Here’s how Abu Dhabi plans to superposition itself as a high-tech hub

ABU DHABI’S RESEARCH chief is anything but coy about the emirate’s ambitions in technologies like cryptography and autonomous robotics. Faisal Al-Bannai, secretary general of the Advanced Technology Research Council (ATRC), heads an organization that—while only formed in 2020—is already wise beyond its years, thanks to a massive, ongoing recruitment drive for researchers. It’s all part of the UAE capital’s bullish aim to position itself as a global research hub.

Or, maybe, superposition itself. One of the seven research centers under the Technology Innovation Institute (TII), which is part of ATRC, has started work on building its own quantum computer powered by “qubits” which, through the esoteric phenomena of superposition and entanglement, promise to help solve complex—yet extremely specific—problems.

The UAE’s first quantum computer will be built by TII’s Quantum Research Centre. It aims to construct the first simple chips by late summer, before building a fully-fledged computer cooled by big, beautiful “chandeliers”—just like those trialled by Google and IBM. “The fundamental change [quantum computing will make] will be, in my view, the same as when the internet changed our lives,” Al-Bannai tells WIRED. “It’s one of these very exciting technologies once it reaches practical use.”