Nvidia is to open a quantum computing research lab in Boston, where it plans to collaborate with scientists from Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said on Thursday.
Huang made the announcement at Nvidia’s annual software developer conference in San Jose, California, where the company held a day of events focused on quantum computing.
Nvidia added the program after Huang in January said that useful quantum computers are 20 years away, comments that he sought to walk back on Thursday while joined onstage by executives from quantum computing firms.
Photo: Reuters
“This is the first event in history where a company CEO invites all of the guests to explain why he was wrong,” Huang said.
Huang said he did not realize there were publicly traded quantum computing firms when he made earlier comments that caused shares of IonQ Inc and other companies to crash.
“My first reaction was, I didn’t know they were public. How can a quantum company be public?” Huang said at Thursday’s event focused on the still-nascent technology.
The quantum computing industry aims to use the unique properties of subatomic particles to process data much faster than traditional semiconductor-based electronics. The technical difficulties of building practical systems have meant that the field is still in an experimental stage. In addition to quantum upstarts, companies such as Microsoft Corp and Alphabet Inc’s Google are trying find practical uses for quantum systems.
The companies on stage at Thursday’s event included IonQ and D-Wave Quantum Inc.
Huang said it was natural for this new form of computing to take many years to develop since it was so novel. The companies might be able to convince him that quantum computing is happening more quickly than he expected, he said.
“But I don’t know,” he joked.
“This whole session is going to be like a therapy session for me,” he said.
The six company leaders on stage gave him a variety of answers. Some argued that quantum computers are already in use to solve difficult science problems. Others posited that the technology is even closer to helping advance traditional computing.
Executives also said it was not unreasonable to spend a decade honing a technology that will have such a large impact.
Pasqal CEO Loic Henriet said the term “quantum computing” was misleading.
Quantum processors will help act as accelerators — working alongside traditional computers — rather than replacing them, he said.
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