Key takeaways
- Anametric started out building chip-scale QKD hardware but found that QKD carries political baggage in Washington DC because it is closely tied to policy debates involving China and Russia
- The company shifted focus to quantum random number generation on photonic chips, a technology that avoids the QKD label but still serves cybersecurity needs like key generation
- The US Air Force is interested in Anametric's products because random number generation and secure key material are needed in distributed, disconnected environments like aircraft and satellites, not just data centers
- Chip-scale photonics manufacturing lets Anametric use existing semiconductor fabrication processes, which helps with cost and scalability compared to bulk optical QKD systems
Summary
Wil Oxford, founder and CEO of Anametric, a company developing new technologies for chip-scale quantum photonics, is interviewed by Yuval Boger. Wil and Yuval spoke about Anametric’s initial cybersecurity focus, why QKD is not a popular word in Washington DC, why the US Air Force is interested in Anametric’s products, and much more.
Read the full transcript on The Quantum Computing Report here