Nvidia to build quantum computing research centre in Boston

Nvidia is building a research center in Boston to provide cutting-edge technologies to advance quantum computing in collaboration with leading researchers, the tech giant announced.

The Nvidia Accelerated Quantum Research Center, or NVAQC, will integrate leading quantum hardware with AI supercomputers, enabling what is known as accelerated quantum supercomputing. 

The NVAQC will help solve quantum computing’s most challenging problems, ranging from qubit noise to transforming experimental quantum processors into practical devices, Nvidia said in a media release.

Leading quantum computing innovators, including Quantinuum, Quantum Machines and QuEra Computing, will tap into the NVAQC to drive advancements through collaborations with researchers from leading universities, such as the Harvard Quantum Initiative in Science and Engineering (HQI) and the Engineering Quantum Systems (EQuS) group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

“Quantum computing will augment AI supercomputers to tackle some of the world’s most important problems, from drug discovery to materials development,” said Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of Nvidia. “Working with the wider quantum research community to advance CUDA-quantum hybrid computing, the Nvidia Accelerated Quantum Research Center is where breakthroughs will be made to create large-scale, useful, accelerated quantum supercomputers.”

To address the challenges of integrating GPU and QPU hardware, the NVAQC will employ the Nvidia CUDA-Q quantum development platform, enabling researchers to develop new hybrid quantum algorithms and applications, the media release said.

The HQI — a community of researchers dedicated to advancing the science and engineering of quantum systems and their applications — will collaborate with the NVAQC to advance their research on next-generation quantum computing technologies.

“The NVAQC is a very special addition to the unique Boston area quantum ecosystem, including world-leading university groups and startup companies,” said Mikhail Lukin, Joshua and Beth Friedman University Professor at Harvard and a co-director of HQI. “The accelerated quantum and classical computing technologies Nvidia is bringing together has the potential to advance the research in areas ranging from quantum error correction to applications of quantum computing systems, accelerating quantum computing research and pulling useful quantum computing closer to reality.”

Researchers from the EQuS group, a member of the MIT Center for Quantum Engineering — which serves as a hub for research, education and engagement in support of quantum engineering — will use NVAQC to develop techniques like quantum error correction.

The NVAQC is expected to begin operations later this year.