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Welcome back to Impact Quantum, the podcast where we decode the

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quantum future one entangled conversation at a

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time. I'm your virtual MC Bailey. In this

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episode, Frank is joined as always by the queen of quantum

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curiosity herself, Candice Gilhooly.

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Today, we're thrilled to be joined by Nia Alfasi,

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general manager of the Israeli Quantum Computing Center.

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Niz coming to us quite literally from the cutting edge of quantum innovation

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with a real functioning quantum fridge behind him to

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prove it. We'll dive into Israel's burgeoning quantum

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scene, the role of quantum data centers, and why the

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future of computing is less Silicon Valley and more global

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village. Grab your coffee or your cryogenic coolant, and

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let's get started.

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Hello, and welcome back to Impact Quantum, the podcast where we explore the

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emergent fields of quantum computing and focus on

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what that ecosystem is going to look like and how to

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best position yourself today, for the quantum future and how

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to be quantum curious. Along with me on this journey, is

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the most quantum curious person I know, Candice Kahuli. How's

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it going, Candice? It's going great. Thank you very much. I just

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wanna mention that on the April 8, I woke up

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to snow. Wow. I just have to put it out there. I do. We had

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a frost warning. So Okay. I guess I can't complain too

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much. But where our guest is,

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it's 30 degrees Celsius, which is about 86 degrees

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Fahrenheit ish. So warm and toasty,

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I suppose. And, he is the general

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manager of the Israeli quantum computing sensor,

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Nir Afalsi. How's it going, Nir? It's great.

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Going great. Thanks for having me, Frank and Candace. So for those

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watching the thank you. Thank you. For those of you watching the video, he that

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actually is a quantum computer over his right shoulder.

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Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. So Get jealous. Get

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jealous. That's so cool. He had he had a great

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background on today already, and then we asked him to drop the

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kimono and show us where where he really was and what we could see

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and and And that's even cooler, honestly. So cool. So cool. Yeah.

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I'm geeking out a little bit yesterday. And it literally is cool. Right? You know,

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because, you know, close to absolute zero. Badump. Boom. Yep.

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So one of the things that we've been talking

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about, recently is data centers

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and how well, two things. Like, one, the 2025,

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it's April. And

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it's already been a pretty wild year in quantum computing with all the

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announcements coming out. First, it started off with kind of the CES kind

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of, oh, no. This is gonna be not not a thing anytime

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soon, right, from from everybody's favorite

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GPU CEO, to

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now every company is coming out with these announcements just fast and

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furious. What's your take on the current state of the quantum

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computing world? I think it's

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advancing really, really fast. You know? I mean, so I think

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there is a lot of hype around it.

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I think it's only natural, you know. I think the, the

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field is going generally in a steady

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state forward. I don't

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think we're yet in some exponential rise or

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especially in the, you know,

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physically and technically speaking. But I

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think the height the hype is is justified. You know, you want

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to this is this is going to basically change the world, you know. It might

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take a few years, depends on who you ask.

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But I think it definitely is something

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a new part a new computing paradigm that we're not used

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to. We don't know it. And I think

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the for me, the most important thing and and and

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the most, I would say, encouraging is to see

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so many startups coming out all around the world, both in

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Israel, but also, like, worldwide. And I know eventually

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one of them will shine. You know, it's a it might be one of the

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big players also. But I think it's also, like, not only that

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it's going forward, but it's only ex also expanding,

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you know, in width. So I think this is very, very encouraging to the

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entire field. Absolutely. I think one of the

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the detriments of existing technology industry

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is that it's focused really in pretty much

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Silicon Valley, and Seattle. Right? So kind of

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one time zone. And I think that

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I think that there's a certain geographic bias that you have if

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you're based in an area, and I think that it's encouraging to see

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this quantum hotspots around the world, like you said. Right? There's

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obviously what you're doing in Israel. There's, Montreal, apparently, is a

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big quantum presence.

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Maryland, where I live, actually has a has a pretty big

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research center. Obviously, you know, its proximity to DC probably

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helps. Maybe maybe I

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was joking. We were joking with somebody the other day who was talking about College

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Park, Maryland is where the University of Maryland is, but it's also

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this massive IKEA is there. So we always joke, like, maybe there's a

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correlation between IKEA presence of IKEA's

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and quantum hot spots. I don't know. But, Then then it would be

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everywhere in the world. Right? That's right. Then maybe that's what it is. Like, people

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just really like the Swedish meatballs. I don't know. Or maybe to

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assemble the furniture without any problem, you have to be a

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PhD level physicist. I don't know. But,

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I think that I think that's interesting because I've noticed that too. Right? Like, there

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are definitely kinda hot spots, but the hot spots are not the hot spots

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didn't say technology were, you know, Seattle, Redmond, you know,

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San Jose, Cupertino. Right? All in one time zone. And,

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arguably, you could say New York has a pretty solid startup scene too.

