Learn to Leap: Green Business Building Edition #4

How quantum computing can

help tackle global warming
Quantum computing has the potential to drive the major breakthroughs needed to help
solve the climate crisis. A pioneer in the field discusses how his company is seeking to
harness this technology for large-scale climate-change mitigation.

May 2022
 Once they are ready for commercial deployment, quantum computers are expected to bring about
massive disruption and create enormous value across a broad range of industries. Quantum computing’s
unique ability to simulate the chemistry underpinning all human activity means it could help achieve
breakthrough innovations in carbon capture, new fuels, batteries, fertilizers, catalysts, and more. Jeremy
O’Brien, CEO and cofounder of PsiQuantum, speaks with McKinsey’s Philipp Hillenbrand about his
company’s approach to accelerating and scaling the technology and its bold vision to deploy it in the fight
against climate change.

Key insight #1
Rapidly accelerating the development timeline for a commercially viable
quantum computer requires a fundamentally different approach.

Philipp Hillenbrand: Could you elaborate on
the different technologies underlying quantum
computing and why PsiQuantum has placed
its bets on a photonics-based system from the
beginning?
Jeremy O’Brien: The first thing you need to
understand is that all known useful applications
of a quantum computer require error correction,
and therefore something on the order of a million
quantum bits, or qubits. Breakthroughs to date
involve systems with up to around 100 qubits, so
there’s a big gap. From the start, PsiQuantum has
been exclusively focused on building a quantum
computer capable of addressing commercially
useful applications. My conviction for more than
20 years has been that for such a machine to
become a reality in my lifetime, we would need
to leverage the same advanced semiconductor
manufacturing techniques that put a billion
transistors in your cell phone.
The challenge is that semiconductor foundries are
very constrained in the materials and devices that
they can build. Qubits often require millikelvin
temperatures, atomic-scale fabrication, or
exotic materials that are not compatible with
semiconductor manufacturing.
Our team has created an architecture based
on photonic qubits, which avoids these more
difficult requirements and allows us to use
silicon photonics—a technology that has been
developed over the past 25 years, principally by
the telecom industry but increasingly for other
applications. We can generate, manipulate, and
measure qubits using standard components
that already exist in commercial products. This
approach massively accelerates our timeline to a
million qubits.
Beyond the potential to manufacture large
numbers of qubits, photons have significant
advantages when it comes to scaling. Current
quantum computing systems are hamstrung by
four major challenges: cooling power, control
electronics, connectivity, and testing. Our
photonic architecture uniquely addresses all of

Jeremy O’Brien biography

Dr. Jeremy O’Brien is one of the world’s leading experts in quantum computing. He is the cofounder and CEO of PsiQuantum.
Prior to founding the company, Jeremy was professor of physics and electrical engineering at Stanford and Bristol universities
and director of the Centre for Quantum Photonics. He has spent 25 years working toward scalable quantum computing. Jeremy
holds a PhD in physics from the University of New South Wales.

2 Learn to Leap: Green Business Building Edition #4: How quantum computing can help tackle global warming
 these challenges and supports our ability to rapidly
iterate toward a working machine.
These advantages are the basis for my long-held
belief that photonics is really the only approach that
can reach the necessary scale for fault-tolerant
quantum computing on any practical level of time
or money.

Key insight #2
Quantum computing applications, once thought to be decades away, could now
happen within the next ten years.

Philipp Hillenbrand: What would you say to a
skeptic who believes quantum computing will
forever remain in the realm of science fiction and not
become something of practical value?
Jeremy O’Brien: I would say that you’re right to
be skeptical, given the immense challenge. If we
hadn’t cracked the problem of using the production
lines of a world-leading semiconductor foundry
to manufacture the chips, I would still be telling
everyone today that quantum computing is decades
away. But whereas we used to build this stuff in a
research lab, we are now building it in the production
lines of the semiconductor foundry, shoulder to
shoulder with the chips that are in your laptop
and cell phone. It is rapidly becoming a mature
technology. We have simulated the architecture in
fine detail, and there are no fundamental technical
obstacles. We have demonstrated all of the building
blocks, such as entangling gates, small-scale
algorithms, and so on.
In 1995, I first learned that quantum computing
might bring about a revolution akin to the
agricultural, industrial, and digital revolutions.
Back then, it seemed far-fetched that quantum
mechanics could be harnessed to such
momentous effect. But today, PsiQuantum is
seeing great interest coupled with a high level
of sophistication from Fortune 500 companies
that are working with us to understand how they
will deploy quantum computing to drive major
advancements across a wide range of applications
and use cases. They are doing this now to ensure
that they have access to this profoundly world-
changing technology when it comes online,
thereby enabling a first-mover advantage in what
promises to be a winner-takes-all type of dynamic.
All this gives me tremendous confidence that we
will be able to achieve useful applications within
this decade.

