Pasqal is a young French company, founded in March 2019 with physicists. She specializes in quantum computing and is working on the development of a quantum computer with neutral atoms. Its president and co-founder George-Olivier Reymond is the guest of franceinfo.
Pasqal, a promising French company, specializes in quantum computing, which makes it possible to develop the most powerful computers in the world. Created four years ago by George-Olivier Reymond with four physicists, today it supports 200 employees, with factories in France and Canada.
Quoted by Emmanuel Macron during the presentation in January 2021 of the French plan for the development of quantum, it managed to raise 100 million euros in investments in 2023. It is the first start-up to benefit from support from the New Defense Fund of the Ministry of the Armed Forces. Pasqal was created four years ago by himself, with four physicists. Today, there are 200 employees, factories in France and Canada.
franceinfo: George-Olivier Reymond, what does thequantum computing?
George-Olivier Reymond: Quantum computing, as its name suggests, is computing, so it is computing, and so-called high-performance computing. That is, if you are looking to do this with your everyday computer, you will need to put several side by side to achieve the necessary level of performance.
“The quantum computer is therefore a revolution. We should not see it as an innovation, it is not a continuous improvement, it is completely different.”
George-Olivier Reymondat franceinfo
There will be “before” and “after”. Things that are impossible today will become possible thanks to quantum calculations.
Why are we particularly interested in it today? ?
There are two main reasons. First, we always need more computing power. Today, if you look at everything that’s done in artificial intelligence, it’s software, so computers are needed to run the software. And then, the solution we found today to make computers more efficient is to make them bigger and bigger. So it consumes more and more electricity and it ends up becoming a real thing. For example, a ChatGPT request is the energy equivalent of boiling a glass of water.
Today, you announce a major success within the framework of a project carried out with Thales, in satellite planning. What is it about?
This is a particularly complex calculation because, in order to optimize the trajectory of the satellites, there is a huge number of parameters to consider. And when you put a lot of parameters, you have a lot of possible solutions and in the end you have to find the best one. It’s a bit like looking for a needle in a haystack. A quantum computer is able to do this much more efficiently than our classical solutions.
Many investors are interested in you. You managed to raise 100 million euros, which shows whether the financial world thinks there is growth potential. This is a lot and at the same time, it is little compared to the financial capacity of the sectors in the sector, namely IBM and Microsoft.
I like this sentence that says that in France, we don’t have oil, but we have ideas. To make a quantum computer, you need both money and ideas. And then actually, if you look at the IBM and Microsoft teams, they’re not that huge.
“We are fighting, I think, on equal terms with IBM and Microsoft and above all, we have a differentiating approach, which is technology.”
George-Olivier Reymondat franceinfo
Do you have better technology than IBM and Microsoft?
Yes. And in terms of funding, so far, we are good, but we have to continue. It is an ongoing effort.
Why is it important to have a sovereign policy on cutting-edge technologies such as quantum computing, in the face of the American and Chinese giants?
As I said earlier, there will be a “before” and an “after”. There are people who will have one, there are people who will not have one. So, that’s why it’s a problem today to have them. There is the software aspect and there is the hardware. So if you manage to be sovereign over the part, as here, hardware, and you add software sovereignty – I will make a small reference to Mistral -, you become independent. However, high performance computing is everywhere in our daily lives. We don’t necessarily notice it. For Airbus, today, an airplane is designed entirely on a computer, using simulations on supercomputers.
In addition to your factories in France and Canada, you are expanding in Asia. Why is it important to be international when we just talked about sovereignty in Europe ?
There are two aspects. It’s a fast race on one side. So we have to move fast. One way to move fast is to increase your resources and have more factories to produce more. The second aspect is that there are markets to conquer, and there is always a bonus for those who come first. And then, building a quantum computer is still something complex. We have many assets in France and in Europe, but we cannot do everything ourselves. So it is also necessary to look for specific key skills in other geographies.