Beyond the Qubit – Details, episodes & analysis

In Part 3 of this conversation, Frank Dekker reflects on one of the biggest takeaways from his discussion with Olivier Ezratty: great science alone does not create a winning quantum ecosystem. Europe has deep talent, strong research, and serious technical capability, but turning that into globally relevant companies is a different challenge.

This episode is for investors, founders, policymakers, and anyone trying to understand what it will really take for Europe to compete in quantum. The conversation goes beyond technology and looks at the harder questions around energy, coordination, ecosystem building, and long term strategy.

That is what makes Olivier’s perspective so valuable. He is not only trying to understand where quantum is going. He is trying to improve the odds that Europe builds something meaningful around it.

💡 In this episode, we cover:

• Why strong quantum talent does not automatically create strong quantum companies

• Why the Quantum Energy Initiative matters for the future economics of the industry

• Why energy and power costs could shape who scales and who can deploy

• Why ecosystem building takes more than great technology

• How Olivier thinks about strengthening the French and European quantum landscape

• Why Europe needs stronger links between research, capital, policy, and industry

• Why coordination may matter as much as technical progress

• What Europe needs most right now to improve its chances in quantum

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Olivier Ezratty

00:48 Olivier’s background in software, Microsoft, and startups

04:07 How curiosity led him into science and quantum

05:52 From tech events to explaining quantum publicly

10:25 Building a 1,500-page quantum guide

13:36 Olivier’s goals for the next five years

14:18 Why Europe has talent but not enough quantum companies

35:39 Quantum Energy Initiative and why energy matters early

37:53 The hidden classical costs behind useful quantum computing

39:05 Why quantum needs a system-level engineering mindset

41:31 Quantum matter, new materials, and Europe’s next opportunity

🔗 Resources / LinksFollow Olivier Ezratty on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ezratty/

Listen to all episodes: https://open.spotify.com/show/7HZpSCz1w7a782e1B26MYA

Share this episode with someone following Europe’s quantum future. Subscribe or follow Beyond the Qubit for more conversations on quantum technology, markets, and investing.

📌 Disclaimer: This post is shared on a personal basis, and I do not represent any company.

Quantum computing has a hype problem. But the real challenge is much harder than most people think.

In Part 2 of this conversation, Frank Dekker continues his deep dive with Olivier Ezratty and gets into what real progress in quantum actually looks like. One of the clearest takeaways is that every step forward can create a new bottleneck. Solve one problem, and another appears right behind it.

This episode is for investors, founders, and anyone trying to understand why scaling quantum computing is so difficult. The challenge is not just adding more qubits. It is building a system that can handle noise, error correction, control complexity, and energy demands, while still producing something useful at a cost the market can bear.

That is what makes this conversation so valuable. Olivier brings a grounded perspective that goes beyond exciting narratives and focuses on what it really takes to make the whole system work.

💡 In this episode, we cover:

• Why quantum computing has a hype problem

• Why solving one problem often creates another

• Why scaling quantum is not just about adding more qubits

• How noise and control complexity slow real progress

• Why error correction creates major system overhead

• Why energy demands matter in the future of quantum computing

• Why quantum is a full stack challenge across physics, engineering, software, control, and economics

• Why the winners in quantum will be the teams that can make the whole system work

  
  

YouTube Chapters

00:00 Introduction and the core question

00:52 Does a quantum computer really work?

05:45 Is a quantum computer really a computer?

10:39 Quantum memory, QRAM, and communication

14:28 How AI helps quantum and where it still does not

19:38 Which quantum technology platform will win?

27:20 Why every scaling solution creates a new problem

40:05 Quantum Energy Initiative and why energy matters

52:49 The three expensive classical costs behind FTQC

56:10 Quantum engineering and the bigger opportunity in quantum

🔗 Resources / Links

Follow Olivier Ezratty on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ezratty/

Listen to all episodes: https://open.spotify.com/show/7HZpSCz1w7a782e1B26MYA

Share this episode with someone following quantum computing seriously.

Subscribe or follow Beyond the Qubit for more conversations on quantum technology, markets, and investing.

📌 Disclaimer: This post is shared on a personal basis and I do not represent any company.

This post is a short summary of a longer conversation on theBeyond the Qubit podcast.

I sat down with the CEO of QC Design to talk about whatquantum computing really is once you strip away the metaphors.