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Right? But I've noticed that quantum

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hot spots tend to be far more evenly distributed.

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We also find that the hot spots are now usually

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in correlation to a major university, that's around them.

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So for example, the hot spot in Boston is very

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much connected with MIT and Harvard. Right?

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You have universities, you know, College Park, Maryland. They

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have Boulder, Colorado. Today, a lot of news is coming out of

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Chicago. They've just received

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there's there's a place in Chicago, the Illinois Quantum,

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and Microelectronics Park. They've just received an additional

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$2,000,000 to work with PsiQuantum

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on more, you know, really establishing Chicago,

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Illinois as as one of these quantum centers. I just wanted to

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throw that in.

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Interesting. So I QMP. I I I'm aware of that. Yeah.

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Oh, very cool. What is the, what

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are the main problems that you're working on in in your lab?

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Or do they you kinda just what what are the main problems you're trying to

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solve? Are they industry problems? Are they kind of, you know, how do we build

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one of these machines? How do we make them practical? Yeah. So maybe

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before we dive into the problems, maybe it's it's better to, you know, just

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just give you what do we actually do here and then it

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might, you know, give a better context to the discussion. So,

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the IQCC, first of all, it's it's it's it's it's being built and operated

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by by by Quantum Machines, which is an Israeli startup. It's,

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the largest Israeli startup. It's it's a it's a quantum control

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company, the largest quantum control company in the

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world, the leading one, with, you

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know, over 300 customers everywhere in all the places you

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mentioned. We're everywhere. So this is already an

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established well funded, also a

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company. Recently, we announced a a a

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a round of another additional

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$170,000,000. So this

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is already an established company, with an established

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sector of customers. And we got basically the

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mandate from the Israeli Innovation Authority to build this

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Israeli Quantum Computing Center, which

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is partially funded by the Israeli Innovation Authority, but still

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managed and owned by quantum machines. And the idea of the IQCC

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is to be an infrastructure for,

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to allow basically research and development for

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third parties. Okay? So I personally

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don't do like do not develop quantum computer here.

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Okay? I am dedicated to

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adjust the infrastructure. So I need to do some R and D on my on

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my behalf on how to allow the best facility

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for the quantum ecosystem, I would say,

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to basically connect

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and run their R and D on on this premise.

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Okay? So in general, we have these

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three, you know, and that's really generally speaking of these three services.

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One of them is a quantum computer over the Cloud. So

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you can connect remotely to a quantum computer

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at the IQCC. We have several technologies

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basically. One of them is superconducting

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quantum computer. We have two

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processors, one with 17 cubits and the other is 21 cubits.

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So you can log in, run your algorithms, run your

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research, and you can do it at the pulse level. So you

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can go as low as you want in the stack, I would say.

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So this is one thing that we're enabling basically. In addition,

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everything is tightly integrated with

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supercomputers with a high performance computing HPC.

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So, this is why we call it a quantum

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data center because it's not only about quantum computers, it's also about classical

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computers and tight integration between the quantum and classical.

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And part of it is the DGX Quantum, the project that Quantum Machines has

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together with NVIDIA on basically, you

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know, tightly integrating in the at the hardware

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level. The control, the OPX 1,000 by quantum machines

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and the Grace Hopper, the NVIDIA Superchip. So

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this is one offering that we have. The other the second

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one is basically a cryogenic test bed.

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So this is for hardware, more

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for hardware companies. So let's say that you are a startup. You would

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like to, you know, you think you have the best idea for the best cubits

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ever cubit ever. If you want to build the same thing that I have, you

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know, right behind me, it will take you first of all, you know, multimillion

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dollars but also probably around a year if

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you're fast. So, you know, we are able

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to assist startups at their their initial phase

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to test their devices here at the IQCC.

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And it's very very important to for us to accelerate the

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ecosystem basically. So you can start here and then, you

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know, eventually we will build your own lab. You will go to your own way

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but this is a great start. You get, you know, the state of the art

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system which will take you a lot of money, a lot of time to

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build and you get it on day one and you can start running with it.

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And the third thing that we do is also we we give education and

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and and quantum workforce training at the IQCC, which we

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believe is really kind of a bottleneck today at at in the quantum

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industry. You know, I've been in the academia

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for what fifteen years? And so you don't want any

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person that works at the quantum industry to

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be after, you know, bachelor, master, PhD, and a postdoc.

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Right? And then, okay, now you you now you can go work at a quantum

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industry or maybe you're only PhD and then you need like ten years.

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Right. Right. But then maybe it's not mandatory.

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Maybe you can take good physicists, good electrical engineers.

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They're amazing. They've been working for fifteen years in the industry. Okay. You train

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them for a few months, you made them a quantum expert, you know.

