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Behind every storyteller, there's a story maybe more than one. Maybe many.

In the case of best-selling novelist and former Navy SEAL Jack Carr, a deep love of family, love of country and love of reading and writing plus respect for America's military and veterans are the opening pages in a fascinating, multi-layered career.

"I knew from a very early age that those were the two things I wanted to do in life serve my country in uniform, and then write thrillers," the author, based in Park City, Utah, told Fox News Digital in a recent interview.

Carr has just released his latest thriller featuring popular series character James Reece who, not surprisingly, is a former Navy SEAL.

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The novel, "In the Blood" (Atria Books/Simon & Schuster), came out May 17, 2022.

Here are highlights from a conversation with Jack Carr just as he was about to go on tour for the new novel.

Best-selling novelist Jack Carr served the U.S. as a Navy SEAL and his grandfather served in World War II as a military aviator. Carr, to this day, has his granddad's medals, wings and silk maps. (Megan Rudloff)

Given his dedication to the military and all who have served our country including his own grandfather, a military aviator who died in the waning days of World War II it seems no accident the book is out just ahead of Memorial Day this year.

Fox News Digital: How do you write so many books? You've written "The Terminal List," "True Believer," "Savage Son," "The Devil's Hand" now your newest, "In the Blood." How do you do it?

Jack Carr: It's exhausting! Oh my gosh! It's crazy. (laughs) But when you have a series character, that's what people want now.

"Today, people really want a recurring series character, so that's what you gotta deliver."

Carr (cont'd): This all really started with Clive Cussler in the late '70s and then Michael Connelly, Daniel Silva, Vince Flynn, Tom Clancy, David Morrell and so many others People want so much more information now. And as a novelist today, it's so easy to give it to them.

Today, people really want a recurring series character, so that's what you gotta deliver.

"In the Blood" is the fifth book in "The Terminal List" series for Utah-based novelist Jack Carr, a former Navy SEAL. (David Brown/Atria Books)

Fox News Digital: In your cover photo on your book jackets, you look so serious and intimidating. Is that really you?

Carr: I know! People who know me are always telling me, "You're always smiling. So what is the deal with that book photo?" And I answer, "I don't know, it just seems like I should be serious for that." That's just how it goes.

Now I've got a new author photo I've upgraded a little with my beard. But I'm still pretty serious in the new photo. Still not really smiling, but moving in that direction.

Jack Carr is shown during a recent appearance on "Tucker Carlson Tonight" on Fox News, discussing events in Afghanistan. ("Tucker Carlson Tonight"/Fox News)

Fox News Digital: What do you want people to know most about your latest novel?

Carr: The easy part is that it's a sniper-centric novel of violent resolution. That's really what was in my head. That's my background. I was a SEAL sniper.

And I always wanted to write that sniper-centric novel but not fall into the trap of having two snipers on opposite sides, on two buildings across the street, looking for each other, looking, looking and at the last section they both see each other at the same time, and they shoot, and one bullet goes through the scope of the other guy.

"I went deep down the rabbit hole in terms of researching artificial intelligence, quantum computing, surveillance of U.S. citizens I had no touchpoints."

Carr (cont'd): I mean, I love that, it's great. But it's been done a few times in movies and in literature!

So I had to figure out: How do I write a sniper novel without that? And that was the fun part to figure out I went deep down the rabbit hole in terms of researching artificial intelligence, quantum computing, surveillance of U.S. citizens I had no touchpoints.

Jack Carr, in an author photo that appears on the cover of several of his New York Times best-selling novels. Carr said he "had a very solid foundation" with the "sniper" material in his books. But for "In the Blood" and quantum computing "I had no background. I had to start essentially from zero." (Clay Goswick)

Carr (cont'd): For the sniper stuff, I had a very solid foundation. I still check it, because I've been out of that world for a while. But with quantum computing, I had no background.

So I had to start essentially from zero, which included looking up what a quantum computer actually looks like. I thought it was just a large computer and that is not what it is!

Type it into your search bar and look. It's this golden Medusa-looking thing with wires suspended in a vacuum. It is a crazy-looking thing.

An artist's rendition of the Sycamore processor mounted in the cryostat is shown here in the style of what Jack Carr described to Fox News Digital as he discussed his new novel, "In the Blood." (Forest Stearns, Google AI Quantum Artist in Residence)

Carr (cont'd): So I wanted to know: What are our capabilities? What are the Chinese capabilities? What are the Russian capabilities?

