Record $230m for neutral atom quantum computer
QuEra in the US has raised a record $230m for the development of its large scale fault tolerant quantum computer using neutral atoms.
Gate-based quantum computer systems for Japan and the UK are packaged up and ready to ship, Yuval Boger, chief commercial officer tells eNews Europe.
“The system is ready to ship to the UK, this is the first system shipping overseas and the first not on our premises, so we are learning a lot. The [256 qubit] Japan installation will be put together at the end of March and then we will see, probably a couple of months for full functionality,” he said.
Neutral atom systems have no need for cryogenic cooling as they are trapped in laser tweezers that freeze them in place. A secondary benefit is the atoms are identical and there are no defects so the atoms can be shuttled around so any qubit can interact with any qubit.
“This gives more efficient error correction and are scalable as we have demonstrated thousands of atoms on a machines,” he said, “We think we can get to 100,000 qubits on a machine rather than having to network lots of quantum processors together. If you want a million qubit computer, we are very strong believers in neutral atoms.”
Pasqal in France is also using neutral atoms for its quantum computer system and plans a system with 10,000 qubits next year. The European Commission has consolidated its funding for four Rydberg neutral atom startups to create a single platform to compete with QuEra.
“We have demonstrated logical qubit algorithms with 9 qubits, 25 and so on. You could assume around 100:1 ratio should give an excellent logical qubit and that’s the goal for 100 logical qubits. We think its possible with this funding, whether its 2 or 3 years, we’ll see,” he said, “We believe we will be one of the first if not the first to have 100 high quality logical qubits.”
He points to the backing of Google Quantum AI in this round as a key step to that development alongside SoftBank Vision Fund, Valor Equity Partners, and others. They join QuEra’s existing investors, including QVT Family Office, Safar Partners, and all other major existing investors, who all participated.
Softbank is also backing Quantinuum, which uses trapped ion technology from Infineon Technologies to build a fault tolerant quantum computer. However PsiQuantum in the US is also planning a system with tens of thousands of photonic qubits by 2027 and has raised $665m for its technology.
“We have multiple sources of funding and we like customer funding the best. We’ve done $42m with Japan and the UK National Quantum programme and these two alone provide over $50m in sales and we expect to continue to sell,” he said.
“The other source is the $230m which is plenty. The third source of funding is government funding in the US and maybe in other countries. The US is investing heavily in quantum so we believe we are fully funded and this allows us to accelerate the scientific progress and continue to build out the manufacturing to deliver an increasing number of units once the need is there.”
If you enjoyed this article, you will like the following ones: don't miss them by subscribing to :