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So this is kind of also where the market is heading because, you

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know, it's growing rapidly. And

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other than, you know, money, time, you also need good people.

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And this is something also that we are aiming to lead at the

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IQCC as well. So I

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mean That's really cool. That answers your your question.

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No. It answers you just then some. Right? I mean like I mean is it

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fair to say you're like a quantum accelerator? Right? Like, I mean, or quantum

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Exactly. Exactly. I think couple of things you said there. I think we're just a

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hundred percent spot on. I don't wanna hog the mic because I know Candace is

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I see her eyes, like, you know, lighting up. But I think the number one

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thing was, you know, there's a lot of people you're right. That,

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you know, maybe they have a design I like the idea that you have where

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you have like a cryogenic center where you can be like, Hey, I have this

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great idea. I have this great idea. I want to build this hardware. And then

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let's just give a crazy example. Like, you know, maybe once it gets to a

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certain temperature, the board cracks or the breadboard cracks or or whatever. Right? Like,

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it's it's a great way to test and prototype. Right? I think that's brilliant.

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The other thing too was you're absolutely right. Like, there's a shortage of people

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and skill set in the quantum I don't wanna say the quantum realm because I

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think of Ant Man or whatever. But, like, you know, the quantum space is that

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you're right. Like, the amount of people that are gonna be needed

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for this space, you know, if you go through the traditional

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kind of, you know, PhD in physics, postdoc work, and then

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industry, that's really gonna slow things down. But what if you could take not just

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electrical engineers, but software engineers, right, And kinda say, like, this is

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how you this is how you would code it in traditional, and you can kinda

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take them and and repurpose them into, you know, the different types of

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algorithms and stuff like that. I remember reading about

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the different gates that are available inside of a quantum computer and was

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completely floored. I'm like, wow. This this opens up a lot of doors.

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Right? And then it's and I even wonder, like, you

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know, are you gonna need to offer, like, remedial computer science

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for a lot of these people? Because last time I really thought a lot about

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logic gates at that level was a long time ago. I'm not even sure

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they teach that that to kids today at school. You know what I mean?

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So, and and certainly, you know, not all

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computer science

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programs are created equally. Right? I'm I'm pretty sure that you would have a different

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experience if you went to, like, one of those boot camps where they taught you

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how to code. Like, not knocking on them, but I don't know how much time

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they spend on the actual, you know, silicon in in the

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example. Right? So I think it's I think it's great because you're you're really kind

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of building ahead. It's like if let's just say if a company

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figures it out tomorrow, right, everything goes perfect for them,

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They're gonna need to hire all these people. The quantum curious. Right? And, you know,

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you're gonna need quantum marketers. Like, well, what's that mean? How do you market a

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quantum computer? How do you how do you what's your d t g go to

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market plan? Like, what's your what's your marketplace look like? You know?

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And and all sorts here, the practical stuff. Like, you know, if I'm

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a if I'm a data center designer, right, I

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obviously, I have electricians, electrical engineers on

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my staff, but what are the unique power requirements for quantum computers

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as they are today, right? They they they obviously have, you know, cooling

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systems, but probably not liquid nitrogen based stuff. Like, what does

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that look like? Like, what is that practical kind of like not

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even day two stuff. I think, you know, kind of just the how

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do you rack them and stack them as they would say. Right? Like, what's that

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look like? Did you have any

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questions, Candace? Well, I was just really interested in the bottleneck

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idea that there is so much opportunity for

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other people in this industry, you know, to kind of

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find a spot where they could be, you know, teaching the

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knowledge that they have in order to bring people closer,

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to what they need in order to use these systems appropriately.

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I like the idea that there's a lot of space there. I like the idea

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that it doesn't have to be necessarily a direct path,

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that there's you know, you can take people with different skills and then you can

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position them in certain in certain areas where then they're

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able to teach others what they need in order to make these

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systems effective. I like that kind of collaborative

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feel. You know? I'm also in my head, I'm kind of

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thinking, like, what kind of problems are you

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are you trying to get solutions for by

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using, your quantum computer? Like, what are

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you specifically looking at right now?

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Yeah. So I think the idea of the IQCC, and that that's what I like

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the most. So first of all, I mean, the

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quantum ecosystem is is is is pretty large and and

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starting or at least starting to be pretty large with but there are a lot

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of, like, small companies and usually,

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each company works alone. And I think that at least as I

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see the future of quantum computing of quantum computers, like,

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you should really have, like, a, you know, a dedicated focused

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company working on a certain thing. So I don't see so so for

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example, let's say that I'm building a quantum computer, right, and I

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need cables. I will not go in I will not go and build the

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cables. Right? Or I will not or let's say, I even need a a

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laptop. Right? I will not go and build the laptop. I'm gonna buy it from

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the store or the same with the with with the cable. So I

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think in my in my vision, I

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see I see that, you know, when you build a quantum computer, you

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need so many components. And I think like

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you just need expertise in each one of them. So for

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example, quantum machines are experts in quantum control.

