Toronto-based Xanadu has crossed a milestone in the race to develop a quantum computer that can solve significant business and technological problems. In a paper published today in the science journal Nature, the startup lays out how its Borealis machine could solve in fractions of a second “a particular esoteric math problem” that would take the world’s fastest supercomputer thousands of years. 

Here’s what the breakthrough means for the company and Canada, in the words of Xanadu founder and CEO Christian Weedbrook.