Quantum #94

Into the first working week of 2026 and I’m already confused, though my confusion stems from the state of AI rather than what’s going on in HPC which is slowly plodding along as ever.

D-Wave is eating Quantum Circuits, and I’m not sure if this is the start of consolidation (needed) in the space or just D Wave flexing its muscles and devouring the competition before it gets too big. I guess we’ll find out.

AMD is talking Yottascale when we have only two or maybe three confirmed exascale systems on the planet. I guess it’s good to aim big but I do wonder who’s going to be paying for that. I don’t think the usual suspects who’d run HPL to get a spot on the Top500 have pockets deep enough and those that do won’t be partaking in any such shenanigans.

Ah yes, I started by saying I’m confused. 2025 ended with AI being firmly in bubble territory, a resignation that it doesn’t do what’s needed (even for writing code) and growing resentment to AI slop. Yet somehow 2026 has kicked off with a bang with jubilation around AI, more specifically Claude Code and Opus 4.5’s, ability to generate large amounts of production ready code. My own experience with AI assisted coding has certainly improved, perhaps even dramatically, but it remains a long way from the multi agent thousands of lines and years of work being widely claimed on social media today.

I’m also finding that not only do the claims of AI hype mongers still not resonate but neither do those of AI deniers. (To be clear, I am talking only about its abilities here and not about the ethics of any of it).

I don’t expect I’ll uncover the truth of the matter anytime soon in a general sense, but I do plan to do something to try and establish the facts for at least using AI in HPC software development. More on that later this week so hit subscribe / follow.

In The News

Updates from the big three clouds on all things HPC.

HPC Cloud Updates WE 11 Jan 2026

Updates to AWS, Azure & GCP in the last week relevant for HPC practitioners. A gentle start to the new year by the CSPs but some cool ideas from the nice people at Microsoft and of course some pushing AI into HPC too.

Flux by HMx LabsHamza

Are we starting to see consolidation in Quantum computing?

D-Wave in $550M Acquisition of Quantum Circuits

D-Wave Quantum Inc. (NYSE: QBTS) and Quantum Circuits Inc. today announced D-Wave will acquire Quantum Circuits for $550 million, consisting of $300 million in D-Wave common stock and $250 million in cash. - Read more from Inside HPC & AI News.

Inside HPC & AI News | High-Performance Computing & Artificial Intelligencestaff

It must be January, time for people to dream and say what they’ll produce this year with crazy ambitions. We have barely a handful of Exascale machines in existence so of it’s only natural that AMD want to pitch us a Yottascale behemoth.

AMD Contemplates And Engineers Yottascale AI Compute

Under Lisa Su’s more than eleven years as AMD’s chief executive officer, the company has returned from Opteron exile to be a formidable CPU foe to Intel

The Next PlatformJeffrey Burt

HPC Wire gives us their semiconductor predictions for 2026

https://www.hpcwire.com/2026/01/06/2026-semiconductor-predictions-here-come-the-ai-accelerators/

This has a very HPC Club feel to it but focused on quantum computing instead. Not organised by me (and not sure I can even attend) but it looks good and worth dropping in if your available

So my friends have called my bluff (or I there's) https://lnkd.in/eWt43fUZ For ages we've said 'we should just meet up at the pub and chat casually about quantum' Well if that's what you asked… | Joe Spencer | 54 comments

So my friends have called my bluff (or I there’s) https://lnkd.in/eWt43fUZ For ages we’ve said ‘we should just meet up at the pub and chat casually about quantum’ Well if that’s what you asked for, look no further 🍻 QUIPS – Quantum In Pubs (yes it’s no longer quantum information processing) 📅 30th January from 18:00 📍 The Coal Hole, Strand – London If you work in tech, lead teams, invest, build products, or you’re simply curious about where quantum technology is heading, this one’s for you. QUIPS (Quantum In Pubs) is a no-pressure, no-slides, no-selling evening. Just good people, good conversations, and honest thoughts about what this sector might become, over a drink in a proper pub. So if you’re in London on that date, feel free to sign up or message, first round is on me* Andrei Dragomir Lucy Robson Lucy Maidwell Edward Boughton Tim Ballance André M. König Alexander Jantzen Niall Moroney Kieran Bjergstrom Kieran Collinson Maria Damsgaard John Barnes Amir Rasool Simon Muskett Eric Van der Kleij Arian Alikhani Gibson Armstrong Araceli Venegas-Gomez Joachim Bjorkmann James Fletcher Christopher A McGuire | 54 comments on LinkedIn

LinkedInJoe Spencer

From HMx Labs

Need a new scheduler? Want some help picking one?

Scheduler Selection Beta Now Available

Choosing a HPC/AI scheduler is often a once per career type decision and getting it wrong can be expensive. Want a hand?

Flux by HMx LabsHamza

Some thoughts on what might or might not happen but HPC in 2026 but I would like to see regardless

Dreams and Wishes for HPC in 2026

At the start of 2025 I avoided the temptation to write my predictions for HPC and instead chose to write what my own hopes for 2025 were. A year on, it’s time to revisit that. What moved, what didn’t and what have I changed my mind on.

Flux by HMx LabsHamza

If you have ideas on what you’d like to see us to do this year there’s still time share them

Help Shape 2026

Want to help shape what we work on in 2026? Let me know.

Flux by HMx LabsHamza

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