Quantum Computing: Tackling Soaring Data Centre Expenses

Published Date: 03/07/2024

As artificial intelligence rises, data-centre costs spiral out of control. Quantum is the solution, enabling exponential improvements in efficiency and allowing far more to be done per kilowatt-hour of energy on certain applications.

Data centres are the backbone of our digital lives, storing and processing information for streaming services, e-commerce, search, social media, and artificial intelligence (AI) tools like ChatGPT. However, the growth of data centre usage is unsustainable, demanding increasingly vast amounts of energy and resources and exacerbating environmental challenges. By 2027, AI applications are estimated to account for 20-25% of all data centre usage. To address this crisis, solutions like powering data centres using nuclear, wind, and solar power are being considered. However, none of these solutions come close to addressing the underlying efficiency of the computations happening in these data centres, which are bounded by classical physics. The only real solution is quantum computing, which goes beyond classical physics and enables exponential improvements in efficiency. A quantum data centre, equivalent to hundreds or thousands of standard data centres, will have energy consumption similar to a single traditional data centre. Moreover, the innovation and discoveries of the quantum data centre will help find more efficient ways of doing things, saving energy and resources. Canada has a long history of creating and supporting talent in quantum computing and has invested $1-billion in quantum science between 2012 and 2022. It is imperative that Canada invests in quantum data centres early to avoid being left behind.

FAQs:

Q: What is driving the growth of data centre usage?

A: One of the biggest drivers of data centre usage is artificial intelligence (AI), which is estimated to account for 20-25% of all data centre usage by 2027.

Q: What is the problem with traditional solutions to powering data centres?

A: Traditional solutions like nuclear, wind, and solar power are intermittent and can only be built on specific sites, making widespread implementation difficult.

Q: How does quantum computing address the energy efficiency challenge?

A: Quantum computing enables exponential improvements in efficiency, allowing far more to be done per kilowatt-hour of energy on certain applications.

Q: What are the benefits of a quantum data centre?

A: A quantum data centre will have energy consumption similar to a single traditional data centre, but will be equivalent to hundreds or thousands of standard data centres in terms of processing power.

Q: Why is it important for Canada to invest in quantum data centres?

A: Canada needs to invest in quantum data centres to avoid being left behind from an economic-independence, national-security, and energy point of view.

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