Today’s Brief Commentary:
This week’s big news is that QuEra finally announced its large funding round. They telegraphed this last year by letting people know that Google had given them “a boatload of cash.” Okay, I made that quote up, but the final amount of $230 M from all investors is impressive. Congratulations to the team.
We can interpret this news in several ways. The first is that there is indeed investment money for quantum computing firms or at least those who have shown success in getting good-sized commercial validation. Nothing makes getting money easier than having paying customers validate your approach.
Second, the neutral atom approach is attracting money and partners. In 2024, we saw Microsoft teaming up with Atom Computing, Pasqal partnering with IBM, and NVIDIA demonstrating very nice logical qubit work with Infleqtion at the Q2B conference.
In total, I track ten companies working on neutral atoms for computing: Atom Computing, Atom Quantum Labs, Infleqtion, NanoQT, Pasqal, planqc, QuEra, and Rosatom State Corporation. Those seeking private investment can argue that since Google thinks neutral atoms via QuEra is a good approach, they should also get funding. This is not the strongest tactic since an investor might then ask, “Well, why didn’t Google give it to you?” and you should have a good answer. It validates the technical approach, if not your organization in particular.
This is a positive, feel-good moment for the industry. It’s nice to focus on this kind of financial news rather than the silly stock market gambling rollercoaster.
Estimated Q4 and FY 2024 Earnings announcement dates: D-Wave – March 25, IonQ – February 26, Rigetti Computing – March 12.
Don’t forget to check out and bookmark my new sortable list of upcoming quantum technology conferences.
Contents
- Education and Workforce
- Earnings Announcements and Financial Dealings
- Quantum Computing | Technical
- Quantum Error Correction and Fault Tolerance
- Quantum Networking | Technical
- Related Articles and Papers
Education and Workforce
IQM Frontiers- Quantum Education: Building the Workforce of the Future
https://meetiqm.zoom.us/webinar/register/4917386756515/WN_ruBZ_J_8S2G-DbKGydOj-Q#/registration
Date: Thursday, February 20, 2025
Excerpt: Leveraging tutorials on IQM Academy (free online quantum training course) to level up your skills. Case studies of IQM Academy. Learn about the EuroCC National Competence Centre Sweden (ENCCS) at RISE Institute Sweden’s initiatives to promote quantum education.
Earnings Announcements and Financial Dealings
QuEra Computing Completes $230M Financing to Accelerate Development of Large-Scale Fault-Tolerant Quantum Computers
Date: Tuesday, February 11, 2025
Commentary: Kudos to QuEra for completing this huge round of funding.
Excerpt: The investment comes from new investors, including Google (previously announced), SoftBank Vision Fund 2, 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. Of the $230M, $60 million will be received in the near future upon satisfying a prerequisite funding condition, currently in progress. This financing validates the considerable technical breakthroughs achieved by QuEra in collaboration with Mikhail Lukin, Markus Greiner, and their teams at Harvard, as well as Vladan Vuletic and his team at MIT. This financing was also made possible by QuEra’s commercial progress with major customers such as AIST, as well as the new strategic partnerships the company has cultivated.
Quantum Computing | Technical
Optical readout of a superconducting qubit using a scalable piezo-optomechanical transducer | arXiv
https://arxiv.org/abs/2310.06026
Authors: T. C. van Thiel; M. J. Weaver; F. Berto; P. Duivestein; M. Lemang; K. L. Schuurman; M. Žemlička; F. Hijazi; A. C. Bernasconi; ; …; and S. Gröblacher
Date: Monday, October 9, 2023
Commentary: There were three drafts of this paper on arXix. The final version in Nature Physics is linked below.
Excerpt: Superconducting quantum processors have made significant progress in size and computing potential. As a result, the practical cryogenic limitations of operating large numbers of superconducting qubits are becoming a bottleneck for further scaling. Due to the low thermal conductivity and the dense optical multiplexing capacity of telecommunications fiber, converting qubit signal processing to the optical domain using microwave-to-optics transduction would significantly relax the strain on cryogenic space and thermal budgets. Here, we demonstrate optical readout through an optical fiber of a superconducting transmon qubit connected via a coaxial cable to a fully integrated piezo-optomechanical transducer. Using a demolition readout technique, we achieve a single shot readout fidelity of 81%. Due to the small footprint (<0.15mm2) and the modular fiber-based architecture, this device platform has the potential to scale towards use with thousands of qubits. Our results illustrate the potential of piezo-optomechanical transduction for low-dissipation operation of large quantum processors.