And what about the private sector? IBM has one of the top ones in the country. But even if you read something on quantum computing and artificial intelligence, it's essentially dated by the time you finish reading it.

"I wanted to uncover things that people are reluctant to give up."

Carr (cont'd): So books, journals, magazine articles and this sort of thing they just provide the foundation. And I then went and talked to a lot of people but everybody leaves something out. I wanted to uncover things that people are reluctant to give up.

Still, I got a clear picture of what it is. And I think that what's in the book I don't think I'm far off. And if I am, it's only that I don't describe how far ahead we actually are, just to keep this out of the science fiction realm rather than the political thriller genre. It was scarier than the bioweapons research I did for the last book.

Fox News Digital: Tell us how you made the transition from military man to thriller writer.

Carr: I just knew from a very early age that those were the two things I wanted to do in life serve my country in uniform, then write thrillers.

Jack Carr during his days with U.S. special forces. "When I was seven years old, I found out what SEALs were," he told Fox News Digital in an interview. (Megan Rudloff)

Carr (cont'd): My grandfather served in WWII and he was killed in WWII he was a Marine aviator. He was killed in May of 1945 near the end of the war, but I have pictures of him. I had his medals. I had his wings.

I had the silk maps that they gave aviators back then, because if they hit the water with a paper map, it would disintegrate, but the silk map just got wet and they could still use it. I had all that stuff, I still have all that it was a natural draw for me.

Plus, "Black Sheep Squadron" was on TV, with Robert Conrad playing legendary Marine aviator Pappy Boyington. I watched that with my dad and it was the power of popular culture. It was his connection to his dad my grandfather so I was headed in that direction.

"My takeaways were that SEALs were some of the best military in the world and had some of the toughest training ever devised by our military, so I thought I'm in."

Carr (cont'd): And since my mom was a librarian, I was always reading. I grew up with a love of books and a love of reading.

When I was seven years old, I found out what SEALs were my mom and I did research into SEALs. And then on weekends, there was an old black-and-white movie called "The Frogmen" on TV, and I used to watch that, with guys climbing up over the beach, and I thought, These are my people right here.

I asked my dad about them. I said, "What is a frogman?" and he said, "Ask your mother." So my mom and I went down to the library and did a bunch of research, and my takeaways were that SEALs were some of the best military in the world and had some of the toughest training ever devised by our military, so I thought I'm in.

Retired Navy SEAL Jack Carr is pictured during an episode of Fox Nation's "Tucker Carlson Today." (Fox News)

Carr (cont'd): Back then, you could research almost everything actually written. And so I did. Eventually I began reading "The Hunt for Red October" and all those books, all the Tom Clancy novels, the books by David Morrell, Nelson DeMille, Stephen Hunter and more.

All these guys had protagonists that I wanted to be one day. A Marine sniper in Vietnam Army special forces in Vietnam I had such a good time reading those books and I continue to read them to this day.

"I gave myself an education in the art of storytelling from a very early age and I just knew that's what I was going to do."

And I knew that one day after the military, I'd write those kinds of books. So I gave myself an education in the art of storytelling from a very early age and I just knew that's what I was going to do. All of that stuff came together as I was getting out of the military.

All of the reading I'd done, all of the research I'd done on warfare and terrorism and counterterrorism and my experience in Iraq and Afghanistan and in special operations on the SEAL teams all of that came together. It allowed me to take the feelings and emotions that I had and tie them into a fictional narrative.

And to this day, I get to continue researching things that I don't know about.

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Fox News Digital: Writing is often a very solitary affair. It can be lonely. How do you keep yourself motivated how do you push through that?

Carr: I love that part! It's like, Are you kidding? No one's bothering me for hours on end? This is fantastic! (laughs) You know, I have my wife, three kids ages 16, 14, and 11 and the dog. It's constant chaos in our house. So I have to find a place where it's very quiet and where I won't be interrupted when I'm writing these.

Novelist Jack Carr (standing, center) is shown accompanying an American veteran to a World War II commemorative event. Carr regularly gives back to vets who did so much for our country through their service. (Best Defense Foundation)

Carr (cont'd): I usually start with a one-page executive summary, a theme, a title and then I start turning that into an outline and get as far as I can with that outline until it starts to maybe slow me down.

