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Microsoft and Quantinuum: Pioneering the Next Era of Quantum Computing

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The tech world is incredibly focused on AI and its applications today, but artificial intelligence is hardly the only place where progress is being made. If you want to get really into the weeds, pay attention to the progress that quantum computing is making, as made evident recently by an announcement from Microsoft and Quantinuum. The pair of companies made what TechCrunch described as a “major breakthrough in quantum error correction,” which could make quantum computing systems far more usable than before. The gist is that they encoded several physical qubits into a single logical qubit, which made it easier to detect and correct errors. The error rate in quantum computing is a material issue to the technology’s performance, making the news that the two companies managed “run more than 14,000 experiments without a single error” pretty big news.

Contour Network, the digital trade platform, acquired by fintech Xalts, based in Singapore

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In a role reversal, Xalts, a Singapore fintech startup founded 18 months ago, has acquired Contour Network, a digital trade platform set up by eight major banks including HSBC, Standard Chartered and BNP. Backed by Accel and Citi Ventures, Xalts enables financial institutions to build and manage blockchain-based apps. The startup plans to turn Contour into a rail connecting banks, corporations and other institutions, and integrate it with Xalts’ platform. Kaur says this will enable Xalts’ clients to not only build apps, but also connect with each other in a secure and compliant way. It will focus first on enabling banks and logistics companies to offer embedded trade and supply chain apps on a single platform to their customers.