News Brief

These four companies will be the first four strategic industry partners who are joining this program. The CUbit Quantum Initiative is an interdisciplinary hub of organizations in Colorado that work in quantum information science and technology. The initiative partners with regional universities and laboratories, quantum related companies, and serves a spectrum of local, regional and national interests. Key activities of CUbit are to perform joint research in areas of common interest and also to collaborate on workforce development programs, and provide real-world opportunities for CU Boulder students and researchers. Colorado is striving to become a key hub in quantum technology and [...]

The first program is an International Network in Space Quantum Technologies which will include a consortium of 37 members in 13 countries, including four industrial partners, to develop satellite-enabled quantum-secure communication and Earth observation. It will tackle the technical challenges of putting quantum technology into space including the radiation environment in space, autonomous and remote operation and the limited size, weight and power constraints of satellites. This program will be funded by the UK's Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) with a budget of £480,000. The second program is an International Network for Microfabrication of Atomic [...]

Theo Blackwell, London's Chief Digital Officer, Performing a Ceremonial Bond Wire Cutting at the Opening of the Quantum Motion Lab. Credit: Quantum Motion Quantum Motion, a quantum hardware company spun out by academics from University College London (UCL) and Oxford University, has opened up a new development lab in the Islington section of London.  The lab will employ 25 full time staff including quantum theorists, physicists and integrated circuit (IC) engineers. Quantum Motion is developing a quantum processor using silicon-based spin qubits and has received almost £20 million ($27M USD) in equity and grant funding. Additional information about Quantum Motion and [...]

Although Zapata Computing has been supporting Rigetti's processors for a long time, this new development will represent a tighter integration that will provide additional improvements. Many of the quantum programs being run today are hybrid classical/quantum programs that require usage of both types of resources to arrive at a result. Because of this, the efficiency of the interface between the classical and quantum resources becomes very important and can have a big impact on the overall runtime for a particular program. The new development will integrate Orquestra, Zapata's unified platform for building and deploying quantum applications, directly with Rigetti’s Quantum Cloud [...]

The funding was led by BDC Capital’s Deep Tech Venture Fund and Paris-based Quantonation VC fund. Previous investor Real Ventures also participated in this round. Nord Quantique is developing a superconducting quantum processor that will use bosonic codes to provide error mitigated qubits. They believe that their approach will result in lower error qubits than other superconducting qubit implementations. Nord Quantique, founded in 2020, is located in Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada and is a partner of the Sherbrooke Quantum Innovation Zone. Additional information can be found in a news release posted on the Nord Quantique website here. February 9, 2022

The two companies are partnering to offer a self-pace online course called Quantum Training for Enterprises that will cover quantum computing basics, challenges and potential impact in the near term. The course is configured as a modular course taught by Zapata executives, scientists and engineering experts which can be completed in about 3 weeks with a time commitment of about 2 hours each week. Altogether there are eight modules including a Getting Started and Wrap-up module. Completion certificates are provided for those who pass all the quizzes at the end of each lesson. For those who are already clients of Zapata, [...]

In a partnership between the Government of Quebec and IBM, they will set up the Quebec-IBM Discovery Accelerator to develop new projects, collaborations, and build skills, and investigate solutions to problems in critical areas of research such as energy, life sciences, and sustainability. The Discovery Accelerator will be working to research advanced in other advanced computing technologies including AI and High Performance Classical Computing (HPC), in addition to its activities in quantum computing. As part of this effort IBM will install a model of its IBM Q System One quantum processor in early 2023 at one of its facilities Bromont, Quebec alongside a new [...]

Microsoft has initiated a program to provide $500 of free credits for use of Azure Quantum for each of its partners. The systems currently available are IonQ’s QPU (as well as their free Simulator) and Quantinuum’s H1 QPU and Emulator and soon they will be adding superconducting systems from Rigetti and Quantum Circuits Inc. (QCI). There are no applications requirements or approvals needed and the potential total of credits could add up to $2,000 if you use all four providers. For researchers who use up the $500 credits and would like to apply for more, you can submit an Azure Quantum Credits application and see if [...]

Algorithmiq is a company located in Helsinki, Finland that is developing advanced algorithms to solve complex problems in life sciences. They have raised this seed round from investors including Jorma Ollila (Nokia/Shell), Haakon Overli (Dawn Capital), Thames Trust (Lord Jim O’Neill), David Helgason (Foobar/Unity3D), Tiger Global Management, Feroz Dewan (Arena Holdings), Keenan Rice (Tokyo Black/ LookerGoogle/Firebolt) and K5 Global, and other European and US angels and entrepreneurs. The funds will be used to make their novel quantum-enhanced drug discovery platform commercially available. Algorithmiq's announcement of this funding can be seen in a LinkedIn post available here. February 4, 2022