Why Google, NASA are putting big money on B.C. firm's quantum computer

Big names in the worlds of big brains and cutting-edge technology are investing millions of dollars in the quantum computing technology of the Burnaby, B.C.-based company D-Wave. They say they're starting to see promising results, despite criticism from some quantum physicists that the technology might never live up to its promise. Quantum computing is a new form of computing based on quantum mechanics, the strange physics that affects very, very small particles such as atoms. In theory, it has the potential to revolutionize artificial intelligence, space travel and other fields by solving problems conventional computers either can't solve or can only solve very slowly. But even Google acknowledges that D-Wave's limited form of quantum computing hasn't yet proven capable of doing anything conventional computers can't.