And then I need to go and be by myself and just write.

For this last one, I rented Airbnbs around our town and I found a great one, an old log cabin. Everything was tiny, it was tiny, with a big old stack of wood outside, so I could chop wood and throw it into the woodburning stove inside. I had a little couch, a little table, a small bedroom, a little deck and I could see my house from it.

"When I'm writing, I turn everything else off I'm not connected to the internet. My computer is just for writing."

So I could flip a switch at night and call the kids and say, "Hey, I'm saying goodnight." And they could see me turning the lights off and on.

And I could just be by myself and write this book. When I'm writing, I turn everything else off I'm not connected to the internet. My computer is just for writing.

For my first few books, I was going to the library to write, and I'd rent a study room there, put my name down on the list for the room but then in the afternoons, I was getting kicked out for high school kids who wanted to work on a history project or something.

Carr (cont'd): Then COVID hit and I needed to work at home. But when you work at home, at least for me, as soon as I close the doors to my office, that's like a magnet for the dog to scratch and bark, for the kids to come and talk to me they finally want to talk to me once the door's closed!

You know, all of the things that any parent had to contend with during the lockdown. But hey, that makes life interesting.

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Fox News Digital: Do you enjoy interacting with your fans and readers?

Carr: I do. I do. It's the reason I do what I do, which is the writing. At least 20 years ago, maybe 30, the only time you got to say "thank you" to your readers was at book signings or book fairs. Maybe you had one televised interview maybe two.

But today, I can say "thank you" every day to people who reach out on social media to tell me that they bought my book or told a friend about it.

Carr (cont'd): It means so much to me that people would spend their time time they're never going to get back in the pages of one of my books, or by listening to the audiobook, or just following me on Instagram or something.

That's why I take it very seriously, because I know they're never going to get that time back and they get to choose how they're going to spend it.

So it's a big responsibility and I take it seriously.

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Fox News Digital: Tell us about being based in Park City, Utah.

Carr: I finished up my time with SEAL teams in Coronado [in California], and I wanted to make a physical and psychological break with the military as I turned that page.

It was a wonderful 20 years, and I feel honored to have done it for as long as I did. But it was time to go to Park City, Utah, and raise the kids in a ski town and move away from all those things that had anchored us to San Diego for a while.

"My daughter and I will be going to Normandy for the D-Day events and commemorations there."

Fox News Digital: Anything else you wanted to share as your new book comes out?

Carr: I'll be zigzagging around the country for a while on my book tour, and then I'll be back home.

And then my daughter and I will be going to Normandy for the D-Day events and commemorations there [on June 6].

Jack Carr is shown with an American veteran who served in World War II. (Best Defense Foundation)

Carr (cont'd): We're volunteering out there to take veterans to visit that part of the world where they served their nation.

We did it this last December, too, for the 80th commemoration of Pearl Harbor my daughter is the youngest person who ever did it. It's with a group called the Best Defense Foundation.

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We took 64 veterans over age 96 all the way up to age 104 all of them in wheelchairs. We helped get them around, get to the dinners, to their rooms.

The families would say to us, "Wow, this is the first time I've ever heard my grandfather tell that story."

I think this has changed the course of my 16-year-old daughter's life. She's been so impacted by this and by these individuals.

Sometimes they open up to us about their service, about what they've experienced sometimes it's easier to open up to people they don't know than to their own families. It was amazing for her to sit down and hear some of their stories.

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And the families would say to us, "Wow, this is the first time I've ever heard my grandfather tell that story."

It was really impactful for both my daughter and for me.

In addition to the new novel, "In the Blood," just out, Carr has a new show based on his series coming to Amazon Prime Video on July 1, 2022. "The Terminal List" stars Chris Pratt as Navy SEAL Sniper James Reece.

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Ahead of Memorial Day, best-selling novelist Jack Carr reveals the military inspiration behind his work - Fox News

3 Tech Trends That Are Poised to Transform Business in the Next Decade

By Mike Bechtel and Scott Buchholz

Covid-19, while profoundly disruptive, didnt create new enterprise technology trends so much as catalyze those already underway.

Organizations fast-tracked multi-year technology roadmaps for major investments like artificial intelligence (AI), automation, and cloud, completing them in months or even weeks. The result? Many organizations have arrived at their desired futures ahead of schedule.

