Consumer Electronics Show 2020

I was excited once again this year to participate in a session at CES with ExxonMobil’s partner IBM. Last year, we announced we would be working together to research the use of quantum computing for developing next-gen energy and manufacturing technologies. At the time, ExxonMobil became the first energy company to join the IBM Q Network, a vibrant global community of all different kinds of organizations examining how quantum computing can lead to practical applications for science and business.

So this year, I joined a panel with IBM’s director of research, Dario Gil; IBM’s senior manager for quantum applications, algorithms and theory, Jeannette M. Garcia; and Andreas Hintennach, the senior manager for battery research and technology at Mercedes-Benz Research & Development, to discuss the “Quantum Decade” as we head into the 2020s. I recommend checking out the video of the entire session, if for no other reason than to watch Dario’s master class in the basics of quantum computing.

From our perspective at ExxonMobil, the new paradigm of quantum computing represents a chance to overcome the limits of today’s traditional computers, which are not up to the task of tackling the scale and complexity of so many of our energy challenges. The kinds of computationally challenging problems we might be able to address with quantum are untold. They include the potential to optimize a country’s power grid and perform more predictive and accurate modeling and calculations to enable the discovery of new materials for more efficient carbon capture. It also could allow us to extract meaningful and previously inaccessible information from large and complex data sets.

All of this matters because cutting-edge technology available to us from outside the energy industry – like quantum computing – will be essential for confronting the dual challenge of producing enough energy to meet a rapidly growing world’s demand while also lowering carbon emissions and managing the risks of climate change. Over the last several decades, continuing advances in computing power have enabled us to constantly innovate and become more efficient, starting in part with our breakthrough in solving the 1-D gas flow model in the 1950s on early IBM hardware. Quantum will be just as key, if not more important, and can potentially provide us with capabilities to simulate nature and chemistry that we’ve never had. Of course, these are the building blocks of the fundamental science that drives all new energy and environmental solutions.

Quantum computing is just one more avenue we are exploring for innovating the technology that will help us solve the dual challenge. I can’t repeat enough how important it is to look for scalable technology in many different areas and across sectors to make progress on this front. And we are throwing resources at it: Our long-standing and focused R&D program has a budget of about $1 billion per year. And since 2000, ExxonMobil has spent about $9 billion developing and deploying lower-emission energy solutions.

Partnerships like our dynamic one with IBM on quantum are also a large part of the equation. Regular followers here will be familiar with the drumbeat of announcements on new and diverse collaborations with businesses, startups, academia and national laboratories.

The Quantum Decade couldn’t have come at a better time. Quantum computing represents a leap well beyond anything we know, and we are hopeful and determined that it could yield results in our ongoing, multifront effort to overcome the dual challenge and mitigate the risks of climate change.