Nvidia and Google Join Forces to Accelerate Quantum Computing—Or Die Trying

Ahh quantum computing. It’s the next big thing, the great bambino above AI if you will… and not surprisingly, it’s Nvidia that’s right in the middle of it (because why wouldn’t it be Nvidia). In short, the one company that’s propped the market on it’s back all year is officially teaming up with Google Quantum AI to tackle… you guessed it… quantum computing. 

(Source: Giphy) 

You see, quantum computing is that field where everyone’s trying to use the weirdness of quantum mechanics to solve problems faster than your everyday, garden-variety semiconductors ever could. In fact, think of it as the Ferrari of computing… except right now it’s stuck in first gear, and no one has quite figured out how to drive it without crashing. Which is why Nvidia thinks it can help Google give that Ferrari an old fashioned Ricky Bobby tune-up.

(Source: Yahoo Finance) 

So what’s the holdup on making this overhyped-but-potentially-world-changing tech a reality? One word: noise. But not the noise that most would expect. For instance, in the quantum world, noise is what happens when those delicate quantum bits—or qubits—start acting up and messing with calculations. It’s like trying to do calculus while your dog’s chasing a squirrel. Things get chaotic fast, and the whole system just throws in the towel.

But now that Nvidia and Google are teaming up, their whole mission is to simulate the physics of these quantum processors using Nvidia’s CUDA-Q platform and its Eos supercomputer. The goal? To figure out how to scale up quantum hardware without letting noise crash the party.

(Source: Giphy) 

According to Guifre Vidal, a research scientist from Google Quantum AI: “The only way this quantum computer thing works is if we can keep noise in check.” And Nvidia’s AI-powered simulations are the key to doing that. They’re using a hybrid quantum-classical approach, which is basically a fancy way of saying they’re letting traditional computers do the heavy lifting to model quantum systems before they even build them. Fancy. 

(Source: Nvidia) 

Which again, is why Nvidia’s Eos computer is the MVP of this whole debacle - why? Because it runs on Nvidia’s H100 Tensor Core GPUs. Simply put, these bada$$es are simulating quantum processors with 40 qubits, which, for context, is kind of like trying to model a mini-universe. Without Nvidia’s muscle, running these simulations would take weeks, but with CUDA-Q? Experts are saying it could not only take minutes… but at a fraction of the cost. 

Now with that said, while every bit of this sounds exciting (presumably getting every nerd heavy investor all horned up), quantum computing is still in its awkward teenage phase. For one, it still doesn’t know what it identifies as, and two, it doesn’t know if it likes boys or girls yet (a.k.a. what it get's turned onto). Meaning, there’s a lot of hype, a lot of promise, but we’re still decades away from discovering what it can really do. 

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That being said, Nvidia and Google are making real strides in solving some of the fundamental issues that have held quantum computers back. And if they can iron out the noise problem and scale these systems, we might just start seeing quantum computing live up to the hype—eventually.

(Source: Giphy) 

But still, what the heck do I know? Maybe in a few years, quantum computing will be more than just a sci-fi dream. Which would be cool… or scary (only time will tell). But for now, we’re still in the “let’s see if this even works” phase. And if anyone can make it happen, it’s probably Nvidia—because apparently, they’re good at literally everything.

In the meantime, don’t get your hopes up though. If anything the only thing that may come from this team-up is just re-priced valuations to the upside for both giants. And I, for one, am all here for that. As always, stay safe and stay frosty friends! Until next time…

P.S. Do you hear that sound? If you listen closely, it’s the sound of a stock getting probed with massive short interest, and a sky-high borrow fee that would make your 8% mortgage look like a friggin’ happy meal. Meaning, once this catalyst lights a fire under this little known stock, we could potentially see some fireworks POP… and when I say pop… I mean triple-digit to the moon pop. Curious to know what the ticker is? Click here for the details.

Stocks.News holds positions in Google as mentioned in the article.