Latest news with #Majorana
Yahoo
15-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Warren Buffett Is Invested in These Three Magnificent Quantum Computing Stocks. Here's the Best of the Bunch.
Berkshire Hathaway's most direct quantum computing position is through Amazon. Buffett also has positions in Microsoft and Alphabet through New England Asset Management. All three companies have diverse ecosystems that stand to benefit from other areas of AI, too. 10 stocks we like better than Amazon › When it comes to portfolio management, investors will often hear hedge fund managers and Wall Street personalities talk about the importance of a diversified portfolio. For nearly six decades, Warren Buffett helped transform Berkshire Hathaway into an investment powerhouse thanks in large part to his ability to identify quality companies trading for reasonable prices across a variety of different industries. One industry that Buffett has often avoided, however, is technology. While Berkshire has owned (and still owns) a number of technology or tech-adjacent businesses, it's not a sector that Buffett prioritizes. For these reasons, you might be surprised to learn that the "Oracle of Omaha" has any exposure whatsoever to an emerging pocket of the artificial intelligence (AI) realm called quantum computing. Let's explore three quantum computing stocks that Buffett is invested in. From there, I'll detail why these positions are important and which one I think is the best of the bunch. Berkshire Hathaway only directly owns one quantum computing stock through its position in Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN). However, one of Berkshire's subsidiaries is an investment management firm called New England Asset Management (NEAM). NEAM can be thought of as Buffett's "secret" portfolio -- as positions owned by NEAM are indirectly affiliated with Buffett, too. According to its most recent 13F filing, NEAM holds Microsoft and Alphabet -- both of which are designing their own quantum chips called Majorana and Willow. As I alluded to above, technology stocks are not high on Buffett's priority list. Berkshire's position in Amazon is worth roughly $2 billion at current market prices. This equates to less than 1% of the portfolio's total value. In addition, NEAM's combined positions in Microsoft and Alphabet also make up less than 1% of its holdings. Among the three "Magnificent Seven" stocks above, Amazon is my top pick. While Amazon's Ocelot chip will rival those developed by its peers, I see several additional reasons to own the stock. According to data from CloudZero, the company's cloud platform -- Amazon Web Services (AWS) -- held 29% market share at the end of the first quarter. This is the highest in the industry, placing Amazon well ahead of Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform. One way that Amazon has helped supercharge growth across the AWS business is through its strategic partnership with Anthropic. Anthropic's generative AI models have become tightly integrated throughout the AWS ecosystem, and have helped bring in a new wave of revenue acceleration and profit margin expansion for the business. To be fair, Microsoft Azure has made serious ground on AWS over the last couple of years thanks to its own partnership with ChatGPT maker OpenAI. However, OpenAI recently signed a major cloud computing deal with Google. In addition, OpenAI has also been rumored to be strengthening its ties with Oracle given both companies' involvement in the $500 billion AI infrastructure initiative, Project Stargate. To me, these deals signal that OpenAI may be distancing itself from Microsoft -- which calls into question how much value it will continue adding to Azure in the long run. Beyond the cloud, Amazon has other opportunities to integrate AI into its ecosystem. An important use case could be to complement its warehouse and logistics operations through AI robotics. Alphabet's dominance in internet search could be threatened by the rise of large language models over time. Meanwhile, the company faces rising competition -- primarily from Tesla -- in the autonomous vehicle space. Although Microsoft and Alphabet also have diverse ecosystems, I think Amazon's overall business is in the least vulnerable position. One potential drawback regarding an investment in Amazon right now revolves around valuation. With a forward price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 36, Amazon trades at a premium compared to other cloud hyperscalers. As the trends in the chart above illustrate, Amazon stock has rebounded sharply after a precipitous sell-off earlier this year. Right now, I think Amazon stock might have some momentum behind it due to a more bullish macro viewpoint that cloud infrastructure is one of the next pillars supporting the broader AI narrative. As I explored above, quantum computing is only one pocket of the AI realm that Amazon seeks to disrupt. The company has made massive strides at the intersection of cloud computing and AI, and appears to have more lucrative growth prospects to support its e-commerce business through ongoing robotics developments. While the stock has gotten pricey, I still see Amazon as a rock-solid opportunity for investors with a long-term time horizon. Before you buy stock in Amazon, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and Amazon wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation,you'd have $680,559!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $1,005,670!* Now, it's worth notingStock Advisor's total average return is1,053% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to180%for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor. See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of July 15, 2025 John Mackey, former CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Adam Spatacco has positions in Alphabet, Amazon, Microsoft, and Tesla. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, Microsoft, Oracle, and Tesla. The Motley Fool recommends Abercrombie & Fitch and recommends the following options: long January 2026 $395 calls on Microsoft and short January 2026 $405 calls on Microsoft. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Warren Buffett Is Invested in These Three Magnificent Quantum Computing Stocks. Here's the Best of the Bunch. was originally published by The Motley Fool Sign in to access your portfolio