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And you can see behind me, for example, you have, you know, BlueForce that are

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experts in dilution fridges. There are other companies, it's

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fine. But I wouldn't want to see

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companies build their own, you know, components

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when you have them when you have small companies which are experts

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in these components. And the same goes, in my opinion,

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for software and algorithms. Right? So at the

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IQCC, the idea is that we give, you know, we have we have place for

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everyone. We can give you the access to each level of the

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stack. So we have, you know, software companies working

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here but also like all over the stack.

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If you go to, you know, like a

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computer, right? You have intel that are making the chips but you have

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Windows and you have Excel and you have, I don't know,

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Adobe PDF view. Right? So it's like you have things across the

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stack and that's the same for quantum computers. So

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we have There's a whole ecosystem there's a whole ecosystem that is Yeah. And

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and and and it's a full stack. Right? So you can here you can

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test the chip. If you have, let's say, that you

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build a filter or or an amplifier or something, you can test

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it with a chip that we provide. You can

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log in if you have a low level software that needs to, you know, maybe

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you run quantum error correction but on the actual like

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hardware level. Right? You want to learn the noise on the hardware

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level. You can get access to that, that's pulse level access. If you

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want to go higher in the stack, you go

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gate level access. You can run-in gate level access here and then, you know,

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if you're trying to do quantum error correction or quantum

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algorithms. And I feel like,

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you know, we need to advance in all of this stack. So it's

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like this is this is this is, how I

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feel obviously like the the processor itself is a huge, huge, huge

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engineering

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challenge because we still don't have, you know, fault tolerant

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qubits. But the idea is that, okay, maybe we don't need fault tolerant

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qubits. Maybe we just need good control system and good quantum error

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correction algorithms and that will fix it. So I think

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that's kind of where the the industry is going. Like, okay, let's try to improve

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the qubits. Let's try to improve the the software. Let's try to improve the control.

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Let's try to improve the the filters that we have so we have less

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noise. So everything is is needs to, you know,

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basically be better. And,

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so I think this this is this is what we're trying to provide. Like, accelerate

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basically, the realization of of useful quantum

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computers. That's that's the idea. Interesting.

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And you might be a first person, Candace. Correct me if I'm wrong. That is

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really kind of explained that, you know, the whole

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ecosystem and has a holistic approach

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to what that whole ecosystem needs to look like. Oh,

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absolutely. Like, the way he's talking about how there's so many

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there's so many different positions that are available. There's so much

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need, for people with specific type of knowledge

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that they could all go into this and be incredibly

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collaborative, which you know is always my game. I'm always I'm all

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into the collaboration of it all. I don't care about one about

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one company kind of standing up and being the leader. I'd rather there be

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a whole bunch, kind of bringing everyone towards, you

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know, understanding quantum computing better. But no,

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I really like how he breaks up the ecosystem in a very different way than

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what we've heard before. A %. And I think it also I

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mean, maybe it's confirmation bias, but Candace and I kinda had

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this idea that, like, when this thing blows up or grows

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up, right, it's gonna need you're gonna need a village. Right?

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You're gonna need the ecosystem. Right? Like, the PC industry as we

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know it, if you kinda look at the early documentaries and, you

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know, where it started off with the Altair and these home brew

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computer groups, every one of those people that were at those meetings

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well, not every one of them, but, like, each one of them had a startup,

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had realized that they had to fix one particular aspect of something. Right? So like

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you said, like, you know, you're not gonna go buy you're not gonna you're not

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gonna go make your own cables. Right? You're gonna buy it from someone

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who makes cables. Right? And, like, I I think people

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people take for granted the entire ecosystem that exists in

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conventional or classical computers. Whereas this is gonna be some

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of it I think we'll be able to reuse, but some of it's gonna have

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to be completely built from the ground up. I think,

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like, even if you go to, you know, maybe, I don't know, the chip industry.

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Right? Mhmm. You go to these huge players. I don't know. Intel,

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TSMC, whatever. You got these huge players. But if you go to their okay. So

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maybe even let's assume that there is one that controls %

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of the chip industry. But then you if you go to their

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fabrication facility, I assume that they do not

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produce the the machines that produce the chips.

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Right? Right. Absolutely. Yeah. So they buy it from I don't know.

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Whatever company. I don't want to name names. But, you know, they're buying from somewhere

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and they have, you know, other devices that so they they

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they they gathered things from other places. They integrated them

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together and then they bring you the best product ever.

