China’s SpinQ sees quantum computing crossing ‘usefulness’ threshold in 5 years

Quantum computing is poised to reach a tipping point in three to five years by becoming useful for solving real-world problems, as computers harnessing about 500 qubits become a reality, according to Chinese start-up SpinQ.

Founded in 2018 and based in Shenzhen, SpinQ has two main product lines: small-scale nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) quantum computers with about three qubits for educational use and industrial-grade superconducting quantum computers with up to 20 qubits.

In 2020, SpinQ launched the world’s first programmable desktop NMR quantum computer. In 2023, it shipped a superconducting quantum chip to the Middle East, marking China’s first export of such technology.

SpinQ said it sold a range of products – including educational quantum computers, superconducting quantum computers, chips, quantum measurement and control systems and application software – to over 50 countries.

But SpinQ founder and CEO Xiang Jingen said quantum computing still had a lot of work to do before it was broadly applicable.

He compared today’s quantum technology to semiconductors in the 1950s, a time when computers were expensive and large and transitioning from vacuum tubes to transistors – and then to integrated circuits.

South China Morning Post