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Quantum computers have the potential to carry out highly complicated calculations in minutes that would have taken classical computers thousands of years to work out. But much of the industry is still in its infancy, partly because of a lack of domain experts and software tools that match the progress of quantum hardware.

Now, companies are working to simplify the process of developing quantum software applications so programmers dont actually need to understand the underlying quantum mechanics. One of the early-stage startups making such an effort is Singapore-based Horizon Quantum Computing, whose tools can automatically construct quantum algorithms based on programs written in classical programming languages.

The company recently picked up $18.1 million in a Series A round from Tencent along with other investors, boosting its equity financing to around $21.3 million. Other investors in the Series A round included Sequoia Capital India, SGInnovate, Pappas Capital and Expeditions Fund.

The money will be used to fund product development and its expansion in Europe, where the company is planning to open an office in Dublin, Ireland. The startup is also scheduled to launch the early access program of its developer tools later this year.

While Singapore is more widely known as a financial hub, it has also been one of the most proactive governments in supporting quantum technologies. The Center for Quantum Technologies, where Horizon Quantum Computings founder and CEO Joe Fitzsimons used to be a professor, was set up under the city-states Research Centres of Excellence program to advance research in the cutting-edge field.

When I made the jump from academia, Singapore already had the right talent [for quantum computing] and there was access to capital, said Fitzsimons, who earned a PhD from University of Oxford.

Singapore is also less likely to impose export restrictions on technologies, reckoned the founder, who said he doesnt want his company to be barred from selling in other markets like the European Union.

Being in a politically neutral country like Singapore is increasingly important in a world where businesses become caught in the tech war between the U.S. and China and lose access to supply chains. Launching from a neutral home base is now seen as a prerequisite for many tech firms, including quantum computer builders, who rely on components sourced from around the world.

Tencents investment in Horizon Quantum Computing is purely financial, so it wont entail any transfer of sensitive data, the founder noted. The startup took Tencents investment because the giant is an expert in the area, he said.

Indeed, the social networking and gaming giant showed a keen interest in the field when it opened its quantum research lab in 2018. Ling Ge, Tencents chief representative in Europe and the person who oversaw the deal with Horizon Quantum Computing, has known Fitzsimons since her years in Oxford, where she studied quantum computing.

At Tencent, we take a long-term perspective on quantum. In our own quantum lab, we are focused on fundamental research, first-principles simulations and quantum algorithms, and how these might serve enterprise customers, said Ge at an industry event last year.

In terms of investments, we take a science-driven approach. One of the challenges in investing in quantum is what we call the black box paradox. The challenge of evaluating early-stage deep tech companies in areas like quantum, nuclear fusion or biotech is difficult because the core technology is in its early proof-of-concept phase. It is hard to evaluate and understand at what stage of maturity it really is.

Therefore, we take appropriate steps to mitigate the risks of this black box paradox depending on the investment stage. This is primarily achieved through our deep technical expertise, which allows us to really understand what is being developed and its maturity, she said.

The story was updated on April 3, 2023 to clarify the founders view on export controls.

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At Check Point Software Technologies, we are passionate about delivering the best security to our customers around the world. To accomplish this, we must stay ahead of cyber criminals by continuously innovating and considering new approaches for cybersecurity. One of the emerging technologies that we are following is quantum computing.

A quantum computer is a type of computer that uses quantum mechanics to process information, allowing it to solve certain problems much faster than classical computers. First suggested in 1980 by physicist Paul Benioff, quantum computing is still in the research phase. However, researchers are already starting to consider the types of applications that could run on quantum computers with the potential to transform our lives. Quantum computers will not only significantly improve the speed of resolving certain problems, but they will also solve problems that stump todays most powerful supercomputers.

Instead of using classical bits, which can only have a value of 0 or 1, quantum computers operate with data units called qubits (quantum bits). These are very different from the bits in todays computers. Thanks to the quantum mechanical phenomena, qubits have properties of entanglement and superposition that are not applicable for classical bits, which allows using qubits to run much more efficient computation.

Superposition means that each qubit simultaneously has values of 1 and 0 (and all linear combinations of them). Due to this property, the register ofnqubits represents2ndifferent values at the time. As a result, performing one operation on a quantum computer register holdingnqubits is similar to performing2noperations on the classical computer register holding n bits.

Entanglement of qubits allows researchers to correlate qubits values, as change in one qubit value results in change in the others as well. This property allows researchers to perform certain computational tasks faster, especially in the area of factorization and database searches.