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Right? So I think there's a problem, but I don't correct me if

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I'm wrong, but I don't think NVIDIA even owns their own production facilities. Right? They

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they lease it from t t c TSMC.

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TSMC. TC. I'm gonna Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I'm sorry. I cut

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you off. But, like,

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Yeah. Yeah. So I'm not I'm not an expert, but, I mean,

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it only makes sense. Like, even if you even when you build a car when

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you build a car Right. You go you don't make your usually,

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I assume you don't make your own tires. Right? So they

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are like dedicated tire companies. And

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it only makes sense. Glass companies, dedicated Exactly. Exactly.

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And the robots. Who makes the robots that put the cars together on the assembly

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line? It's not Exactly. Exactly. The auto man car manufacturer.

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Exactly. So I think there's room for for for a lot of

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companies here that are really experts and dedicated. You

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know. I think there there is room for many

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technologies in my I mean, at least the near

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future. Obviously, you know, there might be one that will rise

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and, you know, just wipe everyone else because it's so much better.

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But currently, maybe, you know, one is

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better for this task and another one is better for this task.

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And, you know, for this one, you just need high numbers of

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qubits and short lifetimes. But for this one, you just need small number of qubits

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and long lifetimes and better fidelities. And, you know, you don't you need all to

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all connectivity. You don't need so I think there is room for for a lot

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of of players here at least, you know, in the

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near future. And I definitely see,

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I see much more collaborations. I would like to see even more,

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at least for my that's that's I would say even say it's my

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personal view.

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Usually, you know, especially when you come from academia, you're used to

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collaborate. And I've been fifteen years in the academia. So you're used to collaborate

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all around and you know, with people. So I think that's

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the that's the way to go. You know, you should really get that

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like the the the fridge from the expert, the the cable

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from the expert, the filter from the expert, the control from the expert, the QPU

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from the experts, etcetera, and integrate everything together

Speaker:

and and make, you know, a great quantum computer. That's, yeah.

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Very cool. So there hasn't been a lot of public announcements

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coming out of Israel, in terms of what they're

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doing with quantum computing. You know, we are hearing about other countries

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that are just being, just,

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just, you know, promulgating their their information

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greater? Like, do you find that that's something specifically about Israel

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that they're not necessarily trying to necessarily

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show off kind of what they have and what they're doing? It's more of

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kind of like an internal,

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kind of an internal project that they're kind of just working on and trying to,

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you know, see what they can create out of it? What do you think is

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the is the is the perception we should take

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from from what Israel does with their information, you know, involving

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quantum? Yeah. So so I I think

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I missed your the first few words that you said, but you said that Israel

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hasn't been Yeah. Yeah. I I see not much in the

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news. And I you know, and not not to say everyone should do what they

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wanna do, and what they think is the most important and appropriate

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for what they're trying to work on. I just find it is I find it

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interesting that constantly Israel is always on the

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cusp of every new technology that

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there is, but they keep it a little quiet, a little closer to the vest.

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Yeah. So I think, like, in general, so first of all,

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you know, the big players dominate also the news. Like, you hear about

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Microsoft, you hear about Google, you hear about IBM, you hear about Intel maybe. I

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don't know. So that's that's number one. I think you don't hear about,

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you know, amazing startups that are rising around the

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world. And I think that Israel is

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lagging a bit behind. I think we have great idea now. We have great

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ecosystem. That wasn't the case few years ago.

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So five so quantum machines was started in seven years

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ago in 2018 and 2019. And then there was like the only

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quantum company. Later, they came like two others more of a

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software higher level companies. And only recent two

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years started to to grow like this, a hardware

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quantum startups. They they want to do like, you know, full stack quantum

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computers. So I first of all,

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I think it's lagging a bit behind, but I think that the main thing

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is that Israel understood it. So we want to

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be more ahead.

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But in general, I think that, we're rising and I I mean, I hope

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that you will hear great news in the future. So I think like,

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there are lots, lots, lots and lots and lots of players, small players around the

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world that you do not hear about. And

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it doesn't mean that they're not, you know,

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not will not lead the industry

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in the future. Right? I also think I don't think there

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is I don't don't, you know, I don't think there is any intention to hide

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anything. Right? No. I would mean I didn't mean to apply that. I just thought

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it was We're a bit similar. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No. I

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I also completely understand what you mean. I also think too, like, the

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whole idea you're the first person to mention that you have, like, a quantum test

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bed, right, where you can hook it up to, like, one of those cooling systems

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and try it out. Like, I I I wonder, like, how many

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how many hardware startups are are gonna come from that. Right?