But the future is still coming. Todays innovations will be our successors legacy. So executives must be mindful of meaningful advances and capabilities forecast for the decade aheadto ride tailwinds, dodge headwinds, and forestall, or at least minimize, the interest payments due on their eventual technical debt.

But the signal-to-noise ratio in most projections of future tech is abysmal, introducing an anxiety-inducing blizzard of buzzwords every year. Thats why our futures research gets right down to identifying the subset of emerging technology innovations that can create better customer experiences, modernize operations, and drive competitive advantage.

Three classes of emerging tech are poised to transform every aspect of business in the next decade: quantum technologies, exponential intelligence, and ambient computing. These field notes from the future can give business leaders a strategic view of the decade ahead to help them engineer a technology-forward future.

Quantum Technologies

I think I can safely say that nobody really understands quantum mechanics, Nobel laureate Richard Feynman once said.

To eschew the physics lesson: quantum-powered solutions exploit the quirky properties of subatomic particles to allow us to solve seemingly intractable problems using physics instead of mathematics. Quantum represents as big a leap over digital as digital was over analog.

As quantum R&D turns the corner from R to D, the race among technology giants, governments, and early-stage startups will quickly find commercial applications.

Three areas to watch:

Quantums appeal to techies is clear, but business leaders must consider its potential to deliver specific competitive advantages against discrete business needs. Its spoils will first accrue to those who figure out in advance which problems they need quantum to solve.

Exponential Intelligence

Traditionally, the most widely adopted business intelligence solutions were descriptive: discovering and surfacing hidden correlations in data sets. The last 15 years saw the rise of predictive analytics: algorithms that could further extrapolate whats likely to happen next.

Most recently, AI-fueled organizations have used machine intelligence to make decisions that augment or automate human thinking.

This escalation of next-generation intelligencefrom analyst to predictor to actorwill increasingly access human behavioral data at scale, so that it better understands and emulates human emotion and intent. Enter the age of affective or emotional AI.

To a machine, a smile, a thoughtful pause, or a choice of words is all data that can, in aggregate, help an organization develop a more holistic understanding of customers, employees, citizens, and students. Its data organizations can further use it to develop classes of automated systems that better connect the dots among their financial, social, and ethical objectives.

For customer service representatives, caregivers, sales agents, and even stage actors, the business cases for these creative machines are compelling. But its imperative that leaders recognize the importance of committing to trustworthy AI practices to reduce any risk of bias, both tacit and explicit, in the training data, models, and resulting systems. As the authors of Technology Futures, a recent report from Deloitte and the World Economic Forum, put it: We must teach our digital children well, training them to do as we say, not necessarily as weve done.

Ambient Experience

The past 20 years of human-computer interaction might be summed up as an ever-bigger number of ever-smaller screens. With powerful mobile devices and advanced networks now ubiquitous in our workplaces and homes, were literally surrounded by digital information.

Ambient experience envisions a future beyond the glass when our interaction with the digital world takes place less through screens than through intuitive, out-of-the-way affordances that more naturally cater to our needs.

Recent advances in digital assistants and smart speakers light the way. These language interfaces generally speak only when spoken to and dutifully respond. Increasingly, devices will anticipate our intentions and offer help based on their understanding of content and context.

The other side of the coin: an unlimited reality. Virtual reality (VR) is not new, but enterprises increasingly turn to VR as a tool instead of a toy to support functions as varied as training, team building, and remote operations truck driving.

These ambient experiences could drive simplicity, reducing friction in the user experience. As technology develops, a voice, gesture, or glance could signal intent and initiate an exchange of business-critical information. Tomorrows digital concierges could handle increasingly complex routines in smart homes and citieswithout any logins or other traditional steps for activation.

Foresight is 80/20

These three field notes from the future are not an admonition to drop todays plans in favor of whats next. Rather, they are an encouragement to keep going.

Todays investments in cloud, data, and digital experiences lay the groundwork for opportunities in quantum technologies, exponential intelligence, and ambient experience.

Research indicates that leading organizations put 80 percent of their technology budgets toward existing investments and 20 percent toward emerging tech.1 By keeping their eyes on the future and their feet in the present, organizations can start creating tech-forward strategies todayso they can compete, lead, and advance their businesses tomorrow.

