The Australian federal government and the state government of Queensland have invested nearly a billion Australian dollars (€610m) in quantum computing startup PsiQuantum to build the world’s first ‘useful’ quantum computer.

As part of the deal, Silicon Valley-based PsiQuantum will move its base to Brisbane. 

Quantum computing, regarded as the next frontier of computing, has largely been a private bet so far, with tech giants such as Google, IBM, and Microsoft investing billions into developing the technology. 

Founded by Australian researchers Jeremy O’Brien and Terry Rudolph, PsiQuantum also took the same route when it incorporated itself as a company in Silicon Valley in 2015. 

Having missed the bus with large-scale manufacturing of photovoltaics and silicon chips, Australia is keen to ensure that quantum computing technology remains on its shores.

Therefore, its government is investing in a startup that wants to make a useful quantum computer. 

A ‘useful’ quantum computer

Although companies engaged in building quantum computers suggest that the next generation of computers will rapidly solve problems, their initial attempts to demonstrate its workings are quite far from real-world problems. 

Cathy Foley, Australia’s Chief Scientist, told ABC Radio Brisbane that quantum computers would soon be a part of our everyday lives and revolutionise how we solve problems like finding routes for trucking, organising ports, or handling logistics for the Olympics scheduled for Brisbane in 2032.  

PsiQuantum says it will build the world’s first 'fault-tolerant' quantum computer that is error-free, unlike other quantum computers being built today. This will make quantum computers useful for defence and industry research applications. 

How is PsiQauntum’s tech different? 

The quantum computing industry also focuses on error reduction and aims to achieve this by building quantum computers with more physical qubits.

Silicon Photonic Wafer (Zoomed) Credit: PsiQuantum.

PsiQauntum’s approach is also similar, but instead of using superconductors to build its quantum computer, the company is using a fusion-based approach where photons serve as qubits and are processed on semiconductor chips, much like today’s computers. 

The company’s first utility-scale quantum computer is planned to have a million physical qubits and it will operate using cryogenic cooling.

Terry Rudolph, one of the founders of PsiQuantum, told ABC Radio Brisbane that Queensland researchers had been working on cracking the physics behind quantum computing for 25 years. But it was only in the last decade that these problems became solvable.  

“Even if we turned all the silicon in the solar system into a classical computer, we would never be able to solve many problems,” Rudolph told the media outlet. “But with a quantum computer, the steps required to solve the problem would be vastly less.”  

The company will now have a warehouse-sized facility by 2027. 

“A utility-scale quantum computer represents an opportunity to construct a new, practical foundation of computational infrastructure and, in so doing, ignite the next industrial revolution,” said Prof Jeremy O’Brien, CEO at PsiQuantum, in the press release.

“This platform will help solve today’s impossible problems and will serve as a tool to design the solutions we so desperately need to safeguard our future.”