A quantum computing startup tries to live up to the hype

SAN FRANCISCO – Few corners of the tech industry are as tantalizing or complex as quantum computing. For years its evangelists have promised machines capable of breaking the most impenetrable coded messages, unlocking the secret properties of the physical world and putting supercomputers to shame. Right now, Rigetti's challenge for itself is this: Can it solve one, single problem with a quantum computer that a conventional machine cannot? Even if it just meant answering a question more quickly or cheaply than a supercomputer, the team of physicists and mathematicians at the startup's Berkeley, California, office would be overjoyed. Today, your laptop can solve pretty much everything one of the startup's quantum computers can do, just as quickly.