Local firms will soon be able to harness the abilities of a new quantum computer set up in Singapore, which aims to accelerate the discovery of new drugs and financial modelling for raising capital, making acquisitions and valuing a business.
The Helios quantum computer, which will be set up in 2026, comes under a new partnership inked between the National Quantum Office (NQO) and US-based firm Quantinuum, which builds quantum computers.
This will be the second quantum computer to be set up here and the first to be used for commercial purposes, said the two organisations and the National Quantum Computing Hub (NQCH) in a joint statement on Nov 6.
“It will significantly expand Singapore’s research and development scope, enabling scientists and companies to tackle larger, more complex and industry-relevant problems,” said NQO’s executive director Ling Keok Tong.
Unlike traditional computers that store information as either 0s or 1s, quantum computers use quantum bits (or qubits) to represent and store information in a complex mix of 0s and 1s simultaneously.
As the number of qubits grows, a quantum computer becomes exponentially more powerful. It is able to examine countless number of possibilities to pinpoint a probable solution in hours while a traditional computer would take hundreds and thousands of years to do so.
Quantum computers have been tipped to lead new discoveries in fields such as medicine, materials and more sophisticated artificial intelligence.
In the initial phase, NQO will be working with researchers from organisations such as A*Star’s Institute of High Performance Computing to focus on potential commercial applications such as drug discovery, financial modeling, and optimisation and logistics.
