Quantum Computing Funding Hits Record High With Apparent AI Boost

Quantum computing has been getting extra consideration lately as its promise turns into extra palpable. Enterprise funding within the sector has hit new ranges this 12 months — maybe thanks largely to a different red-hot sector: AI.

Quantum computing startups have already raised $1.5 billion in enterprise funding in 50 offers to this point in 2024, according to Crunchbase data. That just about doubles the $785 million raised final 12 months in 67 offers, and surpasses the all-time excessive raised in 2022 of almost $963 million in 77 offers.

These totals embody some large rounds.

In January, Broomfield, Colorado-based Quantinuum — which was spun out of Honeywell in 2021 and merged with Cambridge Quantum Computing — locked up a $300 million equity fundraise at a pre-money valuation of $5 billion.

4 months later, Palo Alto, California-based PsiQuantum landed a monetary bundle of $620 million from the Australian Commonwealth and Queensland governments to construct a quantum laptop at a location close to Brisbane Airport in Brisbane, Australia. The spherical is definitely a mixture of fairness, grants and loans.

Lastly, in August, U.Ok.-based Riverlane — which focuses on quantum error correction expertise — raised a $75 million Series C.

AI serving to hand

Whereas the thrill for quantum expertise and computing — a stage of computing a lot sooner and superior to conventional computer systems that may carry out many complicated calculations concurrently — has been rising for many years, the enhance in funding numbers are seemingly attributable to tech’s newest darling.

Generative AI appears to creep into each business, and quantum could also be no completely different — particularly contemplating what quantum computing might imply for breakthroughs and developments in AI.

Whereas many see massive promise in generative AI, its enormous computing wants and power consumption might maintain these hopes again except extra efficiencies will be present in processing, and energy and power utilization.

That’s one cause why billions of dollars have been poured into the data center sector. Huge Tech gamers similar to Amazon and Microsoft can’t construct such facilities quick sufficient as extra computing energy is required for constructing massive language fashions, and photonics expertise is taking off in an effort to deal with the power, efficiency and scalability challenges of AI knowledge facilities.

Quantum computing is probably going seeing an analogous tailwind. In principle, quantum computing might pace up the event of AI — as quantum is way more highly effective than any supercomputer.

As well as, maybe the most important benefit may very well be energy effectivity. At present, quantum computing consumes huge quantities of power to do its computations, and the pc should be stored at a temperature of absolute zero to work correctly.

Nevertheless, some studies counsel quantum computing may very well be as a lot as 100x extra power environment friendly than a typical supercomputer for a comparable calculation time. So, in principle, a much less highly effective quantum laptop might nonetheless be superior to a supercomputer whereas additionally being extra power environment friendly.

Whereas AI is actually not the only real driver of the present heightened quantum enterprise funding market — quantum has a multitude of applications ranging from life sciences to navigation — it additionally can be unwise to low cost its ever-widening affect.

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Illustration: Dom Guzman