Google and Nvidia exploring quantum computing together

Chip creator Nvidia is working with Google to create quantum computing processors. The collaboration between the two tech behemoths could see huge leaps in the sector’s development.

Quantum computing, in theory, could complete calculations exponentially faster than classic computers. It has the potential to be used in cybersecurity and cryptography to make information even more secure. The technology is still mostly experimental and not practical in the real world, yet.

Nvidia is at the center of these developments, with specialist facilities in Japan, Germany and Poland. Its open-source CUDA-Q platform allows for the programming of GPUs, quantum and computer processing units (QPUs and CPUs).

Now working with Google’s Quantum AI team and the Eos supercomputer, the collaboration hopes to quicken the design process of quantum components by using simulations.

The idea is that this can get around the issue of “noise” in quantum computing. The current hardware can only run so many operations at one time without interference.

“The development of commercially useful quantum computers is only possible if we can scale up quantum hardware while keeping noise in check,” said Guifre Vidal, research scientist at Google Quantum AI. “Using NVIDIA accelerated computing, we’re exploring the noise implications of increasingly larger quantum chip designs.”

CUDA-Q will also massively cut down cost for Google, according to Nvidia. It will be able to use 1,024 NVIDIA H100 Tensor Core GPUs with the supercomputer to carry out “one of the world’s largest and fastest dynamical simulation of quantum devices”.

The press release from Nvidia adds: “The simulation techniques provided by CUDA-Q mean noisy simulations that would have taken a week can now run in minutes.”

Earlier this month, Nvidia was valued at $3.6 trillion, beating Apple to be the world’s most valuable company. AI technology heavily relies on Nvidia’s chips, with the boom in recent years causing the company’s stock value to skyrocket.

Image credit: Ideogram

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