A qubit is not a bit with uncertainty.
It is a fragile physical state.

You cannot read it without destroying it.
You cannot copy it.
You cannot inspect what it contains.

You never really ask a qubit a question.

What you actually do is prepare a physical system, let itevolve under carefully designed control pulses, and then force a measurement.
You get a single outcome. Not an answer, but a sample.

The qubit does not reason, choose, or understand thequestion.
It simply reacts to physical forces and collapses.

Seen this way, quantum computation looks less likecomputation and more like continuous damage control layered on top of aphysical process that barely exists long enough to be manipulated.

This perspective matters.
Because it exposes why scaling quantum systems is fundamentally an engineeringproblem, not a software one.

The full conversation goes much deeper into what this meansfor system design, abstractions, and where many roadmaps quietly break down.

More in the full episode of Beyond the Qubit.

https://youtu.be/9ydv1tFjgqo

Quantum #QuantumArchitecture

#ErrorCorrection #QuantumSoftware #BeyondTheQubit

 @IshDhand @QC_Design 

📌 Disclaimer: Thispost is shared on a personal basis and I do not represent any company

It’s blocked by design choices.”

That was one of thestrongest realizations from Part 2 of my deepdive with Ish Dhand, co-founder of QCDesign, on Beyond the Qubit.

Most people talkabout fault-tolerant quantum computing as if it’s a single problem.

In reality, it’s a design-space explosion.

That reframed how Ithink about progress in quantum.

What stood out to mein this part of the conversation:

• Hardware teamsdon’t struggle with one error, they struggle with many interacting imperfections at the same time

• Open-sourcesimulators can scale to thousands of qubits, but usually only by assuming very simplified error models

• Real hardware hasto deal with leakage, coherent errors, pulse timing, idling, cross-talk,  all at once

• Many of theseeffects only become visible at the scale of thousandsof physical qubits per logical qubit

This is where QCDesign plays a unique role.

Rather than bettingon a single error-correction code or architecture, they help hardware teams simulate realistic fault-tolerant systems beforebuilding them,  across platforms,codes, decoders, and noise models.

What really changedmy perspective:

Error correctionisn’t just about finding a better code.

It’s aboutunderstanding where engineering effort actuallypays off.

If leakage hurtsyour logical qubits more than erasures,

why spend yearsoptimizing the wrong thing?

If longer pulsesimprove gate fidelity but quietly destroy system performance through idlingerrors,

where’s the realoptimum?

These aren’tacademic questions.

They determine cost, timelines, and whether scaling is even feasible.

One line from Ishreally stuck with me:

Today, the cost of a truly useful fault-tolerantquantum computer is effectively infinite.

The real progress is making that number finite, andthen bringing it down.

That single sentencereframes the entire industry.

In this episode, wego deep into:

• why decoding speedmatters as much as code efficiency

• why “software willfix it later” is usually the wrong mindset

• why logicalfidelity matters more than raw qubit counts

• and why faulttolerance is becoming a full-stack engineeringproblem

If you care about how quantum computers will actually be built,  not just announced,  this conversation is worth your time.

🎙️Beyond the Qubit — Part 2 with Ish Dhand

🔗https://youtu.be/ugo3g1Mws2M

#FaultTolerantQuantum#QuantumArchitecture

#ErrorCorrection#QuantumSoftware #BeyondTheQubit

⁨@IshDhand⁩ ⁨@QC_Design⁩

📌 Disclaimer: This post is shared on a personal basis and I do notrepresent any company

That’s the question Ish Dhand has been obsessed with for years.

It’s also what ledhim from academia, to Xanadu, and now toco-founding QC Design.

I’m excited to sharethat Ish is joining me on Beyond the Qubit.

What struck me mostin our conversation wasn’t hype or timelines, it was how hard the problem really is.

A few takeaways thatstayed with me:

• Fault-tolerantquantum computers aren’t blocked by a single breakthrough, but by thousands of interacting design decisions

• Error correctionisn’t just a physics problem, it’s an architecture,control, and decoding problem all at once

• Many hardwareteams underestimate how early they needto think about fault tolerance

• Software canunlock orders-of-magnitude improvements,but only if it’s grounded in realistic noise models and hardware constraints

At one point, Ishdescribed QC Design as the Cadence / Synopsysof quantum computing.

