On April 14, Nvidia released open-source artificial intelligence models called Ising, designed to address two major engineering challenges in quantum computing: processor calibration and real-time error correction. By targeting key barriers to scaling quantum systems for AI, Nvidia’s move boosted confidence in the field’s potential. Following the announcement, Xanadu’s stock surged about 250% to a peak of $32.67 per share. Before that, it had traded below $10 since going public in March. The stock closed just under $8 in the session before Nvidia’s announcement, according to financial site The Street. With a 15.6% stake, Weedbrook’s net worth jumped to around $1.5 billion within five days, Bloomberg reported. Although the share price has since eased, it remains more than double its pre-announcement level. | Christian Weedbrook, founder of quantum computing firm Xanadu. Photo from X | Weedbrook’s path to billionaire status is unusual even in the tech industry. Born and raised in bushland southeast of Brisbane, Australia, he initially aimed to become a filmmaker but dropped out of film school twice. At 23, while working part-time in a video store and stocking groceries, he decided to go back to school and study mathematics, a subject he had performed well in during high school. "I’d exhausted every other option," Weedbrook, 49, told Canada’s The Globe and Mail. "I thought ‘I’ll just go back to something I was okay in – math. I don’t know where this will head, I’ll just see.’" At the University of Queensland, where he enrolled, administrators were skeptical. One dean even asked to check his arms for track marks, suspecting drug use. The decision to enroll proved pivotal, as the university was a leading center for quantum optics, the study of how light behaves at extremely small scales. Weedbrook later earned a doctorate in physics specializing in quantum