Various techniques are being explored for building quantum computers, including superconducting circuits, trapped ions, and topological qubits. However, specialized software and algorithms are needed to fully utilize the unique features of quantum computing. Achieving practical quantum computing requires resolving a number of obstacles, such as error correction, scaling up the number of qubits, and integrating classical and quantum computing. Despite the challenges, many government, academic and enterprises are working on developing quantum computers and exploring their potential applications. And they have made good progress. The first quantum computer created in the mid-nineties had capacity for only two qubits.

In 2022, IBMunveileda quantum computer with 433 qubits. However, a 433 qubit computer is still insufficient for resolving complex real-life problems.Quantum computing is also gaining popularity in India, where the ecosystem of universities, developers, and students are all actively involved. Consequently, the country is emerging as a talent hub for quantum computing. Thegovernment also allocated 8000 Croretowards the National Mission on quantum technologies and applications to spur developments in quantum computing, cryptography, communications, and material science.

With quantum computing, researchers expect to be able to solve previously unsolvable problems, bringing great societal benefit to many areas, including:

However, quantum computers may also bring many new technical challenges. We are getting closer to the day when a quantum computer will be able to solve certain mathematical problems exponentially faster than classical computers. For example, a quantum computer will likely be able to break todays public key cryptosystems, which will have a major impact on the security and safety of the internet.

It is difficult to predict when quantum computing will become mainstream. It could be months or years away. However while researchers work diligently to advance quantum computing, Check Point and the larger cybersecurity industry are not sitting idle. Since 2016, the USNational Institute of Standards and Technology(NIST) has led international efforts devoted to defining new cryptographic solutions that are quantum resistant. And at Check Point, we are also working diligently on the challenge of quantum resistant encryption. We will share more details in our next blog post.

About Check Point Software Technologies Ltd.

Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. (https://www.checkpoint.com/) is a leading provider of cyber security solutions to corporate enterprises and governments globally. Check Point Infinitys portfolio of solutions protects enterprises and public organisations from 5thgeneration cyber-attacks with an industry leading catch rate of malware, ransomware and other threats. Infinity comprises four core pillars delivering uncompromised security and generation V threat prevention across enterprise environments: Check Point Harmony, for remote users; Check Point CloudGuard, to automatically secure clouds; and Check Point Quantum, to protect network perimeters and datacenters, all controlled by the industrys most comprehensive, intuitive unified security management; Check Point Horizon, a prevention-first security operations suite. Check Point protects over 100,000 organizations of all sizes.

(This article is written by Manish Alshi, Head, Channels & Emerging Technologies, Check Point Software Technologies India & SAARC, and the views expressed in this article are his own)

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Taking a Quantum Leap in the future of computing - CXOToday.com

With hundreds of European startups working on quantum and plenty of fresh cash being injected into the sector, the race to build a fully fledged large-scale quantum computer is on.

Unlike classical computers that operate on binary bits (0 or 1), quantum computers use qubits quantum bits which can exist simultaneously in multiple states, allowing for parallel computations. This can allow quantum computers to potentially calculate problems that even supercomputers cant handle.

A conventional computer is closer to an abacus than to a quantum computer, says Chris Ballance, cofounder of quantum computing startup Oxford Ionics.

To build a quantum computer, you can pick anything in principle that obeys quantum mechanics atoms, protons, electrons. This is why you see this zoo of different approaches to building the quantum computers, says John Morton, professor at UCL and CTO of London-based Quantum Motion.

Were currently in the noisy intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) era which means we have some quantum computing tech, but its not yet advanced enough to solve a problem without errors or perform better than a classical computer. Once we go beyond this era, humanity could unlock applications from finance and drug discovery to finding new materials to stall climate change.

And there are lots of ways to get there. Here are some of the technologies European quantum computing startups are using, and how they work.

The most mature approach used by the likes of IBM and Google is superconducting qubits. At the basic level, asuperconducting qubit is a circuit loop made up of metals that become superconducting (ie. able to conduct current when cooled down) with an electric current travelling around it. They use electric currents flowing through them to store and process information. When Google claimed quantum supremacy in 2019, it used a 53-qubit superconducting device, and in 2022, IBM unveiled Osprey, a 433-qubit superconducting processor.

In the UK, Oxford Quantum Circuits (OQC) has built an eight-qubit superconducting quantum computer named Lucy. Brian Vlastakis, its quantum R&D lead, says because all of its quantum information is encoded into electrical signals, it can use a lot of the same circuits that are used for other electronics.

