill.

A team of POLITICO reporters wrote this morning about the headaches SBFs trial is causing for a now-poorly-timed effort to pass landmark crypto legislation. Bills currently working their way through the House of Representatives would establish a regulatory framework largely seen as favorable to the crypto industry, checking the influence of the Securities and Exchange Commission (which has been aggressive in regulating crypto) and promoting the use and development of stablecoins pegged to the U.S. dollar.

But, the elephant in the room Bankman-Fried is not helping. If youre not familiar with the crypto industry and this is the first time youre thinking about it your impression is certainly not a positive one, said Kristin Smith, CEO of the leading industry group the Blockchain Association. He was a terrible ambassador for our industry.

Thats created a political opening for crypto-skeptical Democrats including Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who is co-sponsoring a bill that would crack down on crypto-assisted money laundering. Warren told POLITICO Sam Bankman-Frieds trial will remind everyone in Congress about the risks that an unregulated crypto industry poses for all of our constituents, for our economy and for international stability.

The U.S. doesnt have a monopoly on the culture war debates shaking up tech and science.

POLITICOs Vincent Manancourt reported today on a speech from U.K. Science and Tech Secretary Michelle Donelan, who urged vigilance against creeping wokeism in scientific research echoing criticism from the right on this side of the pond that social justice ideology threatens human progress.

Fundamentally, I believe adults should have more choice over what they see, not the state and not tech executives thousands of miles away because we are the party of free speech, and we should stay that way, Donelan said, touting her alterations to the U.K.s Online Safety Bill that made it harder for tech companies to remove content described as legal but harmful.

Stay in touch with the whole team: Ben Schreckinger ([emailprotected]); Derek Robertson ([emailprotected]); Mohar Chatterjee ([emailprotected]); Steve Heuser ([emailprotected]); Nate Robson ([emailprotected]) and Daniella Cheslow ([emailprotected]).

If youve had this newsletter forwarded to you, you can sign up and read our mission statement at the links provided.

Excerpt from:
Checking in on the quantum hype - POLITICO - POLITICO

Aberdeen, Maryland in the late 1940s was an exciting place to be. They had a computer so powerful and so energy intensive that there were rumours that when it switched on, the lights in Philadelphia dimmed.

The computer called the ENIAC took up an area almost the size of a tennis court. It needed 18,000 vacuum tubes and had cords thicker than fists crisscrossing the room connecting one section to another.

Despite its size, today its less impressive. Its computing power would be dwarfed by a desk calculator.

Professor Tom Stace, the Deputy Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence in Engineered Quantum Systems (EQUS) believes that quantum computing is best thought of not as computers like we know them today, but as big lumbering systems like the ENIAC.

ENIAC was the first digital computer, said Stace.

You see engineers programming, but that meant literally unplugging cables and plugging them into these gigantic room-size things. Thats sort of what a quantum computer looks like now. Its literally bolt cables that people have to wire up and solder together.

To understand where were at with quantum computing currently, you first have to understand their potential.

Right now, quantum computing is still in the very earliest stages of its development, despite the huge hype around quantum suggesting otherwise.

The ENIAC was useful despite its bulk, allowing programmers to do thousands of mathematical problems a second, and computations for the hydrogen bomb.

On the other hand, quantum computers are not yet suitable even for the niche roles that scientists hope they will one day fill. The idea that quantum computers might one day replace your laptop is still basically in the realm of science fiction.

But that doesnt mean that they cant one day be useful.

We know that quantum computers can solve a few sets of problems in a way that that ordinary computers just cant do, says Stace.

The famous one is factoring numbers. Finding the prime factors of a large number is genuinely a very difficult mathematical problem.

Because banks, governments, and anyone who wants to keep something secret all use factoring prime numbers for their digital security, our security systems would fall apart as soon as someone created a quantum computer that could outpace ordinary computers. Groups like the Australian Cyber Security Centre have already started putting in plans for when this eventually occurs.

Quantum computers could also fundamentally change the chemistry field, with more processing power to simulate better catalysts, fertilisers, or other industrial chemicals.

But this can only happen if quantum computers move beyond the realm they are in now what scientists call Noisy Intermediate Scale Quantum.

Computers are simply devices that can store and process data. Even the earliest computers used bits, a basic unit of information that can either be on or off.

