A quantum computing start-up tries to live up to the hype

Aim is to solve a problem that a conventional machine cannot

Few corners of the tech industry are as tantalising or complex as quantum computing. For years evangelists have promised machines capable of breaking impenetrable coded messages, unlocking the secret properties of the physical world and putting supercomputers to shame. But Rigetti Computing, one of the most prominent and wellfunded start-ups in the field, would just like to lower everyone’s expectations.

Right now, Rigetti’s challenge for itself is this: Can it solve one, single problem with a quantum computer that a conventional machine cannot? Even if it just meant answering a question more quickly or cheaply than a supercomputer, the team of physicists and mathematicians at the startup’s Berkeley, California, office would be overjoyed.

So far, no such luck. Today, your laptop can solve pretty much everything one of the start-up’s quantum computers can do, just as quickly. The conundrum isn’t Rigetti’s alone. Neither IBM nor Google, which boast more powerful quantum computers, have said they’ve achieved “quantum advantage.”

“Right now, what we’re focused on is the pursuit of quantum advantage,” said Chad Rigetti, the company’s eponymous founder.

Rigetti has spent his entire adult life fixated on a still-unrealised computational theory. After earning a Ph.D. in applied physics from Yale University in 2009, he toiled away for a brief time as a researcher in International Business Machines Corp.’s quantum computing group.

Rigetti started Rigetti Computing in 2013 at the age of 34.

Rigetti & Co., the company’s corporate name, has come a long way by start-up standards. It employs former top researchers from Nasa, Raytheon Co. and the universities of Berkeley, Stanford and his alma mater. The company built its own quantum computer, without access to the multibillion-dollar R&D budgets of the other companies investing in this effort. But it does have $119 million (Dh437 million), $50 million of which came in a previously unreported venture capital deal late last year.

Now Rigetti, both the man and the company, thinks there may actually be something to brag about — despite the myriad issues that, as he is quick to point out, could still go wrong. The start-up has designed a microchip for quantum computers that would have more than six times as many qubits — the basic measure of quantum computing horsepower — as Rigetti’s current machines. That would be more powerful than IBM’s 50-qubit computer and more powerful than Google’s 72-qubit machine. Rigetti is hoping to build a functioning computer with 128 qubits in the next 12 months. If successful, it could be the world’s most powerful quantum computer and just might outpace traditional supercomputers.

As a business, quantum computing remains very much in the R&D phase. This makes it something of a strange pick for venture capitalists. Andreessen Horowitz, the largest backer of Rigetti, is betting it is much closer to finding a practical use for quantum computers than even many researchers believe. “Quantum computing, until recently, has always felt like it’s the future, but the future 10 years from now,” said Vijay Pande, an Andreessen Horowitz partner who sits on Rigetti’s board.