Read Field Notes from the Future in the Deloitte Tech Trends 2022 report and contact our subject matter experts for further discussion.

Mike Bechtel, Chief Futurist, Deloitte Consulting LLP

Scott Buchholz, Emerging Technology Research Director and Government & Public Services Chief Technology Officer, Deloitte Consulting LLP

1Mike Bechtel, Nishita Henry and Khalid Kark, Innovation Study 2021: Beyond the buzzword, September 30, 2021

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3 Tech Trends That Are Poised to Transform Business in the Next Decade - SPONSOR CONTENT FROM DELOITTE - HBR.org Daily

In 2006, the British mathematician Clive Humby famously proclaimed that data is the new oil.Little did he know it would also become the new art.

As one of the foremost practitioners of what he calls data painting, the Turkish American artist and TED Fellow Refik Anadol has been using data as the substance of his work for the better part of a decade. Over that time, hes won awardslike Lumen Prize and been featured at Venice Architecture Biennale and in shows at the National Gallery of Victoria and the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

I have always been interested in painting with data, Anadol told Artnet News from Barcelona last weekend, where he was on site to create a new digital artwork for the facade of Antoni Gauds iconic Casa Batll. Thousands of onlookers crowded the outside square towatch the illumination in an event organized by theOFFF Festival. The work was already traded as an NFT through Christies last week, when it sold for$1.38 million(and came with a dinner for 10).

Refik Anadol, Living Architecture: Casa Batll, courtesy of RAS

For me, NFTs and digital art should be experiential. Landmarks have become my canvas, Anadol said. Im interested in exploring the architectural domain as deeply as I can. All my art works tend to have a physical connection to public space.

Using AI to regeneratively map iconic public buildings, Anadol works in equal parts architecture, graphic design, and computer science using a JavaScript object-based coding language called VVVV, which allows for live programming and projection mapping.

It was at UCLA that I learned about creative coding, he says, referring to his time in the schools media arts program. There, his advisors includedChristian Moeller, Casey Reas, and Jennifer Steinkamp.

In 2014, after graduating, he established the Refik Anadol Studio,which currently has a staff of 15 people. Our staff is multicultural and multilingual, Anadol said. We have an incredible staff of different minds and competencies.

Early in his career, Anadol focused on finding support from fellow technologists, rather than in the art world. Back when I first opened the studio in 2014, our earliest collaborators were not from the art or design worlds. They came from tech, he said.

In Quantum Memories, made when he was Googles artist-in-residence, he used the search giants publicly available quantum computing algorithms to 3D map the possibility of a parallel world. Part sci-fi, part next-level computer graphics, thealgorithm processed approximately 200 million images of nature to form an interactive algorithmic gesamtkunstwerk, mimicking the real-time simulations of audiences movements into an entangled web of generative world-building.

Refik Anadol, Quantum Memories, 10M x 10M x 2.5M AI Data Sculpture.Courtesy RAS

In another piece, Melting Memories (2018), inspired by his uncles Alzheimers diagnosis, Anadol transformed brain scans into projected images for the walls of the Pilevneli Gallery in Istanbul.The artwork and others also drew on Anadols longstanding interest in the imagery and history of space exploration.

To date,various iterations of the NFT have been auctioned via Nifty Gateway and Sothebys, with total sales of the project now exceeding $13 million USD, according to CryptoArt.io.Im extremely grateful to the NFT community for supporting my work, he said. The NFT world has given my studio economic independence.

(Asked what he has done with his wealth,Anadol says that whatever he doesnt reinvest into his studio goes to charity. OneNFT from a collection titled An Important Memory for Humanityraised $1.5 million for St Jude Childrens Hospital.)

Seoul Light, DDP, Seoul, KR, Courtesy RAS

In my art practice, I often ask myself the question: how would a computer collaborate with us to make art that not only is futuristic, but also about the possibility of various futures? he said. I do think that we approach answering this question only when we combine research efforts in various fields, including neuroscience, architecture, quantum computing, material science, philosophy, and arts.

Anadol is now busily preparing for two new works: one for an exhibition at Palazzo Strozzi that reimagines Italian Renaissance artworks; the other, a new piece to be shown in Istanbul and based on the writings of the13th-century Persian poet Rumi.For the latter work, Anadol will construct a digital installation in the foyer of the recently redesigned AKM Theater in Taksim Square.

