Quantum computer - shared use by 12 companies: Toyota / Mitsubishi Chemical to develop materials

Recently Nihon Keizai Shimbun Electronic Edition reported the following:

量子計算機、12社共同利用　トヨタ・三菱ケミが素材開発

【イブニングスクープ】

量子技術

2021年6月29日 18:00 [有料会員限定]

トヨタ自動車など大手企業12社が次世代の高速計算機、量子コンピューターの実機の共同利用に乗り出す。米IBMが近く日本で初めて稼働させる「商用機」を用い、産業用途での実用化へ協力して知見を蓄積する。トヨタや三菱ケミカルは新素材の開発などでの活用を想定する。超高性能の次世代計算機の活用でリードできるかどうかは将来の産業競争力や国の安全保障戦略を左右する。

IBMが川崎市の産業育成拠点「かわさき新産業創造センター」に持ち込む新鋭機を利用する。汎用性が高く、主流になると目される「量子ゲート方式」の装置だ。7月中にも稼働する。米国外への設置はドイツに次ぐ2例目となる見通し。

東京大学が占有権を持ち、同大が中心となってトヨタなどと2020年に設立した「量子イノベーションイニシアティブ協議会」が利用主体となる。一般的に量子コンピューターの導入は数十億円規模がかかるとみられるが、協議会の参加企業が費用を分担して使う。

量子コンピューターの機能を検証すると同時に、既存のコンピューターとは異なる専門知識や使いこなし方のノウハウを蓄積する。協議会には日立製作所、東芝、ソニーグループなども名を連ね、慶応義塾大学も参画する。

IBMは量子コンピューターの利用を早期に広げるため、日本企業とも協力・連携しながら活用策の発掘などに取り組む狙いがある。

産業応用の有力分野の一つは化学だ。シミュレーションを通じ、画期的な素材の創出が期待される。三菱ケミカルは発光ダイオード（LED）や太陽電池を候補に想定。スマートフォンや電気自動車（EV）に使うリチウムイオン電池の数倍の電気を蓄えられるとされる、リチウム空気電池の研究にも取り組む。

量子コンピューターは膨大な組み合わせの中から最適解を見つけるのも得意だ。トヨタは自動運転時代を見据え、車の走行記録のビッグデータを解析して渋滞を回避する走行ルートを導くといった用途も見込む。

米国では金融業界が利用に積極的だ。ゴールドマン・サックスは4月、金融商品のリスク評価や価格予測を高速化する計算手法を、最短5年後に導入できる見通しだと明らかにした。

現在の高速コンピューターの主役はスーパーコンピューターだ。量子コンピューターはまだ開発途上で、実用領域でスパコンを上回る成果を出し始めるには早くて3～5年、完成の域に達するには10～20年かかるとの見方もある。

将来はスパコンでも数億年かかるような計算を瞬時にこなすようになると期待されている。いち早く性能を引き出せれば研究開発（R&D）競争で優位に立ち、産業競争力の底上げにつながる。高度に進化すると現在のインターネット通信を支える暗号を解読する能力を獲得できるため、国家の安全保障にも影響を及ぼす。

（AI量子エディター　生川暁、福本裕貴）

Translation

Twelve major companies, including Toyota Motor Corporation, would embark on a joint use of next-generation high-speed computers, the actual quantum computers. IBM in the United States would soon for the first time operate in Japan the "commercial machine" that would cooperate with the practical application in industrial use, and at the same time to accumulate knowledge. Toyota and Mitsubishi Chemical were expected to use it in the development of new materials. Whether or not they could in the lead by utilizing ultra-high-performance next-generation computers would affect their future industrial competitiveness and national security strategies.

The latest machine that IBM to use would be brought to Kawasaki City's industrial development base the "Kawasaki New Industry Development Center". It was a "quantum gate method" device that was highly versatile and was expected to become the mainstream. It might be operational in July. It was expected to be the second case of installation outside the United States after Germany.

The University of Tokyo owned the possession right, and the "Quantum Innovation Initiative Council" established in 2020 with Toyota and others would be the main users. In general, the introduction of quantum computers was expected to cost billions of yen, the companies participating in this Council would share the costs.

While at the same time verifying the functions of the quantum computer, they might accumulate specialized knowledge and know-how on how to use it, which was different from existing computers. Hitachi, Toshiba, Sony Group, etc. would join the Council, and Keio University might also participate.

In order to expand the use of quantum computers at an early stage, IBM aimed to work on finding out how to utilize it in cooperation with Japanese companies.

One of the leading fields of industrial application would be chemistry. It was expected that epoch-making materials might be created through simulations. Mitsubishi Chemical envisioned light emitting diodes (LEDs) and solar cells as candidates. It would also work on research on Lithium-ion batteries that were used in smartphones and electric vehicles (EVs) which were said to be able to store several times more electricity, and also on lithium-air batteries.

Quantum computers were also good at finding optimal solutions from a huge number of combinations. Looking ahead to the era of autonomous driving, Toyota also expected to use it to analyze big data in car driving records, and to guide driving routes to avoid traffic congestion.

In the United States, the financial industry was active in using it. Goldman Sachs said in April that it expected to introduce a calculation method that could accelerate risk assessment and price forecasting of financial products as early as in five years.

In today's high-speed computers, in the leading role were the supercomputers. Quantum computers were still under development, and there was a view that it could take 3 to 5 years at the earliest to start producing results that could surpass supercomputers in the practical field, and take 10 to 20 years to reach the level of perfection.

In the future, it was expected that supercomputers could able to perform calculations in an instant that would otherwise take hundreds of millions of years. If its performance could be brought out quickly, it might give advantage in the competition in research and development (R & D), and raised industrial competitiveness. If it progressed in sophistication, it could acquire the ability to break the code that supported the current Internet communication and thus could affect national security.

              So, IBM in the United States will soon embark in Japan on a joint use of the next-generation high-speed computer, the quantum computer. This project shows the close connection between these two countries that has been in place since the end of WWII.