Quantum News Briefs July 10: CMA CGM Group & Pasqal join forces to leverage quantum technologies for maritime transport and logistics • EDF, Alice & Bob, Quandela & CNRS partner to optimize quantum computing’s energy efficiency • D-Wave’s Quantum Workforce Development Initiative sees double-digit growth in 1H 2024
News Briefs:
CMA CGM Group & Pasqal join forces to leverage quantum technologies for maritime transport and logistics
The CMA CGM Group, a global player in sea, land, air and logistics solutions, announces a strategic partnership with Pasqal, a French pioneer and world leader in neutral atom quantum computing, according to the new release.
As part of this collaboration, which aims to introduce cutting-edge quantum computing technologies into the Group’s operations, CMA CGM also announces an investment in Pasqal.
Among the objectives of this partnership, CMA CGM aims to leverage the power of quantum computing to enhance the efficiency, responsiveness, and adaptability of transport and logistics to market fluctuations. In particular, CMA CGM will seek to optimise container management, including their loading on ships.
Together, CMA CGM and Pasqal will establish a Quantum Computing Center of Excellence at TANGRAM, the Group’s excellence center dedicated to training and innovation, with access to a quantum processor developed by Pasqal.
The e-learning platform developed by Pasqal will be made available to CMA CGM staff members, who will be trained to improve understanding of quantum computing within the Group.TANGRAM and Pasqal will jointly organize events dedicated to quantum computing, including use case workshops, technical presentations, and master classes.
EDF, Alice & Bob, Quandela and CNRS partner to optimize quantum computing’s energy efficiency
The French electric utility company EDF, along with quantum computing companies Quandela and Alice & Bob, and the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), have signed an agreement to collaborate on an innovative project to optimize energy consumption in quantum computing.
The project, named “Energetic Optimisation of Quantum Circuits” (OECQ), will, in the first phase, compare the energy requirements of high-performance computing (HPC) systems with those of quantum computers. This analysis will be based on relevant industry use cases and the advanced computations they require. This part of the project will provide the first measurement of energy consumption for the full stack of a quantum computer.
In the second phase, the project will focus on optimizing the energy consumption of quantum computers, addressing not only the energy required by the quantum processing unit (QPU) per se but also that of the auxiliary technologies powering the QPU, which are expected to make up a relevant share of the total quantum system consumption.
D-Wave’s Quantum Workforce Development Initiative sees double-digit growth in 1H 2024
D-Wave Quantum Inc. announced July 10 that enrollment in its quantum training courses has experienced double-digit growth in the first six months of 2024, compared to the same period in 2023. Enrollment in the “Quantum Programming Core” course increased by 53%, and all total enrollments (“Core” + “Foundations for Quantum Programming”) increased by 85%. This remarkable growth underscores a burgeoning global movement to train workers to keep pace with the rapidly increasing adoption of quantum computing.
The urgency to meet increasing demand for quantum programming skills comes amid predictions that less than half of all projected quantum computing job openings will be filled by 2025, according to a McKinsey report. Reinforcing this trend, the demand for in-house quantum computing expertise is cited by businesses actively using quantum computing as a top hurdle to their success, according to a recent 2024 Hyperion Research survey commissioned by D-Wave. In addition, quantum workforce development is now included in nearly all government quantum programs across Australia, Canada, the European Union, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States, among others.
planqc Secures €50M Series A funding to advance atom-based quantum computing
planqc, the European leader in digital atom-based quantum computing, proudly announces the securement of €50 million financing as per the July 9 news release. This substantial Series A investment is led by the European Family Office CATRON Holding and the DeepTech & Climate Fonds (DTCF). Additional financial support is provided by Bayern Kapital, the Max-Planck Foundation, further private investors, existing investors UVC and Speedinvest and it includes a non-dilutive grant from Germany’s Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).
planqc’s unique technology, built on award-winning research at the Max-Planck-Institute for Quantum Optics (MPQ), aims for rapid advancement in the development of industry-relevant quantum computers. The new financing will be utilized to establish a quantum computing cloud service and to develop quantum software for applications in industries such as chemistry, healthcare, climate-tech, automotive, and finance. Today, planqc is already using quantum machine learning to work on climate simulations or more efficient batteries for electric vehicles.
