Quietly, Washington technology giant Microsoft appears to be bulking up its quantum computing team in Raleigh.
A review of job postings and LinkedIn profiles shows that, starting this summer, the firm began scooping up Qualcomm engineers for its super computer division.
Microsoft declined to comment on the situation, but LinkedIn profiles of new hires show at least six former Triangle Qualcomm engineers are now on the Microsoft payroll working in quantum computing in Raleigh. And Microsoft still has eight open local positions on its website – including another role for a “quantum architect.”
Those individuals include Michael Underkoffler, a former senior director of engineering at Qualcomm from 2004 through this past May, now a partner engineering manager at Microsoft in Raleigh. Similarly, Michael McIlvaine, senior director of technology, principal CPU architect at Qualcomm in the Triangle, lists his role since June as principal architect at Microsoft in Raleigh. Thomas Speier, former senior director of technology at Qualcomm in the Triangle, notes in his profile that he started a position as principal architect for Microsoft in Raleigh in June. Brian Stemple, principal engineer at Qualcomm in Raleigh until August, now lists his role as principal architect for Microsoft. Jason Cox, principal design manager at Microsoft since June, was previously a senior staff engineer at Qualcomm in Raleigh. And Kevin Magill, senior hardware design engineer at Microsoft in the Triangle since August, was formerly senior staff engineer at Qualcomm in Raleigh.
And Microsoft’s recruitment efforts may be bigger than a single division, as a handful of other former Qualcomm engineers also list new positions with Microsoft in Raleigh on their LinkedIn profiles – though not specifically in quantum computing.
Microsoft declined to comment on the nature of its quantum computing work in the Triangle, though Underkoffler’s LinkedIn profile describes his position as “building a control system for quantum computing that is based on a classical computer architecture.”
In a recent presentation to analysts, Judson Althoff, executive vice president of the Worldwide Commercial Business organization, said quantum computing gives the company a “competitive advantage,” even over products with better pricing.
And Microsoft describes some of those advantages on its website.
“In just hours or days, a quantum computer can solve complex problems that would otherwise take billions of years for today’s computers to solve,” the site reads. “This has massive implications for research in healthcare, energy, environmental systems, smart materials, and more.”
But Microsoft is hardly alone in realizing the potential of super computers. While Microsoft, according to its site, doesn’t actually have a quantum computing lab in the Triangle, IBM does – a new unit at N.C. State University. In May, Big Blue announced it was establishing its first university-based “Q Hub” at Centennial Campus.
And a team led by researchers at Duke University recently won $15 million from the National Science Foundation to develop its own quantum computer.
Qualcomm didn’t immediately return a request to comment for this story, but the company announced in June that it would be laying off 241 employees in Raleigh, starting in August. At the time, the company said the reductions were contained to its data center business and that it remained committed to “R&D efforts for upcoming compute opportunities at the edge of 5G networks and AI interference cloud chipsets.”
