Magnetic materials are used to make MRI machines, hard drives, wireless chargers, and phone speakers.
It takes a lot of expensive research and development to create new materials.
“And there’s no shortage of applications for new discovery of magnetic materials,” says Alan Baratz, CEO at D-Wave Quantum, a company that makes annealing-style quantum computers.
That’s why today’s announcement that they were able to simulate a complex magnetic material with a quantum computer is so important. It’s not just a theoretical exercise. It solves a real-world problem.
And D-Wave’s computer took just minutes. By comparison, today’s fastest supercomputer would have taken nearly a million years, and more power than the entire planet consumes in a year.
“We are the first and only company to achieve this very significant milestone,” Baratz told journalists at a press conference earlier today. “We have shown quantum supremacy on complex material simulation problems. Full stop. And this is a first for the industry.”
