Alibaba Group’s
Aliyun cloud computing arm has partnered with the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) in Beijing, China. The two organizations will cooperate to co-found the "Chinese Academy of Sciences – Alibaba Quantum Computing Laboratory". A formal Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signing ceremony took place in Shanghai, China this week.
The collaboration will consider quantum theory and its application to new technologies and platforms for information security, connectivity and computing. The MoU agrees the new laboratory will investigate quantum theory and conduct research to establish security approaches for data centers and global ecommerce. Both the academy and Aliyun will promote research and development designed to establish a "technical foundation" to enable China to advance in quantum computing. The move underscores Aliyun's commitment to advancing science and technology.
"This investment in the development and application of quantum computing reflects the scale and clarity of our long-term vision to collaborate with partners in an ecosystem model towards the sustained development of the economy and society," explained Alibaba Group's Jian Wang. "New discoveries in information security and computing capacity based on quantum computing could be as significant in the future as big data technologies are today.”
News of the MoU comes in the wake of Alibaba's recent commitment to spend around $1 billion developing Aliyun and increasing its global footprint. The aim of the investment is for Alibaba and Aliyun is to take on major cloud players like Amazon (AWS) in the next few years. “Big Data and cloud computing are at the heart of Alibaba Group’s strategy for the future,” explained Daniel Zhang, CEO of Alibaba.
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