The race for quantum computing knows no brakes. And if China has managed to position itself as a world potential in this field, India does not want to be left behind. And for this, without going into too many details but leaving headlines, its authorities have assured that they are in the process of building a large data center that will house a quantum computer of one million qubits.
The announcement came last week, when the Utter Pradesh government announced the signing of a “memorandum of understanding” with Innogress, a technology consultancy that would be responsible for building what has already been dubbed Indraprastha Quantum Data Center (IQDC).
But beyond the formal announcement, there is not much more information that supports the viability of this project. Theoretically, Tech UK will also participate in the project, a company about which there is very little information on the Internet, beyond the fact that one of its directors, Priyanka Parimal, Oracle consultant for HSBC, shares a last name with Innogress founder Sumant Parimal.
For now, an exact completion date for this project has not been established, although Innogress claims to be aligned with the leaders in the sector and ensures that it will have no problems when it comes to actually putting the million qubits they plan into operation. And if it attracts attention, it is because companies like Google or IBM aspire to present a 100,000-qubit computer at the end of this decade. It is also not clear what experience Innogress or Tech UK have with such complex technology. And yet none of this seems to worry those responsible for the project.
Sumant Parimal, the founding partner of Innogress, has assured: “our mission with the IQDC project is ambitious, since we aim to house more than half of the computing and data storage capacity of the world today using energy-efficient quantum computers. “environmentally friendly, high-performance, planned to be hosted at India’s proposed first Quantum Data Center, the IQDC in Greater Noida.”
Parimal added that Innogress and GAN Tech UK are currently seeking quantum computing technology partners for the project, as well as investors to finance up to $500 million of the project. Google and IBM are investing approximately 100 million in their respective projects, which gives an idea of the ambition that exists in this part of the world.
India has long been known for being one of the largest technology hubs in the world and in recent years the government of Uttar Pradesh has been able to attract million-dollar investments to the area thanks to its policy of tax incentives. As a result, in Noida (where the new quantum data center would be located), it already houses traditional data centers of companies such as NTT, Yotta, Adani or STT.
