Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang might have mentioned that “very helpful quantum computer systems” are in all probability nonetheless 20 years away, however his firm can be hedging its bets past classical chips with investments and partnerships in that very house.
Now one of many firms that Nvidia companions with in quantum growth is asserting funding. SEEQC, a quantum computing startup, has raised $30 million in funding co-led by Booz Allen Ventures and Japanese-European VC agency NordicNinja, with participation from new backer SIP Capital and a few current traders. “It’s a mix of economic, geographic and strategic strengthening,” SEEQC CEO John Levy mentioned of the Collection A extension.
SEEQC is a part of an rising class of startups taking a look at methods to finest leverage classical computing to handle quantum processors. This shall be important to handle massive numbers of qubits, the basic models of quantum computing, whereas making {hardware} appropriate with knowledge middle and enterprise wants.
SEEQC — whose identify is an acronym for “scalable, power environment friendly quantum computing,” and pronounced “search” — believes that the important thing to lowering the complexity of as we speak’s quantum {hardware} is to have chips that may energy all of the core capabilities of a quantum pc. As an illustration, this makes it potential to manage loads of qubits with a single cable, as SEEQC believes is sorely wanted.
There’s no denying that present prototypes usually look cumbersome, identical to common computer systems did within the early days of IT. Levy thought that Google’s announcement on the error correction talents of its Willow quantum chip was “unbelievable” — however he additionally couldn’t assist discover the quantity of cables concerned.
“We have to see these [types of announcements], however we additionally must see from a programs engineering perspective, the flexibility to resolve cabling points, pace, latency, value, and so on, the sorts of conventional issues that you just want to have the ability to construct massive scale programs. And until we do this, we’re not going to have the ability to truly scale enterprise grade quantum knowledge facilities,” Levy mentioned.
The fast development of AI has already underscored the essential want for extra power environment friendly knowledge facilities, which quantum might make a actuality, whereas concurrently unlocking new functions, akin to accelerating the event of latest supplies and new prescribed drugs.
This explains why German chemical firm BASF not too long ago joined the SEEQC-led and UK-supported QuPharma challenge to discover how quantum computing can speed up the method of drug discovery, in partnership with Merck. “These firms know that quantum goes to be central to their enterprise,” Levy mentioned.
This additionally explains why Merck’s company enterprise capital arm, M Ventures, invested in SEEQC in 2020, adopted by different traders together with EQT Ventures and LG Know-how Ventures that finally introduced SEEQC’s backing to a complete of $22.4 million previous to this newest spherical.
That’s alongside SEEQC’s partnership with Nvidia. Introduced in 2023, the collaboration goals to construct an “all-digital, ultra-low-latency chip-to-chip hyperlink between quantum computer systems and GPUs,” which — when created — could be appropriate with all quantum computing applied sciences.
The brand new funding will assist the startup speed up the business rollout of its chips and enhance their capabilities. However SEEQC is already additional alongside than it’s possible you’ll anticipate from a startup created in 2019, largely as a result of it’s a spinout of chip firm Hypres, which was itself established by former staff of IBM’s superconducting electronics division.
“We truly began with a mature know-how, our personal chip foundry —we function a really specialised chip foundry for the sorts of chip we construct — IP, and a core group of people that had constructed complete superconducting programs, primarily via U.S. authorities customers,” Levy mentioned.
Since then, the corporate tripled the dimensions of its group, which is partly based mostly in London, U.Ok. and in Naples, Italy, the place a pre-spinout, first model of its chip was constructed; however principally in Elmsford, NY, the place it now plans to develop its chip foundry.
Quantum guarantees apart, this additionally resonates with rising demand for a chip provide chain that’s resilient to geopolitical tensions, notably these involving China.
Completely different firms are attacking this drawback from totally different angles, akin to photonics, silicon-based chips and trapped ion qubits. Which approaches will prevail stays to be seen, however Levy is satisfied that it’s key to assume past qubits. “We have to have an total system structure that may truly take us to the place we have to get to, and chips are going to be on the very middle of that.”