Not building thehardware itself, but helping hardware teams understand what they’re actually building before they build it.

What I appreciatedmost was his bias for action:

ship early, getfeedback from real hardware teams, iterate fast, even when the problem space ismessy and incomplete.

In this episode, wego deep into:

• how logical qubitsreally emerge from physical ones

• why differentqubit platforms face fundamentally different error profiles

• why “software willfix it later” is often the wrong mental model

• and what actuallyneeds to go right for fault-tolerant quantum computing to arrive

If you care about how quantum systems are designed,  not just announced,  this is a conversation worth your time.

🎙️Beyond the Qubit,  episodewith Ish Dhand

🔗 (link)

https://youtu.be/GOuYABNmfjM

#QuantumComputing#FaultTolerantQuantum #QuantumArchitecture

#ErrorCorrection#QuantumSoftware #BeyondTheQubit

⁨@IshDhand⁩ ⁨@QC_Design⁩

📌 Disclaimer: This post is shared on a personal basis and I do notrepresent any company

Quantum’s “impossible problem” is finally shiftingfrom science → engineering.

In Part 2 of myconversation with Yuval Boger (CCO, QuEra)on Beyond the Qubit, we went deep into Error correction, Scaling and the physics that will determine which platforms survive.

Hereare the insights 👇

https://youtu.be/Ndr7cbcDHRc

1. Every qubit technology has a fundamental weakness…until you correct it.

Yuval put itbluntly:

“Qubitsare fragile. Everything in the universe wants to disturb them.”

Cosmic rays,vibrations, electromagnetic noise, even a gate failing 1 in 10,000 times becomes catastrophic when your algorithmrequires millions of operations.

This is why error correction is the real battleground.

Not qubit count.

Not coherence time.

Not marketingslides.

This clicked for me:you don’t win by adding more qubits, you win byadding the right ones.

2. Mobility changes everything about logical qubits.

Most qubit platformsare fixed in place.

Neutral atoms move, and that changes the math.

Yuval gave a visualI can’t unsee:

Two logical qubits,each made of five physical qubits.

Static hardware?

You must connectthem pair by pair, accumulating errorswith every handshake.

Neutral atoms?

➡️ Move the qubits physically

➡️ Apply one pulse of light

➡️ Create all interactionsin parallel

Parallelism → feweroperations

Fewer operations →fewer errors

Fewer errors → farfewer physical qubits needed per logical qubit

Neutral atoms aren’tjust another modality, they’re a differentscaling strategy.

3. The telecom analogy that reframes the entirearchitecture

I comparedsuperconducting qubits to fixed fiber and neutral atoms to wireless networks.

Yuval extended itbeautifully:

If the central nodefails, fixed-line users are stuck.

Wireless? You movethe tower closer and reconnect.

Neutral atomsprovide that same architectural freedom:

4. Neutral-atom scaling isn’t PowerPoint. It’sphysics.

Many companies claimthey’ll scale.

Yuval asked thequestion that matters:

“Areyou relying on miracles, or engineering?”

Neutral atoms scalethrough:

Scale-out acrossmachines? Possible.

But what struck meis that scaling within a single system has aclear physics-based roadmap, unlike many competing architectures.

5. Error correction is no longer theoretical, QuEra isdemonstrating it.

Yuvalwalked through the early steps:

He didn’t revealtheir full roadmap, but the direction is unmistakable.

6. Quantum is becoming practical and customers arevoting with usage, not words.

Yuval shared severalsignals that quantum is crossing from research into industry:

These aren’texperiments, they’re real workloads on real systems.

Talk is cheap; usageis not.

This isn’t hype.

This is earlyindustrialization.

🤔 Which modality do you believe reaches fault-tolerant scale first?

Neutral atoms?Superconducting? Trapped ions? Photonics?

Or somethingcompletely different?

I’d love to hearyour perspective.

#QuantumComputing,#QuantumTechnology #DeepTech, #BeyondTheQubit, #QuEra, #NeutralAtoms

#QuantumHardware,#FutureOfComputing, #QuantumAdvantage, #RydbergAtoms, #TechInnovation

#ScienceAndTechnology,#FrontierTech, #MIT, #Harvard, #Podcast

@Yuval Boger@QuEra

📌 Disclaimer: This post is shared on a personal basis and I do notrepresent any company

“Quantum computers today still can’t outperformclassical systems, and that’s exactly why this moment matters.”