All of us are standing on the shoulders of giants, Anadol said. Im just trying to explore the language of humanity.

See the article here:
Digital Art Star Refik Anadols First Supporters Were in the Tech World. All of a Sudden, His Work Has Become White-Hot at Auction, Too - artnet News

Neutral atom quantum computers promise solutions to many of the problems that beset todays devices, but the technology is still nascent. Recent breakthroughs in the ability to control and program these devices suggest they may be nearing prime time.

The most well-developed quantum technology today relies on superconducting qubits, which power both IBM and Googles processors. But while these devices have been used to demonstrate quantum supremacy and build the largest universal quantum computer to date, they have some limitations.

For a start, they need to be chilled close to absolute zero, which requires bulky and expensive cryogenic equipment. Their quantum states are also very fragile, typically lasting only microseconds, and they are only able to directly interact with their nearest neighbors, which limits the complexity of the circuits they can implement.

Neutral-atom quantum computers sidestep these problems. They are built from an array of individual atoms that are chilled to ultra-low temperatures by firing lasers at them. The rest of the device doesnt need cooling and the individual atoms can be arranged just micrometers apart, making the entire system incredibly compact.

Quantum information is encoded into low-energy atomic states that are very stable, so these qubits are much more long-lived than superconducting ones. This stability also makes it hard to get the qubits to interact, which makes it harder to create entanglements, which are central to most quantum algorithms. But these neutral atoms can be put into a highly excited state, called a Rydberg state, by firing laser pulses at it, which can be used to entangle them with each other.

Despite these promising characteristics, the technology has so far primarily been used for quantum simulators that help understand quantum processes but arent able to implement quantum algorithms. Now though, two studies in Nature, led by researchers from quantum computing companies QuEra and ColdQuanta, have shown that the technology can be used to implement multi-qubit circuits.

The two groups tackle the problem in slightly different ways. The QuEra team take a novel approach to connectivity in their device by using tightly-focused laser beams, known as optical tweezers, to physically move their qubits around. This enables them to easily entangle them with distant qubits rather than being limited to just those closest by. The ColdQuanta team, on the other hand, entangled its qubits by simultaneously exciting two of them into a Rydberg state.

Both groups were able to implement complex multi-qubit circuits. And as Hannah Williams from Durham University in the UK notes in an accompanying commentary, the two approaches are complementary.

Physically shuffling the qubits around means there are long gaps between operations, but the flexible connectivity makes it possible to create much more complex circuits. The ColdQuanta approach, however, is much faster and can run multiple operations in parallel. A combination of the techniques presented by these two groups would lead to a robust and versatile platform for quantum computing, Williams writes.

A host of improvements are required before that happens, though, according to Williams, from better gate fidelities (how consistently you are able to set up the correct operation) to optimized laser beam shapes and more powerful lasers.

Both companies seem to be confident that this wont take long, though. QuEra already unveiled a 256-atom quantum simulator last year and, according to their website, a 64-qubit quantum computer is coming soon. ColdQuanta is more specific, with a promise that its 100-qubit Hilbert computer will be available this year.

How quickly neutral atoms can catch up with industry-leading technologies like superconducting qubits and trapped ions remains to be seen, but it looks like a promising new contender has entered the quantum race.

Image Credit: Shahadat Rahman onUnsplash

See the article here:
Neutral Atom Quantum Computers Edge Closer to Reality With Two New Breakthroughs - Singularity Hub

Theres a major controversy raging in the field of quantum computing. One side consists of experts and researchers who are skeptical of quantum computers ability to be beneficial in the foreseeable future, simply because the physical and technological challenges are too great. On the other side, if you ask the entrepreneurs and investors at firms banking on quantum computing, that hasnt been the issue for quite some time. From their standpoint, its only a matter of time and concerted effort until the major breakthrough and the real revolution in the field is achieved. And theyre prepared to gamble a lot of money on that.

For decades, most of the quantum research and development has been carried out by academic institutions and government research institutes, but in recent years, steps to make the transition from the academic lab to the industrial sector have increased. Researchers and scientists have been creating or joining companies developing quantum computing technology, and startups in the field have been cropping up at a dizzying pace. In 2021, $3.2 billion was invested in quantum firms around the world, according to The Quantum Insider compared to $900 million in 2020.

