AWS recently opened its new Center for Quantum Computing in California, where it plans to build a large-scale fault-tolerant quantum computer. The center will have a team of researchers from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), experts from Amazon, and researchers from academic institutions.
The new building includes offices for quantum research teams and laboratories equipped with specialized tools ranging from cryogenic cooling systems to wiring – all parts of the materials needed to build quantum hardware.
While there are several approaches to building quantum hardware, AWS focuses on superconducting qubits.
To explain why AWS uses qubits, Nadia Carlsten, head of product at the AWS Center for Quantum Computing, noted in her interview with ZDNet: “Superconducting qubits have several advantages, one of them being that they can leverage microfabrication techniques derived from the semiconductor industry. We can fab large numbers of qubits on a silicon wafer and do it in a repeatable way, and that scalability will be important.”