The Largest Quantum Computer In History Is Here

This episode tackles quantum computing head-on by going inside PsiQuantum, the company making the boldest bet in the field: building a million-qubit quantum computer using photons instead of electrons. We spend time inside PsiQuantum’s labs and factories to understand how photonic quantum computing works, why most quantum computers are still stuck at hundreds of qubits, and what it actually takes to scale quantum hardware from fragile experiments into real machines that could transform chemistry, drug discovery, materials science, finance, and physics. Along the way, we break down the fundamentals of quantum computing—qubits, superposition, photons, cryogenics. PsiQuantum has raised over a billion dollars, broken ground on massive quantum computing facilities, and quietly built custom chips, cryogenic systems, and optical switches to make its approach viable. This is a ground-level look at one of the biggest technology gambles of our time, and a clear-eyed attempt to answer the question hanging over the entire industry: is large-scale quantum computing finally becoming real, or is it still twenty years away?. Subscribe to watch more Core Memory videos    / @corememoryvideos   Check out our podcasts    / @corememoryvideos   https://www.corememory.com/podcast Find Ashlee Vance at www.corememory.com   / ashlee.vance   https://x.com/ashleevance Chapters 00:00 - Intro: Why Quantum Computing Is Always 20 Years Away 01:35 - Meet PsiQuantum: The Billion Dollar Bet on a Million Qubits 03:06 - How to Build Qubits Out of Light 04:44 - Going All-In: The Big Bets That Annoyed Everyone 06:22 - Trying to Explain Quantum Computing 08:04 - Inside the Cryo Plant at SLAC 12:15 - Why This Time Might Actually Be Different