Pasqal, a Paris-based quantum computing startup, at this time introduced that it has raised a $100 million Collection B funding spherical let by Singapore’s Temasek. Along with Temasek, present traders Quantonation, the Protection Innovation Fund, Daphni and Eni Subsequent, in addition to new traders European Innovation Council (EIC) Fund, Wa’ed Ventures and Bpifrance (by means of its Massive Enterprise Fund) additionally participated on this spherical.
What makes Pasqal, which was based in early 2019, stand out in an more and more crowded area of quantum computing startups is that the corporate is betting on impartial atoms quantum computing. It is a comparatively new and doubtlessly game-changing method to constructing quantum processors. As an alternative of trapped ions (like IonQ) or superconducting quantum computer systems (like IBM), impartial atom quantum processors use lasers to carry atoms in place with what is actually an optical tweezer.
As you’ll be able to think about, constructing the know-how to carry a single atom — and solely a single atom — on this lure created its personal challenges, however that’s principally a solved drawback now. The benefit right here is that after you are able to do this with lots of of atoms on the similar time, you’ll be able to create each a really dense matrix of qubits and one which, utilizing holographic strategies, you’ll be able to reshuffle in 3D area as wanted for a given algorithm. And all of this occurs at room temperature. That just about makes these machines extra akin to Area-Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) than extra conventional quantum processors. You could find a Pasqal’s paper about this course of with extra particulars right here and it’s additionally price noting that Alain Side, who gained a Nobel Prize for his work on quantum entanglement in 2022, is one in all Pasqal’s co-founders.
Picture Credit: Pasqal
As Pasqal co-founder and CEO Georges-Olivier Reymond advised me, the corporate has already demonstrated that it will probably management greater than 300 atoms at a time. “It’s very exhausting to have just one atom in a laser beam and to observe it and to manage it,” he defined. “However when you obtain that, you’ll be able to virtually simply scale that and you may create arrays in any form you need.” He famous that the qubits are much like ion-based qubits when it comes to their coherence time and constancy, but this flexibility and skill to pack these atoms in a really dense array, with solely a few microns between the qubits, may give this know-how a bonus.
Reymond famous that with a few of these fundamental capabilities now in place, the workforce is engaged on constructing the quantum management system so it will probably begin implementing quantum algorithms. And whereas there are startups that target constructing quantum management {hardware}, none of them are optimized for impartial atoms, he famous, so the corporate determined to construct its personal system.
Clearly, the Pasqal workforce is kind of optimistic about its system and Reymond believes that the workforce will be capable to present its potential prospects “quantum enterprise benefit” in 2024. He believes that this may take a system with 200 to 300 qubits.
At this level, most researchers imagine that we gained’t see the business development towards a single know-how for fixing each algorithm. As an alternative, completely different quantum applied sciences will discover their candy spots for fixing completely different issues. For Pasqal, the workforce believes that its system will work particularly effectively for graph-centric issues. “There are loads of computational challenges that you could reframe within the form of a graph,” he defined. “What we are able to do with atoms, is we are able to characterize the form of this graph and embed the complexity of the algorithm on this geometry. In the long run, as a substitute of utilizing 1000’s of quantum gates, simply by implementing a few them, you’ll be able to run your algorithm after which you might be resilient to errors.”
The corporate is at present working with the likes of Crédit Agricole CIB, BASF, BMW, Siemens, Airbus, Johnson & Johnson and Thales to assist them perceive the place its know-how can clear up their enterprise wants.
“We’re very happy with this new milestone in PASQAL’s improvement that may make the corporate a world chief,” stated Christophe Jurczak, managing associate at Quantonation. “Quantonation has supported the corporate since its spin-off from Institut d’Optique. It’s the first scale-up inside Quantonation’s portfolio, and it actually illustrates the excellence of French analysis and the competitiveness of the French quantum ecosystem.”
