Pretty remarkable progress from the @GoogleQuantumAI team. Their paper in @ScienceMagazine this week shows magic state cultivation actually working on Willow. That’s a real step. A useful quantum computer (one that can solve problems classical computers cannot) needs a steady supply of special high-quality building blocks, often called “magic states.” Until now, making them has been extremely wasteful. In some designs, the process was expected to consume as much as 95% of the entire machine, leaving almost nothing for the actual work. These blocks are also single-use, once consumed, they are gone and must be made again. Google has now demonstrated a better production method, called cultivation, on real hardware they already operate. It reduced errors roughly 40-fold and produced these critical blocks at 99.99% fidelity. Two years ago this was only a theoretical idea; it is now running on a chip. The process is still early, and most attempts currently fail and it has not yet been shown at the scale needed for a full machine, but one of the largest practical bottlenecks in the field has become meaningfully more manageable. So what, who cares? This directly improves the economics and timeline of fault-tolerant quantum computing. A machine that spends the vast majority of its resources just manufacturing its own fuel is expensive, hard to scale, and slow to deliver useful computation. Reducing that overhead means more of the system can be devoted to actual problem-solving, which lowers the total hardware required, improves efficiency, and shortens the path from today’s experimental devices to machines that can tackle commercially relevant problems. That is a concrete step toward making the technology more viable rather than purely aspirational. None of this means Q-Day is next quarter. It does mean the “we still have plenty of time” argument keeps getting thinner. If you’re responsible for cryptography or long-lived data, assume harvest-now-decrypt-later is already happening. Crypto-agility and a real inventory of where your keys and algorithms live can’t stay a 2028 project. The hardware is moving faster than most enterprise roadmaps, and you may need years to inventory budget and plan for remediation. Replacing RSA and ECC won’t be a rip-and-replace job either. Whatever quantum-resistant approach you pick (ML-KEM, ML-DSA, SLH-DSA), you’ll probably need to change it again as standards and threats evolve. Set-it-and-forget-it encryption is on its way out. At @KPMG_US , our Quantum practice is helping clients get ahead of this: inventorying cryptographic assets, building PQC migration roadmaps, and figuring out where quantum and quantum-inspired approaches can deliver business value today. #Quantum #PostQuantumCryptography #KPMGQuantum blog.google/innovation-and-a…

I've been a huge Clay Christensen fan since reading The Innovator's Dilemma in 1997. His hardest lesson for established firms is that a new business rarely survives inside the one it's meant to disrupt. You have to give it room to grow. That's why I'm proud of what @KPMG_US announced this week. Our new Client Technology & Innovation (CT&I) Group will pursue "innovation at the edge," taking AI-native businesses from idea to market at startup speed, inside a 130-year-old firm, with trust and security paramount. A few things I'd point out to anyone following how professional services is changing: - It starts with the client's problem, not the technology. Cyber and trust, transformation, transactions: the challenges clients bring to us every day. Clay would have called those the "jobs to be done." - It's built with the ecosystem, co-developing products with clients, start-ups, and our strategic partners; Google, Microsoft, Anthropic, OpenAI, Databricks, and many more. - It invests in people. Emerging leaders will build and scale new businesses, then bring that experience back into the firm. That's how you build lasting AI skills. Disruption is not if but when, and I couldn't be more excited that we're choosing to lead it, safely and securely. Full details here: kpmg.com/us/en/media/news/kp… #Disruption #Innovation #KPMG

