NewsBite

Quantum Computing

This Month

Google announces quantum computing breakthrough. Should we be excited?

Google has built a quantum processor called “Willow” that can solve a problem in five minutes that regular supercomputers would take longer than the lifetime of the universe.

  • John Davidson

November

Queensland Premier David Crisafulli

Albanese tells Queensland to stick with $1b quantum deal

New Premier David Crisafulli is reviewing the deal with US-based start-up PsiQuantum and says speculation about its future is premature.

  • Tom McIlroy and James Hall

October

Chief Scientist Cathy Foley.

‘High risk, high return’: Chief scientist sceptical on $1b quantum deal

Internal government documents show Cathy Foley took months to be convinced US-based company PsiQuantum could deliver a super computer in Australia this decade.

  • Tom McIlroy

September

Former PwC CEOs Tom Seymour and Luke Sayers.

PwC’s moral dissonance clear to all

Readers’ letters on PwC’s behaviour; the value of mining; attacks on Hezbollah; antisemitism at Sydney University; quantum computing; bank cashbacks; and AI costing CBA jobs.

Michele Flournoy.

Kamala Harris’ potential defence chief backs Labor supercomputer deal

Michèle Flournoy, a possible Pentagon boss, says quantum computing will be like the nuclear bomb in how it will reshape the China v USA narrative this century.

  • Andrew Tillett
Advertisement
Cocoon chief executive Trent Telford in Washington.

Aussie cyber firm goes it alone with US expansion

Trent Telford is on a high after his firm Cocoon Data scored a Google deal and made progress cracking the US market, but he says it’s no thanks to the Australian government.

  • Matthew Cranston

August

Industry and Science Minister Ed Husic says Australia said the investment in PsiQuantum would “ensure our nation’s national security.”

Coalition claims ‘$1 billion captain’s pick’ as PsiQuantum answers emerge

New information reveals the Commonwealth engaged in a lengthy due diligence process before making a $1 billion bet on PsiQuantum.

  • Tess Bennett

July

Federal and Queensland taxpayers will sink $1 billion into bringing a quantum computing company to Brisbane.

Expert department ‘not party’ to PsiQuantum deal

Persistent criticism of the nearly $1 billion investment in PsiQuantum was again levelled at ministers and bureaucrats this week.

  • James Hall
Professor Jeremy O’Brien has now added $US500m of Illinois incentives to the $940m investment by the Federal and Qld governments into PsiQuantum.

PsiQuantum promises US a computer after $US500m investment

Three months after inking almost $1 billion worth of deals with the federal and Qld governments, the tech start-up has signed up to build another quantum computer in Chicago.

  • Paul Smith

June

Australian-born Silicon Valley-based investor Peter Barrett is back in the country meeting investors and deep tech companies ahead of closing Playground Global’s third fund.

PsiQuantum backer Playground Global back in town looking for cash

The Palo Alto-headquartered, Australian co-founded, investor has already secured government backing for its quantum bet. Now it is fundraising for a new fund.

  • Sarah Thompson, Kanika Sood and Emma Rapaport
Andrew Dzurak, CEO & Founder of Diraq

Cashed-up Diraq says it can win the quantum computing race

It hasn’t got as much money as government-backed PsiQuantum, but the UNSW start-up says it makes up for that in qubit size, as it banks a big funding round.

  • John Davidson
Science and Industry Minister Ed Husic has signed the contracts to invest $US125m in quantum computing start-up PsiQuantum.

Government’s $189.5m quantum computing VC investment revealed

Previously secret details behind the mammoth investment in US-based quantum computing firm PsiQuantum have been uncovered, including the government’s equity investment.

  • Paul Smith

May

Australia’s CEOs are paid generous salaries to manage companies.

Where have all the good managers gone?

Readers’ letters on Australia’s dearth of quality managers; a tax system fit for AI; skilled migrants driving Ubers; a proportionate response in Gaza; why live exports matter; and worry over climate change.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Rafah strike will be Netanyahu’s undoing

Readers’ letters on horrific scenes in Rafah; The AFR View on ICC indictments; Labor’s equivocating over Gaza; the key to useful airport links; and what’s really behind the $1 billion grant for PsiQuantum.

Australia is expected to buy its first Virginia-class submarine in the early 2030s.

The real reason for spending $1b on PsiQuantum

Defence planners have long worried how vulnerable military information systems are to GPS being taken out by an adversary.

  • Tom Burton
Advertisement
PsiQuantum’s Aussie founders professor Jeremy O’Brien and Terry Rudolph say their plans are ‘bigger than the government of the day.’

PsiQuantum deal will cost almost $30m just to check it works

But most of the details of the government’s marquee bet on the potentially powerful technology have been kept secret in the budget.

  • Nick Bonyhady
PsiQuantum’s Jeremy O’Brien (left) and Terry Rudolph in Brisbane.

UK’s bet on PsiQuantum is one-fiftieth the size of Australia’s

Leading British quantum computing specialists have expressed surprise at the Albanese government’s decision to invest nearly $1 billion in backing the start-up.

  • Hans van Leeuwen
Treasurer Jim Chalmers will have to balance competing priorities when he delivers the Federal Budget on Tuesday.

Readers want government to cut debt, rein in spending

Almost 60 per cent readers want Treasurer Jim Chalmers’ federal budget priority to either reduce debt or reign in government spending in this year’s budget - but another 24 per cent want cost-of-living relief to be the focus.

  • Edmund Tadros
Larry Marshall speaks at CEDA’s climate and energy forum.

Ex CSIRO boss would pick different ‘winners’ in $1b quantum push

Larry Marshall, former CEO of CSIRO, says taxpayer money should be targeted at points in the quantum computing supply chain, not the finished product.

  • Liam Walsh
CSIRAC: Australia had one of three classical digital computers in the world in the 1960s but missed the opportunity to become a leader in computer development.

Quantum leap to secure first-mover advantage for Australia

The government’s chief scientific adviser says the investment in PsiQuantum may be high risk, but it’s also high reward.

  • Cathy Foley

Original URL: https://www.afr.com/topic/quantum-computing-1nfw