Spectator
02-07-2025
- Science
- Spectator
The race against Hitler to build the first nuclear bomb
Ettore Majorana vanished in March 1938. According to Frank Close in Destroyer of Worlds, the 31-year-old Sicilian physicist 'probably understood more nuclear physics theory than anyone in the world', and was hailed by Enrico Fermi as a 'magician', in the elevated company of Newton and Galileo. Majorana was also an ardent fascist; yet he was haunted by the destructive potential of his work on mapping the nucleus. His disappearance – perhaps a suicide; more likely a new, incognito life in South America – has been related to an anguished remark he made to a colleague: 'Physics has taken a bad turn. We have all taken a bad turn.' Majorana is just one arresting character in a bustling cast of scientists whose 50-year pursuit of knowledge – a chain reaction of discoveries starting in 1895 with Wilhelm Roentgen's X-rays – led ineluctably to the atomic bomb. Close's ensemble drama is a powerful corrective to the myth of the solitary genius. He notes that Fermi's 1934 papers on irradiating elements pioneered the now standard practice of crediting multiple authors: 'Here for the first time was teamwork, a new way of doing science in increasingly large collaborations.' Unusually, many of the key players were women, among them Lise Meitner, Ida Noddack and Irène Joliot-Curie. Close convenes these fascinating personalities so deftly that when a group photograph of the atomic all-stars at the 1933 Solvay conference appears halfway through the book it is electrifying. The dream team assembles. An eminent theoretical physicist, Close walks us step by step through what he calls the 'Third Industrial Revolution'. Despite his best efforts, I cannot honestly claim to have followed all the physics, but I did understand the scientific method like never before. Insistent on the role of luck, he argues that the great breakthroughs happened when 'chance made the revelation to prepared minds'. But even the greatest mind can't be prepared for everything. Every titan of physics has been waylaid at some point by a missed connection, dead end or overconfident prediction. The best scientists, then, delight in being proved wrong. The discovery of nuclear fission in December 1938 (typically, one pair of physicists achieved the splitting of a uranium nucleus but it took another duo to identify what had happened) astounded both Fermi and Niels Bohr, who smacked his forehead and exclaimed: 'Oh what idiots we have all been not to have seen this before! This is wonderful!' Self-criticism mingled with elation. Ego bowed before knowledge. H.G. Wells had imagined and named the atomic bomb as far back as 1913, based on the speculations of the radiochemist Frederick Soddy. With the arrival of fission, it suddenly left the realm of theory and fiction. In geopolitical terms, the timing could not have been worse. Close's stirring tale of a largely amicable international effort to unravel the secrets of the atom becomes a race against Hitler to build the first bomb. 'If it is not made in America this year,' wrote C.P. Snow in 1939, 'it may be next year in Germany.' As Close observes, had it not been for 'fear of an imminent collapse of society to fascism, nuclear power rather than nuclear weapons would have led the way'. The human drama accelerates at this point, too. The Manhattan Project relied on so many refugees from fascism that after Hiroshima the New York Times ran the startling headline 'Thanks to Hitler'. Fermi fled to the US straight from his Nobel Prize ceremony in 1938 and proceeded to conduct the world's first nuclear chain reaction, while Otto Frisch and Rudolf Peierls, both German Jews, sketched out the possibility of a uranium-235 bomb in Nissen huts in Birmingham. Their revelation, which put the UK in the nuclear vanguard but without the money to do much about it, spooked the physicist James Chadwick so badly that he became addicted to sleeping pills. The bomb was necessary; the bomb was horrifying. The depth of Close's knowledge throws up surprises even if you know the territory. While he races through the Manhattan Project in a dozen pages and barely mentions J. Robert Oppenheimer (perhaps he's had enough attention), Close shines a light on less familiar figures such as Ernest Rutherford's protégé Henry Moseley, who established the concept of atomic numbers shortly before dying at Gallipoli; Klaus Fuchs, the atomic spy who played a crucial role in the nuclear programmes of three different countries; and the French banker Jacques Allier, who spirited Europe's largest stockpile of heavy water (an essential moderator for nuclear reactors) out of Norway just weeks before the Nazi invasion by filling a second plane with dummy canisters. Close has an abundant supply of thrills, tragedy and gratifying trivia. It may not be consequential that Bohr used to be a top goalkeeper in the Danish football league but it's fun to know. A book in which it feels as if someone is winning a Nobel Prize on every other page closes elegantly with three Nobels that illuminate the fusion of science and politics. The fission pioneer Otto Hahn learned of his physics prize from reading the Daily Telegraph while he was interned in Cambridge-shire for his role in the Nazi bomb programme. Joseph Rotblat, the only scientist to quit the Manhattan Project on ethical grounds, and Andrei Sakharov, who spent the rest of his life atoning for giving Stalin the hydrogen bomb, were never honoured for their scientific work but for trying to correct physics's 'bad turn'. They won their prizes for peace.
