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Many observers now think its unlikely the National Quantum Initiative Act of 2018 will actually get reauthorized this year. Its up for a second five-year commitment and there is finally a bill in congress (H.R.6213 National Quantum Initiative Reauthorization Act). That said, the legislative logjam is such that reauthorization may have to wait.

One long-time observer noted, These authorization bills are interesting and nice, but are really not essential. It is the appropriation bills and the policy directions they contain that really matter. As the saying goes, Follow the money. The good news is that each Congress lasts for two years. That is why we are only on the 118th Congress. So given that we have another year to go, I would say there is a decent chance this will be acted on in the 118th Congress. However, the bad news is that if it isnt, the 119th Congress that starts in January of 2025 will start fresh, so the reauthorization bill has to be reintroduced.

In the follow the money line of thought, a new National Quantum Initiative Supplement to the Presidents FY 2024 Budget was just released (Dec 1) and may provide directional guidance, at least to the Presidents spending plans. The new report, prepared by the Subcommittee on Quantum Information Science Committee of the Science of The National Science & Technology Council, also provides updated background on NQIAs mission as well as spotlighting a few accomplishments so far.

Think of it as reasonably quick reading for the Holiday season for quantum community watchers. For the brave reader, the report has an eye chart figure at the end attempting to summarize key timeline and implementation steps for NQIA (also included at end of this brief article).

As seen below, budgets ramped up quickly more than doubling from 2019 to 2022 (slide below). The report doesnt have precise tables but it looks like on the order of $3plus billion were spent on QIS in those years. The report writers suggest the budget will close down in 2023 and the 2024 request is for less than $1 billion.

As noted in the proposed budget, Overall federal budgets for U.S. QIS R&D activities [are] aggregated across several agencies including NIST, NSF, DOE, DOD, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Much of the growth in QIS R&D budgets is for NQI activities such as the establishment of a quantum consortium [The Quantum Economic Development Consortium] by NIST, the NSF Quantum Leap Challenge Institutes (QLCIs), the DOE National QIS Research Centers, and the coordination and strengthening of core QIS programs across many agencies.

Its good to remember that NQI work encompasses a good deal more than quantum computing. Here the lest of principal component areas from the report along with that budget breakdown and the breakdown by federal agency spending (slides below):

Much of the report covers familiar ground but there is a dedicated section highlighting accomplishments; its broken down by the agency doing the work and is worth scanning. Shown below is a bulleted list of representative advances by NIST included in the report. There are somewhat similar lists of advances by other agencies. There are also a few sidebars summarizing technical advances in areas ranging from superconducting qubit development, to erasure qubits and mid-circuit measurements, and to testing quantum sensors used in pacific rim.

Bulleted list of NIST-led advances from the report:

All in all, its a report, but a quickly navigable report for those broadly familiar with the quantum information sciences. Lastly, shown below is the eye-chart depicting NQI implementation to date.

Link to the National Quantum Initiative Supplement to the Presidents FY 2024 Budget, https://www.quantum.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/NQI-Annual-Report-FY2024.pdf

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NQIA Reauthorization Unlikely Soon, but New Report Suggests Budget Directions - HPCwire

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Multiverse Computing and Moody's Analytics introduce the QFStudio quantum platform  FinTech Global

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Multiverse Computing and Moody's Analytics introduce the QFStudio quantum platform - FinTech Global

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Investing in top quantum computing stocks is increasingly capturing the markets attention as this revolutionary technology advances. These companies, at the vanguard of research and development, are unlocking significant growth opportunities as quantum computing matures.

According to Future Market Insights, the global quantum computing market is projected to be valued at an impressive $784 million in 2023. Even more striking, market revenue is expected to skyrocket to an astonishing $6.5 billion by 2033. And with that, a remarkable compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 23.5% between 2023 and 2033 is expected. This surge underscores the sectors potential and the growing investor interest in quantum computing.

Despite being predominantly in the research and development phase, quantum computing is evolving rapidly. It is becoming more affordable and accessible, thanks to cloud computing advancements. Indeed, the demand for enhanced computing power is growing with the expansion of the digital economy and artificial intelligence. So, these are the three quantum computing stalwarts to watch for stellar investment returns.