Quantum computers are also devices that can store and process information, but instead of using bits, quantum computers use quantum bits or qubits, which dont just turn on and off but also can point to any point in between.

The key to quantum computers huge potential and also problems are these qubits.

Groups like IBM and Google have spent millions of dollars on creating quantum computers, no doubt buoyed by the riches for the company that comes first.

Their efforts so far have been relatively lacklustre.

The machines are clunky, each wire and qubit need to be individually placed or set up manually. The whole thing needs to be set up inside a freezer cooled down to almost absolute zero.

Despite all these safeguards the machines still have enough errors that its almost impossible to tell if the machines worked, or if these million-dollar systems are just producing random noise.

And even that is impressive to scientists like Stace.

Twenty years ago, if you had one qubit you got a Nature paper. Fifteen years ago, two or three qubits got you a Nature paper. Ten years ago, five qubits got you a Nature paper. Now, 70 qubits might get your Nature paper, says Stace.

Thats telling you what the frontier looks like.

Those on the frontier are aiming for supremacy quantum supremacy to be exact.

Quantum supremacy is a term given to a quantum computer that could solve a problem no classical computer could solve in a reasonable time frame. Its important to note though that this problem doesnt have to be useful. Theres been a debate in quantum circles about how useful and practical these sorts of problems, or simulations, actually are to prove quantum is better.

Googles machine called the Sycamore processor has currently got 70 qubits all lined up and connected. In 2019, the researchers had claimed theyd reached quantum supremacy. More recently, they went more specific suggesting that a top-level supercomputer would take 47 years to do the calculations that Sycamore managed to do in seconds.

IBM says its 433-qubit quantum computer called Osprey could soon start having real-world applications. However, while IBM is further ahead in number of qubits, it is still struggling with the same error issues as other quantum systems.

To get to a quantum computer that could rival supercomputers at actual tasks, you need hundreds of thousands, or millions of qubits rather than a few hundred. But the more qubits you have the more errors that end up in the system.

Quantum systems are typically single atoms or single particles of light. Naturally, these are very fragile and very prone to disturbance or noise, says UNSW quantum researcher and entrepreneur Professor Andrew Dzurak.

That noise causes errors in the qubit information.

Heat also causes errors; vibration causes errors. Even just simply looking or measuring the qubit stops it altogether.

Both Dzurak and Stace stress the importance of fixing these errors. Without it, you have a very expensive, fragile machine that cant tell you anything accurately.

How to fix these errors isnt yet certain. While IBM, Google and other big companies are using superconducting qubits, smaller groups around the world are using everything from silicon to imperfections in diamond.

Dzurak has formed a start-up called Diraq which is aiming to use traditional computer chip technology to mount the qubits, allowing easier design and the ability to pack millions of qubits on one chip.

We have a mountain to climb, and you have to go through the stages to get up that mountain, he says.

The work that is being done by [IBM and Google] in collaboration, often with university groups is important research and is moving the field forward.

Entanglement is another important aspect of quantum computers which makes them infinitely harder to make work. A quirk in quantum mechanics is that particles can become intrinsically linked, despite their distance. This means that if you measure one particle you can tell information about the other, even if youre halfway across the Universe. This is entanglement, and the more and more particles you can entangle, the more powerful your quantum computer can be.

But the more particles you entangle, the more complicated the system becomes, and the more likely it will break down.

Here the history of computers seems to be repeating.

While ENIAC in Maryland was an undisputed success, it wasnt the first design of a computer, not by a long shot. The first design of a computer called the differential engine was designed by a mathematician Charles Babbage in the 1820s.

But it wouldnt be built in Babbages lifetime.

Using only the technology available, it was impossible to fine tune the metal precisely enough to build the machine. It was doomed to fail from the start.

It wasnt until an invention of something seemingly unrelated vacuum tubes or valves that ENIAC and other types of computers could begin being built in earnest.

Its a hard thing to admit, but when it comes to quantum computers, we dont yet know whether were building the ENIAC or struggling with Babbages differential engine.

It might be the case that the components that were pursuing now arent just precise enough, in the same way that the machining tools that they had in the 19th century werent precise enough to make a mechanical computer, says Stace.

So where are we at with quantum computing? Not very far at all.

It could be that were somewhere between Charles Babbage and the valve. Weve got the idea, we know in principle we can make this thing. We just dont know if we have the engineering chops to do it.

Original post:
Where are we at with quantum computing? - Cosmos