CNBC
28-04-2025
- Business
- CNBC
Microsoft says U.S. can't afford falling behind China in quantum computers
The U.S. cannot afford to fall behind China in the race to a working quantum computer, Microsoft President Brad Smith wrote Monday. President Donald Trump and the U.S. government need to prioritize funding for quantum research, or China could surpass the U.S., endangering economic competitiveness and security, Smith wrote. "While most believe that the United States still holds the lead position, we cannot afford to rule out the possibility of a strategic surprise or that China may already be at parity with the United States," Smith wrote. "Simply put, the United States cannot afford to fall behind, or worse, lose the race entirely." Microsoft's position is the latest sign that research into quantum computing is starting to heat up among big tech companies and investors who are looking for the next technology that could rival the artificial intelligence boom. Smith is calling for the Trump administration to increase funding for quantum research, renew the National Quantum Initiative Act and expand a program for testing quantum computers by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA. The Microsoft executive is also calling on the White House to expand the educational pipeline of people who have the math and science skills to work on quantum machines, fast-track immigration for Ph.D.s with quantum skills and for the government to buy more quantum-related computer parts to build a U.S. supply chain. Microsoft did not detail how China surpassing the U.S. in quantum computing technology would endanger national security, but a National Security Agency official last year discussed what could happen if China or another adversary surprised the U.S. by building a quantum computer first. The official, NSA Director of Research Gil Herrera, said that if such a "black swan" event happened, banks might not be able to keep transactions private because a quantum computer could crack their encryption, according to the Washington Times. A working quantum computer could also crack existing encrypted data that is usually shared publicly in a scrambled fashion, which could reveal secrets on U.S. nuclear weapon systems. In February, Microsoft announced its latest quantum chip called Majorana, claiming that it invented a new kind of matter to develop the prototype device. Last year, Google announced Willow, a new device the company claimed was a "milestone" because it was able to correct errors and solve a math problem in five minutes that would have taken longer than the age of the universe on a traditional computer. While the computers people are used to use bits that are either 0 or 1 to do calculations, quantum computers use "qubits," which end up being on or off based on probability. Experts say that quantum computers will eventually be useful for problems with nearly infinite possibilities, such as simulating chemistry, or routing deliveries. But the current quantum computers are far away from that point, and many computer industry participants say it could take decades for quantum computers to reach their potential. Microsoft's chip, Majorana, has eight qubits, but the company says it has a goal of least 1 million qubits for a commercially useful chip. Microsoft needs to build a device with a few hundred qubits before the company starts looking at whether it's reliable enough for customers.
Yahoo
19-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Big Tech has officially entered its quantum era — here's what it means for the industry
International companies and organizations see 2025 as a tipping point for quantum technology. Major advancements are afoot as the industry navigates the "International Year of Quantum." Here's some of the biggest quantum news so far this year— and things to keep an eye on. The era of quantum is officially upon us, and if you're not immersed in the world of emerging tech, you may have missed the memo. The burgeoning field leverages quantum mechanics to solve complex problems faster than classical computers. It promises breakthroughs that could revolutionize fields from medicine to data privacy and is attracting major investments from world governments, tech giants, and equity firms seeking to capitalize on that potential. While the announcements of advanced quantum chips from the biggest of Big Tech players may have briefly broken through the news of the escalating trade war, alarming aviation accidents, and increasing political unrest, there's so much more to know about what's gone down in the industry so far in 2025, which the United Nations has dubbed the "International Year of Quantum." Here's some of the biggest quantum news so far this year — and things to keep an eye on. Skepticism