Saudi Arabia deploys region’s first industrial quantum computer: What to know
The announcement significantly boosts Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 strategy to diversify the economy away from oil by the end of the decade.
Saudi Arabia's state-owned energy firm Aramco and French-headquartered quantum technology company Pasqal have deployed the Middle East’s first quantum computer dedicated to industrial applications, in a significant technology milestone for the region and a boost to the kingdom's Vision 2030 ambitions.
The system — which is also the kingdom’s first quantum computer — was developed by the French quantum computing company and is located at Aramco’s data center in Dhahran in Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province, according to a statement by the companies on Monday. The companies did not detail the industrial applications the machine will be used for.
Pasqal described the quantum computer as its most powerful yet. The machine can control 200 qubits arranged in programmable two-dimensional arrays. A qubit, or quantum bit, is the basic unit of information used to encode data in quantum computing. It is the quantum equivalent of the traditional bit used by legacy computers to encode information.
Pasqal CEO Loic Henriet described the rollout as “a historic milestone” in the statement.
