Doorstop - Moreton Bay

Website search Building first fault-tolerant quantum computer; PsiQuantum. ALI FRANCE MP, MEMBER FOR DICKSON: [Cuts in] … Centre of Excellence. Obviously, we are also going to have a brand new Olympic sports facility right here.

And now, we are going to have the world's very first utility scale quantum computer. This project is going to generate around 400 local jobs. It is incredibly important for our local community.

I just want to really thank PsiQuantum for believing in our vision and for seeing what we could see and seeing what the local council could see. The Federal Government, the Albanese Labor Government, has committed $470 million and so has the State Government, and obviously the Moreton Bay Regional Council has committed land and infrastructure. I think this project is a real demonstration of what you are achieve when you see all our three levels of government working together.

I'm so pleased to see this precinct develop into a massive innovation industry, manufacturing ecosystem, and I'm now going to hand over to our Mayor. PETER FLANNERY, MAYOR OF THE CITY OF MORETON BAY : Good morning, everyone. This is very, very exciting.

I know you hear that many times when people attend a sod turning, but today is pretty unique. Today is very special. Today is going to be a point in time in history where we look back and say this is where we had the first quantum computer system right here, in the world, right here in the City of Moreton Bay.

It is very exciting for us. This land was purchased a number of years ago with the idea of making an innovation hub of our city. We have got a growing population, we have got a beautiful relationship with the University of the Sunshine Coast.

Like Ali said, we have got a TAFE college coming, indoor sports centre coming. This is the cherry on top that now is going to hold the whole nucleus of this area together: the PsiQuantum computer to be right here in the City of Moreton Bay. We couldn't be more excited they have chosen us to come and build it here, and we would love to be in great partnerships with them.

The Federal Government - thank you to the Federal Government, to the State Government for their investment in this infrastructure as well. For many, many exciting things to come out of this for the future. This is the start of it.

For decades to come we are going to see the whole industry, the whole world change due to this technology, this advancement, and we are grateful and excited by that. I will hand over to Minister Tim. SENATOR TIM AYRES, MINISTER FOR INDUSTRY AND INNOVATION, MINISTER FOR SCIENCE : Thanks, mate.

Well, thanks very much Mayor Peter Flannery. It is absolutely terrific to be here with my ministerial colleague Andrew Powell, the Minister for Science and Innovation in the Queensland Government, my Federal Parliamentary colleagues Ali France and Emma Comer, and the team from PsiQuantum, Jeremy O'Brien and Victor Peng. This is going to be the heart of Australia's quantum computing capability.

This decision to secure PsiQuantum's investment here in Australia matters for Australia's future tech agency and our capacity to be able to secure future investment, good jobs in the outer suburbs and our regions. This investment from the Albanese Government and the Crisafulli Government in Queensland represented here today in this wonderful ground breaking event will deliver the world's first fault tolerant utility-scale quantum computer.

What that means is that it will be Australian industry, Australian tech firms in partnership with PsiQuantum solving the big challenges that can't be solved with existing technology. And it means that instead of Australia being a customer at the end of long tech supply chains, that Australia will have a place in the tech economy able to exercise our own agency, delivering for Australian industry, delivering for Australian technology.

I'm very excited to be here in Queensland and happy to answer your questions in a moment after Victor Peng, I think from now, Andrew. ANDREW POWELL, MINISTER FOR THE ENVIRONMENT AND TOURISM, MINISTER FOR SCIENCE AND INNOVATION : Well, what a great day to be a Queenslander. This is not just about a sod turn, this is about putting Moreton Bay front and centre in terms of the jobs for the future.

Creating new jobs for Queensland. With the university here, a new TAFE on the way, the indoor arena coming for the Olympic and Paralympic Games and now this sod turning, we want Moreton Bay kids to know that they can learn here, they can train here and they can have a career here into the future. This sod turning today, this investment in PsiQuantum will ensure an entire ecosystem built around it, and that's very exciting for Queenslanders.

It demonstrates a confidence in our people, in our workforces, in our economy. We will continue to back in this project. The race is on for the first utility scale quantum computer.

Queensland is not only in it, we have a chance to lead it. Thanks very much, Victor. VICTOR PENG, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER PSIQUANTUM : I can't say how deeply grateful we are for all your support at every level of government, the local community, as well as the research community which, you know, wouldn't be possible without Jeremy and the founders.

So we are so excited not only because of the historical moment of starting to build our quantum computer, but the partnership with people that understand the vision, that have the courage and the wherewithal to commit to changing the future of computing and changing the economy of Queensland, Australia, and solving the world's hardest, most challenging problems with a fault tolerant quantum computer.