The startup has been providing quantum-as-a-service since 2019. Lucy, for example, is available on the cloud (Amazon Braket) for customers to try out and learn more about how quantum computers could be useful for the problems that theyre trying to solve.

Vlastakis says one of the reasons hes excited about OQCs technology is that our architecture is incredibly flexible. We can essentially design many different quantum processor variations to function in a way that will work better for customers.

Another method is using trapped ion technology, which consists of trapping single atoms in place using an electromagnetic field. Unlike superconducting qubits, trapped ion qubits are identical to each other.

Ilyas Khan, cofounder and chief product officer of UK-headquartered Quantinuum, says trapped ion devices offer two advantages stability and circuit depth which provide relatively low error rates. However, its not clear how scalable the tech will be and the method is slower than superconducting.

At the moment theres no point to being fast if you cant do anything, says Khan.

While Quantinuum (and others such as IonQ and Alpine Quantum Technologies) rely on complex laser systems to control the trapped ions, Oxford Ionics uses a technology that can be integrated into a standard silicon chip.

Ballance says Oxford Ionics focus is on optimising a lower number of qubits with very low error rates, rather than scaling the number of qubits massively.

Most quantum computers on the market have far more qubits than they can use in useful computation because of the error rate, he says. So for example, IBM have their 433-qubit devices theyve launched, but when you benchmark them they perform less good than a perfect nine-qubit system, he says. Our focus is getting to those few 100 qubit devices as fast as possible.

While superconducting and trapped ion qubits were originally physics experiments in labs, Morton says Quantum Motion has a different approach: silicon-based qubits.

Were ultimately saying that for quantum computers to be useful youre going to need a lot of qubits. What does a lot mean? Well, hundreds of thousands or millions of qubits, he says. There arent many technologies that make millions of anything one example of something that has is the silicon transistor.

If you dont try to correct for errors, then its true maybe you can do something useful with just a hundred or a few hundred qubits, but the problem is you still are going to want to be able to run lots of problems, and run them many times, and so you still, in the end, want lots of qubits.

The startup hopes the silicon approach will be more scalable and cost-efficient, as it can build quantum processors with far less specialist technology, such as lasers or a high vacuum. Quantum Motions approach offers qubit densities that are highly miniaturised and its silicon-based quantum chips are typically a few millimetres across. Morton expects the cooling system required to operate the chip to be similar to a standard 19-inch server rack.

Another approach is photonic qubits,made from particles of light. PsiQuantum, a US company founded in the UK, says photons are the only way to reach a million qubits and a million qubits is the only way for a quantum computer to be useful.

There are many advantages when you decide to use photons, because first of all photons are a quantum particle that have no mass and no charge, so that means that photons are less exposed to disturbance than other kinds of techniques, says Marine Xech-Gaspa, chief of staff to the CEO of Quandela, a French startup also betting on photonics. So to be more concrete they can be manipulated at room temperature, because you dont have to be in a specific environment, also it consumes less energy.

Nordic Quantum Computing Group also has the aim of developing a quantum computing platform based on photonic integrated circuits.

Its focus is two-fold, according to Axel Mustad, its founder and CEO. On the hardware side, it will use quantum dot-based single photon sources, and on the software side it will develop algorithms which can be implemented on photonic hardware in particular algorithms to solve hard problems in capital markets and financial services, and in energy management and trading.

Other startups outside of those building hardware are also an important part of the race.

Steve Brierley is founder and CEO of Cambridge-based Riverlane, which is building an error correction layer (using different qubits types) that different hardware companies can use.

We call it an operating system, because operating systems manage complexity for the user, he says. This is like an additional fabric that sits on top of the qubits, really removes errors during the computation and it means it can do much longer and ultimately trillions of operations before failure.

Bristol-based Phasecraft is working on algorithms to provide to hardware companies.

If you want to do something useful you need to have a quantum algorithm to run on that quantum computer, because quantum computers are not just faster computers, you need to think in totally different ways to get the most out of them to do something useful, says Ashley Montanaro, cofounder of Phasecraft.

Were particularly thinking about near-term quantum computers, so the kind of machines that we have now, or that we might have in the next two to five years

Ultimately at this early stage, it would be impossible to claim one technology is better than another.

That would be foolhardy and in fact misleading we are years away from being able to evidence superiority in any given platform, says Khan. If you look at this moment in time and youre able to magically transport yourself to 2030, it would be a bit like measuring a marathon in its first or second mile.