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And and and to your point, the fact

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that you're also focused on educating existing industry professionals,

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I think it's gonna you know, I can give it, like, three to five years

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and and and you will hear a lot more out of it. I think what

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you're doing there is very clever because you're you're planting

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seeds that will may not bear fruit this

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year, maybe not next year, but guaranteed they will in in the five year

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time frame. Because, you know, if you're going to have a quantum workforce, right? The

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quantum, you know, once there's a practical and I put practical in air

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quotes for those listening. Right? Because practical what

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what a practical quantum computer means is slightly different

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to whoever asked it. Right? You ask five people, you get seven different

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opinions or what a practical quantum computer is. But whenever

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that happens, whatever that

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happens, it will there will be an immediate need

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for a quantum capable or quantum aware workforce.

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That's from the people who build data centers, the

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people who plug stuff into the data centers, the people who write the code on

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it, the people who get paged out in the middle of the night when something

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breaks. Right? To the marketers, to this

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to the CEOs, and and, you know, all the business line

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folks. And, I think that, you know, you're built

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you know, I think you're really the first guest to realize,

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like, there needs to be kind of a public partner,

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private, partnership where you're building out this

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workforce because this is going to happen. Now when it'll happen, I think, is the

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only thing people are debating about. But,

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it's going to happen. And the best way to be prepared for the future

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rationale for this podcast. Right? Like, how do you go from being quantum curious

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to actually knowing how to talk to customers? How do you

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how do you explain to I had a conversation early this morning, oddly

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enough. Like, how do you explain to a CIO

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or CTO or CEO? Why they should care about

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quantum computers? Right? And kind of like

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my take was, you know, you

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have to explain to someone who's not technical.

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Explain, like, this is coming. It's going to do

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to conventional computers as you know them today to what

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computers did to the slide rule in Abacus. Right? It's going to be

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like that kind of, I don't want to say quantum leap, but it's going to

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be that type of jump ahead in processing power.

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And it's not going to be like, you know, a latest and greatest chip.

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Right? You know, Intel comes out with a new server chip or, you know, you

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know, a new i9 chip or I whatever chip, and you plug it into

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a motherboard, and you you plug it into the network, and boom, you suddenly have

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this magical new thing. It's gonna be a completely new

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ecosystem that has to be built. And, you know,

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and when you're getting down to brass tacks and kind of practical things, like, I

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don't know if it's gonna happen this year. I don't know if it's gonna happen

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next year. I don't know if it's gonna happen in five years. Right? I don't

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know. But the best way is to start thinking about that. How are you gonna

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hire quantum people? Right? You're gonna annoy a lot of people if, you know, say

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tomorrow. Right? This happens. Right? Well, we

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need someone with five years experience, you know, developing quantum computers, which is a

Speaker:

big annoyance that recruiters do. Right? Like, this framework came out a year ago.

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We need someone with ten years experience with it.

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Really? No. Yeah. Yeah. So,

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I mean, I think that, you know, the

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motivation for the Israeli Innovation Authority behind it

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was kind of, you know, if you build it, they will come. Right? Yeah.

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Right. Right. Absolutely. That's the idea. So, I mean, we are open

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to all of the world. Like, there is no restriction. Like,

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we're working with with the entire world and

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Israel, as part of this world. But the idea is, you know, that

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once it's here, it's closer. People are interesting. People are coming. They're looking.

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They're seeing. They're touching. Then it accelerates everything, you

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know? And in my opinion, it's working. It's working even

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though, you know, you might you might be working a lot with with also with

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with customers.

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It's still, you know, getting traction and hype and people are

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hearing about it from their colleagues and they say, oh, wait, it's right here in

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Tel Aviv. Right? I mean, I can drive fifteen minutes and I'm there. Let's go

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talk to them, see what's happening. And then it's much easier to collaborate and

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much easier to, you know,

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execute your great ideas because, you know, it's

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we have this great facility for lease and you can

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just, go and do stuff that you could not imagine before.

Speaker:

So this is really I think the, the motivation

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behind it, at least in terms of the IIA and obviously

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for quantum machines. No. I think it's great. I think it's

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great. I think we're gonna need the world's gonna

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need a lot more of this to follow the model that you have.

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Yeah. I think it's it's already going. Right? So Right. And

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obviously, in in in The US, it's, you know, on a larger scale. But I

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think we are actually I mean, I would say

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as far as I know, we're the first to to to build something like

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that, like a like a, you know, remote access

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quantum data center. And

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So were your systems there, are they are are they hybrid?

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So the idea here is to build

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a hybrid system because so so so we're seeing

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that the near future of quantum computing is is is being

Speaker:

hybrid. Like, you know, quantum computers will not stand alone in the next few

Speaker:

years. But we believe that, you know, CPUs, GPUs, they can accelerate

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it. And Right. That we have that's

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the idea behind the IQCC is to have a hybrid

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quantum classical computer. So we work kind of in,

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I would say, in layers. So the first layer, this is the

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OPX 1,000, the quantum control by quantum machines.

