Great Companies Investment Lab

Difference Refrigerator When people first see a quantum computer, many are surprised by how large it looks. Superconducting quantum computers, in particular, are often associated with the now-famous golden “chandelier” hanging inside a massive cryogenic system. By contrast, trapped-ion quantum computers are often described as systems that cool atoms with lasers. That naturally leads to an interesting question: If trapped-ion quantum computers already use laser cooling, why would some of them also use a 4 Kelvin cryogenic system? And how is that different from the dilution refrigerators used in superconducting quantum computers such as Google’s? The short answer is this: The word “cooling” means different things in different quantum computing platforms. In superconducting quantum computers, extreme cooling is a fundamental requirement for the qubits themselves to function. In trapped-ion quantum computers, laser cooling is used to prepare and control the ions, while low-temperatu...

Tempus AI and Daiichi Sankyo Not every healthcare AI announcement deserves serious attention. Many sound impressive on the surface but say very little about how the technology will actually be used. Tempus AI’s newly announced collaboration with Daiichi Sankyo feels more interesting because it points to something more concrete: the possibility that AI and real-world oncology data are moving closer to the center of how drug developers design and refine cancer trials. On March 25, 2026, Tempus announced a strategic collaboration with Daiichi Sankyo aimed at advancing AI-driven biomarker discovery and clinical differentiation across an oncology antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) program. According to the company, Daiichi Sankyo will use Tempus’ proprietary foundation models and AI expertise, including PRISM2 , to combine pathology images, clinical data, and Tempus’ real-world oncology data with Daiichi Sankyo’s own preclinical and clinical trial data. The stated goal is to improve biomarker...

Google’s latest quantum move is not a retreat from superconducting qubits. It looks more like a broader strategy to reach useful quantum computing faster. For years, Google Quantum AI has been closely associated with superconducting qubits . That makes its latest announcement especially interesting: Google is now formally expanding its quantum computing effort to include neutral atom quantum computing as well. According to Google’s March 24, 2026 announcement, the company sees neutral atoms not as a replacement for superconducting hardware, but as a second highly promising path with different strengths. That matters because it reveals something important about the current state of the quantum race. Even for one of the world’s most advanced quantum teams, there may not be a single perfect architecture that solves every scaling challenge. Instead, the smartest strategy may be to pursue multiple hardware modalities at once and let each one attack a different bottleneck. Google itself ...

  Tempus AI has recently released a series of updates that, taken together, suggest the company is trying to evolve beyond a traditional diagnostics business and into a broader healthcare data and AI platform. That does not automatically make it a winning investment, but it does help explain why the market is paying close attention to the company’s next phase of growth. One of the most important recent announcements was Tempus’s expanded multi-year collaboration with Merck. According to the company, Merck will use Tempus’s de-identified data, Lens platform, and Workspaces environment to support biomarker discovery and the development of precision medicine strategies, initially in oncology and potentially in broader therapeutic areas. For investors, the significance is not just the partnership itself, but what it implies: Tempus appears to be positioning its data infrastructure and AI tools as part of the research workflow for major pharmaceutical companies. If that model scales, i...

  Not a near-term revenue headline—but potentially meaningful for pipeline expansion and long-term data moat On March 17, 2026, Tempus AI announced a collaboration with Blood Cancer United to develop one of the largest real-world data registries focused on pediatric acute myeloid leukemia (pAML). At first glance, this may not look like the kind of headline that immediately changes quarterly revenue expectations. It is not a blockbuster drug deal, a major acquisition, or a large commercial contract with clearly defined near-term financial impact. But that does not mean the announcement is unimportant. In fact, this type of initiative may say a great deal about where Tempus is trying to build long-term value: not only as a diagnostics company, but as a data and AI infrastructure platform for precision medicine. This is why the pediatric AML registry collaboration may matter—not so much for instant revenue acceleration, but for future monetization potential, pipeline expansion, an...

The quantum computing industry is often framed around a simple question: Who is winning? But as of March 2026, that question still does not have a simple answer. The reason is straightforward. The leading companies are not all pursuing the same kind of quantum computer, they are not all optimizing for the same milestones, and they are not all equally focused on the same commercial end markets. Some are strongest in error correction research . Some are strongest in engineering roadmaps and ecosystem development . Some are strongest in high-fidelity hardware , and others are strongest in near-term monetization . So the more useful question is not “Who has the most qubits?” It is this: Which companies are leading in the categories that will actually matter for long-term commercial advantage? That changes the discussion completely. The Real Standard for Leadership For years, quantum computing coverage relied too heavily on physical qubit counts. That made sense in the industry’s ea...

How SkyWater’s Competitive Position Could Connect to IonQ’s Revenue Potential and Technology Roadmap IonQ’s planned acquisition of SkyWater Technology is not simply a conventional semiconductor deal. In its announcement, IonQ framed the transaction as a way to secure trusted U.S.-based foundry access and to accelerate its fault-tolerant quantum computing roadmap . According to the company, the acquisition could support its goals of reaching a 200,000-qubit physical QPU and 8,000 high-fidelity logical qubits targeted for functional testing by 2028 , while potentially shortening the development timeline for a 2,000,000-qubit chip by as much as one year. That naturally raises a broader question for investors and industry observers: Can SkyWater’s competitive strengths meaningfully support IonQ’s future revenue growth and product roadmap? The answer is that they potentially can—but the connection is unlikely to be immediate or linear. Rather than translating directly into next-quarte...

  Why This Matters for AI-Driven Precision Medicine—and for Tempus’s Revenue Pipeline On March 3, 2026, Tempus AI announced an expanded multi-year strategic collaboration with Merck (known as MSD outside the United States and Canada). At first glance, this may look like just another partnership headline. But in reality, the announcement may be more important than it appears. This is not simply a branding exercise or a symbolic research agreement. It is a signal that Tempus’s data, AI tools, and clinical infrastructure are becoming more deeply embedded in how large pharmaceutical companies approach drug development, biomarker discovery, and precision medicine strategy. In that sense, the Merck collaboration may offer a useful window into how Tempus could translate its platform into a broader and more durable revenue pipeline. According to the announcement, the expanded collaboration will focus on AI-enabled precision medicine, including biomarker discovery, analysis of resistance...