NVIDIA picks Quantinuum for Boston spree party in quantum computing
Nvidia designs and sells GPUs for gaming, cryptocurrency mining and professional applications; Quantinuum is marketed as the world's largest integrated quantum company and as Cambridge Quantum was this medium’s Business of the Year in 2020.
The partnership with NVIDIA reflects Quantinuum’s work in building the world’s most powerful quantum computer and advancing its leadership in full-stack quantum computing.
Together with NVIDIA’s AI hardware and CUDA-Q platform, the company says it will accelerate breakthroughs to tackle some of the world’s toughest challenges under the leadership of CEO Raj Hazra.
The announcement on the Boston venture follows Quantinuum’s recent unveiling of an expanded partnership with Arm’s largest shareholder, SoftBank, and collaborations with Microsoft – underscoring the company’s accelerating commercial momentum.
The NVIDIA Accelerated Quantum Research Center, or NVAQC, in Boston is designed to integrate leading quantum hardware with AI supercomputers, enabling what is known as accelerated quantum supercomputing.
The NVAQC will help solve quantum computing’s most challenging problems, ranging from qubit noise to transforming experimental quantum processors into practical devices.
Leading innovators in the space, including Quantinuum, Quantum Machines and QuEra Computing, will tap into the NVAQC to drive advancements through collaborations with researchers from leading universities, such as the Harvard Quantum Initiative in Science and Engineering and the Engineering Quantum Systems group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA, commented: “Quantum computing will augment AI supercomputers to tackle some of the world’s most important problems, from drug discovery to materials development.
“Working with the wider quantum research community to advance CUDA-quantum hybrid computing, the NVIDIA Accelerated Quantum Research Center is where breakthroughs will be made to create large-scale, useful, accelerated quantum supercomputers.”
To address the challenges of integrating GPU and QPU hardware, the NVAQC will employ the NVIDIA CUDA-Q™ quantum development platform, enabling researchers to develop new hybrid quantum algorithms and applications.
The HQI – a community of researchers dedicated to advancing the science and engineering of quantum systems and their applications – will collaborate with the NVAQC to advance their research on next-generation quantum computing technologies.
Researchers from the EQuS group, a member of the MIT Center for Quantum Engineering – which serves as a hub for research, education and engagement in support of quantum engineering – will use NVAQC to develop techniques like quantum error correction.
“The NVIDIA Accelerated Quantum Research Center will provide EQuS group researchers with unprecedented access to the technologies and expertise needed to solve the challenges of useful quantum computing,” said William Oliver, professor of electrical engineering and computer science, and of physics, leader of the EQuS group and director of the MIT Center for Quantum Engineering.
“We anticipate the future will also include other members of the Center for Quantum Engineering at MIT. Integrating the NVIDIA accelerated computing platform with qubits will help tackle core challenges like quantum error correction, hybrid application development and quantum device characterisation.”
The NVAQC is expected to begin operations later this year.
