The promise of Quantum Computing is tantalising. Problems that our current generation of computers still struggle to solve will become solvable in minutes, according to the experts.
And while progress in this field has been steady, the technology has some way to go before these new machines being commercially available.
In honour of World Quantum Day, we take a look at some of the top Quantum Computing companies making advances in this exciting field.
Founded in 2015, IonQ’s ambition is to take quantum computing out of the lab and into the market. So far, it’s succeeding.
In its first 3-years, the company raised $20 million and built two of the world’s most accurate quantum computers. IonQ Aria is IonQ’s latest generation quantum computer.
In 2019, the company raised a further $55 million and partnered with Microsoft and AWS to make its quantum computers available via the cloud. Through these partnerships, anyone with an internet connection can harness Aria’s abilities.
In October of 2021, IonQ began trading on the New York Stock Exchange, making it the world's first pure-play quantum computing company to go public. By March 2022, IonQ featured in Time Magazine's Most Influential Companies, recognised for leadership in commercialising the power of quantum computers to solve some of the world’s most pressing problems.
Quantum Motion is a UK-based quantum computing start-up led by academics from UCL and Oxford University. Its goal is to “fast-track the development of true fault tolerant quantum computers and reach one million qubits+ by leveraging existing knowledge in device fabrication within the trillion-dollar silicon industry”.
In March 2021, the company made a discovery with the potential to make quantum computing quicker and more cost-effective using industrial-grade silicon chips, helping to set a blueprint for how quantum chips can be manufactured at scale using existing manufacturing processes.
Quantum Motion has led a UKRI project (“Altnaharra”) to develop a cryogenic chip for integrated control and readout of qubits based on CMOS technology and at the beginning of 2022, opened a new lab in London to build a scalable quantum computer.
Check out the latest jobs from Quantum Motion
IQM is a quantum computing hardware company, spun out of Aalto University and the VTT Technical Research Centre (VTT) in Finland. It builds quantum computers for research labs and supercomputing centres and for industrial customers, offers an application specific co-design service.
IQM has the largest industrial hardware team of quantum experts in Europe, and they’ve had several breakthroughs in qubit reset, readout, and thermal management towards large-scale quantum processors. Current work has led to unique hardware advantages and novel concepts around digital-analog quantum computing.
2021 was a big year for IQM. In June, the company announced an open-source software tool called KQCircuits to automate the design of superconducting quantum processors. KQCircuits is a community enabling quantum chip development from chip design and simulation to fabrication. With KQCircuits, quantum engineers and physicists can conveniently generate chip designs with a simple click. They can also check the signal routing before the device fabrication process to avoid making costly errors.
In November of the same year, IQM and the VTT developed Finland’s first quantum computer for scientists to study next-generation computing power and, shortly after, Aalto University, VTT, and IQM designed a new microwave source which could replace existing bulky control systems that hinder the scalability of quantum computers.
Hiring across Europe, check out IQM’s latest vacancies right here.
Alice and Bob are fictional characters often used as placeholders in discussions around cryptographic systems and protocols and, as such, are common archetypes in the field of quantum computing.
Taking its name from the above trope, Alice&Bob is a Paris-based startup building fault-tolerant quantum processors.The company has designed a quantum bit that drastically simplifies the design of quantum computers - the cat qubit.
The company states: “Cat qubit[s] are just the tip of the iceberg of a new generation of quantum bits, elegantly designed to be inherently robust to errors and scalable. Even though they might not be the end of the game, cat qubit should already enable the design of quantum computers with error rates so low, that most envisioned applications will be within our reach.”
In March, Alice&Bob raised $30M to launch its first fault-tolerant ‘cat qubit’ computers in 2023. TechCrunch reported that: “...[the] money will [be] use[d] to develop chips and computers and a business model based around exponentially powered quantum-computing-as-a-service.”
In the same month, together with the team of Zaki Leghtas at LPENS, Paris, Alice&Bob demonstrated how to correct one of the two kinds of errors that cripple quantum computers, eliminating one of the main barriers to delivering a functional quantum computer.
Click here to see Alice & Bob's vacancies
KETS is harnessing quantum technologies to deliver next generation cybersecurity tools.
Its chip-based platform is based on technology developed at the University of Bristol and provides ultra-low size, weight and power without compromising performance.
The company recently raised £3.1 million to commercialise hardware that protects data from a new generation of cyberattacks that can break through all existing encryption protections. The funding will allow KETS to expand first trials of the technology in real-world applications and environments.
KETS is also co-leading a £11.6m Quantum Data Centre of the Future project, funded by UKRI. The project will focus on developing quantum-safe communications solutions for the modern data centre.
Currently, KETS is working with a number of blue-chip organisations to help them secure their systems and data with quantum-safe crypto solutions.
For the latest roles at KETS, check out deeptechjobs.com
The impacts of a quantum future
Complex tasks that currently take computers weeks, might soon be achieved in seconds via the power of quantum computing. From cyber security to medicine to space exploration, the impacts of quantum computing have the potential to be paradigm shifting.
To see more quantum computing companies and vacancies, check us out @ Deep Tech Jobs.