University of Kwazulu-Natal

What S Next For Quantum Computing Founders Forum Group

Bonisiwe Shabane
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what s next for quantum computing founders forum group

What does the future look like for quantum computing? Harmut Neven (Google Quantum AI), Dr Jeremy O’Brien (PsiQuantum), Dr Théau Peronnin (Alice & Bob) and more tech leaders discussed quantum applications at FF Global 2025. The development roadmap for quantum computing is well underway. Error correction has significantly improved, quantum companies are maturing, acquisitions are up, and we’re anticipating a quantum-driven breakthrough in practical applications like fusion energy and medical treatments by 2040. Quantum experts at Founders Forum Global highlighted a particular advancement in quantum capabilities in the last 12 months, especially in Europe, as the sector enters the steep part of its growth phase. The rise of quantum computing will enable operations impossible for classical computers, creating the potential for huge tech breakthroughs in the next few decades.

Quantum computers could generate physics-based training data for AI systems, creating a complementary relationship between AI and quantum, which could be revolutionary. Read on to uncover the key insights from Inside FF. HQ: Gilching, GermanyStage: Series CTotal Funding: €310mFFs Attended: 2 This is a summarised roundup of the top stories and insights from the global founder community. 🚀 Sign up here to receive the full version of Founders News directly in your inbox! Picture a room packed full of gold-rimmed sacks of $100 bills.

Then multiply that by a gazillion and add a few Trump Towers on top. That’s the money flowing into AI companies right now – and quantum isn't far behind. Our Editor’s take on the biggest tech stories of the week – Marco De Novellis, FF Group. OpenAI has reportedly raised $8.3b at a $300b valuation – that’s enough for 1-2 new AI researcher hires! Dragoneer Investment Group led the 5x oversubscribed round with a $2.8b cheque along with a roll call of VC and PE giants – a16z, Blackstone, Coatue, Sequoia, Thrive etc. – as OpenAI plans to secure $40b this year.

And they’re in luck as unicorn/decacorn funding is back. In the US, average round sizes have doubled from a $260m peak in 2021 to $490m this year. Anthropic, which just revoked OpenAI’s access to Claude, is raising $5b at a $170b valuation. Fireworks AI is discussing a $4b valuation deal with Lightspeed and Index. AI infrastructure startup, fal, raised $125m at a $1.5b valuation. There has been considerable discussion and stock price volatility of late surrounding the expected timing of useful applications and hardware for quantum computing.

One month after Google created excitement around its Willow quantum chip, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, started a food fight on Wall Street by predicting that quantum computing won’t be... Quantum stocks dropped over 30%. Subsequently, Bill Gates joined in, saying, “There is the possibility that the [Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang] could be wrong. There is the possibility in the next three to five years that one of these techniques would get enough true logical Qubits to solve some very tough problems.” Not one to wade into a shouting match, IBM (a client of Cambrian-AI Research) has been quietly and steadily advancing quantum computing sciences and use cases, as explained in a series of webinars, covering... Last year, IBM also published the 4th edition of a dazzling coffee table book on the coming Quantum Decade.

IBM probably has hundreds of scientists working on quantum developing hardware, software, and ecosystems to lead in this exotic technology. While IBM and other quantum innovators like Microsoft, Google, AWS, and startups see hundreds of applications in development today, Zuckerberg and Huang are probably looking for big-impact applications. And there aren’t any, at least not yet. The current quantum applications being developed fill specific scientific niches with little industrial and economic impact. They are important niches to the scientists who can now solve previously unsolvable problems, but they may not constitute another multi-billion-dollar market. Those applications will take much faster quantum computers and new algorithms that can exploit the hardware.

IBM and its competitors are developing hardware, software tools, and algorithms that could deliver those billion-dollar applications in the next 5-10 years. Specific uses of quantum computing in physics and chemistry are already pushing research forward. Still, these experiments demand faster hardware, error correction, and new algorithms beyond the R&D setting. IBM thinks it can achieve quantum advantage sometime in the next two years - via improved performance and error mitigation techniques and increased collaboration with the HPC community. IBM also announced its plans to reach over 2,000 logical qubits. True error correction should arrive in 2029 with the Starling processor, followed by the Blue Jay processor, with 2,000 logical qubits and over a billion gates in 2033.

Quantum stocks have been on fire lately as investors speculate on the next big thing in tech after AI. The frenzy has intensified since Google GOOG revealed its new computer chip, Willow, which can perform calculations in less than five minutes that would take one of the world’s most powerful supercomputers 10 septillion... This number vastly exceeds the age of the universe! Quantum computing represents a revolutionary approach to computing, capable of tackling problems currently deemed impossible and holding the potential to transform the world. The concept isn’t new—scientists have been exploring it for over 40 years—but significant technical challenges have slowed progress in the race to develop practical quantum computers. Quantum-computing firm D-Wave’s Advantage machine is one effort in the race to develop useful quantum computers.

Credit: Lukas Schulze/Getty Quantum-computing companies have been grabbing headlines since Jensen Huang, chief executive of tech giant Nvidia, reportedly told market analysts on 7 January that he couldn’t see quantum computers becoming “truly useful” for another two... The day after, the share prices of firms IonQ, Quantum Computing, Rigetti Computing and D-Wave crashed — although they have since partially bounced back. Access Nature and 54 other Nature Portfolio journals Get Nature+, our best-value online-access subscription Receive 51 print issues and online access

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