SEEQC, the digital quantum computing firm from New York, and BASF (Badische Anilin und Soda Fabrik), the world’s largest chemical corporation based in Germany, announced their collaboration to accelerate the investigation of the use of quantum computing in chemical reactions. This study will look primarily at the possibility of quantum in dissolved catalysts, often known as homogeneous catalysis.
Through this collaboration, BASF joins the SEEQC-led QuPharma project, which was started in 2021 to investigate how quantum computing might improve the drug development process in collaboration with Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, a prominent science and technology business. The collaboration with BASF broadens the project’s commercial focus to include simulations vital to the chemical industry.
Merging their quantum capabilities
SEEQC will scale commercial simulation support in industrial catalysts using its digital chip-based quantum computer. The industrial catalysts addressed in this study are extremely difficult to mimic using today’s computers, even though they constitute the basis of one of the industry’s largest homogeneously catalyzed reactions, producing almost 10 million metric tons of oxo compounds each year.
While BASF will apply its extensive knowledge to crucial pharmaceutical research by collaborating with SEEQC on the QuPharma initiative, combined with SEEQC’s scalable chip-based quantum computing platform, this expertise may efficiently address difficulties and provide accuracy in chemical structure simulations.
“SEEQC is addressing the bottlenecks of scaling by integrating critical system functionality on a unique system-on-a-chip quantum computing platform. By partnering with SEEQC, we can investigate how to map our specific use-case to its unique technology, achieving an earlier advantage in the NISQ era and exploring how it can scale with fault-tolerant quantum computing.”
Horst Weiss, vice president, Next Generation Computing at BASF.
The SEECQ’s scaling capabilities
SEEQC employs a different approach than other quantum computing firms. SEEQC has created a “system-on-a-chip” quantum approach using single-flux quantum electronics (SFQ). Through ultra-low latency and energy-efficient chip-based digital multiplexing, readout, and control, SFQ technology enables SEEQC to substantially reduce the required input and output lines linking room-temperature electronics and qubits. This allows for better scaling capability and lower energy consumption, resulting in a stable and economically viable quantum computer.
SEEQC’s quantum system has the energy- and cost-efficiency, speed, and digital control needed to make quantum computing viable and deliver the first commercially scaled, problem-specific quantum computer to market.
The addition of BASF and Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, as end-customer partners to SEEQC supports SEEQC’s commercial and technological advantages over competitors. SEEQC will supply platforms that serve applications in the chemical and pharmaceutical industries through these partnerships, guaranteeing SEEQC and its partners have early access to two critical markets for quantum computing.
“Partnering with BASF enables SEEQC to further expand the commercial targets of our application-specific quantum computing platform. Working with a chemical industry leader like BASF further validates our scalable quantum computing roadmap and strengthens our application-driven platform development.”
Matthew Hutchings, SEEQC’s chief product officer and co-founder.
“We are excited to have BASF join the project. This complements our work with SEEQC and the QuPharma partners and will ultimately push the chemical and pharmaceutical industry towards realizing a quantum advantage earlier.”
Philipp Harbach, gLOBAL HEAD OF GROUP DIGITAL INNOVATION
The QuPharma project
The QuPharma project began in November 2021 to develop and deliver a full-stack quantum computer that can be utilized alongside traditional supercomputers to accelerate medication research. SEEQC was awarded a £6.8 million ($9 million) contract to lead the project, along with a consortium of partners from the quantum computing supply chain, including Riverlane, Oxford Instruments, the University of Oxford, Medicines Discovery Catapult, and Science and Technology Facilities Council members, including the UK’s National Quantum Computing Centre and the Hartree Centre.
SEEQC is providing its end customers with a clear roadmap for when quantum computing will deliver commercial value to their enterprises through the QuPharma project. SEEQC will supply essential scalable platform features such as low-latency digital readout, stable digital multiplexing, and more along this roadmap via the QuPharma project in order to boost reliability and investment.
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