This summer made post-quantum cryptography (PQC) an execution problem, not a research talking point. ⚛️ On June 22, the White House paired two executive orders: one pulling high-value federal systems onto NIST PQC for key establishment by the end of 2030 and signatures by 2031, and another pushing domestic quantum supply chains and foundry access. ⚛️ That landed on top of Commerce’s CHIPS letters of intent this year, about $2 billion, including planned support for U.S. quantum foundries at GlobalFoundries and IBM, so the country is funding the machines that could eventually break today’s crypto while forcing the migration off it. ⚛️ @Google and @Microsoft both locked 2029 as the date to get critical products onto PQC. ⚛️ Google Cloud just published the 2027–2028 milestones that make that date operational. ⚛️ In late July, @AnthropicAI Claude Mythos Preview also found a new attack on HAWK, a lattice signature still in NIST’s extra-signature competition, proof that “post-quantum” is not automatically AI-proof and validating the need for crypto-agility. The days of set it and forget it for cryptography are over. The practical takeaway for anyone tracking these signals: harvest-now-decrypt-later is already the threat model, 2029 is the industry clock, 2030–31 is the federal one, and crypto-agility plus vendor PQC roadmaps belong in procurement now, not after a cryptographically relevant machine exists.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ My recent conversation with Sebastian Hassinger of @NewQuantumEra explores exactly this intersection and what to do about it. What the policies, big tech narratives, and the foundry investment push all mean for enterprise operators who still have to migrate real systems, not just watch the qubit count. The last three months made the discussion more urgent, not less.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ Listen here ➡️ newquantumera.transistor.fm/… If you want to go deeper on how to act on this, DM me for more information on @KPMG_US Quantum Services. #Quantum #PQC

Great conversation with my friend Sebastian Hassinger from @NewQuantumEra on quantum risk and opportunity. My takeaway: Too many organizations still treat cryptography as a background utility rather than a strategic asset that must be fully mapped and modernized. Visibility and a solid baseline are the non-negotiable starting point for any credible quantum-readiness program. The opportunity side matters just as much: quantum technologies can deliver breakthrough value in optimization, simulation, and next-gen security when approached with clear strategy and governance. At @KPMG_US, our Cyber Tech Risk PQC team helps clients inventory cryptographic assets, assess quantum risk, and build PQC migration roadmaps. Our Quantum Research team also works with universities and partners to implement high-value use cases. #KPMGQuantum #Quantum newquantumera.transistor.fm/…

A few more from the @rushtheband show at @TheGarden on August 3 - #Rush #RushFamily @AnikaNilles #2112 – at New York, NY

Amazing show @rushtheband at @TheGarden - Loved the Neil tribute videos/imagery #Rush #RushFamily - Great job @AnikaNilles ! – at New York, NY

Great summary of the opening keynote by Tim Walsh, @KPMG_US Chair and CEO, captured live from the 2026 KPMG US Tech & Innovation Symposium at @MontageDV in Deer Valley. For anyone focused on long-term strategy, this is a must-watch. Tim connects the dots between today’s AI landscape and the future resilience of our businesses. His framing of the “technology inflection point” is exactly what leaders need to be thinking about right now. The right decisions today create massive competitive advantage. Proud to have curated this special event for the fourth year. This one set a new bar. #KPMGTechandInnovation26 #innovation #excellence #KPMGUS #apassionforexcellence

Early rising has its privileges 🌞 @MontageDV #sunrise #NotAI #KPMGTechandInnovation26 – at Park City, UT