is fading about whether the quantum industry can achieve all that it promises, and major discussions have now turned to the timeline to get there. According to research by Boston Consulting Group, the quantum industry attracted $1.2 billion from venture capitalists in 2023 despite a 50% drop in overall tech investments that year. BCG projects that quantum computing will create between $450 billion and $850 billion of economic value globally and sustain a $90-$170 billion market for hardware and software providers by 2040. The Big Tech players are all investing heavily in quantum advancement, hoping to catch up with IBM — a longtime frontrunner in the field, with several different prototype chips and its circuit-based commercial quantum computer, IBM Quantum System One, which was unveiled in January 2019. Amazon announced its Ocelot chip in February. The company says it represents a breakthrough in error correction and scalability, two key issues that have long slowed advancement in the field. Its announcement came just a week after Microsoft debuted its Majorana chip and only a few months after Google's Willow chip hit the scene in December. Nvidia is also aiming to get in on the action. This year, the company announced at GTC that it is developing a new quantum research lab in Boston. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the Department of Defense's research and development agency, has expanded its Quantum Benchmarking Initiative this year in an attempt to achieve utility-scale operation by 2033. DARPA in early April announced it had chosen 18 companies to test and advance various technologies for creating qubits — the building block for quantum computers — including superconducting qubits, trapped ion qubits, and other novel approaches. Microsoft and PsiQuantum have already advanced to the third and final phase of DARPA's quantum initiative. IBM, IonQ, and Rigetti Computing are among the newest companies joining the QBI. IBM plans to debut the world's first quantum-centric supercomputer this year. This new system will use the modular IBM Quantum System Two architecture, which is designed to be scalable and upgradeable. It is expected to feature over 4,000 qubits and aims to break existing records in the field, eventually surpassing the size of the largest quantum computer by more than threefold. IBM CEO Arvind Krishna told Time in March that "something remarkable" is on the horizon for quantum technology and that the company has positioned itself to create the next generation of foundational technology through advancements in quantum. While we're on the cusp of a quantum revolution, cybersecurity professionals have previously warned Business Insider that the tech comes with its own risks. It's not just basic data privacy or the chance of personal financial details becoming public. From national security secrets to the blockchain and beyond, all encrypted data will be readily accessible and, more worryingly, manipulatable by anyone with a fully fault-tolerant and quantum-capable system. Karl Holmqvist has served as a quantum security advisor to major government bodies, including the Department of Defense and NATO. He is the CEO of Lastwall, which provides cybersecurity solutions designed to protect users from quantum computing threats. "When you start peeling back the layers, it's like anything that's internet-connected will likely have problems," Holmqvist previously told BI. "A lot of the time, we trust that the links between systems are secure and the data that's gone between them is secure, and there's no way to get into those that they're encrypted. If you take away that default assumption, it allows so many new entry points into systems that it becomes quite concerning." LinkedIn shows that the salary bands for jobs in quantum computing range from $150,000 on the low end to well past $500,000 a year, depending on the role and company. Hiring managers are paying attention. Yaad Oren, a managing director at SAP Labs, one of the world's biggest software companies, previously told Business Insider that recruiters in the field look for curiosity more than anything else. "Of course, we need expertise — and quantum is a very deep science and practice that requires a lot of knowledge — but if you follow the industry, you see there are also many disruptions going with quantum," Oren said. "We're definitely looking for change agents and curiosity is needed because, I mean, the industry is not sure at all that the current quantum technology we have now will be the winning architecture." He added: "It's like building a building from the ground floor." Read the original article on Business Insider
Globe and Mail
15-04-2025
- Business
- Globe and Mail
IonQ vs. Rigetti: Which Quantum Computing Stock Is the Better Buy?