We’re privileged and we are delighted and we look forward to turning on the machine here. Thank you very much. : Can we ask you a couple of questions is that all right? Why Australia and why UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER : Could you step up to the microphone? : Thank you.

Why Australia, why Moreton Bay? I think I also want you looking down that way if that's all right. : You know, as I said, one of the things I learned joining PsiQuantum is the deep technology and research that's going on here in Australia. It's just super amazing because there is very few [countries] around the world that has this concentration of talent, of deep expertise, and the history of the research that's going on here.

So that's clearly one thing. And then, as I said, the other thing too is doing this creating. It's not just building a site and building a quantum computer; you have to build an entire ecosystem.

You have to build robust and secure supply chains and working with public private partnerships like we have here. You have such strength, you have such vision and drive to make that happen. I mean, it doesn't get better than that.

So this is just a phenomenal place to be present. This will be our first quantum computer, so, you know, we are – as I heard many times before – we are open for business as soon as that powers on to work with enterprises and research communities to start [indistinct] and unlocking channels for economic value. : Can you please explain again the possibilities that [quantum] computing would open up?

What will we see it be able to do? : Yes, I mean, it's going to really disrupt a number of different industries. Some of the first ones that we have been already working with for a number of years are things like in pharmaceuticals, material science, you know, obviously energy and other things. I think as we develop a whole roadmap of quantum computing it will expand the different use cases and different vertical markets.

So, again, I think it's going to be creating new materials, new capability, advanced manufacturing. In fact, you know, I think over time it will create whole new industries and we’re starting to see that today. : AI is such a huge emerging space, no one really knows where it's going to end up. Is there much crossover between this piece of technology and AI? : Yes.

I mean, there is some. And I think, you know, a couple of things: quantum computing is not something that you take a program that you have run and written for traditional computing, whether it is AI or CPUs, and you don't just submit that to quantum computers. So one is, you do need to work in tandem.

But what the quantum computer can do, the GPUs and the CPUs can never do. For centuries, they could never do that. So there is – you know, if you will, you have to decompose your problems and you will need both of those.

That said, there is also the fact that we create – quantum computing creates enormous amounts of exact data at fundamental first principle levels. I think everybody knows that AI, its accuracy, its performance improves with good data. So, there's also the synergistic aspect, right.

So the way you think about – there’s some things that don't overlap, that quantum computing can do that traditional computing can never do, and then there are some areas that we can actually, you know, have that positive feedback and that synergy to make the entire computing loop much more capable and get it to solve problems much more quickly. JOURNALIST: What is meant by this machine being fault tolerant?

Are we talking about tectonic plates and the earth closing? : No, I think it's – Jeremy is the best person to speak to this – but basically because you're dealing with these particles and superposition of these particles, they can they are not they are very sensitive to different disturbances. So, what's going to happen is, you're going to have some, if you will, like if you think of digital bits, if you think of bits flipping and things changing.

So you have to deal with the fact that there will be noise, and you have to deal with the fact that there will be errors. So, fault tolerance means you can do your calculations while you are having some noise, while you are having some bit flipping and other things. You can still have high quality applications.

And that's critical in order to solve real world problems. : We are told this is a world first. Can you talk about where this project sits with regard to the broader global emerging industry of quantum computing? How significant is this particular development? : For PsiQuantum this is our very first quantum computer.

You know, I think, you know, we are doing other kinds of smaller scale deployments in other places, but this is our very first, and this is where we are going to first solve those problems, generate revenue. You know, drive the economic engine. As far as the industry as a whole, I would say is that, you know, there are many people claiming they are in different stages.

I can't speak to where they are. All I would say is that we are very focused on the mission that Jeremy shared with the founders on day one. We are focused at getting – solving real world problems.

Not misc systems which are more like demonstrations for capability, you know, we are going for gold here and we are going at scale. And that's going to happen here and we really believe that we will be the first and we will be doing it with gusto because it's going to be at scale right here in Moreton Bay. : As you say it has never been done before, so respectfully how confident are you that PsiQuantum can actually achieve a useful quantum computer? : You know, I'm privileged to have such a talented team.

I think it's an amazing team and we have been making tremendous progress. So we are confident. This is still very advanced engineering at this point.

Most of the science has been done. But, you know, because of that it is challenging. But we are running like all get out to sort of make this happen.

