The Quantum Dragon saw Prof. Michael Biercuk declare “I’m on a boat!”, so he grabbed a couple of buddies, chartered a yacht, installed Q-CTRL’s Ironstone Opal Maritime quantum navigation system, and set sail for The Lonely Island (NSFW). Like Q-CTRL’s results, their dance moves are looking pretty incredible.
This week’s premium content:
- China’s Logical Qubit
- Quantum Computing Laws and Regulations 2026 – China
- AWS offers waaaay too many choices.
- Qubies
In this edition:
- Still a more viable product than half the startups I’ve seen.
- The New Yorker got cartoons.
- Quantum was barely mentioned in NVIDIA GTC keynote.
- Look Who’s Talking
- We also look forward to continued fruitful collaboration….
- You cannot scale a quantum processor in a vacuum….
- #82: This podcast is out of control. But, fortunately, ….
- Show the ROI or Shut Up About Quantum
- Recruiting Statistics
- Less than $2.8M
- Quantum Cat Adventures
Still a more viable product than half the startups I’ve seen.
You’ve probably already seen this by now, considering how popular Yuval Boger’s comic strip has become. The difference between clicking on it from here and reading it everywhere else is that Mr. Boger has a chance to receive The Dracarys Award if he keeps this up. This link may require a LinkedIn account. This link does not.
The New Yorker got cartoons.
Paul Noth of The New Yorker made a funny about quantum computers and it’s available through the Condé Nast Store. What’s interesting is that it appears to be in a “2014 Drawings” folder, seemingly offering the perspective from that year and raising an eyebrow as to why it’s circulating again in 2026.
Quantum was barely mentioned in NVIDIA GTC keynote.
Dr. Anastasia Marchenkova made an observation and then noted quantum’s strong showing outside the keynote. My observation is that despite everyone being the self-proclaimed “leader” of something, the actual leader of everything is Nvidia. The company doesn’t even need to say it. This link may require a LinkedIn account.
Look Who’s Talking
Four score and 13 speakers to go, IQT will bring forth on this planet 4 conferences, conceived in quantum and dedicated to the proposition that all attendees should be networking.
We also look forward to continued fruitful collaboration with our portfolio company, QuEra, whose researchers pioneered foundational methods and are advancing progress in neutral atom computing.
We also look forward to continued fruitful collaboration….
Many are noticing Hartmut Neven’s announcement that Google is venturing into neutral atoms, but few, if any, are remembering that Google is already invested in QuEra, which spun out from Harvard and MIT. Google is therefore drawing from both the Boston and Boulder neutral atom ecosystems, the two biggies.
You cannot scale a quantum processor in a vacuum….
Greg Pitz is pitching the Arizona quantum ecosystem, and I’m not going to argue any of his points… except for one. Technically, you can indeed scale a quantum processor in a vacuum, depending on the modality you’re using, but I see what he’s trying to say. This link may require a LinkedIn account.
Researchers are now exploring qudits!
I don’t know if Dr. Bob Sutor wants to become known as the “AI Slop Detector,” but he sure is good at detecting AI slop. Here he nonchalantly responded to Ashish Janghel with a paper all the way back from 1998. What’s worse is that the other commenters are completely glossing over it. This link may require a LinkedIn account.
#82: This podcast is out of control. But, fortunately, ….
I asked Gregg Carman, General Manager for North America for Qblox, about teaming up with QuantWare and Q-CTRL to offer the Quantum Utility Block (QUB), Qblox Qubit Lab, Oxford Quantum Circuits’ (OQC) logical qubits, market leadership, physical footprint and power consumption, and the strategy behind hosting webinars.
Show the ROI or Shut Up About Quantum
David Linthicum shows some potential by luring us in with the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus, but then the video is just him calmly talking. That said, his 282K YouTube subscribers are ~282K more than mine, so the evidence suggests that I’m the one doing it wrong. This link may require a LinkedIn account. This link does not.
Recruiting Statistics
This isn’t an ad for Seer. I’ve never worked with Conor Johnston or Seer. I’m the 2nd least qualified person in quantum; hello? That said, I’ve never seen a recruiter publish numbers like these before. I can’t verify that they’re accurate, but I like the unique marketing approach. This link may require a LinkedIn account.
Less than $2.8M
For some reason, The Boreal Times is boasting that $5.6M in CAS Cold Atom HANYUAN-1 sales includes TWO quantum computers, making them easily the cheapest among neutral atoms and among the cheapest overall. Plus, we don’t know how much more is included in the $5.6M. Remember: you get what you pay for.
Quantum Cat Adventures
I don’t know how I missed Yuval Boger using the phrase “‘Quantum Cat Adventures, Vol. 3’ on Netflix,” but it turns out that’s almost an actual thing. https://www.youtube.com/@QuantumCatAdventures is on YouTube, not Netflix, and has 2 videos, not 3. This link may require a LinkedIn account.