About PsiQuantum and Qlimate

Founded in 2015, PsiQuantum is focused on harnessing a silicon photonics quantum architecture to power the world’s
first commercially useful quantum computer. The company is positioned to deliver quantum capabilities that could support
advances in applications across climate, healthcare, finance, energy, agriculture, transportation, communications, and more.
Since its inception, PsiQuantum has raised more than $665 million in funding.

PsiQuantum’s new subsidiary, Qlimate, is a major quantum computing net-zero initiative that aims to support large-scale
decarbonization. PsiQuantum will dedicate a substantial share of initial quantum computing capacity to high-impact sustain-
ability use cases and is building partnerships with corporates, governments, and nonprofits to support the development and
scaling of the most promising decarbonization solutions.

Learn to Leap: Green Business Building Edition #4: How quantum computing can help tackle global warming 3
 Key insight #3
Quantum computing will revolutionize chemistry, enabling breakthrough
innovations and advancements in low-carbon technologies.
Philipp Hillenbrand: Where do you see quantum
computing being able to make a real difference in
the field of sustainability?
Jeremy O’Brien: This is where things get really
interesting. In short, quantum computing will
revolutionize chemistry. And, if we can—as I am now
convinced—build a million-qubit quantum computer
in time, that’s great news for our climate.
Why? So many low-carbon technologies involve
complex systems, particularly around chemistry and
materials science, which nobody fully understands.
Everyone is scrambling to find a new catalyst or
electrolyte that will give us cheaper carbon capture
or better electric batteries. Right now, we have to
test thousands of molecular combinations, which
means lengthy and hugely expensive trial-and-error
lab experiments, with often disappointing, marginal
improvements.
When it comes to materials and chemistry, powerful
supercomputers work on the basis of approximation
and will never be able to deal with the level of
complexity. That is exactly where quantum
computing will play such a critical role: in breaking
through these scientific and technical barriers.
Let’s take an exciting example from the world today:
ammonia, a molecule consisting of one nitrogen
atom and three hydrogen atoms that is the basis of
the fertilizer used to grow the food that feeds the
world’s population. Today, we produce ammonia
1
Gideon Lichfield, “Google CEO Sundar Pichai on achieving quantum supremacy,” MIT Technology Review, October 23, 2019.
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4 Learn to Leap: Green Business Building Edition #4: How quantum computing can help tackle global warming
using hydrogen from natural gas and nitrogen from
the air in a century-old industrial Haber-Bosch
process that produces around 2 percent of all
global CO2. There are ways to decarbonize this
process—using carbon capture or green hydrogen
as an alternate feedstock, for example. But both
of those approaches add cost, delaying their use
on a meaningful scale, and neither addresses the
energy-intensive high temperature and pressure
required for this industrial process.
And yet, we know that nature has a much better
way of doing it. Microbes make ammonia at normal
temperatures and pressures, drawing hydrogen
from water and using a complex molecule known
as an enzyme, which is really just a biological
catalyst—a molecule that enables or speeds up
chemical reactions but otherwise isn’t part of the
reaction.
We know it should be possible to replicate the
function of this enzyme using an artificial catalyst,
but we simply can’t simulate the stability of the
naturally occurring enzyme with normal computers.
If we could, it would mean we could use water
instead of natural gas as the source of hydrogen,
as well as make ammonia at around 30 degrees
instead of 400 degrees. We could then make green
ammonia cheap enough that we might start using it
as fuel in ships by 2030. But don’t take my word for
it—Google’s CEO has said that Haber-Bosch is on
the way out.1
Another interesting example is battery design.
Nobody truly understands the electrochemistry
of lithium-ion batteries, yet they are already
ubiquitous, and better batteries will be important on
the journey to net zero. If we could more accurately
simulate electrolyte molecules, for instance, we
could solve major challenges around energy density,
Key insight #4
Use cases in quantum computing could account for a substantial amount of
emissions reductions needed to achieve a 1.5°C pathway.
Philipp Hillenbrand: What is the impact potential
these use cases could contribute to slowing down
global warming?
Jeremy O’Brien: The top use cases thus far include
batteries with higher density (particularly for
transportation and grid storage), perovskites for
more efficient solar panels, new solvents for point-
