Quantum News Briefs January 24: PASQAL raises €100 Million Series B funding to advance neutral atoms quantum computing; TRUMPF Venture makes multimillion euro investment in quantum tech startup Quside; Learning from the Atom-Based Quantum Computer + MORE
PASQAL raises €100 Million Series B funding to advance neutral atoms quantum computing
Other new investors include the European Innovation Council (EIC) Fund, Wa’ed Ventures and Bpifrance, through its Large Venture Fund. Continuing investors include Quantonation, the Defense Innovation Fund, Daphni and Eni Next.
PASQAL’s technology was built upon the Nobel Prize-winning research of company co-founder Alain Aspect. PASQAL will use the funding to further develop its neutral atoms quantum computing platform, which it believes will deliver major commercial advantages over classical computers by 2024.
With the new funding, PASQAL plans to accelerate the company’s research and development efforts to build a 1,000-qubit quantum computer in the short term and fault-tolerant architectures in the long term. The company also plans to increase the production of its quantum systems for on-premise installations as well as expand the development of proprietary algorithms for customers across key verticals including energy, chemistry, automotive, mobility, healthcare, enterprise technology, finance and government.
PASQAL will also use the funding to expand its global footprint. The company plans to open offices in the Middle East and Asia this year in addition to growing its existing operations in Europe and North America. PASQAL plans to double its current team of 100 employees this year. Click here to read Eureka Alert announcement in-entirety.
TRUMPF Venture makes multimillion euro investment in quantum tech startup Quside
The company’s core product is a high performance random number generator located in a photonic chip. Using the quantum mechanical properties of light, it produces completely random number combinations very quickly (Gb/s). This makes it possible to improve the encryption of messages enormously. It can also be used to perform simulations such as risk analyses in the financial sector or weather forecasts much faster and with far greater energy-efficiency. The chip is compatible with common semiconductor manufacturing (CMOS), which enables easy mass production.
Quside is based in Castelldefels near Barcelona and currently employs around 30 people. Founded in 2018, the startup’s first customers are from sectors with high security requirements, such as aerospace. The company plans to expand into the consumer market in the coming years, to use chips to increase the security of smartphones, tablets or even vehicles.
Quside’s chip enables the encryption of messages that even computationally powerful quantum computers cannot decrypt. In addition to encryption, Quside’s random number generator also enables a faster and more energy-efficient calculation of simulations. Click here for complete news announcement.
Learning from the Atom-Based Quantum Computer
Dr. Pravir Malik, the founder and chief technologist of QIQuantum, has authored a indepth Forbes article explaining that “we are approaching quantum computation with restrictive biases. . . .our proven success with digital computation, where we continue to witness a plethora of useful applications, has framed our thinking about how to think of computation. We, therefore, continue to approach computation happening in a fundamentally different medium with the same thinking and goals. But quantum computation, necessarily dealing with the realm that separates the invisible from the visible, has to offer something different, where there is surely something new and fundamentally creative that continues to take place.” He suggests an alternative excerpted below by Quantum News Briefs.
Computers combining together to form chains of functional molecules already suggests that the very mathematics and logic of what is happening at the quantum level needs to be thought of differently than the probability-based qubit-enabled approach at the center of the conceived quantum computation foundation today.
The visible, after all, does not appear magically out of the invisible. The logic of backward extrapolation, whereby the “function” embodied by different atoms combining to form molecules, hints at a very different set of dynamics of function preceding the form taken in atoms that must exist at the quantum levels. There is a different quantum-level language that becomes visible when focusing on the function of atoms.
Such insights can be leveraged to conceive of a different architecture that might, in fact, be more useful in the building of quantum computers. Leveraging the success of the atom-based quantum computer will also inevitably drive down the cost associated with building quantum computers. But further, a functional language at the quantum level also hints at a range of other possible key principles—beyond superposition, entanglement, tunneling and annealing—that must exist and must be leveraged if a quantum computer is to begin to imitate nature.
The atom is the first concrete and stable structure that comprises all the complexity of quantum dynamics. Its mysteries have barely been understood, and worlds upon worlds continue to be built with it as a basis. Surely turning a fresh eye on this wonder of creation, using the lens of quantum dynamics, might also allow us to participate more creatively in concretizing possibilities through a new and different genre of such atom-based quantum computers. Click here to read Dr. Malik’s complete article.
Qkrishi and Indian Institute of Information Technology Kottayam (IIITK) sign MoU to foster research in Quantum Finance
Qkrishi Quantum Private Limited and the (IIITK) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to conduct research in quantum finance. Quantum News Briefs summarizes from Digital Journal.
As part of this MoU, Qkrishi and IIITK have agreed to jointly initiate research and development projects related to Quantum Technology, share technical expertise and knowledge, and collaborate on academic and professional development programs.
“The MoU will enable us to tap into the advanced quantum computing talent at IIITK to tackle important technological problems faced by the financial industry. Quantum computing could allow faster, and more accurate decision-making and we hope to develop cutting-edge techniques by collaborating with the faculty and students of IIITK,” said Mr. Sreekuttan L. S., Research Scientist and Head of Products at Qkrishi.
“Today there is a need for industry and academia to work closely to make faster impact in the technology landscape. Through this MOU we want to build a successful industry-academia collaboration in Quantum Computing. IIITK is one of the few institutions in India with deep expertise in quantum computing and through this collaboration with Qkrishi we want to apply our expertise to solve real business problems,” said Dr. Rubell Marion Lincy George, Assistant Professor, IIITK. Click here to read Digital Journal article in-entirety.
Sandra K. Helsel, Ph.D. has been researching and reporting on frontier technologies since 1990. She has her Ph.D. from the University of Arizona.