Australia is investing more than $1 billion to build a cutting-edge quantum computer near Brisbane Airport, led by Californian startup PsiQuantum.
Australia’s moon landing
This project marks a significant step in Australia's commitment to quantum technology, with politicians already calling it ‘Australia’s moon landing’ – but questions remain about who will get to use this machine.
"We're a for-profit company," PsiQuantum's chief scientific officer Pete Shadbolt says.
"We will sell time to people on a commercial basis."
The company says the machine will be the world's first useful quantum computer, with the ability to solve problems conventional computers cannot.
Complex problems
The facility, set to be completed in three years, will house a highly advanced quantum computer designed to solve complex problems beyond the capability of traditional computers.
Most of the $1 billion required to build the computer will be stumped up by Australian taxpayers.
Inside the facility will be racks of cabinets cooled to the temperature of outer space, housing custom-built silicon wafers that can detect individual photons, particles without mass.
The quantum computer will use qubits – particles that can exist in multiple states simultaneously – housed in cryogenic freezers cooled to near absolute zero.
Hundreds or thousands of physical qubits are usually needed to make one "logical qubit" that can be reliably used for computation.
PsiQuantum says it plans for the machine to have around 200 "logical qubits," making it one of the most powerful quantum computers in the world.
While it won't tackle tasks like code-breaking or machine learning initially, the computer is expected to be used for computational chemistry, helping to develop new materials, drugs and clean energy technologies – and who knows what else?