Optical readout of a superconducting qubit using a piezo-optomechanical transducer | Nature Physics
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41567-024-02742-3
Date: Tuesday, February 11, 2025
Commentary: Per the link immediately above, the original draft of this paper was made available 16 months ago on arXiv. So, not exactly new news, but having it appear in a peer-reviewed journal such as Nature Physics is a fine accomplishment.
Excerpt: See the excerpt for the draft above.
Quantum Error Correction and Fault Tolerance
Photonic accelerates the timeline to useful quantum computing with breakthrough results in error correction
https://photonic.com/news/shyps-codes-announcement/
Date: Tuesday, February 11, 2025
Commentary: When did we last hear about those old surface codes?? qLDPC codes are important components of the heterogeneous code collection we will use to reach Practical Quantum Advantage. For further context, see some other articles qLDPC codes in the Related section below.
Excerpt: In an industry first, Photonic Inc. has introduced a new, low-overhead family of Quantum Low-Density Parity Check (QLDPC) codes that can efficiently perform both quantum computation and error correction, using materially fewer quantum bits (qubits) than traditional surface code approaches. This milestone work will accelerate the timeline to useful quantum computing.
Quantum Networking | Technical
Distributed quantum computing across an optical network link | Nature
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-08404-x
Authors: D. Main; P. Drmota; D. P. Nadlinger; E. M. Ainley; A. Agrawal; B. C. Nichol; R. Srinivas; G. Araneda; and D. M. Lucas
Date: Wednesday, February 5, 2025
Excerpt: Distributed quantum computing (DQC) combines the computing power of multiple networked quantum processing modules, ideally enabling the execution of large quantum circuits without compromising performance or qubit connectivity. Photonic networks are well suited as a versatile and reconfigurable interconnect layer for DQC; remote entanglement shared between matter qubits across the network enables all-to-all logical connectivity through quantum gate teleportation (QGT). For a scalable DQC architecture, the QGT implementation must be deterministic and repeatable; until now, no demonstration has satisfied these requirements. Here we experimentally demonstrate the distribution of quantum computations between two photonically interconnected trapped-ion modules. The modules, separated by about two metres, each contain dedicated network and circuit qubits.
Related Articles and Papers
Quantum Low-Density Parity-Check Codes | PRX Quantum
https://journals.aps.org/prxquantum/abstract/10.1103/PRXQuantum.2.040101
Authors: Nikolas P. Breuckmann and Jens Niklas Eberhardt
Date: Monday, October 11, 2021
Excerpt: Quantum error correction is an indispensable ingredient for scalable quantum computing. In this Perspective we discuss a particular class of quantum codes called “quantum low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes.” The codes we discuss are alternatives to the surface code, which is currently the leading candidate to implement quantum fault tolerance. We introduce the zoo of quantum LDPC codes and discuss their potential for making quantum computers robust with regard to noise. In particular, we explain recent advances in the theory of quantum LDPC codes related to certain product constructions and discuss open problems in the field.
Landmark IBM error correction paper published on the cover of Nature
https://www.ibm.com/quantum/blog/nature-qldpc-error-correction
Author: Rafi Letzter
Date: Wednesday, March 27, 2024
Excerpt: While many qLDPC code families show great promise for advancing error correction theory, most aren’t necessarily pragmatic for real-world application. Our new codes lend themselves better to practical implementation because each qubit needs only to connect to six others, and the connections can be routed on just two layers.
Sutor Group Intelligence and Advisory
Dr. Bob Sutor is the CEO and Founder of Sutor Group Intelligence and Advisory. Sutor Group provides broad market insights and deep technical expertise based on over four decades of experience with startups and large corporations. It advises Deep Tech startups, companies, and investors on quantum technologies, AI, enterprise software, and other emerging tech fields.
Sutor Group shares its knowledge and analysis through direct client engagements and seminars, reports, newsletters, books, written and on-air media appearances, and speaking and panel moderation at the top conferences and client events.
Disclosures
Bob Sutor is a former employee of IBM and Infleqtion and holds equity positions or stock options in each company. He is a Non-Executive Director for Nu Quantum and Advisor to the venture capital firm Forma Prime.
The information contained in this newsletter or article and the resources available on the Sutor Group Intelligence and Advisory website is not intended as, and shall not be understood or construed as, legal or financial advice. We are not attorneys, accountants, or financial advisors, nor are we holding ourselves out to be. The information is not a substitute for legal or financial advice from a professional who is aware of the facts and circumstances of your individual situation.
