Intel CEO Sees Quantum Computing Working Alongside CPUs and GPUs

Insider Brief

• Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan said quantum computers are likely to operate alongside CPUs and GPUs as specialized systems for selected computing tasks.
• Tan said Intel is focusing its quantum work on error correction, practical applications and the business case for customers to pay for the technology.
• Quantum computing remains constrained by error rates, cryogenic cooling requirements and the need to scale hardware, even as Intel and the U.S. government continue to invest in the field.
• Image: Intel

Intel Chief Executive Lip-Bu Tan said quantum computers are likely to work alongside conventional processors rather than replace them, as the industry searches for commercially useful applications.

“In my view, GPUs, CPUs and quantum computing are all forms of computing, so they will run together in certain application areas, and you will be able to use quantum computing more efficiently,” Tan said during a keynote conversation at Splunk’s .conf26 conference in Denver, according to Seoul Economic Daily.

Photonics quantum computing giant PsiQuantum recently appointed Tan to its Board of Directors.

The comments reinforce a view that quantum computing can fit within a broader computing stack that already relies on central processing units, or CPUs, and graphics processing units, or GPUs. CPUs handle a wide range of general-purpose tasks, while GPUs have become essential for training large artificial-intelligence models because they can perform many similar calculations at once.