Thank you, Mr. Chairman and distinguished members of the committee.
Thank you for inviting me to appear before the committee.
My name is Alireza Yazdi. I am the founder and chief executive director of Anyon Systems. I am a first-generation immigrant, a scientist and an entrepreneur.
I graduated from McGill with a Ph.D. in engineering, so I'm an engineer by training, not a physicist, with all due respect to other physicists on the panel. I have over 15 years of experience in high-performance computing, out of which the last seven years have been almost entirely focused on building a quantum computer.
Besides my technical work and business, I'm also a student of history and geopolitics. In particular, given my day job, I'm very interested in disruptive technological trends that have geopolitical ramifications.
Before I formally introduce Anyon Systems and talk about what we do, I will take a few moments to provide some background and context for the discussion ahead.
There is a saying in the tech industry, that “data is the new gold”. Companies like Google and Facebook compete on mining this gold. They spend vast resources on data collection, indexing and storage, but data becomes really valuable when it is processed, when it is analyzed. As you know, there is an exponential growth of global data volume, and with that, there is an ever-increasing need for computational power. I do not use the phrase “computational power” lightly, and I do not use it in a mere technical context. When I say “computational power”, I mean power to process data, power to develop new technologies, power to make better decisions and power to stay ahead of the competition. This power is strategic in nature.
Given the data volume and the strategic value of the computational power I mentioned, there is an acute need for new technologies, especially new types of hardware, that can expand our ability to process data, explore nature, invent new technologies and keep our nation safe. Quantum computing is one of the candidate technologies that promises significant computational power, but for only a certain class of problems. Please note that not every problem or every application can necessarily be accelerated using quantum computers.
Let me be more clear. A quantum computer is not a stand-alone computer. A quantum computer is a hardware accelerator. Its job is to accelerate performing some computations for a class of problems that are deemed very valuable.
Having covered that background, let me share with you some background about our company. Anyon Systems was founded in 2014, right around the time that Google and IBM started their quantum hardware effort. In fact, despite being barely eight years old, it is one of the oldest quantum computing hardware companies in the world. Our mission is to develop and commercialize logic-based universal quantum computers.
Over the past eight years, Anyon has developed the full vertical hardware stack of superconducting quantum computers. In fact, to my best knowledge, we are the only company in the world that makes all major components of a superconducting quantum computer in house, including the superconducting quantum processor itself, the cryogenics systems, reaching temperatures of only a few millikelvins above absolute zero, the control electronics and the software stack to use the machine.
Developing such unique expertise has enabled us to be largely independent from foreign suppliers and make sure that Canada will have indigenous and domestic capabilities. Our quantum computing systems are almost entirely manufactured and assembled at our facilities here in Montreal and in Waterloo. We have built valuable partnerships with key stakeholders in government and academia, and we strive to help build ecosystems by providing hardware access to Canadian researchers.
In 2020, we received a contract through the build in Canada innovation program to deliver a quantum computer for testing by Defence Research and Development Canada, DRDC. Despite the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, I'm glad to inform you that the machine was completed and went online in 2021. We are proud to announce that this machine is Canada's first gate-based quantum computer. The key performance metrics exceed those of some of the most well-known actors in the industry, and on many key metrics it is second only to Google.
Last fall, I also had the pleasure of delivering a series of lectures to the talented researchers of DRDC and other government agencies. The goal of this lecture series was to help government researchers adopt quantum computing and start doing great research in the field.
More recently, we received a second order to deliver a state-of-the-art machine to one of Canada's largest high-performance computing centres. This machine will enable Canadian researchers, both in academia and industry, to have early access to a highly sought-after technology, enabling them to further build novel algorithms and perform cutting-edge research.
While we currently deliver small- to intermediate-scale machines that are tailored for early adopters, Anyon's overarching goal is to deliver what we called a utility-scale quantum computer, a quantum computer that provides computational value more than its cost.
Our team has developed a detailed technological road map to that effect, and we have been inventing very novel technologies to reach our milestones.
Before I conclude my remarks, I would be remiss if I did not thank the kind and generous support that we have received over the past few years from the National Research Council of Canada, especially through IRAP; the Institute for Quantum Computing at the University of Waterloo, especially the management and staff of Waterloo's quantum-nano fabrication facility; and the Ministère de l'Économie et de l'Innovation here in Quebec.
Once again, I thank you for this invitation and I look forward to our discussion.