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Quantum Computing: More Hype Than Reality?
Investors are getting excited, but quantum computing still has a long way to go before it is useful.
The age of commercial quantum computing is dawning — at least if you believe the marketing hype. Investors certainly seem to. The stock market debut of IonQ, a start-up focusing on quantum computers, is expected to attract a valuation of two billion dollars. That is a lot of money for a company that earned just $1 million last year.
The sky-high valuation suggests quantum computing has a rich future ahead of it. Forget that paltry million dollars of revenue — investors are expecting IonQ will start pulling in huge sums as the quantum market takes off. IonQ, they are hoping, will be the next Google or Apple. Are they right?
On the surface IonQ looks like a promising investment. Founded in 2015 by two quantum physicists, it has since attracted both funding and staff from some impressive companies and organisations. None of that, though, matters if quantum computing itself cannot live up to high expectations.
Quantum computers are not, as people often seem to think, a wholesale replacement of modern classical computers. They aren’t the next evolutionary step in the rapid growth of computing power; they are instead something quite…