And, you know, the timeframe: when this building is up we will be filling it with our machine and we will be filling it out to scale. And, yeah, we are looking really good as far as the progress rate to date. : What is that timeframe? : Well, you know, what I would say is, that if you look at about around the end of this decade – so late '29 – things will start, you’re going to see us building this machine and bring it up.

And by 2030 we are confident that it will be up and running. : Do you have clients? : We are working with a number of customers today, even without the machine, actually through many different vertical markets. Some have been working with us for many years. We actually do generate revenue because they see the value in working with us.

And this gets back to the fact that you just can't take a program that used to run on traditional computing and then submit it to a quantum computer. That's not the way it works. What you have to do is look at the problem and decompose it and understand what you know, how you optimise that problem and what the algorithms are.

What runs on the CPU, the AI, and what runs on the quantum computer. And we are already getting insights and learning both about the domain space and our customers that are interacting with us having a better understanding of what they can do with quantum computers. So, yeah, we have customers and we will just continue to build that out. : How much power will you need?

It seems like it would need a lot from the grid. I don't know, is there a chance that it could plunge some parts of Queensland into blackouts or brownouts from the amount of power that you will be – : Sure, I understand the concern about that. Listen, a quantum computer – I will just speak – our quantum computer is one to two orders of magnitude less than you have been hearing about for AI, right.

So, I do not see that happening at all, and if anything over time as we continue to develop the capability, the machines will get both more powerful and I believe be both more energy efficient. So if you think, like I said, you should be thinking 10 to 100 x less power intensive than like traditional AI data centres. The same thing for water.

I mean, the resources that – in fact, the reality is it is quite a sustainable way to do computing, right. And the fact that we can also make the AI be more efficient, then that means it will use less energy itself, right? So if there is concern about sustainability as we understand, you know, you should be rooting for quantum computing. : What about noise pollution.

Is that something – : No, it doesn't, because we don't generate fans or things of that nature. You know, things are kept enclosed – in fact, a lot of things are in vacuums. So, you know, it won't be – you’ll be able to sleep in a quantum computing centre if you wanted to. : It will be really cold. : Ali’s told us there is 400 jobs created from this development.

Can you break it down for us? Is this – like how many in the construction phase, and then when it winds back to the operational phase, how many people are going to be involved? You know, how many people are going to be employed? : Yes, no, I mean the point that we would definitely drive in terms of within PsiQuantum is quite large, but a lot of it will be associated with running the facility.

It is also actually just back to working with customers – you know, working with them on some of our solutions and applications folks, software people. So, it's going to be a range. We also do research here of course, right.

We have a lab we just opened not long ago in Griffith. So, it will be a range of different, you know, skill sets. And of course what we are going to do is work with the universities and other educational institutions here to help with the workforce development.

Because we really do need more people trained in understanding quantum computing. You know, I just recently had come off from being in the AI space at AID, and I would say even at a similar stage of the journey with AI, there were more people that understood AI and AI practitioners than there are for quantum. So, we are all about partnering again with the universities and driving more education.

Not just research and advancement, we also advance manufacturing because you have to do state of the art, you know, mechanical and, you know, all kinds of things. So, it's really across the board in terms of skill sets. : Yes I've got one for Minister Ayres. How does the taxpayer get economic return for the $1 billion we are spending on this project? : This is a really important project for Australia.

It means that not only will this investment be secured here and that tech jobs be delivered here, but the customers of PsiQuantum – the purpose of having a fault tolerant utility scale quantum computer here – will be able to solve problems that have traditionally taken years and decades in weeks and months. That means in areas like pharmaceuticals, cancer treatments, in material composites and developing advanced materials so vital for the future of our critical metals and metals refining industries.

This capability puts Australia at the front of the queue in technological terms. It's an important capability for our future national resilience. : So, local customers will be first in line to use it once it's up and running? : Look, the purpose of having this facility here in Australia is to secure the Australian advantage. It is designed to make sure that this capability is here for Australia, for Australians and Australian businesses to use.

It will advance our research and development capability too. The Albanese Government are absolutely determined to make sure that we secure the tech advantage for Australia, the industrial advantage for Australia. That's what a Future Made in Australia is all about.

JOURNALIST: Do you think it was a risky gamble of $1 billion taxpayer funds considering this has never been done before? : You probably want me to look over there at the camera over there probably for that. Well, the alternative is to sit on our hands, to be flat footed. Instead, you have got the Albanese Government, the Queensland Government securing this investment for Australia, putting us at the front of the queue in technological and resilience terms, shaping our future economy in the interests of good jobs and good investment for regions like this and for our outer suburbs.

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