Building superconducting and neutral atom quantum computers

At Google Quantum AI, our mission has always been clear: build quantum computing for otherwise unsolvable problems. For over a decade, we have pioneered the development of superconducting quantum bits (qubits), achieving milestones like beyond-classical performance, error correction and verifiable quantum advantage that once seemed decades away. We are now increasingly confident that commercially relevant quantum computers based on superconducting technology will become available by the end of this decade.

Today, we are excited to share that Google Quantum AI is expanding our quantum computing effort to include neutral atom quantum computing, which uses individual atoms as qubits.

Two promising approaches to quantum computing

Google will accelerate our timeline to near-term milestones and broaden our impact by exploiting the complementary strengths of two modalities. Superconducting qubits have already scaled to circuits with millions of gate and measurement cycles, where each cycle takes just a microsecond. Neutral atoms, meanwhile, have scaled to arrays with about ten thousand qubits. They make up for their slower cycle times — measured in milliseconds — with a flexible, any-to-any connectivity graph that allows for efficient algorithms and error-correcting codes. The road ahead reflects these distinct starting points: an outstanding challenge for neutral atoms remains demonstrating deep circuits with many cycles, while the next task for the superconducting modality is to demonstrate computing architectures with tens of thousands of qubits. In expert jargon, we often say that superconducting processors are easier to scale in the time dimension (circuit depth), while neutral atoms are easier to scale in the space dimension (qubit count). Investing in both approaches increases our ability to deliver on our mission, sooner. By advancing both, we cross-pollinate research and engineering breakthroughs, and can deliver access to versatile platforms tailored to different types of problems.

A complete research program

Our neutral atoms program is built on three critical pillars:

• Quantum Error Correction (QEC): Adapting error correction to the connectivity of neutral atom arrays, resulting in low space and time overheads for fault-tolerant architectures.
• Modeling and Simulation: Utilizing Google’s world-class compute resources and model-based design to simulate hardware architectures, optimize error budgets and refine component targets.
• Experimental Hardware Development: Realizing the hardware capabilities to manipulate atomic qubits at application scale with fault-tolerant performance.

To lead the experimental charge, we are excited to welcome Dr. Adam Kaufman to Google Quantum AI. Adam states, "I am thrilled to join Google's world-leading program in quantum computing, and to expand that leadership to a new and highly promising platform of neutral atoms.” Based in Boulder, Colorado — a global epicenter for Atomic, Molecular and Optical (AMO) physics — Adam will lead a growing neutral atoms hardware team at Google. He will continue as a JILA Fellow and CU Boulder faculty, with an affiliation in the Physics Department at CU Boulder.

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.

Insights from the quantum ecosystem

By tapping into the incredible talent from institutions like CU Boulder, JILA and NIST Boulder, we are embedding our efforts within one of the most sophisticated physics and engineering ecosystems in the world. Leaders at CU Boulder, NIST and Elevate Quantum all emphasize the opportunity for Adam and Google to build on long-held relationships and further strengthen the Boulder and U.S. quantum ecosystems.

“We are delighted that Google Quantum AI has engaged Adam Kaufman to lead this important work in Boulder,” says CU Boulder Senior Vice Chancellor for Research & Innovation and Dean of the Institutes, Massimo Ruzzene. “Adam’s work reflects the vision and excellence of CU Boulder’s quantum ecosystem — from JILA and our physics department to initiatives such as the CUbit Quantum Initiative and the Colorado Quantum Incubator. This partnership strengthens Boulder’s nationally recognized quantum landscape, supported by major federal investments including the NSF Q‑SEnSE Institute, the National Quantum Nanofab and the U.S. EDA Quantum TechHub.” NIST Physical Measurement Laboratory Director James Kushmerick notes, “It is always sad having a researcher with the creativity and impact of Adam leave [NIST]. But moves like this are one of the ways NIST helps to strengthen U.S. industry. While this is a loss for NIST, it is a gain for the quantum ecosystem in Boulder and the U.S. quantum industry broadly.” Both Massimo and James look forward to continued collaboration opportunities with Adam in his new role at Google.

The exciting road ahead

We are confident in our ability to solve the remaining problems in physics and engineering towards large-scale quantum computing, and we are humbled and excited about the scale of the challenge.