That was one of thefirst things Yuval Boger (CCO, QuEra)told me during our deep dive on Beyond theQubit.

And it genuinelyreframed how I look at the entire quantum industry.

Here’swhat most people miss 👇

1. Quantum today isn’tabout solving problems. It’s about preparing for the moment it can.

Yuval explained thatwith fewer than ~50 perfect qubits, a supercomputer can simulate everythinganyway.

So the currentsystems, noisy, small, early,  are notthe point.

What matters is trajectory.

QuEra’s mission?

➡️ Build quantum computers with hundreds, thousands, andeventually tens of thousands ofhigh-fidelity neutral-atom qubits. Because that’s where classical methodsbreak,  and quantum starts to matter.

2. Neutral atoms don’t just improve quantum computing.They change the rules.

Most qubittechnologies are manufactured.

Neutral atoms are natural, identical, and stable at room temperature.

A few thingssurprised me:

This isn’ttheoretical. It’s running today on AWS Braket.

3. One advantage people underrate: MIT +Harvard → QuEra

Four founders camefrom MIT and Harvard.

Two still contributeweekly.

Neutral-atom systemsevolve fast in academia,  beingphysically close lets QuEra commercialize breakthroughs months or even yearsahead of competitors

That proximityenables:

It’s an unfair advantage, in the best possible way.

4. Yuval’s biggest lesson (and the most transferableone): customer curiosity

Not physics.

Not algorithms.

Not hardware.

➡️Customer curiosity.

He listens not forwhat customers say today, but for what they’ll need 18 months from now.

It’s a mindset thatcontributed to QuEra’s roadmap.

#QuantumComputing,#QuantumTechnology #DeepTech, #BeyondTheQubit, #QuEra, #NeutralAtoms

#QuantumHardware,#FutureOfComputing, #QuantumAdvantage, #RydbergAtoms, #TechInnovation

#ScienceAndTechnology,#FrontierTech, #MIT, #Harvard, #Podcast

@Yuval Boger@QuEra

https://youtu.be/XEh6PiLnXjc

https://open.spotify.com/episode/1SyBtguc5fqEQe1PivVdrs?si=z0aHKAUrRFSnQddfSal2zQ

📌 Disclaimer: This post is shared on a personal basis and I do notrepresent any company

This week on Beyond the Qubit, I sat down with Yuval Boger, CCO of QuEra, and he said something that hit me hard:

“Quantum computers today are almost useless… butthat’s exactly why now is the most exciting time.”

Here’swhat I learned 👇

1. Neutral atoms might be the first scalable path to real quantum advantage

Most qubits aremanufactured.

Neutral atoms are perfect by nature.

No fabricationdefects.

No calibrationbattles.

No cryogenic fridgesthe size of a room.

A laser tweezertraps each atom.

A laser moves itwherever you want.

A single laser pulsecan operate on multiple qubits in parallel.

This means:

It’s wild.

2. Customer-first thinking is QuEra’s secret weapon

Before we eventouched physics, Yuval talked about… listening.

Not to qubits.

To customers.

It’s rare indeep-tech.

And it’s exactly whyQuEra builds things people actually use:

This is no longeracademic curiosity.

3. Why QuEra’s proximity to MIT & Harvard matters

Four founders camefrom Harvard and MIT.

Two are still deeply involved.

And the labs areliterally a bike ride away.

This creates aflywheel:

That speed ofiteration is something other modalities can’t replicate.

4. The big picture: error correction & scale

Yuval gave a simpleanalogy:

If you’re shoutingyour credit card number in the wind,

you repeat eachdigit multiple times so it arrives correctly.

Logical qubits workthe same way.

And neutral atomsallow parallel operations between allphysical qubits in a logical block, something static qubits cannot do.

This dramaticallyaccelerates progress toward error-corrected systems.

5. The most important signal?

“We’ve moved fromscientific challenges → engineering challenges.”

That’s how you knowa technology is about to break out.

Transcript summaryQuEra

My takeaway

Neutral atoms are nolonger the “dark horse.”

They’re becoming theworkhorse of quantum computing.

And QuEra is notbuilding a B-2 bomber (beautiful but rare).