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IonQ (NYSE:IONQ) emerges as a standout in the quantum computing sector and a top choice for investors focused on this cutting-edge sector. The companys robust engineering team and strategic partnership with Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG, NASDAQ:GOOGL) underscores its promising potential. This collaboration is instrumental in boosting both IonQs computing capabilities and its expanding user base.

Moreover, the companys collaboration extends to working with Zapata AI, renowned for its quantum-powered generative AI solutions. Supported by DARPA funding, IonQ and Zapata are developing new quantum benchmarking tools. Truly, its a testament to their pioneering spirit in the quantum field.

Financially, IonQs prowess is evident in its recent earnings report. The third quarter saw revenues hitting $6.1 million, a whopping 122% surge year over year (YOY), surpassing market expectations by $1.1 million. Additionally, their quarter bookings reached $26.3 million, contributing to a hefty $58.4 million year to date (YTD). Also, IonQ is cumulatively amassing $100 million in bookings since 2021. Hence, this trajectory cements IonQs solid market position and bright prospects.

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For investors eyeing the quantum computing space, Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) emerges as a compelling option, stretching its influence across various tech sectors. The tech behemoth is carving a unique path in quantum computing, notably with its Q# development kit. This toolkit provides a virtual sandbox for developers. Further, it enables experimentation with quantum systems in both commercial and research settings before actual deployment.

Moreover, Microsofts quantum strategy sets it apart, opting for a research-intensive route, unlike peers such as IonQ. This approach, while demanding more time and resources, underlines the companys commitment to pioneering in this field. In the first quarter of 2024, Microsoft reported robust financials. It outperformed expectations with earnings per share of $2.99 and revenues of $56.52 billion, indicating a 12.76% increase YOY.

Furthermore, with quantum computing set to enhance AIs capabilities, Microsoft emerges as a stable and promising investment. Its approach to quantum computing, coupled with strong financial performance, positions it as a less risky yet innovative choice in the evolving quantum landscape.

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Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) stands out as a frontrunner in advanced semiconductor designs, with its graphics processing units (GPUs) revolutionizing next-gen technologies. These GPUs are central to Nvidias role in developing quantum computers, maintaining its dominance in intricate circuitry design. The companys expertise in AI and machine learning further bolsters its tech position.

Moreover, innovation at Nvidia extends to cuQuantum, a software development kit designed to bolster quantum computing efforts. This move exemplifies Nvidias strategy to repurpose its GPU software for quantum computing advancements. Additionally, the early 2023 launch of DGX Quantum, which combines top-tier GPUs with Quantum Machines hardware, underscores Nvidias commitment to advancing quantum computing research. It promises wide-ranging applications from enhancing jet engine efficiency to accelerating drug development.

Furthermore, the companys third-quarter 2024 results showcased a record-breaking $18.12 billion in revenue, marking a significant milestone. This robust financial performance offers investors both stability and promising growth potential, reinforcing Nvidias status as a key player in the evolving tech landscape.

On the date of publication, Muslim Farooque did not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article.The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.comPublishing Guidelines.

Muslim Farooque is a keen investor and an optimist at heart. A life-long gamer and tech enthusiast, he has a particular affinity for analyzing technology stocks. Muslim holds a bachelors of science degree in applied accounting from Oxford Brookes University.

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Princeton physicists have successfully linked individual molecules into quantum mechanically entangled states. This groundbreaking feat allows molecules to remain interconnected across vast distances, a phenomenon often described as one of the most bizarre in quantum mechanics.

This linkage persists regardless of the physical distance between the molecules, embodying the concept of spooky action at a distance as once skeptically noted by Albert Einstein. Previously, only individual atoms and ions could be coaxed into this state.

The research, led by Assistant Professor Lawrence Cheuk and his team at Princeton University, marks a pivotal advancement in understanding quantum entanglement. Entanglement, a core principle of quantum mechanics, occurs when particles become so deeply connected that the state of one instantaneously influences the other, no matter the distance separating them.

Cheuk and his team envision entangled molecules as foundational elements for future technologies like quantum computers, capable of outperforming traditional computing in specific tasks. Additionally, quantum simulators and sensors, leveraging entanglement, promise advancements in modeling complex materials and enhanced measurement capabilities, respectively.

