Useful, error-free quantum computers could be ready in just two years, researchers at the quantum computing firm QuEra have claimed. Quantum computing is a quickly maturing technology, and the industry surrounding it is growing rapidly. The biggest obstacle to today’s quantum computers having uses in chemistry, materials and drug development lies in how error-prone they are, which limits the complexity of computations they can run. Now, Yuval Boger at QuEra and his colleagues are confident that they will soon bypass this obstacle. Libra, the firm’s fault-tolerant quantum computer – a computer that can catch and correct its own errors – is slated to arrive in 2028 and be available through the cloud through a collaboration with Amazon Web Services (AWS). Currently, a fully functional fault-tolerant quantum computer doesn’t exist. “Having the first fault-tolerant quantum computer will be like breaking the sound barrier,” says Boger. The basic components of Libra, which are called qubits, will be made from extremely cold, electrically neutral atoms controlled with lasers. It will contain between 10,000 and 15,000 qubits, which will …

Something very bad is going to happen in the near future unless we change course. Researchers know what will cause it and roughly when it will happen, and have ideas to mitigate it. Yet policy-makers may not do enough to avert it in time. This could be describing climate change, or perhaps the early days of the covid-19 pandemic. Now, it also applies to something more esoteric:quantum computers. As we report here, two separate papers, including one from Google, have discovered that the threshold for a quantum computer to threaten the encryption that keeps our data safe is far lower than expected. The knowledge that quantum computers will one day be able to quickly solve the maths problems that underpin our security isn’t new – it is perhaps one of thefew well-grounded applications of these exotic machines. What is new is that this moment, labelled Q-Day by some, may be far closer than anyone expected. Should it arrive unbidden, the results will be catastrophic: emails hacked, bank accounts emptied and secrets spilled. “ If Q-Day …

Fully practical quantum computers haven’t arrived yet, but the quantum computing industry is ending the year on an optimistic note. At the Q2B Silicon Valley conference in December, which brings together quantum business and science experts, the consensus seemed to be that the future of quantum computing is only getting brighter. “On balance, we think it is more likely than not that someone, or maybe multiple someones, are going to be able to make a really industrially useful quantum computer, which is not something I thought I’d be concluding at the end of 2025,” said Joe Altepeter, programme manager for the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s Quantum Benchmarking Initiative (QBI) at a presentation during the conference. The goal of QBI is to determine which of the several currently competing approaches for building quantum computers can produce a useful device, which would also have to correct its own errors, or be fault-tolerant. The programme will run for several years and involve hundreds of expert evaluators. Taking stock of the programme after its first six months, …