'Quantum computing talent should be used for good'

Amid warnings UK science is "bleeding to death" – with ideas born here monetised overseas – the government has promised to spend up to £1bn buying quantum computers from UK companies.

It is part of an effort to maintain the country's position as a global leader in a fast-developing, competitive field.

Earlier this month, Cambridge University announced plans to host the UK’s most powerful quantum computer.

How are quantum firms and science investors in the city feeling about the industry?

"I genuinely believe that quantum computing talent should be used for good," says Dr Carmen Palacios-Berraquero.

The tech entrepreneur is echoing Chancellor Rachel Reeves, who recently called for "AI sovereignty" and warned artificial intelligence could be shaped by countries "whose values may differ from ours".

Reeves said AI was "the defining technology of our era".

Quantum computers – which promise to be far faster and more powerful than "classical" systems – could define the next technological era.

Palacios-Berraquero leads one of the UK companies in the field.

She founded Nu Quantum as a spin-out company from Cambridge University in 2018.

It is working on how to connect quantum computers, so they can work at scale.

"We're talking about an extremely powerful technology – and with that comes huge responsibility about the use cases that are going to be prioritised and the ethics around that," she adds.

Palacios-Berraquero is speaking after the Chancellor told the BBC she wanted to end the "pattern" of British deep-tech inventions and talent "drifting abroad".

Reeves said over the coming years quantum could "create around 100,000 jobs" in the UK "but that can only happen if we keep those businesses here", which she hopes to achieve with £2bn of government backing.

Nu Quantum, based on Cambridge University's West Campus, has been "growing pretty fast".

It tripled in size between 2023 and 2024, then doubled, Palacios-Berraquero says, and now has almost 80 staff.

She predicts it will probably "hit a hundred" staff "in less than a year".

But could quantum firms "drift abroad"?

"That risk is always there," Palacios-Berraquero says, but "there's still time to create... British household names" in quantum.

Rishi Sunak's government launched a 10-year Quantum Strategy – promising £2.5bn investment – in 2023.

But according to Palacios-Berraquero, before Reeves' announcement "the most important funding calls that were really galvanising the industry were coming from the US".

In December, Nu Quantum raised about £45m ($60m) in venture capital funding, mostly from UK investors, but also from the US, Europe and Japan.

The "pattern" of UK tech firms heading abroad has prompted stark warnings.

In November last year, the House of Lords' Science and Technology Committee published Bleeding to death: the science and technology growth emergency, which described a "national crisis of [economic] growth, especially in the science and technology sectors".

It said a "procession of promising science and technology companies" had moved abroad "rather than scaling here".

During the committee's inquiry "several significant science and technology companies" moved overseas, it added.

The Lords cited quantum firm Oxford Ionics, which was bought for about £800m ($1.1bn) by American outfit IonQ. After interviewing IonQ's chief executive, the Financial Times reported that Oxford "will be the company's global research and development centre".

"There's basically a cut, through which our life-blood is draining," says Cambridge entrepreneur and serial investor David Cleevely.

He chairs the board of Glasgow-based Chemify, which he says has built a "universal machine that will make any molecule" and was "funded almost entirely by US venture capital".

With Scottish and Westminster government support, it remains based in Glasgow, but "the pull to the US is phenomenal".

Cleevely recalls how another firm he co-founded – radio frequency detection company CRFS – struggled to get the UK government to buy its equipment, but sold to the US Department of Defense and was eventually bought by US private equity.

The company is still active in Cambridgeshire and is now owned by Motorola Solutions – but the "issue is: who gets the dividends, who recoups the reward from that investment?", says Cleevely.

Part of the government's strategy is a promise to buy £1bn of quantum computers "from the first UK companies to successfully make them at commercial scale".

Dr Steve Brierley, CEO and founder of Riverlane, says the government acting as a "fairly smart customer" has a "massive impact".

His company focuses on quantum error correction: cleaning the "noise" out of quantum information, which occurs because components are so fragile.

While "governments are not used to taking a bit of a risk on things" and what it buys "might not work", he says "that's actually OK".

"What you're doing is creating an industry and an ecosystem."

A "smart customer" would be "continually upping the bar on what's needed", which drives "a common goal".

Brierley, a computational mathematician, founded Riverlane in 2016.

It now has about 150 staff, 90% in Cambridge and the remaining in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

He says they have grown headcount "at around 30% per year" but are "now upping that to around 75% to 100% this year".

But he also acknowledges the political "challenge" that comes from a £2bn taxpayer investment in an emerging industry.

Imagining a conversation between a politician and a voter on the "doorstep", he adds: "If you're talking about what should the government spend its money on – is it more nurses or is it quantum computing?"

He believes the return on investment is a "no brainer" and highlights the innovations quantum computing could bring.

He says one of the problems quantum might solve is how plants make their own fertiliser, without the high temperatures and pressure humans use to make it.

The reason we do not currently understand nature's process is "the interactions with the molecules and atoms" are "very complex" and "we can't simulate those on a computer".

If we could "then scientists and researchers could come up with different ways of mimicking nature and producing fertiliser in radically new ways".

But he says money "isn't the problem" when it comes to developing his business.

"The challenge is to build the best team in error correction and to create a sense of inevitability," he says.

Similarly, Palacios-Berraquero says "workforce is the number one priority".

"Without a team you don't do anything and the talent market in quantum is seriously competitive," she says, adding that "immigration and visa policy" need to be "attractive", alongside salary.

The Labour government is not alone in saying it backs UK quantum.

The Conservative's 2023 National Quantum Strategy said the industry was "one of the top priorities" for government.

Likewise, the Liberal Democrats have pledged to spend 3.5% of GDP on research and development. The ONS said the UK spent just over 2.6% of GDP in 2023.

With an industry that is fast-moving and at the centre of a global race, how the government supports it – as well as with how much cash – could be crucial.

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