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Most quantum computers being built today chase more qubits and better error correction. Marta Estarellas's company Qilimanjaro went the other way: an analog system that lets physics do the computation, unlocked with fluxonium qubits that hold record coherence times. The bet is that the future of supercomputing is not one machine but a multimodality of digital, analog, and classical systems working together.
Anders Indset sits down with Marta Estarellas, CEO of Qilimanjaro Quantum Tech, the Barcelona full-stack quantum company behind Europe's first analog quantum computer installed at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center, to ask what quantum computing looks like when you stop treating the gate-based machine as the only future.
In this conversation, they explore:
Why analog quantum computing lets you skip gate decomposition and let the physics compute directly
How adiabatic quantum computing and gate-based quantum computing are formally equivalent, but analog opens a different execution path
The fluxonium qubit and why it now holds the best coherence records
What happens when quantum computers finally leave the cryostat and move to room temperature
Whether an analog quantum machine still counts as a computer through the lens of David Deutsch's universal quantum computer
The near-term applications that are already realistic, from spectral data analysis to drug discovery
Quantum-enhanced AI and whether quantum computing can fix what is broken in large language models
Europe's positioning versus the US and China in the global quantum race
The timeline: what actually changes by 2030 versus what stays hype
Chapter Breakdown:
00:00 -Introduction
08:55- The two types of qubits: fluxonium versus transmon
11:34 -Is an analog quantum machine actually a computer?
20:20 -Adiabatic quantum computing and gate-based quantum computing
27:36 -The timeline: will commercial quantum arrive by 2030?
35:17- Can quantum chips ever leave cryogenics? 43:50 How quantum changes biology and drug discovery
48:30- Quantum-enhanced AI versus classical large language models 54:10 Europe versus the US versus China in the quantum race
01:05:09 -What feels normal in 2036?
About Marta P Estarellas
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/mpestarellas/
Website - https://qilimanjaro.tech/
About The Quantum Economy Podcast
A series exploring quantum theory, quantum tech, AI, and the evolution of intelligence, and how these forces redefine the economy, value creation, and the future of human systems. Learn more: https://thequantumeconomy.com
Contact: podcast@thequantumeconomy.com
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About Anders Indset
Anders Indset is a business philosopher and author of seven international bestsellers, including The Singularity Paradox: Bridging the Gap Between Humanity and AI and Ex Machina – The God Experiment. As founder of tomorrowmensch, he invests in early-stage science and technology and convenes scientists, investors, and entrepreneurs working on what comes after the current paradigm.
NEW BOOK: The Quantum Economy https://andersindset.com/shop/The-Quantum-Economy-p803754261
Website: https://andersindset.com tomorrowmensch: https://tomorrowmensch.com LinkedIn (personal): https://www.linkedin.com/in/andersindset/ LinkedIn (tomorrowmensch): https://www.linkedin.com/company/tomorrowmensch/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/andersindset Substack: https://andersindset.substack.com/ X: http://x.com/andersindset
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