The world's largest quantum computing company is building a quantum business advantage by partnering with HSBC
On May 31, Quantinuum and HSBC announced a series of exploratory projects to tap into the potential near- and long-term benefits of quantum computing in the banking industry through specific projects in cybersecurity, fraud detection and natural language processing.
In response, Philip Intallura, HSBC's global head of quantum technology, said, "We are delighted to enter into this partnership with Quantinuum and to explore further applications of quantum technology in financial services. Our partnership provides us with a great opportunity to gain access to state-of-the-art quantum hardware and take our use cases to a truly transformative level. We look forward to seeing the results of our joint work and the long-term value it will bring to the bank."
"Our partnership with HSBC brings together deep expertise in applying quantum computing in a range of areas that are critical in the global financial industry: protecting critical data and assets, managing risk, and creating customer service approaches." Quantinuum Chief Product Officer Ilyas Khan said, "As we move towards quantum computers that classical computers simply cannot emulate, customers will benefit from the immense value in innovation, knowledge and more."
The partnership between HSBC, which has 39 million customers in 62 countries, and Cambridge-based Quantinuum will involve a number of projects to help "grow the business in the short and long term.
HSBC already has a quantum team led by Philip Intallura, and the start of this new partnership will focus on the bank's cybersecurity defenses, using cryptographic keys hardened by quantum computing.
The initial exploration of the multi-stage partnership aims to demonstrate the use of quantum computing hardened cryptographic keys, which will also include combining them with quantum-resistant cryptographic algorithms to mitigate current and future cyber threats. This enhanced defense against advanced cyber threats is increasingly critical as the transition point between classical and quantum computer capabilities continues to approach.
As quantum computers become more prevalent, cyber threats are a central area of concern for experts.
Quantinuum's Quantum Origin is a cutting-edge platform that leverages the operation of quantum computers to strengthen the cryptographic keys used to protect transactions and identification processes. Quantum Origin is the first commercial product on the market to use a quantum computer to generate provable, unpredictable cryptographic keys, providing an additional layer of security to protect HSBC's data.
HSBC and Quantinuum will run Quantum Origin through an HSM provider, and HSBC also plans to use Quantinuum's expertise in quantum natural language processing capabilities for fraud detection and online customer support.
In the second part of the partnership, HSBC and Quantinuum will research and explore the potential benefits of quantum machine learning (QML) and quantum natural language processing (QNLP) for HSBC's business. Fraud detection is a top priority for HSBC and the partnership will investigate advanced QML techniques that will be enhanced by Quantinuum's architecture-independent software development platform, TKET, which provides quantum bit routing and circuit optimization technologies.
In addition, HSBC and Quantinuum will explore QNLP, a new form of language-based artificial intelligence that uses interpretable models rather than the traditional "black box" approach of classical large language models. enable native NLP tasks (e.g., question answering or text similarity), which may be valuable in the regulatory context of handling customer data.
Through this research collaboration, HSBC and Quantinuum will be at the forefront of developing and implementing quantum-based solutions that have the potential to revolutionize the banking industry.
About Quantinuum
Quantinuum is the world's largest integrated independent quantum computing company, combining Honeywell's hardware division and Cambridge Quantum's middleware and applications division.
Quantinuum is science-led and enterprise-driven, accelerating the development of quantum computing and applications across chemistry, cybersecurity, finance and optimization. Its focus is on creating scalable commercial quantum solutions to the world's most pressing problems in areas such as energy, logistics, climate change and health. The company employs more than 480 people at nine locations in the U.S., Europe and Japan: including 350 scientists.
Reference links:
[1] https://www.quantinuum.com/news/hsbc-and-quantinuum-explore-real-world-use-cases-of-quantum-computing-in-financial-services
[2]https://cqcl.github.io/tket/pytket/api/getting_started.html
[3]https://assets.website-files.com/62b9d45fb3f64842a96c9686/63237527e1807c75172d5237_Quantinuum%20Origin%20Information%20Packet% 20v3%206APR22.pdf
