$100 Million Fund Aims to Spearhead Quantum Computing
A total of $30 million in funding raised thus far.
The Quantum Wave Fund is aiming to raise $100 million for funding for early-stage private companies that already boast viable products related to quantum computing.
"Too many people take quantum computing as hypothetical," Serguei Kouzmine, managing partner of the fund, told CNET. "We want to make a statement that it's serious and it's today. Yes, the really bright future may be around the corner, but today, there's enough to pay attention to."
The fund will focus on security, new measurement devices and new materials. It's currently raised around $30 million in funding, with those managing the fund planning to invest in 10 to 15 companies, giving each around $2 million to $10 million.
In addition to the delivery of the investment, the fund will help said companies "improve processes in engineering, production, marketing, and sales when ready to supply these devices to the global market."
The fund was founded by scientists-turned-entrepreneurs, with its scientific advisory board comprised of professors and scientists from Harvard, Purdue, and quantum centers from around the globe.
Vladimir M. Shalaev, scientific director of nanophotonics and professor of biomedical engineering and physics at Purdue University, said he and other advisers would analyze firms in order to determine if they're worth investing in from a scientific perspective.
"I've been involved in research with meta materials and [have been] asked when is a good time to invest," he explained. "My reply is 'still early to invest though tomorrow could be late.' You can apply this here, and quantum has a huge potential impact. Quantum, I believe, will be the next technology evolution to impact our society."
"It addresses societal needs of processing information faster and making computers faster by all running on quantum science. Science is now moving there. The Nobel Prize this year was an example of what is possible. The science is there, the technology is getting there. The fund has great timing now to launch. Science that can make a big impact in the world, it will change our lives."
Back in September, Australian researchers had said quantum computers are five years to a decade away from coming to fruition.

i mean operateing differences and what would the processing power be between a cpu that uses quantum mechanical to work, and one that does not?
thats the part that i never understood, what the difference would be.
They would likely be very useful for statistical calculations, but would be useless for general computing.
-Julian
so, from what you are saying, instead of processing 1000 things, it can guess every state in that 1000 thing in 1 tick where a normal processor would take 1000
somehow that doesn't sound incredibly efficient for most tasks i can think of, however code cracking and such, this processor would be a godsend.
knowing exactly what they are isnt an issue right now as knowing how to even properly utilize them isnt even well known, at least i beleive, i cant really find anything about even prototypes that put it into simple terms.
thats why im asking a more reasonable, what they mean to the consumer, what will it do for me.
I work for this guy.
This is $100 Million for creating a business from the current research. Someone thinks they can start the quantum revolution, we'll see how it goes.
The Insitute for Quantum Computing just moved into a $160 Million building. They've received $100 Million from the Canadian and Ontario governments. Personal donations of $200 Million from Mike Lazaridis (co-founder of RIM)
There's some minor commercialization but it's still mainly within the scientific research realm. Better tools to further the research IN the quantum world.
http://iqc.uwaterloo.ca/faculty-research
Almost $500 Million spent in one single insitute and they're still a little ways away form technology based on their research let alone a full blown quantum computer for high level computation at a performance level surpassing supercomputers.
Example: it takes years with the best supercomputers to crack a 32 character long password (using brute force aka guessing the password starting from 00...0 down to zz..z ), 1 quantum computer would take 1 second.
1 More processing power
2 Better graphic cards
3 Faster world wide networks
4 More storage
5 Better research tools for investigating medical , physical , chemical phenomenal
When the Laser was first discovered , scientist said it will never be used in anything applicable . Now we use lasers for everything . Same thing here , but we know it will revolutionize all things !
because of what they said, the quantum computer can guess all the combinations at once, thats why i said it would be a code crackers wet dream.
but i fail to see how guessing everything at once would help standard things that don't need to be guessed.
i have no doubt that quantum computers will be the stepping stone from the what, 6 or 7nm to smaller sizes because the way things are currently, we cant deal with i believe its called quantum tunneling at those levels.
its hard to explain the way i think they would work without having a firm grasp on how they work, and so far the simplest explanation is they guess everything, which when applied to a brute force crack, would work wonders.