Two major AI announcements from this week that together signal a pivotal shift in the future of AI. First: Mira Murati’s ‘Thinking Machines Lab’ dropped ‘Inkling’, a powerful 975B-parameter multimodal open-weights model (Mixture-of-Experts with ~41B active params). It natively handles text, images, and audio, supports up to 1M token context, and leads U.S. open models on agentic tasks while emphasizing efficiency. As former OpenAI CTO, @miramurati is putting her vision into action: decentralized, customizable AI that lets enterprises fine-tune and own their intelligence without shipping proprietary data to centralized labs. Second: Moonshot AI launched Kimi K3, a frontier-class 2.8T-parameter sparse MoE model with 1M context, native vision, and standout performance in coding, long-horizon reasoning, and agentic workflows. It’s competitively priced and promises full open weights by July 27. A Chinese lab delivering at this scale and openness is raising the bar globally. So what do these two together mean for the future of AI? We’re entering an era of rapid, open, and competitive progress where: - Scale meets accessibility, Massive models (hundreds of billions to trillions of parameters) are no longer locked behind APIs. Open weights empower developers, researchers, and companies to run, customize, and innovate locally. - Enterprise sovereignty wins. With leaders like Alex Karp and Satya Nadella highlighting IP risks in centralized AI, solutions like Inkling address the need for control over your own data and knowledge. - Global acceleration: U.S. innovation (rooted in talent from places like OpenAI) combined with bold moves from China is compressing timelines. The gap between closed frontier models and open ones is shrinking fast. - Agentic and multimodal reality. These releases prioritize real-world utility: long contexts for complex tasks, vision for richer understanding, and efficiency for practical deployment. The old playbook of closed, proprietary moats is being challenged by open collaboration at unprecedented scale. This democratizes AI, spurs faster iteration, and ultimately benefits builders and users everywhere. #AI #OpenSource #ArtificialIntelligence #FutureOfWork #Innovation

The @KPMG_US Tech & Innovation Symposium is ON!💥 For the past three years, I've had the honor of curating this special event, bringing together C-level executives, founders, investors, policymakers, futurists, and leading thinkers in the mountains of Deer Valley, UT to wrestle with what matters most: frontier tech, geopolitics, economics, risk, and how to lead when the pace of change refuses to slow down. This invitation-only event offers attendees access to world class speakers, panels, fireside chats, networking, fun activities, and invaluable insights into the most important enterprise technology and innovation opportunities and challenges. This year's speaker lineup will include: @mcuban,@RyanQualtrics, @AnneNeuberger, @jimkchin, @shellypalmer, @jamesncantrell, @salimismail, @ttraina, @nlw, @LerrelPinto, and many more. 📍 @MontageDV, Park City, UT 🗓️ July 27–30 ✅ On the agenda: AI, the future of work, quantum computing, the space economy, digital assets, physical AI and robotics, energy, navigating risk, plus panels with CAIOs, CIOs, CISOs, and other senior leaders living these decisions every day. This year's program also features interactive breakout sessions on advertising in an agentic AI world, the future of work with AI, and quantum risk and PQC readiness. If you're attending, please bring your best questions. The combination of practical enterprise leaders, deep-tech builders, and big-picture thinkers makes for excellent conversations both on and off stage. Learn more here: explore.kpmg.com/tech-innova… See you in the mountains. 🏔️ #KPMGTechandInnovation26 #KPMGEnterpriseInnovation #Innovation

Excited to be at @QuantumTech_ World 2026 in Boston this week where the full quantum ecosystem has gathered under one roof. This event brought together hardware innovators, algorithm and software developers, post-quantum security specialists, consulting and service providers, research institutions, and enterprise leaders, all focused on transforming quantum technology into real, scalable solutions. It really feels like an inflection point as we discuss hardware, algorithms, optimization, cybersecurity, and commercialization. The momentum is unmistakable after years of foundational work and steady progress. Government initiatives are accelerating globally, IPO activity and fundraising rounds are increasing, and the venture capital community is heating up. Quantum technology is moving from "coming soon" to "happening now." IMHO, this is the next big thing in frontier tech and arriving faster than many expected. At @KPMG_US, our Quantum practice is helping organizations prepare for and capitalize on this shift. We offer deep expertise in Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) readiness and migration, as well as quantum and quantum-inspired optimization solutions that deliver practical business impact today. #KPMGQuantum #QuantumComputing – at Everett, MA

Great show at @thestonepony - Les Claypool performed a triple-play on the "Claypool Gold Tour" featuring Primus @primus, The Claypool Lennon Delirium, @cl_delirium and Fearless Flying Frog Brigade Watching @seanonolennon cover John’s ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’ was the highlight for me. – at Asbury Park, NJ