BOULDER, Colo. — Colorado is already a hub for quantum technology, which could completely transform computers to solve problems like we never have before.
A new facility in Boulder promises to be a place where that technology can take off.
Scientists manipulate particles smaller than an atom in ways that allow them to build devices and computers faster and more precise than ever. Scientists say the technology could one day detect illnesses in someone’s breath or send data that can’t be hacked.
Governor Jared Polis is one of those bullish on quantum technology.
“This is going to benefit every American, every person in the world as a consumer,” he said, alluding to the technological benefits as well as the economic ones.
“Already 3,000 [quantum] jobs in Colorado, but this could be 30,000, 300,000 jobs in 10 years,” Polis told Denver7 Wednesday night. “Only about 15 percent of the jobs are going to be advanced degrees. This is manufacturing jobs. This is welding jobs. These are going to be jobs that many Coloradans with different skill sets are going to be able to have, that are good paying.”
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Funded by $74 million of refundable tax credits from the state, a new Quantum Incubator is now up and running in Boulder. It’s a collaboration between the University of Colorado Boulder, Colorado State University, Colorado School of Mines and Elevate Quantum, a coalition of 120 organizations.
The 13,000-square-foot facility is also meant to give start-ups a foundation so they can flourish and start building the technology into ways we can use it in everyday life.
“This space provides that meeting place and provides the environment to really take these technologies further,” said Massimo Ruzzene, senior vice chancellor for research and innovation at CU Boulder. “We know what the [quantum] benefits are right now. We just need to unchain them.”
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But tech giants have tempered expectations for quantum computing.
This week, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said quantum computers are more than a decade away from mass appeal. Denver7 asked Polis and Ruzzene if they are right to be skeptical.
“So this is not something that, in two years, is going to be the dominant technology for computer processing,” Polis replied. “In 10 to 15 years, it will be, but it's already growing as a market share.”
“I think maybe quantum computing, sure, that [timeline] may be true, but other [quantum] ]technologies, like I said, we might have companies come out, you know, in the next few years, and this place will be the place where these technologies can take off,” said Ruzzene.
The Boulder Quantum Incubator is the second Colorado quantum facility to be announced in recent months, after a Quantum Tech Park in Arvada that came to fruition after Elevate Quantum was selected for more than $40 million in funding from the federal government’s Economic Development Administration.
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