With $30 million in new funding, SEEQC thinks chips are key to building useful quantum computing

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said that “very useful quantum computers” are probably still out there 20 years awayBut his company is hedging its bets beyond classical chips investment And partnership In that place.

Now one of the companies Nvidia has partnered with at Quantum Development is announcing funding. SEEQCA quantum computing startup, has raised $30 million in funding co-led by Booz Allen Ventures and Japanese-European VC firm Nordicinger, with participation from new backer SIP Capital and some existing investors. “It’s a combination of financial, geographic and strategic strengthening,” SEEQC CEO John Levy said of the Series A extension.

SEEQC is part of an emerging class of startups looking at how to best use classical computing to operate quantum processors. It will be essential to manage large numbers of qubits, the basic unit of quantum computing, while adapting the hardware to the needs of data centers and enterprises.

SEEQC – short for “scalable, energy efficient quantum computing” and pronounced “search” – believes that the key to reducing the complexity of today’s quantum hardware is to have chips that can power all the core functions of a quantum computer. . For example, it makes it possible to control many qubits with a single wire, as SEEQC believes is very necessary.

There’s no denying that current prototypes often look bulky, just like regular computers did in the early days of IT. Levy thought about Google’s announcement Error correction capability Its Willow Quantum chip was “fantastic” – but he couldn’t help but notice it, too amount of wire involved

“We have to look at them [types of announcements]But we also have to look from a systems engineering perspective, the ability to solve cabling issues, speed, latency, cost, etc., what kind of traditional things you need to build large scale systems. And if we don’t do that, we won’t actually be able to scale enterprise grade quantum data centers,” Levy said.

The rapid progress of AI has already emphasized the critical need for more energy efficient data centers, which can make quantum a reality, while unlocking new applications, such as accelerating the development of new materials and new pharmaceuticals.

This explains why the German chemical company BASF recently joined the SEEQC-led and UK-backed QuPharma project To explore how quantum computing can accelerate the drug discovery process, in partnership with Merck. “These companies know that quantum is going to be central to their business,” Levy said.

This also explains why Merck’s corporate venture capital arm, M Ventures, has invested in SEEQC. In 2020Other investors, including EQT Ventures and LG Technology Ventures, eventually brought SEEQC’s backing to the total. $22.4 million Before this latest round.

In addition to that SEEQC Partnership with Nvidia. Announced in 2023, the collaboration aims to create an “all-digital, ultra-low-latency chip-to-chip link between quantum computers and GPUs” that — if built — will be compatible with all quantum computing technologies.

The new funding will help the startup accelerate the commercial rollout of its chips and improve their capabilities. But SEEQC is already a lot more than you might expect from a startup created in 2019, as it’s a spinout of a chip company. Hyperpresswhich itself was founded by former employees of IBM’s superconducting electronics division.

“We actually started with a mature technology, our own chip foundry — we operate a very specialized chip foundry for the type of chips we make — IP, and a core team that has built complete superconducting systems, primarily through US government users. ,” Levy said.

Since then, the company has tripled the size of its team, which is partly based in London, UK and Naples, Italy, where a pre-spinout, the first version of its chip, was developed; But mostly in Elmsford, N.Y., where it now plans to expand its chip foundry.

Quantum commitments aside, it also resonates with the growing need for a chip supply chain that is resilient to geopolitical tensions, particularly those involving China.

Different companies are attacking this problem from different angles, viz Photonics, Silicon based chips and trapped ion qubits. Which approaches will prevail remains to be seen, but Levy is convinced that it is important to think beyond qubits. “We need to have an overall system architecture that can actually get us where we need to go, and chips will be at the very center of that.”