Quantum Computing Revolution May Soon Outpace Current Supercomputing Capabilities

IBM's senior vice president and director of research Dario Gil recently discussed the potential impact of useful quantum computers. He described the idea of quantum advantage, which refers to the exponential growth in capabilities as more qubits are added to a system.

Gil stated that not even a million or a billion supercomputers connected together could perform the calculations that future machines will be able to do. This is due to the massive increase in power and capabilities of quantum computers as they scale up from just a handful of qubits to thousands, tens of thousands, and beyond.

Quantum computing represents a paradigm shift, but simply building powerful hardware won't achieve anything without defining problems to solve using these future machines. Companies like IBM have been granting businesses access to quantum computers through the cloud for early pilot programs, proprietary algorithms, or gearing systems for future hardware. For example, Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen have partnered with the IBM Quantum Network to simulate chemical reactions inside EV battery cells.