Computing devices based on quantum phenomena like entanglement are supposed to be orders of magnitude more powerful than conventional computers based on silicon transistors. Their edge or quantum advantage stems from the principles of superposition and quantum entanglement, where quantum bits, or qubits, can exist in multiple states simultaneously, unlike the binary states of classical computer bits.

However, achieving controllable quantum entanglement remains extremely challenging. Qubits are highly sensitive to noise and hold their quantum state typically for very short periods before losing coherence. As a result, the current state of the art is crippled by errors and todays quantum computers are unlikely to output correct answers even for relatively trivial programs for now.

This explains why the quantum computing landscape is rich in dozens of competing technologies. There are quantum computers that work with trapped ions, photons, and superconducting circuits just to name a few all vying for the billion-dollar breakthrough that might finally fulfill the industrys promise of taking computers to the next level.

Now, with this most recent advance, quantum computers that use molecular qubits can be added to this growing list of experimental technologies.

What this means, in practical terms, is that there are new ways of storing and processing quantum information, said Yukai Lu, a graduate student in electrical and computer engineering and a co-author of the paper.

For example, a molecule can vibrate and rotate in multiple modes. So, you can use two of these modes to encode a qubit. If the molecular species is polar, two molecules can interact even when spatially separated.

Despite being notoriously difficult to control due to their complexity, Cheuk and colleagues have shown molecules are promising candidates. In their experiment, the scientists used a sophisticated tweezer array whereby a system of tightly focused laser beams manipulated individual calcium monofluoride molecules.

The laser system cooled the molecules to temperatures a fraction of a degree above absolute zero. At such an ungodly low temperature, vibration is almost nonexistent, making the molecules almost perfectly still. Pairs of calcium monofluoride were ultimately coaxed to enter a quantum entanglement state by correlating their dipolar interaction.

Reinforcing their findings, a separate group at Harvard University and MIT achieved similar results, validating the reliability and potential of molecular tweezer arrays in quantum science.

The fact that they got the same results verify the reliability of our results, Cheuk said in a press release. They also show that molecular tweezer arrays are becoming an exciting new platform for quantum science.

As we stand at the brink of a new era in quantum science, the implications of these discoveries are profound. From reshaping computing to redefining how we understand the fabric of our universe, the entanglement of molecules opens a world of possibilities, beckoning a future where quantum mechanics moves from theoretical wonder to practical reality.

The findings appeared in the journal Science.

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In contrast to conventional computers, quantum computers are (or will be) built via the principles of quantum mechanics. Specifically, where information is stored in bits in a computer today, information in quantum computers will be stored in quantum bits, or qubits. A bit can be either a 0 or a 1, a binary system.Think of a light bulb that is either on or off, or a coin that is either heads or tails. In the mechanics of computing, a bit usually refers to an electrical signal that iseither on or off.

Like a bit, a qubit can be either 0 or 1, but it can also exist as limitless possibilities between those two states. Qubitsbuilt from subatomic particlesmight be created via the state of superposition between two electrons, for instance. Thus, a qubit is not just in a state of 0 or 1, it could be 0 and 1 at the same time, or any other combination between the states.

According to an article from Caltech, When an electron is in superposition, its different states can be thought of as separate outcomes, each with a particular probability of being observed. An electron might be said to be in a superposition of two different velocities or in two places at once.

Developing qubits offers the potential to store information orders of magnitude greater than what is possible with classical computation. The expectation is that quantum computers will thereby be able to perform operations beyond even todays supercomputers.

The usual suspects are at work developing quantum computers: IBM, Microsoft, Google Amazon, as well as some names youve not heard of. Importantly, theres a budding competition between Chinese and Western developers, part of the larger phenomenon of strategic capitalism, where national governments nurture and protect critical industriesrather than regulate them or, conversely, allow them to roam the globe freelyfrom their geostrategic rivals.

Kevin Klyman reports in Foreign Policy that the Biden administration is not waiting for the full development of the technology to institute export controls.

After controls on semiconductors, the Commerce Department is moving on to the next emerging technology it worries China could weaponize: quantum computing, Klyman says. Export controls on quantum computing hardware, error correction software, and the provision of cloud services to Chinese entities are poised to become the next front in the U.S.-China tech war.

