UCLA achieves room temperature Quantum Computer breakthrough

Roughly four to five years from meaningful, robust, portable, and cost-effective quantum computers, quantum computing is making some serious headway. Advanced hardware, key strategic investments, scientists working hard to gain PhDs, breakthroughs, and optimism all signal positive growth in the world's quantum computing sector.

UCLA and UC Riverside announced they built a quantum system that runs at room temperature, and companies like Quantinuum and IonQ are making aggressive moves to try to find funding, or at the very least, strategic support.

Room-Temperature Quantum Computing

For the most part, quantum computers have stable operational capabilities only at ultra-cold temperatures. The team from UCLA and UC Riverside have tested quantum oscillator networks already known to work at room temperature. Their concept could decrease energy usage and total operating costs and make quantum computing much more plausible for integration into existing devices. Researchers assert it enables hybrid quantum-classical systems able to tackle complex attempts involved in optimization problems across many domains such as finance, chemistry, and computational biology.

Quantinuum’s Ambitious Funding Round

Quantinuum, a division of Honeywell International, is reportedly pursuing a funding round that will put the company at something near a $10 billion valuation. The expected raise, which is likely to be north of 100 million dollars and into hundreds of millions, would mark a substantial increase from the company’s 5 billion dollar valuation at the start of 2024. The multiplier that is Quantinuum is talking with both existing and potential new investors (including likely future strategic investors), to support the company’s Helios system that is somewhat finite enough to support logical qubits good enough to outperform classical computers for real-world practical optimization applications.

Institutional Investment in IonQ

IonQ has also signed Morgan Stanley Investment Management as a new shareholder, who will acquire a 7.1% stake in IonQ. IonQ’s stock has grown about 458% in the last year and that growth is reflective of investor belief in IonQ’s quantum systems, which are strategically offered through Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services, and Google Cloud. IonQ believes it could be the “NVIDIA of quantum computing” and although IonQ expressed it is not yet profitable (with hyper growth of revenue) it is in a good position.

Market Outlook

The quantum computing market is expected to reach $100 billion by 2035, driven by progress in hardware and software. New developments like UCLA’s room-temperature quantum system and strategic funding rounds by Quantinuum and IonQ are the signals of a more resilient ecosystem developing for tackling real-world applications.

As the sector develops, all eyes from investors and enterprises will be on the potential breakthroughs in quantum computing that could enable solutions to computing, energy efficiency, and applicable solutions at industry-scale.