Boys’ Toys
That there are many possible real-world applications for quantum computers is not in doubt. Currently, though, the industry lacks any real-world use cases that signify the technology will be life-changing for the vast majority of people on the planet.
But wasn’t that the same with classical computers in the 1940s and 50s, when they were merely boys’ toys for university professors and the US military?
Few can argue the case is false.
To date, not one of the quantum computing (QC) companies or startups earns revenue from their products — be it hardware or software — unless we count D-Wave Systems’ quantum annealers drip in sales since about 2011. Their 5,000-qubit quantum computer Advantage, flogged last year to the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), is the most recent example.
Not a good sign for potential investors whose only concern is a healthy ROI, sooner rather than later.
At TQD, however, our philosophy to all the noise is that one day: in five, ten or twenty years’ time, QC will be a fact of life, implemented in every sector of society, the de facto technological modality driving humanity forward into the next epoch.
For now, though, we have to be a little more modest in when and where these breakthroughs occur. They won’t be in quantum computer games or space travel. Neither in cyborgs’ brains nor real autonomous automobiles, unfortunately.
Where QC will first have an impact is in traffic control. In data encryption. In financial optimization problems, which is a good thing really for the topic of this piece, Multiverse Computing, a Spanish startup, which hopes to create:
‘Quantum Software for Extreme Ideas’
— Multiverse Computing
And extreme is good. Very good, because it is in finance and how our money is managed that we find some of the biggest headaches.
Multiverse Computing
Founded in 2019, in San Sebastián, the Basque Country, Spain, the four founders of Multiverse Computing are convinced they have found a solution in ‘portfolio optimization problems, risk analysis, and market simulation.’
Similar to others in the QC space in Spain, like the Madrid-based software company Q-Lion — led by the inspirational Andrea Rodriguez Blanco — and the consulting firm Entanglement Partners in Barcelona, Multiverse Computing in trying to make a difference.
And in a big way.
CSO Róman Orús, CTO Samuel Mugel, CEO Enrique Lizaso Olmos, and managing director Alfonso Rubio-Manzanares lead Multiverse Computing on its crusade to be the very best service provider in the space. Additionally, all four have PhDs, which only adds credibility to the startup’s intentions.
The key areas where they hope to change market investment, according to the startup’s LinkedIn page, are in:
— Risk Management
— Portfolio Optimization
— Market Analysis
— Stock Management
— Investment Optimization
— Quantum Algorithms
— Quantum Machine Learning
— Monte Carlo Simulations
These are all achievable goals, especially with the current progress in QC in these categories made over the last couple of years.
Whatever happens, the team shares decades of experience in such wide-ranging disciplines as engineering, corporate banking, quantum field theory, and machine learning algorithms. This, for sure, will give them a good footing in the QC ecosystem and drive, with an added bit of luck, the technology in the direction it needs to go.
