23-07-2025
UK firms in quantum leap for commercial use of supercomputers
Two British tech companies have made error-corrected quantum computing available in a commercial data centre for the first time.
The collaboration between Oxford Quantum Circuits (OQC) and Riverlane means that early quantum adopters such as investment banks and security and defence companies can test their quantum algorithms securely on their own data and potentially gain an advantage over competitors.
Gerald Mullally is chief executive of the Reading-based OQC, which has built a type of quantum computer using 'superconducting circuits'. He said the integration with Riverlane, a Cambridge firm that is a world leader in the correction of processing errors, would accelerate the time it takes for quantum computers to become commercially useful.
• What is quantum computing? Our science editor tries to explain
At present, the computers can run thousands of operations before errors overwhelm them. OQC plans to reach millions of operations by 2028, followed by billions in 2031, which would enable quantum chemistry, followed by trillions of operations in 2034, where current methods of encryption can be broken.
'One of the key things we need to do collectively is get those errors down, and [putting together] what Riverlane has created with our architecture … accelerates that path towards 2028 and when [the technology] unlocks commercial value,' Mullally said.
Customers of the 29,000 sq m data centre in Reading run by CenterSquare, a Texas-based operator, can pay to use the three OQC quantum computers based there to test their quantum algorithms on their own data, in a secure way. The likely users are understood to include global banks, social media firms and security groups.
'The reason businesses are using the technology is that they are understanding where it is, they are refining their quantum algorithms and, on that basis, they will be first to [gain a] commercial advantage when the hardware has a low enough error rate,' said Mullally. Their experience with AI, he said, had forced businesses 'to think about future compute much more seriously'.
International companies such as investment banks already employ large teams of quantum computer software specialists, who are writing and testing trading algorithms on these early systems. 'They know what it means for derivative pricing, arbitrage, deep hedging or fraud detection. They are largely proprietary algorithms that give them commercial advantage,' Mullally said.
OQC, which was founded by Oxford University physicists in 2017, co-located its quantum computers at the data centre over two years ago, but this will be the first time it has integrated them with error-correction systems to improve their performance. It said that, initially, Riverlane's technology would run on a digital twin of its quantum system to validate its error-correction routines, before integrating it into OQC's hardware.
Steve Brierley, founder and chief executive of Riverlane, said: 'Quantum computing gives you an exponential advantage. It is not a little bit better than classical computing; it is hundreds of millions times better than the previous generation.'
• Riverlane aims to be the next Arm with its quantum computer chip
As an example, he said that by 2028, when a quantum computer should be able to carry out millions of tasks before being overwhelmed, the same processing power would require 'a billion-trillion GPUs' — the circuits used in existing computers to handle heavy computational tasks.
'That is breakthrough capability and anyone who isn't using that is going to get left out very, very quickly,' said Brierley.
The government has committed £500 million to help develop Britain's quantum computing industry — money that will be invested over three years from next April. An additional £170 million has been allocated for quantum development through its 'AI growth zones'. This national quantum strategy has set achieving one million error-corrected quantum operations by 2028 as its target.
Brierley welcomed the prominence that quantum computing was given in the government's industrial strategy, as well as the cash. 'It is key that that gets spent quickly and doesn't get spread out across many small projects, but really goes after the big, key industrial scale problems.'
Mullally added that while other countries, including in Europe, were investing more, Britain had established a lead in the 2010s, including a strong talent base, that it can still build on. But he warned against dithering. 'The task now is to get on with it. It is about pace, the next three years are absolutely critical.'