And in the first quarter of this year, about $700 million was invested a sum similar to the investments in the field between 2015 and 2019 combined. In addition to the surge in startup activity in the field, tech giants such as IBM, Amazon, Google and Microsoft have been investing major resources in the field and have been recruiting experts as well.

The quantum computing field was academic for a long time, and everything changed the moment that big money reached industry, said Ayal Itzkovitz, managing partner at the Pitango First fund, which has invested in several quantum companies in recent years. Everything is moving forward more quickly. If three years ago, we didnt know if it was altogether possible to build such a computer, now we already know that there will be quantum computers that will be able to do something different from classic computers.

Quantum computers, which are based on the principles of quantum theory, are aimed at providing vastly greater computing power than regular computers, with the capability to carry out a huge number of computations simultaneously. Theoretically it should take them seconds, minutes or hours to do what it would take todays regular supercomputers thousands of years to perform.

Quantum computers are based not on bits, but on qubits produced by a quantum processing unit, which is not limited to the binary of 0 or 1 but is a combination of the two. The idea is that a workable quantum computer, if and when there is such a thing, wont be suitable for use for any task but instead for a set of specific problems that require simultaneous computing, such as simulations, for example. It would be relevant for fields such as chemistry, pharmaceuticals, finance, energy and encoding among others.

It's still all theoretical, and there has yet to be a working quantum computer produced that is capable of performing a task more effectively than a regular computer but that doesnt bother those engaged in the arms race to develop a breakthrough quantum processor.

A million-qubit computer

IBM, which is one of the pioneers in the industry, recently unveiled a particularly large 127-qubit computer, and its promising to produce a 1,000-qubit one within the next few years. In 2019, Google claimed quantum supremacy with a computer that managed in 3.5 minutes to perform a task that would have taken a regular computer 10,000 years to carry out. And in May of last year, it unveiled a new quantum center in Santa Barbara, California and it intends to build a million-qubit computer by 2029 at an investment of billions of dollars.

Amazon has gotten into the field, recruiting researchers and recently launching a new quantum center at the California Institute of Technology, and Intel and Microsoft have also gotten into the game. In addition to their own internal development efforts, Amazon, Microsoft and Google have been offering researchers access to active quantum computers via their cloud computing services.

At the same time, there are several firms in the market that specialize in quantum computing that have already raised considerable sums or have even gone public. One of the most prominent of them is the American company IonQ (which in the past attracted investments from Google, Amazon and Samsung) and which last year went public via a SPAC merger. Another such company is the Silicon Valley firm Rigetti Computing, which also went public via a SPAC merger. Then theres Quantinuum, which was the product of a merger between Honeywell Quantum Solutions and Cambridge Quantum.

All thats in addition to a growing startup ecosystem of smaller companies such as Atom Computing and QuEra, which have raised initial funding to develop their own versions of a quantum processor.

In Israel in recent months, the countrys first two startups trying to create a quantum processor have been established. Theyre still in their stealth stage. One is Rehovot-based Quantum Source, which has raised $15 million to develop photonic quantum computing solutions. Its technology is based on research at the Weizmann Institute of Science, and its headed by leading people in the Israeli processor chip sector. The second is Quantum Art, whose executives came from the Israeli defense sector. Its technology is also based on work at the Weizmann Institute.

There are also other early-stage enterprises that are seeking to develop a quantum processor, including one created by former Intel employees and another by former defense company people. Then there is LightSolver, which is seeking to develop a laser technology computer, which is not quantum technology, but it seeks to provide similar performance.

Going for broke

But all of these are at their early stages from a technological standpoint, and the prominent companies overseas have or are building active but small quantum computers usually of dozens of qubits that are only for R&D use to demonstrate their capabilities but without actual practical application. Thats out of a sense that developing an effective quantum computer that has a real advantage requires millions of qubits. Thats a major disparity that will be difficult to bridge from a technological standpoint.

The problem is that sometimes investing in the here-and-now comes at the expense of investments in the future. The quantum companies are still relatively small and have limited staff. If they have an active computer, they also need to maintain it and support its users in the community and among researchers. That requires major efforts and a lot of money, which might be at the expense of next-generation research and it is already delaying the work of a large number of quantum computer manufacturers who are seeing how smaller startups focusing only on next-generation development are getting ahead of them.

As a result, there are also companies with an entirely different approach, which seeks to skip over the current generation of quantum computers and go for broke to build an effective computer with millions of qubits capable of error detection and correction even if it takes many years.

