No one in industry nor academia has yet managed to demonstrate a commercially useful quantum computing application. Nonetheless, public and private entities continue to invest billions of dollars into developing quantum applications with hopes of major returns. Some analysts project that the technology could generate $1 trillion by 2035.
Amid this speculation, a group of physicists believe that they can cut through the hype with an open-source quantum computer. Roger Melko, Crystal Senko, and Rajibul Islam of the University of Waterloo in Canada teamed up with Greg Dick, formerly an executive at Perimeter Institute, also in Canada, to found a nonprofit called Open Quantum Design (OQD) in 2024. The company consists of quantum developers from academia and industry who pay a membership fee to participate in project-specific working groups. Other funding comes from the Canadian government and philanthropic organizations.
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