Quantum computers will be able to tackle problems beyond the abilities of todays supercomputers. They will be able to evade most attempts at encryption, and so there will emerge a host of security questions that have yet to be answered. Machine learning and artificial intelligence will no doubt be accelerated. A few years ago, I wrote a book that discussed the limits of AI based largely on the notion that the semiconductors of classical computers would reach a point where they could not be reduced in size any further, that there is only so much processing power that can be confined to such a small space, and that the intelligence of a computer would reach its peak. Quantum Computing offers the possibility of blasting through those physical limits. AI + quantum computing could very well lead us to realize that theoretical possibility of an artificial general intelligence or indeed a super intelligence far beyond that of human intelligence.

The modeling and simulation of complex systems could also be possible with quantum computing. Everything from chemical systems to financial portfolios might be modeled. I have long argued that complex systems, especially, are exquisitely and intrinsically unpredictable, because of their sensitivity to initial conditions, their elaborate feedback loops, and other features that make prediction of the future behaviors of such systems all but impossible. It is more than plausible that quantum computers will permit more confident predictions of the behaviors of such systems.

If that proves the case, there are potential implications for the modeling and prediction of social systems, not just physical systems. If we gain the ability to model and predict, would we also gain the ability to control such systems, including the control over social systems?

In the early 1970s, Chile elected a socialist president, Salvador Allende, who promised to transfer property ownership from the wealthy to the state.In order to manage this socialist economy, Allende turned to Project Cybersyn. This was to be a central command room (opsroom) where data and information from the workings of the economy were to be ingested, analyzed and made available to the decision makers and managers.The system was to be run off a mainframe computer.

In the 1960s, the Soviet Union similarly worked on the idea that cybernetics could be employed to manage the economy, to unleash a consumers paradise to rival the one the West had developed. Allende was deposed in a coup, and so Project Cybersyn never really got off the ground. By the 1980s, free market ideology had taken hold of the Western imagination and the fall of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s seemingly ended any idea that the economy could be managed, even by a cybernetic system.

If quantum computers have the capacity to model, simulate, and potentially control complex systems, might we see a nation attempt something like Project Cybersyn again? Further, we might imagine an authoritarian seeking to extend cybernetic management beyond the economy to include control over society, culture and politics as well.Might quantum computing help to facilitate quantum authoritarianism?

After the PC revolution, we have become accustomed to thinking that all new technologies will eventually be democratized, made abundant and inexpensive and within access to all consumers. A very likely scenario is that at some point quantum computers will power all sorts of consumer-grade tools and applications, and that we will all carry a quantum computer in our pockets.

But it is also possible that quantum computing will remain an exclusive technology. Think of all the technologies we have developed that have not been made consumer-grade. One thinks of MRI scanners or F-16s or nuclear power plants. It is possible that relatively few quantum computers will be produced, and those that are made will be used only by specialists.Quantum computers might similarly remain in the hands of a few, an important infrastructure technology, perhaps, but one that will not be in the hands of consumers.Imagine Amazon Quantum Services.

Even if we dont end up having quantum computers in our homes, it is possible that the idea of the quantum will spread such that it will alter our societal worldview. Think of howafter the rise of the Internetthe concept of the network has reshaped how we see and understand reality. To take but one example, Anne-Marie Slaughter argues that diplomats and international relations scholars have shifted from using game theory to network theory to understand the world.

The idea of the network as a metaphor has had a powerful effect on our worldview. Might quantum become the new cultural metaphor that implicitly shapes our thoughts and actions?The idea of being both-and or having alternate states existing simultaneously might find its way into our everyday language, changing how we view everything from social relations to the operations of the economy to how we teach schoolchildren to the way ideas go viral.

The metaphor of quantum superposition could very well influence the work of artists, the writing of poets and novelists, the actions of corporate boards, and the decisions of policymakerssimultaneously.

David Staley is an associate professor of history and design at The Ohio State University, and is president ofColumbus Futurists.He is the author of Visionary Histories, a collection of his Next futures columns.He was named Best Freelance Writer in 2022 by the Ohio Society of Professional Journalists for his Next column.

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NEXT: Quantum Computing and the Quantum Worldview - Columbus Underground

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