Google and Nvidia Team Up on Quantum Computer Development

Google Quantum AI is using the Nvidia CUDA-Q platform and the Nvidia Eos supercomputer to help develop its next-generation quantum computing devices.

The firm is using the platform to simulate the physics of its quantum processors as it works to overcome “noise” — a limitation of quantum computing hardware that allows it to run only a certain number of quantum operations before stopping, the companies said in a Monday (Nov. 18) press release.

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

With the CUDA-Q platform, Google Quantum AI can perform dynamical simulations of quantum devices to better understand noise in quantum hardware designs, according to the release.

The platform will make it affordable to run simulations that were previously prohibitively expensive to pursue and will perform in minutes the simulations that used to take a week, the release said.

The software powering these simulations will be publicly available in the CUDA-Q platform, per the release.

“AI supercomputing power will be helpful to quantum computing’s success,” Tim Costa, director of quantum and HPC at Nvidia, said in the release. “Google’s use of the CUDA-Q platform demonstrates the central role GPU-accelerated simulations have in advancing quantum computing to help solve real-world problems.”

Quantum computers, which harness quantum mechanics principles to perform complex calculations, could turbocharge AI systems’ processing power by leveraging quantum bits (qubits) properties like superposition and entanglement, PYMNTS reported in May.

This quantum-AI synergy could tackle computationally intensive tasks beyond classical computers’ reach, potentially helping to power breakthroughs in medicine, materials science, financial modeling and cryptography.

In March, Google Quantum AI and Google.org joined XPRIZE and the Geneva Science and Diplomacy Anticipator (GESDA) to launch XPRIZE Quantum Applications, a three-year, $5 million global competition to apply quantum computing to solve real-world challenges and prove quantum computing’s potential for practical utility.

The competition is closely aligned with Google Quantum AI’s focus on building a large-scale, error-corrected quantum computer and developing useful quantum computing applications.