The quantum computer at the Israeli Quantum Computing Center.
Quantum Machines announced today that it has raised $170 million in series C funding, led by PSG Equity and with participation from Intel Capital, Red Dot Capital Partners, and existing investors. One of the largest rounds of funding in the quantum industry, it marks an auspicious financing start to the international year of quantum science and technology, recognizing 100 years since the initial development of quantum mechanics.
“The funding landscape is shifting from general tech bets to quantum-dedicated capital,” observes industry watcher Quantum Computing Report. Prominent investors are entering the sector, betting on new developments such as the promise of AI-powered quantum computing and motivated by the myriad 2024 announcements by quantum players of very specific roadmaps and measurable goals.
Charging the new quantum enthusiasm were two recent breakthroughs announced by Google and Microsoft. Last December, Google announced Willow, its new 105-qubit quantum chip. Google boasted of two major achievements: Exponentially reducing errors, addressing a key challenge the field has pursued for almost 30 years; and performing a standard benchmark computation in under five minutes that would take one of today’s fastest supercomputers 10 septillion (that is, 1025) years—a number that vastly exceeds the age of the Universe.
Then, on February 19, Microsoft announced Majorana 1, a new quantum chip on which it has been working for 17 years. It is based on topological quantum computing, a different approach and a new paradigm for the industry, promising a quantum leap in error correction. “In the same way that the invention of semiconductors made today’s smartphones, computers and electronics possible, topoconductors and the new type of chip they enable offer a path to developing quantum systems that can scale to a million qubits,” Microsoft said in its announcement. Microsoft has also been working on the software side of quantum computing to speed up real-world applications of the marriage of quantum and traditional computing. When I talked in 2020 to Krysta Svore, General Manager of Quantum Software at Microsoft, she summarized well the great promise of calculating with millions of qubits: “Quantum computers simulate nature, they give us access to how nature computes.”
Quantum Machines is focused on seamlessly connecting quantum and classical computing operations, optimizing performance across hardware and software, and enabling developers of quantum computing solutions to iterate at speed and easily resolve setbacks. Its platform supports any type of quantum processor, and the startup says that the majority of quantum computing companies now rely on its technology to build and scale their systems.
Quantum Machines recently announced, together with Rigetti Computing and Nvidia, the successful application of AI to automate the calibration of a quantum computer. Nvidia DGX Quantum, hosted at the Israeli Quantum Computing Center (IQCC), is a unified system for quantum-classical computing that Nvidia built with Quantum Machines.
“The exploratory phase is over. The industry is maturing at increasing speed. 2025 marks the beginning of the true quantum market—and only those who deliver will survive,” says the Quantum Computing Report.