SAN FRANCISCO — Towards the end of last month, a group of unidentified researchers from South Korea claimed to have discovered a material that can conduct electricity without any energy loss at room temperature. Grainy videos of a small floating rock, which is a characteristic sign of a material with superconducting properties, quickly spread across the internet.
This news caused a stir in Silicon Valley, where investors, tech executives, and entrepreneurs, who have been focused on artificial intelligence, became fascinated by the idea that this breakthrough could be the next revolutionary advancement in technology. If a room-temperature superconductor exists, it could enable futuristic concepts like levitating trains and highly efficient energy storage.
The topic gained so much attention that the leaders of Y Combinator, an influential tech start-up incubator, sent out a request to their program graduates to see if anyone had expertise in materials science. This triggered hundreds of responses debating the legitimacy of the South Korean discovery.
However, many scientists already believe that it was a false alarm and that the material, called LK-99, might simply be a type of magnet. Further studies are still being conducted. Nevertheless, this incident revealed the strong desire in Silicon Valley to find the next big thing after years of concern that the tech industry has lost its ability to generate groundbreaking innovations. Instead, much of the focus has been on developing new variations of social media apps and business software.
"The market right now is very much in this shoot first, think later mindset," said Bryan Offutt, a venture capitalist at Index Ventures. "If you're wrong, no one will remember, but if you're right, you're forward-thinking."
Silicon Valley has experienced its fair share of boom and bust cycles over the years. The dot-com crash in the early 2000s wiped out numerous companies that tried to capitalize on the hype surrounding the early internet. However, it also paved the way for the next wave of tech investment. Since then, innovations like cloud storage and smartphones have allowed thousands of start-ups to thrive, shifted society onto the internet, and transformed companies like Google, Amazon, Apple, and Microsoft into some of the most powerful organizations in history.
Yet, many tech leaders are concerned that the current focus on consumer and business software has led to stagnation. A decade ago, investors predicted that self-driving cars would dominate the roads by the mid-2020s, but they are still in the testing phase despite billions of dollars in investment. Cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology have had their own cycles of hype, but they have yet to fundamentally transform any industry apart from crime and money laundering. Technologies aimed at mitigating climate change, such as carbon capture and storage, have made little progress in recent years.
Meanwhile, Big Tech companies have used their substantial cash reserves to acquire smaller competitors, with antitrust regulators only recently beginning to address consolidation. Over the past year, a wave of layoffs has swept through the industry as higher interest rates reduced the amount of venture capital available and slowing growth caused companies to cut back on spending. Even companies like Google, which previously invested some of their profits in ambitious and risky ideas, have shifted away from such "moonshots."
at extremely low temperatures. However, recent advancements in materials science have challenged this notion, with researchers discovering materials that exhibit superconductivity at higher temperatures. These high-temperature superconductors have the potential to revolutionize various industries, including technology.
Superconductors are materials that can conduct electricity with zero resistance. This property allows for the efficient transmission of electricity and the creation of powerful electromagnets. However, conventional superconductors only function at extremely low temperatures, typically close to absolute zero (-273 degrees Celsius or -459 degrees Fahrenheit). This limitation has hindered their widespread practical applications.
High-temperature superconductors, on the other hand, can maintain their superconducting properties at temperatures above the boiling point of liquid nitrogen (-196 degrees Celsius or -321 degrees Fahrenheit). This significant increase in operating temperature opens up a range of possibilities for their utilization in various industries.
In the tech industry, high-temperature superconductors could address some of the challenges associated with AI development. AI models, such as those used in ChatGPT and other language processing tools, require substantial computational power and generate significant heat during training. The current reliance on energy-intensive computer chips and cooling systems poses environmental and economic concerns.
By utilizing high-temperature superconductors, it may be possible to develop more efficient computing systems that generate less heat and consume less energy. This could lead to more sustainable AI technologies and reduce the overall costs associated with their development and operation.
Additionally, high-temperature superconductors could pave the way for advancements in quantum computing. Quantum computers have the potential to solve complex problems exponentially faster than classical computers by harnessing the principles of quantum mechanics. However, the development of practical quantum computers has been hindered by challenges in maintaining stable quantum states.
The use of high-temperature superconductors could help overcome some of these challenges by providing a more stable environment for quantum bits (qubits), the fundamental units of quantum information. This could accelerate the development of quantum computers and enable breakthroughs in various fields, including cryptography, optimization, and drug discovery.
While the recent claims surrounding room-temperature superconductors have generated excitement and optimism, it is essential to approach these developments with caution. Scientific breakthroughs often require rigorous testing, peer review, and replication before they can be considered reliable and applicable in real-world scenarios.
Nonetheless, the attention and interest generated by these claims highlight the importance of materials science in driving technological advancements. As the tech industry continues to seek solutions to the challenges posed by AI development and quantum computing, materials science is poised to play a crucial role in shaping the future of technology.