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And this can give you, you know, really fast

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control in the orders of nanoseconds, okay? Hundreds of nanoseconds,

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tens of nanoseconds, hundreds of nanoseconds. You can control your qubits. You can do

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really fast, operations on the qubits. But, you know,

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sometimes you want to do something that you need

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a larger compute capacity. Right? You want to do quantum error correction on a hundred

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cubits. And then you want to

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go to a classical processor. So what

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we're now co developing with NVIDIA, the DGX

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Quantum and we just gave a second demo

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at the APS, the American Physical Society March meeting,

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is that you can we have this

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dedicated communication card which is, been

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developed by Quantum Machines. So

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you can extract the information from the Quantum System. It goes out

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to this communication card with our logic on it with our

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IP, and then it can say, okay, what do you want to do next? Right?

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And then if it's a small operation, it goes directly to the OPX 1,000, to

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the control system. But if it's something that you need powerful computation

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resource, then it will direct you to the NVIDIA Grace Hopper. And

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then you have CPU GPU. It can decide, wait, this is a task for CPU.

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This is task for GPU. And then it comes back to the control and back

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to the quantum system, and every all of this is done in less than

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five microseconds. So I think we showed three point seven microseconds. So this

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is like microsecond time scale, which is shorter

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than the lifetime. So this is like really still real time

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measurements. Okay? So this is good for mid circuit measurements and real time

Speaker:

quantum error correction. And then if you wanna go, you know, you

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need okay. Wait. No. One GPU is not enough. I need more. Then

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we have in a separate room, like, a server room where you have DGX a

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100 by NVIDIA that's already eight GPUs. So you

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can also take it out there. But this is for like, you know, post processing.

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You're done with your measurement, you can take it

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out. This is milliseconds, time

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scale. Then you have larger,

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classical compute. And if you want, I would say, infinite

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classical compute, you can also we are also working with AWS cloud

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so you can take your information to the cloud and run it on as many

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GPUs as you want. And that will take, you

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know, a longer time scale. But this is like kind of the layers that we're

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working on. And this is our, you

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know, this is where we're focused. And

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we are really like Quantum Machines as a company is really, you know,

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focused on this tightly integration of quantum and

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classical processing because this we believe that this is the way to go in the

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future years. In the near future, I mean. Yeah. I

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mean, that makes sense. I mean, I think that it's

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certainly in the most practical way forward.

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Yeah. I mean, you know, quantum computers, you will not, you

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know, do your Excel sheet on a Excel sheet on a quantum computer or you

Speaker:

will not play GTA six, GTA seven on on your current

Speaker:

computer. So, you're also probably

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not run things that you run currently on on I don't know if you do,

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you know, GNAI and then and then generate, you know,

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these amazing pictures from the Simpsons have been sent Yeah. I do. You

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know, of my my my, you know,

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character in Simpsons. So I don't believe you're going to do it on on a

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quantum computer, but we we believe that each

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the same as as, you know, I'm going with my phone. I don't have a

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GPU here. Right? Right. And I don't have a GPU on my computer because I

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can just access the Cloud and and and, you know, one thing on AI and

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that runs on GPUs. So we believe

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this will be the same with quantum computers. You will have a quantum computer

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and you can just, you know, choose what will do

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the test that you want to do best. Or even in the task you

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want to do, which parts are done best on a CPU, which are done best

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on a GPU, and which are done best on on a QPU.

Speaker:

And I think this is really the vision, you know. I don't know what to

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say what will happen in fifty, seventy years. I

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always show this picture when I give this, you know, elect

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it talks about quantum computing. I will show this picture of, you know, IBM quantum

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computer IBM classical computer eighty years ago.

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Right? And it looks exactly similar to what you see here behind.

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Right? It looks very, very similar. So I say, okay. I don't know if in

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eighty years this is how the, you know, quantum computer will look like,

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but I know that in ten years it won't. Right?

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So I I think this is the idea. We're not gonna hold it in our

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pocket, but it will do the tasks and it will, you know,

Speaker:

you can direct specific tasks that it will excel in and

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things that are not only accelerating quant

Speaker:

classical computing, but actually opens to,

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you know, complete things that are completely blocked by classical

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computing. Wow. This is, you know, this is this is basically the hyper on quantum

Speaker:

because it's it's a new paradigm. It's not that you can do things faster.

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It's that you can do things that you could never done with a with a

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classical computer or it would take a billion years to do. Right.

Speaker:

Uh-huh. Which can be completely impractical, obviously. Yeah. Exactly.

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Exactly. Interesting. Yeah. So I think

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every all of these resources should coexist. I don't think,

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I don't know, Microsoft or or

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or or or Nvidia should be worried about their business, you know, because of quantum

Speaker:

computers. Because I think quantum computers will coexist with

Speaker:

CPUs and GPUs, and, that's that's at least my

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vision. Cool.

