British quantum computer lands AI role in New York

A British quantum computer is helping power New York’s first combined quantum-AI data centre, which will formally open next week and is to be used by the giant Wall Street banks to tackle fraud.

Oxford Quantum Circuits’ Genesis computer is being paired with supercomputing chips produced by Nvidia at a secure data centre run by the US company Digital Realty.

It is being billed as a key export success as part of the British and American tech trade partnership announcements this week. Lord Vallance, the science minister, said OQC’s breakthrough was the result of years of work, supported by public funding and facilities such as the National Quantum Computing Centre.

“To get into New York in this way shows exactly where companies in this space from the UK are going. That’s a big plus,” Vallance said. “We are going to end up with the potential to have scaled companies here in what is one of the most important technical advances that could change computing dramatically.”

Quantum computing technology is proven but its uses remain limited until the industry can reduce the rate at which the computers make mistakes. Nevertheless, quantum computing is expected to be worth more than £200 billion to the UK economy by 2045.

Gerald Mullally, chief executive of OQC, said the deal in New York created “the industry’s first quantum AI data centre”. The facility will be open to select customers this year and to the wider commercial market next year. In the UK the company works with the likes of JP Morgan.

“[The centre] is to power the next era of AI. We are going to be accelerating AI training and augmenting inference — this is really how quantum can power the future of AI,” Mulally said, adding that there were immediate applications for the technology in finance, including the pricing of derivatives, as well as security.

“Banks are really interested in this and we are working with leading global players,” he added. “We are embedding it within their secure infrastructure in New York so they can access it in the same way they access the rest of their computing infrastructure.”

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Vallance said the combination of quantum and AI, generated from classical supercomputers, “is where most people think there is a big potential win”.

“We have had a ten-year programme of quantum investment, which has been superbly co-ordinated and led to make sure we have all the bases covered,” he added. “It has created a very vibrant, academic and business sector in quantum in the UK … and it is really exciting to see where Oxford Quantum Circuits have got to.”