Good news has finally emerged from PsiQuantum’s Australian bunker with the company announcing it has ditched plans to build its world-first quantum computer at Brisbane Airport in favour of a site to the north, within the Moreton Bay council area.
The company, which as recently as three months ago had insisted its construction planning for Brisbane Airport was on track, says it can start construction at the new site next month.
It has been more than two years since the Australian and Queensland governments signed away a $940 million equity and support package to attract California-based PsiQuantum to this country.
That two years slipped past without progress at the Brisbane Airport site, which had been selected largely because of its easy access to existing energy infrastructure capable of supporting such an energy intensive operation.
But something clearly went awry.
A development application for the construction of the facility was never lodged. A sod was never turned to start the project.
Now, with a new site selected at Petrie in within the Moreton Bay council area, PsiQuantum will become a foundation resident within the Moreton Bay Central innovation precinct – and expects to start construction in June.
The announcement will be a relief for the people managing the project, particularly those overseeing the government support – and especially the ones who will be fronting Senate Estimates hearings next week and the week after.
PsiQuantum has always been a tricky subject at estimates. The progress will be welcome, but it is never straightforward. InnovationAus.com has been covering this project since 2023, and if ever there was a choice to be made between openness and opacity, the federal government, the Queensland government and PsiQuantum have always taken an opaque route.
It is great that progress has been made, and we hope this projects has every success.
Meanwhile, the bun fight over capital gains tax changes has intensified. In fact, it is generating a surprising amount of heat.
There are two camps within startupland: One holds that the changes are not so bad, we live in a beautiful country and that founders and their investor supporters should get a grip.
Industry veteran and VC luminary Daniel Petrie wins quote of the week for “calling bullshit” on founders who have been saying they’ll leave Australia if the changes go ahead. He has encouraged them to “go live in Trumpistan”.
The other camp is filled with founders and investors who have taken to LinkedIn to basically say that Jim Chalmers sucks, the CGT changes suck, and because everything sucks, they are being forced to go live somewhere else.
There is a surprising amount of vitriol being thrown back and forth – surprising because of how sickeningly collegiate the sector in this country appears sometimes.
There is an interview this week with Allegra Spender, the independent MP for Wentworth in Sydney eastern suburbs who makes a terrific contribution on tax policy broadly and the CGT changes in particular.
Ms Spender, who is one of the few truly business literate MPs in the Parliament, launched a tax whitepaper at the National Press Club earlier this year. She is someone the tech industry should count as an important ally.
Interestingly, this already seems to be happening. Our spies report that Ms Spender attended the Eddie Izzard performance at Sydney Opera House on Monday with Tech Council chair (and Wentworth constituent) Scott Farquhar, with the two in deep conversation at interval and after the show. No prizes for guessing what might have been discussed.
I would also recommend listening to a Commercial Disco podcast with Q-CTRL founder Michael Biercuk. He gives about the most rational and articulate argument for why the CGT changes are a terrible idea.
But his also gives a succinct update on Q-CTRL progress, and some of the specific challenges the company has faced (also a great precise of the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) that are particularly important to defence and dual-use tech companies).
In the news:
- Exclusive: IGP frozen as grant funds clawed back – InnovationAus
- Investor says he is sick of rich people complaining about tax – AFR
- PsiQuantum scraps Brisbane Airport plans, heads north – InnovationAus
- Spender pushes for CGT fix as startup fallout continues – InnovationAus
- The wild ride of Q-CTRL and Ironstone Opal – InnovationAus
Do you know more? Contact James Riley via Email.