In 2016, it was on that basis that the Palo Alto, California firm PsiQuantum was founded. Last year the company raised $450 million (in part from Microsoft and BlackRock) based on a company valuation of $3 billion, becoming one of the hot and promising names in the field.

Itzkovitz, from the Pitango fund, was one of its early investors. They said they wouldnt make a small computer with a few qubits because it would delay them but would instead go straight for the real goal, he explained.

PsiQuantum is gambling on a fundamentally different paradigm: Most of the companies building an active computer, including the tech giants, have chosen technology based on specifical material matters (for example superconductors or trapped ions). In contrast, PsiQuantum is building a photonic quantum computer, based on light and optics an approach that until recently was considered physically impossible.

Itzkovitz said that he has encountered a large number of startups that are building quantum processors despite the technological risk and the huge difficulty involved. In the past two weeks, I have spoken with 12 or 13 companies making qubits from England, Holland, Finland, the United States and Canada as if this were the most popular thing there was now in the high-tech industry around the world, he said.

As a result, there are also venture capital funds in Israel and overseas that in the past had not entered the field but that are now looking for such companies to invest in over concern not to be left out of the race, as well as a desire to be exposed to the quantum field.

Its the Holy Grail

Similar to the regular computing industry, in quantum computing, its also not enough to build a processor. A quantum processor is a highly complex system that requires a collection of additional hardware components, as well as software and supporting algorithms, of course all of which are designed to permit its core to function efficiently and to take advantage of the ability and potential of qubits in the real world. Therefore, at the same time that quantum processor manufacturers have been at work, in recent years there has been a growing industry of startups seeking to provide them and clients with layers of hardware and software in the tower that stands on the shoulders of the quantum computers processor.

A good example of that is the Israeli firm Quantum Machines, which was established in 2018 and has so far raised $75 million. It has developed a monitoring and control system for quantum computers consisting of hardware and software. According to the company, the system constitutes the brain of the quantum processor and enables it to perform computing activity well and to fulfill its potential. There are also other companies in the market supplying such components and other components including even the refrigerators necessary to build the computers.

Some companies develop software and algorithms in the hope that they will be needed to effectively operate the computers. One of them is Qedma Quantum Computing from Israel, which has developed what it describes as an operating system for quantum computers that is designed to reduce errors and increase quantum computers reliability.

Our goal is to provide hardware manufacturers with the tools that will enable them to do something efficient with the quantum computers and to help create a world in which quantum algorithmic advantages can actually be realized, said Asif Sinay, the companys founder-partner and CEO. Its the Holy Grail of all of the quantum companies in the world.

The big challenge facing these companies is proving that their technology is genuine and that it provides real value to companies developing quantum processors. Thats of course in addition to providing a solution that is sufficiently unique that the tech giants wont be able to develop it on their own.

The big companies dont throw money around just like that, Sinay said. They want to create cooperation with companies that help them reach their goal and to improve the quality of the quantum computer. Unlike the cyber field, for example, you cant come and scare a customer into buying your product. Here youre sitting with people at your level, really smart [people] who understand that you need to give them value that assists in the companys performance and to take the computer to a higher level.

Two concurrent arms races

What the companies mentioned so far have in common is that they are building technology designed to create an efficient quantum computer, whether its a processor or the technology surrounding it. At the same time, another type of companies is gaining steam those that develop the tools to develop quantum software that in the future will make it possible for developers and firms to build applications for the quantum computer.

Classiq is an Israeli company that has developed tools that make it easier for programmers to write software for quantum computers. It raised $33 million at the beginning of the year and has raised $48 million all told. A competitor in Singapore, Horizon Quantum Computing, which just days ago announced that it raised $12 million, is offering a similar solution.

Another prominent player is the U.S. firm Zapata, in which Israels Pitago fund has also invested, and which is engaged in services involved in building quantum applications for corporations.

There are two concurrent arms races happening now, says Nir Minerbi, co founder and CEO of Classiq. One is to build the worlds first fully functional quantum computer. And many startups and tech giants are working on that and that market is now peaking. The second race is the one for creating applications and software that runs on quantum and can serve these firms. This is a field that is now only making its first steps - and its hard to know when it will reach its goal.

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The big money is here: The arms race to quantum computing - Haaretz