05 March 2025

Since the end of last year, the possibilities of quantum computers have also arrived in the mainstream stock market world. Important advances made by the Google Quant team caused the share prices of the relevant companies to rise significantly—at least in the short term.

In practice, they can completely change our lives.

One major beneficiary of this development is likely to be the transportation sector. There are completely new opportunities for autonomous driving and the latest drone technology. Providers such as ZenaTech are already waiting in the wings.

What is Actually Behind Quantum Computers?

Previous computers—including the much-noticed supercomputers from IBM or Nvidia—work on the basis of the states “0” or “1”. Most of us have already learned this at school. So you can only make a statement about whether a question is “true” or “false." Until now, the computer market has been governed by Moore's Law: the rule developed by Intel co-founder Gordon Moore states that computing power will double within 18 months. However, chip developers are now reaching their physical limits. In addition, the demand for computing power is growing explosively due to new applications in the field of AI, and far faster than developments in the industry.

The Solution to Many Problems?

Developers see quantum computing as the solution.

The dream here is of “unlimited” processing speed. Quantum computers work with so-called “qubits” instead of “0” or “1." A qubit (or quantum bit) is the basic unit of information in this technology, which is similar to a bit in a classical computer. Thanks to the principles of quantum mechanics, a qubit can assume a variety of states. As a result, huge amounts of data could be processed in parallel instead of sequentially. However, there is still a major problem with qubits: Orderly cooperation and control of the states of qubits has not yet been possible. This “error rate," as the experts call it, means that the more qubits are in use, the more errors occur. The aim is therefore to reduce the error rate.

Google Achieves a Breakthrough

In December 2024, Google's quantum team announced a breakthrough. The new quantum chip called Willow performed a mathematical calculation in less than five minutes. The fastest supercomputers of our time would have taken ten septillion years to do this. The experts were able to reduce the error rate exponentially, as the number of qubits and computing power increased (reported in an article in the journal Nature). This could be the first step towards successful quantum error correction—after more than three decades of research work. Nvidia is working with Google Quantum AI to develop the next generation of quantum computers.

Major Advances Possible for Autonomous Driving and Drones

If development continues to progress rapidly, quantum computers will be able to radically change many areas of our society and solve numerous problems.

One strategic field of application is transportation. Major progress could be made in this area, particularly in autonomous driving or the use of drones. Quantum computers could master today's challenges in the efficient use of huge amounts of data. ZenaTech is also positioned in this area. Unlike many other drone manufacturers, the company has strong roots and expertise in SaaS enterprise software, which it uses to develop and manufacture its drones. The company offers drones equipped with artificial intelligence, and has also announced work on a quantum computing project that focuses on drone swarms for applications such as traffic management and forest firefighting.

Made in America

State-of-the-art drone technologies are also in demand from the military. ZenaTech has therefore massively expanded its activities in the USA and invested in Arizona—an assembly plant is being built there for the development and construction of test drones for the U.S. military. In order to be able to supply the U.S. defense apparatus, the company is working on certification for the NDAA (National Defense Act Administration). The development of cameras, sensors, and component parts will come from the subsidiary Spider Vision Sensors in Taiwan.

ZenaTech could also benefit from the increasing restrictions on Chinese drones and their components in the USA. The Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) of the U.S. Department of Commerce has been reviewing a new regulation to ban Chinese drones in the United States due to national security concerns since the beginning of the year. To date, Chinese companies—in particular, industry giant DJI—have a market share of over 75 percent of the U.S. drone market. Their share of privately used hobby drones is even more than 90 percent. A ban on the products of these companies would completely transform the industry in the U.S. market and create a huge vacuum. ZenaTech sees the future, and the company is addressing how AI and quantum computers could provide new impetus and opportunities in the drone industry.