As the artificial intelligence (AI) race heats up with massive investments from the likes of Google (GOOGL), Microsoft (MSFT), Meta (META) and Amazon (AMZN), among others, it seems that the tech titans have already identified the next major landscape to dominate: Quantum Computing. Slated to have a $2 trillion impact by 2035, quantum computing finds applications in a vast array of industries, ranging from cryptography to drug discovery. And with major players like Google (through its Willow chip), Microsoft (through its Majorana chip) and Amazon (through its Ocelot chip) already making major moves, it is safe to assume that this can be the next magtrend in tech. While mega-cap tech giants may have seemingly unlimited reserves of cash that they can pour into winning the quantum computing battle, the nimble, pure-play enterprises of the sector have had a headstart. Two such names are IonQ (IONQ) and Rigetti Computing (RGTI). But which one is a better buy? Let's stack up the two companies and try to find out. #1: Comparing Financials Both companies are yet to be profitable, which is not a cause for a major concern in a rapidly growing and evolving industry like quantum computing. In the most recent quarter, Rigetti reported revenues of $2.3 million, down 33% from the previous year, while losses widened considerably to $0.68 per share from $0.09 per share in the year-ago period. However, the company remains in a solid liquidity position overall with a cash and equivalents balance of $67.7 million (vs $21.4 million in the year-ago period) with short-term debt of just $2.2 million on its books. On the other hand, IonQ saw a remarkable 95% yearly jump in revenues to $43.1 million in 2024, exceeding the high end of the previously announced guidance range of $38.5 million to $42.5 million. Although this was accompanied by a substantial widening of net losses to $331.6 million from $157.8 million in the year-ago period, bookings for the full year came in at $95.6 million, which denoted yearly growth of 46.9%. In terms of liquidity, IonQ is in a comfortable position with a cash and equivalents balance at the end of the year at $340.3 million, much higher than its short-term debt levels of just $3.4 million. #2: Comparing Strategic Developments While IonQ and Rigetti Computing both operate within the frontier of quantum computing, they pursue distinct technological paths that reflect differing strategic ambitions. IonQ has built its foundation on the development of general-purpose trapped-ion quantum processors. These systems use atomic ions as qubits, an approach that offers longer coherence times and reduced operational noise compared to superconducting architectures. Such advantages become more pronounced as quantum workloads scale, supporting greater precision in complex computations. IonQ's hardware is fully integrated within a cloud-native stack, providing customers with end-to-end access through its proprietary platform and Amazon Web Services' managed quantum service. The company's latest release, the IonQ Forte Enterprise, is available to global clients and signals a commitment to commercial deployment at scale. IonQ's technological strategy is complemented by a deep network of high-profile partners across both tech and industry verticals. Its alliances with Amazon, Google, and Microsoft serve to validate its infrastructure and enhance cloud interoperability, while collaborations with firms like Hyundai (HYMTF), AstraZeneca (AZN), and Airbus (EADSY) underscore its relevance across transportation, healthcare, and aerospace sectors. With this breadth of engagement and strong system-level performance, IonQ has begun to carve out a defensible position in the broader commercial quantum landscape. Rigetti, meanwhile, focuses on superconducting quantum systems and maintains full-stack control of its chip development and fabrication. The company operates its own production facility — Fab-1 — in Fremont, California, and has secured more than 200 patents in its intellectual property portfolio. Rigetti is credited with producing the first multi-chip quantum processor, positioning itself as a leader in modular, scalable architectures. In a recent milestone, Rigetti unveiled the Ankaa-3 system, an 84-qubit processor designed to enhance gate fidelity and suppress error rates — an area that continues to challenge all quantum computing platforms. The Ankaa-3 achieves a 99.0% median fidelity for iSWAP gates and 99.5% for fSim gates, marking a material advancement. The system is accessible to partners through Rigetti's own Quantum Cloud Services and also integrates with Amazon Braket and Microsoft Azure, broadening access to enterprise users. Rigetti's roadmap for fiscal year 2025 is equally ambitious. It plans to launch a 36-qubit, four-chip system in the second quarter with further reductions in gate error, followed by a 108-qubit system in the fourth quarter that is expected to deliver similar gains. These next-generation platforms are poised to raise the bar for fault-tolerant superconducting designs. The company has also cultivated important relationships with national laboratories and research institutions. Notable collaborators include the UK's National Quantum Computing Centre, NASA, the Air Force Research Laboratory, DARPA, and Fermilab. Commercial partnerships with entities like Standard Chartered (SCBFY), Moody's (MCO), and AWS further illustrate Rigetti's cross-sector appeal and access to real-world deployment opportunities. In sum, IonQ demonstrates early strength in system fidelity, software integration, and commercial traction — particularly in use cases that demand precision and scale. Rigetti, by contrast, has made strong progress in multi-chip design, error reduction, and government-led quantum initiatives. While their technical foundations diverge, both companies remain vital to the evolution of quantum computing's enterprise potential. #3: Comparing Share Price Performance 2025 has not been kind to the Rigetti stock, with the name correcting by 41% on a YTD basis. However, over the past year, the stock has seen a surge of 662%. Its current market cap is at $2.6 billion. The same is the case with IonQ, which has seen a narrower decline of 39% in 2025 so far, with the stock up 217% over the past year. Its market cap is currently at $5.8 billion. #4: Comparing Analyst Opinions Overall, analysts have deemed Rigetti stock a 'Strong Buy' with a mean target price of $14.80, which indicates an upside potential of about 62.6% from current levels. Out of five analysts covering the stock, four have a 'Strong Buy' rating and one has a 'Moderate Buy' rating. While for IonQ, analysts have attributed an overall rating of 'Moderate Buy' with a mean target price of $44.60. This denotes an upside potential of roughly 71% from current levels. Out of five analysts covering the stock, three have a 'Strong Buy' rating, one has a 'Moderate Buy' rating, and one has a 'Hold' rating.
