{"text":[[{"start":6.3,"text":"As a second wave of quantum computing companies list their shares this year, something unexpected has been happening."}],[{"start":14.579999999999998,"text":"This might seem like a time when investment in quantum would start to narrow to the handful of companies with the best chance of being first to build a full-scale machine. After years of intriguing science experiments, the race is on to show which can be scaled up to produce a workable machine by the end of this decade. At times like this, investors are usually focused on trying to separate the winners from the losers."}],[{"start":43.709999999999994,"text":"The reality is turning out to be very different. Instead, money has been flowing into a widening range of companies, including backing newer quantum technologies that are further back in the development cycle. A field that could have a profound impact on things as far apart as drug discovery and measuring investment portfolio risk looks as wide open as ever."}],[{"start":66.69999999999999,"text":"The latest batch of quantum companies, not all of which have started trading yet, aim to raise more than $1.5bn between them. That isn’t much by the standards of AI, but still counts as serious money in quantum. They make up an international cast and represent differing technologies, including Infleqtion (from the US), Xanadu (Canada), Pasqal (France) and IQM (Finland)."}],[{"start":95.14999999999999,"text":"A first wave of stocks at the start of the decade — comprising IonQ, Rigetti and D-Wave — highlighted the most mature quantum technologies at that time. Their qubits — the basic building blocks from which quantum machines are built — were made either from superconductors or by manipulating charged atoms, a technology known as ion traps."}],[{"start":119.67999999999999,"text":"Superconductors, in particular, have hogged much of the attention and investment. Google and IBM, the furthest along of the big tech companies, both hope to build full quantum machines based on this technology by the end of the decade. The race looks far from being locked up, however."}],[{"start":139.22,"text":"The US defence department’s innovation arm, Darpa, started a hunt more than three years ago to try to identify which quantum companies had the best chance of building a full, “utility scale” computer by 2033. Despite narrowing its hunt late last year to the most promising, Darpa is still looking at 14 companies encompassing a bewildering array of different hardware technologies."}],[{"start":165.71,"text":"This range is reflected in the companies that have been beating a path to the stock market this year. While IQM uses superconductors, Pasqal and Infleqtion use neutral atoms for their qubits, and Xanadu uses photons. There are trade-offs with all these technologies. Some qubits are more stable but operate at a slower speed, while others need to be cooled to temperatures close to absolute zero, for example. "}],[{"start":192.41,"text":"Even some of the companies furthest along are hedging their technology bets. Late last month, Google, which had been all-in on superconductors, revealed it had launched an entirely new research programme around neutral atoms. Microsoft, which has spent years trying to harness theoretical particles known as Majorana fermions to leapfrog others, has also placed a side bet on neutral atoms, forging a close relationship with Atom Computing."}],[{"start":223.55,"text":"Further back in the investment pipeline, other promising technologies have also started to attract wider interest. These include machines based on so-called silicon spin qubits, which are being developed by companies such as Quantum Motion in the UK and Australian groups Silicon Quantum Computing and Diraq."}],[{"start":244.4,"text":"Proponents say manufacturing the qubits for these systems is closest to the CMOS process on which modern chipmaking is founded, meaning that they can ride on the back of decades of huge investment in the chip industry. This could produce machines that cost far less than the $1bn that Google executives predict it will take to build their first full-scale quantum computers."}],[{"start":270.03000000000003,"text":"This doesn’t mean that there hasn’t been some consolidation. The first companies to go public have already used a mix of stock and cash to mount acquisitions of promising start-ups, with IonQ buying the UK’s Oxford Ionics and D-Wave acquiring Quantum Circuits, a company founded by the Yale quantum pioneer Rob Schoelkopf."}],[{"start":292.86,"text":"Also, as the biggest companies look to hedge their bets and build out full, vertically integrated systems spanning most aspects of quantum hardware and software, it seems inevitable they will use acquisitions to fold in other promising technologies along the way. For now, though, investors are still betting that the quantum race is wide open."}],[{"start":324.49,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1775890872_3522.mp3"}