Commentary and a selection of the most important recent news, articles, and papers about Quantum.
Today’s Brief Commentary
No commentary today, just an announcement. Together with Lawrence Gasman, I’ll be putting together the program for the next Inside Quantum Technology Q+AI conference in New York City from October 20 to 22. That’s a while from now, but it gives us plenty of time to get the best speakers and panelists lined up for you.
We’ll be looking at how AI can accelerate quantum computing and other technologies to get to Practical Quantum Advantage sooner, how quantum will eventually augment what we can do classically with AI, and how the two technologies can fit together in industry workflows and business processes. No hype, just the facts, realistic predictions and visions, and optimism where it deserves to be.
Feel free to nominate yourself or someone else to speak by dropping me a message on LinkedIn.
Don’t forget to check out and bookmark my new sortable list of upcoming quantum technology conferences.
Contents
- Coding and Software Engineering
- Earnings Announcements and Financial Dealings
- Newsletters
- Quantum Computing
- Quantum Networking
- Educational and Training Resources
Coding and Software Engineering
Simplified quantum software development with Qiskit | IBM Quantum Computing Blog
https://www.ibm.com/quantum/blog/dev-tools
Authors: Blake Johnson; Ismael Faro; Sanket Panda; Abby Mitchell; and Robert Davis
Date: Wednesday, January 15, 2025
Excerpt: Let’s take a look back at some of the simplified developer tools we released in 2024 as part of that effort. Below, we recap some of our biggest quantum software releases, and provide code examples showing you how to get started using these tools to simplify your workflows.
Earnings Announcements and Financial Dealings
Quantum Brilliance Raises USD $20 Million in Series A Funding Round
Date: Friday, January 17, 2025
Excerpt: QB’s mass deployable, room temperature diamond quantum technology gets boosted by global investors Sydney, Australia – January 15, 2025 – Quantum Brilliance (QB), a global leader in mass deployable, room temperature diamond quantum technology, today announced that it raised USD $20 million in
Newsletters
How to Raise Money for Your Quantum Company | Part II: Typical Investment Terms
Author: Russ Fein
Date: Saturday, January 18, 2025
Excerpt: There is a lot of financing jargon that is not intuitive and so can appear intimidating. Hopefully this post will give you more comfort when having conversations with prospective investors. One of the most essential focus points of such discussions will be about “valuation.” This is important for a number of reasons, most notably because it will drive the dilution existing investors would face. Very simply, the higher the valuation, the lower the dilution.
Quantum Computing
Collaboration with graphene technology company Paragraf targets quantum computing | AAAS EurekAlert!
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1069876
Date: Wednesday, January 8, 2025
Commentary: For related carbon-based work for quantum computing, take a look at C12 Quantum Electronics.
Excerpt: The University of Birmingham is collaborating with Paragraf Ltd, a UK-based company pioneering the mass production of graphene-based electronics, with funding awards to accelerate the scaling up of the production of graphene on six-inch wafers and explore the potential of graphene sensors for quantum computing.
Fast control methods enable record-setting fidelity in superconducting qubit | MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Author: Sandi Miller | Department of Physics
Date: Tuesday, January 14, 2025
Excerpt: Using a superconducting qubit called fluxonium, MIT researchers in the departments of Physics and EECS, and in the Research Laboratory of Electronics, developed two new control techniques to achieve a world-record single-qubit fidelity of 99.998%.
OQD signs four quantum heavy hitters as founding partners
Date: Wednesday, January 15, 2025
Commentary: It’s odd that Xanadu is involved given that the new effort uses trapped ions and Xanadu does photonic quantum computing. Could it be to use their expertise for QPU-to-QPU quantum networking?
Excerpt: Amidst the global race to establish and deploy useful and powerful quantum computers, researchers at a newly incorporated, Waterloo-based non-profit are taking a different approach. The team at Open Quantum Design (OQD) believes the key to accelerating advancements in quantum computing – including developing top talent – is to democratize access and open up its intellectual property for anyone willing to collaborate; and its four partners agree. Quantum heavy-hitters Xanadu, the University of Waterloo, the Unitary Foundation, and Haiqu are the first to join OQD’s innovative platform to spearhead a new, unprecedented degree of open access to full-stack quantum computing technology.
Quantum Networking
Nu Quantum, pioneering quantum networking technology since 2018 | Maddyness
Date: Tuesday, January 7, 2025
Excerpt: Our approach directly addresses this scaling challenge by building the hardware that will enable multiple quantum processors to be weaved together into a more powerful computational network, akin to how supercomputing clusters or high-performance data centres are built in the classical industry. We work with leading qubit companies to understand how to integrate our solutions into their computing systems, as well as end-users of quantum computing to understand the requirements and opportunities in the market.
Educational and Training Resources
New funding expands quantum outreach across Canada | Institute for Quantum Computing | University of Waterloo
Author: Naomi Grosman
Date: Friday, January 17, 2025
Commentary: Give them more money.
Excerpt: The Institute for Quantum Computing (IQC) at the University of Waterloo and collaborators have secured USD$25,000 from the American Physical Society’s (APS) Innovation Fund to fund the Quantum Explorations Student Toolbox (QuEST) project.