They’re building theAirbus A350 of quantum:

usable, scalable,and built for the real world.

If you want tounderstand how quantum will scale fromhundreds to tens of thousands of qubits, this episode is a must-listen.

🎙️Episode link:

Neutral atoms just went from dark horse →workhorse. And it changes everything.

#QuantumComputing,#QuantumTechnology #DeepTech, #BeyondTheQubit, #QuEra, #NeutralAtoms

#QuantumHardware,#FutureOfComputing, #QuantumAdvantage, #RydbergAtoms, #TechInnovation

#ScienceAndTechnology,#FrontierTech, #MIT, #Harvard, #Podcast

@Yuval Boger@QuEra

📌 Disclaimer: This post is shared on a personal basis and I do notrepresent any company

The future of compute might not get hotter. It mightget colder.

In Part 2 of my deep-dive with Thomas Ohki, CTO and co-founder of Emergence Quantum, we explored how cryogenic engineering could reshape everything we know about performance, scaling, andenergy use.

Thomas and his teamare building control electronics that can operate close to absolute zero. Thesechips could solve one of the biggest bottlenecks in computing, bringingclassical and quantum systems together.

What stood out mostto me in this conversation:

1). Why scalingquantum systems isn’t about adding more qubits, but removing the IO bottleneck

2). How energyefficiency is becoming the next competitive frontier in AI and data centers

3). Why the nextgeneration of computing might evolve where it’s cold, not hot

Thomas put it in away that stuck with me:

“Thenext revolution in compute might not be hotter. It might be cold.”

#BeyondTheQubit#QuantumComputing #CryoCMOS #AIHardware #DeepTech #EmergenceQuantum #Innovation#Podcast

📌 Disclaimer: This post is shared on a personal basis and I do not represent any company

The future of compute might not get hotter. It mightget colder.

InPart 2 of my deep-dive with Thomas Ohki, CTO and co-founder of Emergence Quantum, we explored how cryogenic engineering could reshape everything we know about performance, scaling, andenergy use.

Thomas and his teamare building control electronics that can operate close to absolute zero. Thesechips could solve one of the biggest bottlenecks in computing, bringingclassical and quantum systems together.

What stood out mostto me in this conversation:

1). Why scalingquantum systems isn’t about adding more qubits, but removing the IO bottleneck

2). How energyefficiency is becoming the next competitive frontier in AI and data centers

3). Why the nextgeneration of computing might evolve where it’s cold, not hot

Thomas put it in away that stuck with me:

“Thenext revolution in compute might not be hotter. It might be cold.”

🎧 Listento Beyond the Qubit –Emergence Quantum (Deep Dive Part 2)

👉 [Insert Spotify or YouTube link]

#BeyondTheQubit#QuantumComputing #CryoCMOS #AIHardware #DeepTech #EmergenceQuantum #Innovation#Podcast

📌 Disclaimer: This post is shared on a personal basis and I do notrepresent any company

Inside Emergence Quantum: Engineering at the Edge ofCold Computing

In the first part of my deep-dive interview, I sit down with Thomas Ohki, CTO andco-founder of Emergence Quantum.

We explored how innovation really happens and why the future of computing might be colder than we think.

Most people see quantum as a story about qubits.

Thomas explains that the real breakthroughs might come from everything around them: the architecture, the materials, the cooling, the engineering.

Before founding Emergence Quantum, Thomas worked at the frontiers of physics at Raytheon BBN and Microsoft Quantum.

He brings a rare mix of scientific depth and hands-on engineering.

What stood out most to me was his view on building and learning.

“If you want to build something truly new, you have to accept that failure is part of the process. The goal isn’t to avoid mistakes, it’s to learn from themfaster than anyone else.”

💡 Key insights from Part 1

🧊 Cryogenic technology could redefine performance inAI and quantum systems

⚙️ Engineering at cryogenic temperatures is essentialfor scaling quantum computers

🧠 Innovation depends as much on mindset as onphysics

🎧 Listento Beyondthe Qubit – Part 1: Emergence Quantum (Deep Dive)

https://youtu.be/mWU-oPYtDSo

#BeyondTheQubit#QuantumComputing #AIHardware #CryoCMOS #DeepTech #EmergenceQuantum #Innovation#Podcast

📌 Disclaimer: This post is shared on a personal basis and I do notrepresent any company