Old Soup Factory Becomes Quantum Computing Lab, Where The Answer Is Both Chicken Noodle And Not
Ottawa has committed $195 million to a quantum computing firm setting up in a decommissioned soup factory, which is either a triumph of industrial reinvention or the most Canadian sentence ever assembled.
The building spent decades reducing vegetables to a shelf-stable slurry. It will now attempt to hold qubits in a coherent state, which requires temperatures near absolute zero. Locals note the plant was already the coldest building in town every February, so the retrofit is mostly emotional.
"People ask if we kept anything from the original operation," said one engineer, gesturing at a dilution tank the size of a bungalow. "We kept the floor drains. You would be amazed how much a cryogenic facility and a soup line have in common in terms of things that must not freeze on the floor."
The federal announcement used the phrase "anchor of a national quantum ecosystem" four times, which is three more times than anyone in the room could define it. A junior official privately conceded the strategy is to fund enough quantum firms that at least one of them turns out to be the good one, a technique known in the sector as superposition and in Ottawa as procurement.
The town, for its part, is thrilled. The factory employed 340 people. The quantum firm expects to employ 60, but they will have doctorates and will pay municipal taxes on parking spots that used to be free.
Asked whether the machine could eventually solve problems classical computers cannot, the CEO said yes, absolutely, within a decade. Asked what those problems are, he said they are working on that. The soup, at least, had a recipe.