Microsoft reportedly developing new quantum cloud projects

The Redmond-based tech company and consultancy group KPMG are working together in order to solve common business problems by using quantum-inspired optimization via the Azure Quantum cloud service.

Optimization problems are found in many industries and are often difficult to solve using traditional methods which can accelerate optimization.

However, emulating these quantum effects on classical computers has led to the development of quantum-inspired optimization (QIO) algorithms that run on classical hardware.

Needless to say that these algorithms allow researchers, developers, and solution providers to benefit from quantum approaches on classical hardware today, providing a speed-up over traditional approaches.

Microsoft and KPMG making serious plans for the future

It’s true that powerful quantum computers capable of solving tricky computing problems are still the stuff that movies are made of, but progress is being made by Google, IBM, Honeywell Quantum, and Cambridge Quantum.

The tech giant claims Azure Quantum is a full-stack, public cloud for quantum computing that allows consultancies like KPMG to test quantum computing optimization tools to solve business challenges. 

KPMG has built a dedicated team of professionals focused on quantum-related technologies, which is educating clients on future capabilities of quantum computing and how to apply emerging capabilities to real business problems today.

The shared goal for these initial projects is to build solution blueprints for common industry optimization problems using Azure Quantum, which we can then provide to more clients at scale.

Microsoft is in the quantum supercomputer race along with Amazon, Google, IBM, IonQ, Nvidia, and many others. IN total, over 240 companies have attracted $8.512 billion in investments.

Basically, quantum computing, which defies the classic computer logic 0 and 1, holds promise in numerous domains because it could solve certain problems that classical computers simply can’t manage.

Initial collaboration projects expect to focus on benchmarking solutions for financial services portfolio optimization and telecommunication service fleet optimization.

And if you are a lot more curious about this topic, the teams plan to share results in the coming months, so we’ll keep an eye out for that as well.

This is a very interesting initiative, one that will surely revolutionize the world as we know it, but still far away for the time being.

What is your take on this whole collaboration? Share your opinion with us in the comments section below.