Fault Tolerant Photonic Quantum Computer Startup Working With Microsoft

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Photonic Inc., a company building one of the world’s first scalable, fault-tolerant, and unified quantum computing and networking platforms, based on photonically linked silicon spin qubits, today announced it has raised an investment round of $100M USD. The funds were raised from organizations including British Columbia Investment Management Corporation (BCI), Microsoft Corporation, the UK government’s National Security Strategic Investment Fund (NSSIF), Inovia Capital, and Amadeus Capital Partners. This brings the company’s total funding raised to date to $140M USD. Photonic’s quantum computer will be the first scalable, fault-tolerant quantum computing and networking platform, based on photonically linked silicon spin qubits.

A new spin on quantum computing.
Photonic’s architecture uniquely networks silicon spin qubits together with photons to overcome the challenges that impede other platforms. The combined solution uses photonically-linked silicon spin qubits to implement a resource-efficient, error-corrected and truly scalable quantum computing platform. The Photonic silicon spin-photon platform establishes a clear path to scalable fault-tolerance.

Photonic’s computing architecture will be one of the first to support quantum key distribution (QKD), post-quantum cryptography (PQC), blind and remote quantum computing and more. This will provide security to the global communications network for a vast range of use cases across the public and private sectors.

A fault-tolerant quantum computer will deliver on decades-long expectations and revolutionize the fields of cryptography, drug discovery, financial modeling, and artificial intelligence.

Quantum computing is an essential component to designing the chemical catalysts that are critical for more efficient fertilizers.

Quantum computing will have a profound effect on the discovery, creation, and approval rates of new innovative pharmaceuticals. This will result in developing treatments and therapies for serious illnesses that currently have no viable alternatives.

Quantum computing will have a seismic impact on the financial industry by enabling greater returns through portfolio optimization and reduced risk through improved risk analysis.

Photonic is making fault-tolerant quantum technologies a reality with its unique silicon spin-photon interface. The technology leverages the memory and computing capabilities of spins and the connectivity of photonics to build one of the world’s first scalable, fault-tolerant, and networked quantum computers. The company has over 120 employees with a head office in Canada and has recently opened offices in the United Kingdom and the United States.

Photonic’s novel spin-photon architecture natively supports quantum communication over standard telecom wavelengths will be combined with the global scale and state-of-the-art infrastructure of Azure. They will work together to integrate quantum networking capabilities into everyday operating environments. Together, they aim to deliver new technologies that will enable reliable quantum communication over long distances and accelerate scientific research and development with quantum computing devices to be integrated into Azure Quantum Elements.

Microsoft and Photonic will address three stages of quantum networking.

At the Stage 1 physical layer, we will aim to deliver entanglement between two separate quantum devices via photons through telecom fiber.
To enable the Stage 2 link layer, we will aim to deliver a never-before demonstrated quantum repeater that can capture, entangle, and hold quantum information reliably for a short time.
Finally, at the Stage 3 network layer, we will focus on delivering from our co-innovation collaboration a reliable quantum repeater, one that is fault-tolerant and operational with our Azure cloud. With this technology, we can overcome any limitations on distance in the network, and enable the ability to create a full-scale, global quantum internet.