But what he can say with confidence is that the early signs are that different architectures might lend themselves better to certain tasks in the future.

My expectation is that in 10 years, a lot of the dust will have settled, itll become very clear and the market structure will have changed from lots of noise and lots of different approaches sprouting up to consolidation and stabilisation of one or two hardware platforms that cut the mustard and a few other hardware platforms that are specialised, says Ballance.

And while funding and access to talent stay on quantum founders minds, the biggest battle is the sheer scale of the challenge facing quantum computing startups.

Its equivalent to landing on the moon, says Brierley. Its that kind of scale and ambition and so thats going to require bringing together lots of different skills and expertise and ideas. I dont think any one company is going to solve this problem.

Steph Bailey is Sifteds head of content and coproduces Sifteds flagship podcast. She tweets from @steph_hbailey

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On the quest for qubits: Different types of quantum startups, explained - Sifted

Lt. gov. says quantum computers, AI will revolutionize our lives

Ohio's future will look either ominous or auspicious based on decisions made today, Lt. Gov. Jon Husted told several dozen county leaders on Wednesday.

"We're at an incredibly interesting time in human history," Husted said. "None of us really know how it's going to affect our lives."

The state's second-in-command outlined his priorities Wednesday for nearly a hundred members of the Northwest Ohio Commissioners & Engineers Association during the body's quarterly meeting.

First, though, he paid homage to the event's host city, Bucyrus. He explained that his wife, Tina, is a native of Crawford County and a graduate of Colonel Crawford High School.

"Every time I come to Bucyrus, I have to stop at Carle's and get her some bratwurst," Husted said, drawing applause from the audience.

The Republican quickly got to business during Wednesday's speech to explain that his efforts are focused on economic development, workforce development and statewide innovation. Those three, in many ways, are connected.

"What you will see over the next 10 years, in terms of technology advancements, will be greater than what you've seen in any point in time in your lives," Husted said.

He said that the creation of the internet and the advent of smartphones will look like small accomplishments next to what the future is bringing to the Buckeye State.

The coming years will revolutionize the way Ohioans learn, do their jobs and live their lives. He said he wants the state to be ready.

The state's placement among the world's technological leaders became evident to the lieutenant governor recently when he visited Cleveland Clinic to see the nation's first privately owned and operated quantum computer.

"Does anybody know what a quantum computer is?" Husted asked. "Raise your hands."

He waited a moment, then encouraged the county leaders not to be shy.

"I'm not going to call on you," he said, which drew a laugh from the audience.

He finally explained that the new technology was "scary fast."

"Let me put this into context," Husted said.

He said that the newest quantum computers can calculate in just one day what the most advanced supercomputers were going to need 10,000 years to accomplish.

He said the technology is "like a time machine," and now it is changing the world from Ohio.

"Unsolvable health problems are going to he solved using quantum computers," Husted said. "They can run simulations of things we could never do before."

Along with the seemingly unfathomable computational speeds, the world also has obtained artificial intelligence so advanced that it might appear to be more science fiction than reality.

The lieutenant governor told the group of county leaders that they could ask the AI to write in-depth research papers comparing and contrasting Greek and Roman cultures, explaining how they both apply to modern United States.

"It will write it for you," Husted said. "And it will be good."

Pairing the quantum computers with AI could change the world.

He acknowledged that some in the audience perhaps especially older, rural Ohioans might not be fans of those ideas. In fact, they may even fear them.

"Some of you might be saying to yourself: 'I don't want this to happen,'" Husted said. "But the reason I share these things with you is because they're going to happen."

Ohioans can play a big part in the nation's technological future, and the lieutenant governor said projects like the new Intel chip manufacturing site in New Albany are a great start.

"Right now, America makes 0% of the most high-tech computer technology," Husted said. "We rely on places that are under the influence of the Chinese Communist Party and people who are not friends of the United States. That is an untenable situation. America must make the things that we need for our economic and national security."

Aside from curing cancer and writing research papers, quantum computers controlled by AI also can do mischievous things, like hack through an encrypted site in the blink of an eye.

"America needs to win the technological battle if we want to win the economic and national security battle," Husted said. "It's important that Americans win and not China in these technological races. Ohio plays a role in that."

ztuggle@gannett.com

419-564-3508

Twitter: @zachtuggle

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Husted outlines technological futures to Ohio leaders visiting Bucyrus - Telegraph-Forum