Every new technology comes with a question.

Do you play it safe? Or do you reimagine everything?

Take the internet. When it arrived, Barnes & Noble saw it as an effective way to track book inventory across stores. Useful, but not necessarily transformative. Amazon saw the internet as more than a digital storefront. It became its entire store, replacing brick and mortar. That move turned retail upside down and changed the global economy.

Greg Dick, CEO of Open Quantum Design (OQD), believes quantum is about to do the same thing, only bigger.

“Quantum will be so catastrophically disruptive,” he said. “It’ll impact every single sector in really incredible ways.”

Analysts predict quantum will unlock $2 trillion in global wealth over the next decade. But the bulk of that value won’t go to the people soldering circuits or writing code.

“About 10 per cent of early adopters will reap 90 per cent of the wealth,” said Dick. “Of that, maybe six per cent will go to the creative companies, the Amazons of quantum, who use it in ways we can’t even imagine yet.”

Teacher turned ecosystem builder

For 16 years, Dick taught high school physics at Galt Collegiate. Then he moved to the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics for what was supposed to be a one-year stint. It turned into another 16 years, spent working with world-leading physicists and helping students around the world connect with science through outreach and educational programs.

One Friday, over a casual conversation with University of Waterloo and Perimeter Institute researcher Roger Melko, the idea for OQD clicked into place. Melko and Dick founded OQD, along with Crystal Senko and Rajibul Islam. They had the right people, the right region and the right moment to place a bet on quantum.

A revolution built on openness

“The uber objective of OQD is to truly democratize access to quantum technology in a way that everyone can benefit from the wealth generation potential,” said Dick.

That’s why OQD is working to build the world’s first open-source quantum computer. Instead of locking designs and software behind proprietary walls, everything, from hardware to code, is open and transparent.

Two of Dick’s co-founders, faculty members in the Science Department at the University of Waterloo, were trained under Chris Monroe, a world-renowned physicist who founded IonQ in the U.S., a leading quantum computing company developing and commercializing scalable, general-purpose quantum computers based on trapped-ion technology. 

“The team noticed that with proprietary for-profit companies, all the collaboration seems to stop,” said Dick. “They wanted to do something unique and different that wouldn’t stop the collaboration and truly help share the deep potential of quantum.”

Not all quantum is created equal

One of the most important things for business leaders to understand, Dick says, is that quantum isn’t a monolith. Different branches of the technology are moving at very different speeds.

“There’s post-quantum cryptography, there’s quantum networks, sensing and computing. Each of those different verticals within that quantum banner is at very different stage of development,” he said. “Quantum sensing is now and commercially available. Quantum computing is much further down the path.”

To illustrate the point, Dick uses an analogy from a colleague. Classic computing evolved from “horse and buggies” (the earliest machines) to “race cars” (today’s supercomputers). Quantum computing, by contrast, is like an airplane. It uses completely different physics, built for entirely different jobs.

“You don’t take an airplane to go to the corner store,” said Dick. “But when you need to cross the ocean, only an airplane will do.”

Quantum won't replace classical computing or AI. Instead, it will sit alongside them as an entirely new capability that takes on problems we couldn’t solve before, from creating new medicines to addressing climate change.

Waterloo Region’s 25-year head start

This work could have started anywhere. But Dick points out that Waterloo Region had a 25-year head start.

“It all began with Mike Lazaridis’ vision and determination,” said Dick. “He used his own money to launch the Perimeter Institute and the Institute for Quantum Computing at the University of Waterloo. Governments then stepped up with funding to match. Thanks to that early start, this community has had a 25-year advantage, and it’s why we’re now recognized as a global leader in quantum.”

The density of expertise is another advantage, such as BlackBerry alumni who stayed in the community, Communitech’s founder-first ecosystem, and a strong tech and research culture.

“At one point, 50 per cent of every person working in the quantum industry had gone through Waterloo at some point,” Dick said.

Barriers between promise and payoff

For all its promise, quantum also faces barriers. One of them is talent. 

“It’s a real shortage. If you look at any quantum company, you’ll see they have unfilled job boards,” said Dick. “And it’s not just physicists. We also need computer scientists, engineers and technicians.”

Canada has more quantum talent than you’d expect for its size, about five per cent of the world’s total. But the sector is still stretched thin. The 2024 Canadian Quantum Ecosystem Report says only about 0.01 per cent of our nation's workforce is in quantum, roughly 4,000 people across the country, including researchers and industry workers.

Another barrier, Dick says, is access. 

“There are a lot of good ideas, but they need the hardware to test the ideas on,” he explained. Without open access to machines, the best applications might never surface.

Dick says that’s why OQD’s open-source approach is designed to lower barriers, widen participation, and make sure Canada doesn’t experience another “strategic surprise” like it did with AI.

Building a quantum hub in Waterloo Region

“This community is special in so many ways,” said Dick. “Unbelievable talent, deep tool chains, great innovation, great entrepreneurs, all the infrastructure behind that. If we can layer on that expertise on top of our world-class quantum expertise, the sky’s the limit.”

Waterloo is home to more than 300 world-class researchers in quantum technology. According to Waterloo EDC, the local quantum ecosystem has raised more than $1.5 billion in public and private investment over the last 20 years.

Dick says some of the brightest postgrads in the world are already choosing OQD over big tech.

“They could go work for any major tech company,” Dick said. “They’re choosing a humanity-driven organization.”

That’s why OQD is building in Waterloo Region, because this community knows how to pair world-class science with global ambition. And if they succeed, the quantum revolution won’t belong to just a few. It will be shared with the world.

Quantum is growing here, and so can you. Connect with the ecosystem making it happen.