00:00I want to start with the big picture then. Do the improvements in AI make quantum less relevant?
00:07Actually, first, thanks for having me. It's wonderful to be here.
00:10Secondly, we actually see the growth and improvement in AI as a very helpful factor
00:16because what we do is we don't see AI competing with quantum.
00:20We see AI solving certain kinds of problems very well.
00:24And quantum then being used to make the eye in AI, the intelligence in AI, more enhanced.
00:32So, for instance, when AI is starting to now take over the job of creating new kinds of molecules for
00:38energy,
00:39for new battery sources, drugs, that automation needs to be intelligent.
00:43It needs to have a way to understand how chemistry works.
00:47That's what quantum computing does.
00:49So, for us, it's very much AI and quantum.
00:52And for that, we need not only the quantum to improve, but we need AI to improve as well.
00:57But does quantum need AI more than AI needs quantum?
01:01I think when we work with customers and look at whether it's a pharma customer, it's a chemical customer,
01:08it's a materials or an optimization bank, they don't ask which one is more important.
01:13They say it's important to solve this problem.
01:16And in that workflow, there are certain things on classical does well.
01:20And certain things they absolutely cannot do, either efficiently or at all.
01:25And that's where you put the two together.
01:28It's kind of like saying if you have a part that you didn't have, the big structure would fall.
01:33Well, how important is that part?
01:35It's critical.
01:36Okay.
01:36It makes sense.
01:37I also want to talk about the U.S. administration investing in the sector.
01:41It's been quite recent, actually.
01:43But what does it tell us about how critical quantum computing is to national security and to tech sovereignty as
01:50well?
01:51Absolutely.
01:51It's a clear indication that in today's knowledge economy, to compete, you have to compute.
01:59Yeah.
01:59Everything is in a digital economy.
02:02So the executive orders from the White House as well as some of the follow-on activity has been actually
02:10eye-opening in terms of bringing the now of quantum into focus.
02:16For a few years, people have wondered, is quantum five years away, 10 years away, 15 years away?
02:21The investment, the directives to actually go implement quantum over the next couple of years is a very clear sign
02:31that, A, it's a critical part of your industrial and national security fabric, and it's imminent.
02:38But did it come with restrictions?
02:41Did the government have conditions about the supply chain for the funding?
02:44Because we've just seen Anthropic win its case, right, when it came to the court challenge.
02:48But is quantum going to have an Anthropic moment, do you worry?
02:54No.
02:54I mean, what we see is in the – you know, every nation, U.S. included, is strengthening its position
03:01in quantum.
03:01That means companies' creation of IP and onshore supply chains.
03:07And that is what the recent U.S. government moves have been, is to ensure that the U.S. companies
03:15have access to an onshore, rich, diverse supply chain to be able to compete for a market that is worldwide.
03:22Well, the White House put a billion dollars behind IBM to build a foundry in New York.
03:26Is it putting its money in the right places?
03:28Well, what it's betting on is, from our perspective, yes, because what it's betting on is the places where –
03:36or the modalities, as it's called, that are most promising in terms of delivering this commercial value unlock.
03:42And if you noticed, you know, they chose multiple companies, both in the quantum space and then multiple companies that
03:51serve as the supply chain into those companies.
03:53We were the only trapped ion company picked.
03:58But there's – in addition to IBM, there's also Global Foundries that is a foundry supplier to many of us
04:04that aren't in the superconducting IBM mode.
04:07Okay. You also, while you're in town, you're looking at where to invest more in the U.K.
04:13You're talking about Oxford, Cambridge, London.
04:17We know that the U.K. plans to spend £2 billion on quantum, but that was something that came under
04:23the Starmer administration.
04:24Have you any updates on that while you've been on this trip?
04:26No, I don't have an update, but we believe that the focus on improving and accelerating quantum, both technology creation
04:37and adoption, is a national strategic imperative, right?
04:41Our history is we've been based, you know, partially out of London, Cambridge and Oxford ever since we were born.
04:49You know, we are the kind of culmination of two companies coming together.
04:53So we have a rich history, we have a rich network, and we have a rich hope for the future
04:58of what we would do here.
05:00But has there been any change in the tone or amount of engagement under the Burnham administration?
05:05Not really.
05:06Okay.
05:07I mean, we continue to see good focus on workforce development, on technology creation, on testbed and access.
05:14And I think that is all very positive and aligned with the long-term direction of a technology that promises
05:20to be the next frontier of compute.
05:22I've just been looking at your stock.
05:24You still, I have to say, below the IPO price.
05:27So you're down about 10% from the $60 that you listed out in June.
05:31You did have this amazing day after earnings, 28% single-day surge.
05:37What's your message to investors who bought at the IPO price and are still underwater?
05:42Yeah, so it's very simple.
05:45Quantum is a transformational technology.
05:49And you need to bet on those, the company that is going to create the best hardware, the best developer
05:57platform, and then actually work to create the applications that create the value.
06:01We are that company.
06:03We have a technological lead in what's called fault-tolerant quantum computing.
06:07We have a widely deployed developer platform that is compatible with NVIDIA and AI infrastructures.
06:15And we have leading infrastructure providers and partners like Oracle, as we announced, working with us to accelerate adoption.
06:24This is a huge market.
06:28You can go and look at numbers, but it's in trillions by the end of 2030s.
06:34But even in the next three to four years, it's in the tens of billions of user value created.
06:39So this is about who gets and unlocks that value first and in the largest sort of way.
06:46Well, yeah, because you're a graduate of Intel and Micron, companies that know how to manufacture at scale.
06:52How far away is quantum from that kind of maturity when it comes to manufacturing?
06:57We are maturing it, right?
06:59So if you look at the agreement we have with Quanta, if you look at even the U.S. government
07:06LOI, our focus is not just building one machine that does something amazing.
07:11Our focus is on being able to supply to the demand that we see coming for companies that want to
07:17buy it on premise, for use it in the cloud.
07:20And so we have paid particular attention to getting a supply chain and manufacturing strategy implemented at scale.
07:27And just before I let you go, Raj, what are you most excited about coming?
07:32Because I know you've got Sol slated to launch next year.
07:35What's the biggest risk between now and the launch for that?
07:43And what can you tell us about what's in the future?
07:44So we feel very good about Sol because part of our strategy has been is every generation of system, which
07:50is Helios in the market today, de-risks the next generation.
07:53So as I said in the earnings call, we have the early parts of Sol back.
07:59We've got assembling it.
08:01We've already de-risked some of the critical technologies Sol will need.
08:04So we feel very comfortable about Sol.
08:07But Sol represents a gigantic step forward in then further de-risking what fault-tolerant quantum computing can be.
08:14You know, two years ago, about a year ago, people were still talking about error correction as something of a
08:20dark science and an art.
08:21We've demonstrated it.
08:23We've got five nines fidelity, which is like 99.999% accurate.
08:29And that's what's critical for opening up applications and pharma and energy and optimization.
08:35So that is what we do.
08:37What we're most excited, you asked me what I'm most excited about, is that level of capability that two years
08:43ago people thought was 10 years away.
08:44So that's what we're most excited about.
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