source carbon capture and adsorbents for direct-
air capture, new zero-carbon cement clinkers,
modeling membranes, catalysts and electrical
currents in hydrogen production, and (as mentioned
earlier) new ways of creating clean ammonia. Real
cost reductions drive technology adoption rates, so
this should speed up green technology use by five to
ten years.
These top use cases could achieve large-scale
decarbonization impact and help contribute toward
the planet getting back on a 1.5°C pathway.
Key insight #5
Technology is a critical element in the fight against climate change, but it can’t
solve the crisis on its own.
Philipp Hillenbrand: The cynics could say that,
as humans, institutions, and governments, we can
continue to misbehave, since advancements in
technology will help to prevent the worst anyway.
What’s your answer?
Jeremy O’Brien: Absolutely not! My position is that
we must do everything in parallel. We need to solve
the climate emergency using every tool we have.
Learn to Leap: Green Business Building Edition #4: How quantum computing can help tackle global warming
safety, charge time, use of rare or conflict minerals,
and more. With large efficiency gains and new
materials that don’t face supply issues, battery
prices could come down fast and accelerate the
transition to electric vehicles—including in the
more challenging sector of trucking, where we
could get to cost parity many years sooner.
And this potential impact starts making a lot
of sense if you think of quantum computing as
an enabling technology solving computational
bottlenecks that are holding up the design of new
technologies. In turn, it accelerates the adoption
of existing technologies by making them more
efficient or economical, so people use them a
decade earlier.
In fact, it is PsiQuantum’s vision that quantum
computing needs to work on solving the critical
challenges of our time, beginning with climate
change. We believe this so strongly that we made
an early commitment of our initial capacity to be
dedicated to sustainability use cases, such as
the ones I have described here. To that end, we
launched Qlimate with a focus and mission entirely
driven by climate impact.
We also need to figure out how to use quantum
computing to build new tools. And we need to build
that million-qubit quantum computing capability as
quickly as possible.
For someone who has spent much of his life
working on technology, I don’t subscribe to
simplistic tech “solutionism”; net zero will come
from a combination of policy, markets, consumer
5
 behavior, and technology. Given the dire situation
we are in, we’d obviously be mad not to do
everything in our power to develop the technology
that could help us get to net zero and beyond. That’s
why my colleagues and I at PsiQuantum are so dead
set on supporting climate breakthroughs.
At COP26,² I was encouraged that we already
have a great deal of technology to make progress.
Technology is obviously part of that market-policy-
behavior nexus, as we’ve seen with solar power:
better technology makes low-carbon solutions
cheaper and more scalable, which affects markets
and can support shifts in policy and consumer
choice. As long as technology isn’t a distraction
but an enabler, it will play a crucial role in fighting
climate change. We are very focused on making
sure that quantum computing serves a purpose,
and, for us, that means addressing some of the
most pressing issues of our time, starting with
climate change.
Philipp Hillenbrand: If you look 30 years ahead,
what role will quantum computing play in our daily
Philipp Hillenbrand is a partner in McKinsey’s Barcelona office.
The author wishes to thank Peter Cooper, Philipp Ernst, Anna Heid, and Dieter Kiewell for their contributions to this interview.
Copyright © 2022 McKinsey & Company. All rights reserved.
2
The 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) was held in Glasgow in November 2021.
6 Learn to Leap: Green Business Building Edition #4: How quantum computing can help tackle global warming
lives? What will it have achieved by then in your
personal best-case scenario?
Jeremy O’Brien: It is my conviction that the impact
of quantum computing is going to be more profound
than any technology to date, creating whole new
industries and opening up solutions to problems
that would otherwise forever be impossible to
solve. The real question is whether we will make
sufficiently powerful quantum computers in the
time frame we need. I believe so. We will experience
revolutions in our everyday lives: where our energy
and food come from, the medicine we take, and,
more broadly, how we manage complexity and risk
in large systems such as financial markets. Those
are just a few examples that spring to mind. But
above all, I hope that 30 years from now we will look
back in awe at how we managed to avert climate
disaster and how quantum computing was deployed
to support the tremendous collective efforts and
human ingenuity that went into finding the right
solutions.