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Any parting thoughts, Candice? Honestly, I'm just so incredibly

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fascinated. I I really enjoy the whole collaborative

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effort of what quantum computing can be.

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That's really what excites me the most and and these,

Speaker:

and these data centers and what they can be used for. And you're totally right.

Speaker:

Like, we're not gonna be solving it for, you know,

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playing for generative AI. We're not gonna be using it,

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you know, to give us an image or to give us a Simpsons character. It's

Speaker:

going to be for the purpose that it's intended for. You know?

Speaker:

But, no, I I I love I love

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what Nir has explained, and I'm

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fascinated by, you know, the next the next thing that they're

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going to be able to create there. I mean, it's right behind them.

Speaker:

It's very exciting. I really I really like the the long view approach

Speaker:

you all have taken there because it it it's not

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you're you're doing you have the test bed. People can come and test

Speaker:

their hardware on and at cryogenic temperatures.

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You can also, you're also doing the

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courses for kind of, you know, quote, unquote normal people. Right?

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Not normal. Regular people. Classical people. There we go. Classical people.

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There we go. So I like it. I think I think it's

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it's brilliant. Like, on top of everything else you're doing, and I I I

Speaker:

would encourage others around the world to follow the similar model of,

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like, you know, start a quantum interest group or start, like, a

Speaker:

thing where you kind of study groups and things like that. And there's plenty of

Speaker:

of resources. And I'm also encouraged by,

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I'm encouraged by, you

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know, the collaborative approach that I'm seeing here. I think

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that's it's gonna be I think accelerate

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something. I would love to be able to come back

Speaker:

with you near, you know, in a little bit of time and just to see

Speaker:

what has progressed, what has happened, you know, where you

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are, where you're you know, the the next focus that you

Speaker:

have. I think that you have an incredible story

Speaker:

to tell, that a lot of people would

Speaker:

be really interested in that is not necessarily

Speaker:

being told right now by other companies

Speaker:

that are developing different types of technologies. It's really

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thoughtful and insightful with how you're explaining how this has

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to evolve and develop, and

Speaker:

how really just more people can come in to be involved in it.

Speaker:

I think that sounds fantastic. Absolutely.

Speaker:

So keep up the good work, and we definitely wanna keep in touch and let

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us know if you have anything you wanna share with us on our audience in

Speaker:

the future. And, we encourage those that are listening to go

Speaker:

and subscribe to our newsletter. Go to impactquantum.com. In

Speaker:

the upper right, there should be a thing

Speaker:

that says, you know, join our list, and,

Speaker:

we'll keep everyone informed of the latest happenings. I think

Speaker:

that sounds great. Thank you, Frank. And thank you here. This is there anything that

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you'd like to tell us as, like, a parting a parting comment,

Speaker:

or or a hot take, on,

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on quantum computing?

Speaker:

No. I mean, I first of all, thanks for having me.

Speaker:

It's also good to to sit there, I know, a lot of quantum podcasts.

Speaker:

Unfortunately, I I I don't have I mean, I don't listen much,

Speaker:

but, it's really it's really I mean, when you I mean, when I looked for

Speaker:

quantum podcast, I said, oh my god. There are so many. Maybe I should start

Speaker:

listening, you know? But it's really, really

Speaker:

great to see that, you know, it's also

Speaker:

intriguing for the for, you know, for the classical people.

Speaker:

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I mean, I think

Speaker:

that, I think quantum computing

Speaker:

ecosystem is going in the right direction. It grows.

Speaker:

I think it still needs, you know, a bit of time to to to

Speaker:

grow, but I think it's really, really going, steady forward.

Speaker:

At IQCC, we're also going to grow a lot this year.

Speaker:

So we're going to expand our facility.

Speaker:

And, I mean, every everything is expanding. Scaling is the is

Speaker:

the is the issue. And, I think this will

Speaker:

be the the the the next challenge. Right? How do we scale?

Speaker:

This is already the huge challenge. Right?

Speaker:

Yeah. So we need to scale both in quantum computing and and in the

Speaker:

quantum, audience. Excellent.

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Agreed. And we'll let our AI, Bailey, finish the

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show. And that, dear listeners, wraps up another

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quantum conundrum cracked wide open here on impact.

Speaker:

Quantum. Immense thanks to near alpha c for reminding us that

Speaker:

not all heroes wear capes and wear lab coats and hang

Speaker:

out next to very, very expensive freezers. If you

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enjoyed today's episode, do subscribe, leave us a review,

Speaker:

and tell a friend preferably one who thinks cat is just a

Speaker:

weird meme. Until next time, stay curious,

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stay entangled. And remember, in quantum computing,

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the future isn't just bright, it's probabilistic.