Inside the sub-zero lair of the world's most powerful computer

"It looks like a golden chandelier and contains the coldest place in the universe. What I am looking at is not just the most powerful computer in the world, but technology pivotal to financial security, Bitcoin, government secrets, the world economy and more. Quantum computing holds the key to which companies and countries win - and lose - the rest of the 21st Century."

"In front of me suspended a metre in the air, in a Google facility in Santa Barbara California, is Willow. Frankly, it was not what I expected. There are no screens or keyboards, let alone holographic head cams or brain-reading chips. Willow is an oil barrel-sized series of round discs connected by hundreds of black control wires descending into a bronze liquid helium bath refrigerator keeping the Quantum microchip a thousandth of a degree above absolute zero."

"Neven is something of a legendary figure, part technological genius, part techno music enthusiast, who dresses like he has snowboarded here straight from the Burning Man music festival for which he designs art. Perhaps he has, in a parallel universe - more on that later. His mission is to turn theoretical physics into functional quantum computers "to solve otherwise unsolvable problems" and he admits he's biased but says these chandeliers are the best performing in the world."

Google's Willow quantum computer is an oil barrel-sized stack of round discs suspended above a bronze liquid-helium bath, with control wires keeping the quantum chip a thousandth of a degree above absolute zero. The machine looks retro but embodies potential to transform finance, Bitcoin security, government secrets, and the global economy. The technology is subject to secrecy and export controls amid a global race for commercial and economic supremacy. Hartmut Neven leads efforts to convert theoretical physics into functional quantum computers aimed at solving otherwise unsolvable problems, with any small hardware or supply-chain advantage offering strategic value.

Read at www.bbc.com