Google Quantum AI invests in nascent firm QuEra Computing

Google Quantum AI, the Santa Barbara, California-based quantum and AI research arm of the web giant, has invested in QuEra Computing, a six-year-old Boston firm founded by quantum computing researchers from Harvard University and MIT.

QuEra acknowledged the investment this week, telling Fierce Electronics that it was an “all cash” investment, but declining to disclose the amount. The investment “very meaningful for QuEra, both financially and as a show of confidence,” said Yuval Boger, chief commercial officer at QuEra Computing.

The privately-held company does not disclose revenue figures, but Boger noted that QuEra has announced about $50 million worth of deals so far this year, including a $41-million deal with a Japanese agency to have its Aquila quantum computer deployed alongside an Nvidia GPU-powered classical supercomputer. QuEra also is under contract to build a quantum computing testbed in the U.K.

Google has done a great deal of its own quantum computing research over the years, and back in 2019 was believed to be the first company to claim it had achieved quantum supremacy, or the ability of a quantum machine to out-perform a classical computer on a given calculation. It opened its Google Quantum AI research campus in Santa Barbara in 2021, and has continued to claim research advancements in quantum supremacy, quantum error correction, and related areas, though unlike QuEra and firms such as IBM, IonQ, Rigetti Computing, and Quantinuum, it does not sell quantum computers or quantum processors. Google’s latest bit of research, discussed in a paper published last year, appeared in Nature this month.

Most of Google Quantum AI’s research work has centered around superconducting qubits, which use electrical current to create and control quantum states and often are referred to as “artificial atoms,” as they represent a high level of abstraction from actual atoms. IBM, Rigetti, and others also have focused on building quantum counters and processors based on superconducting qubits.

Meanwhile, QuEra in its quantum computing efforts has leveraged neutral atoms, specifically Rubidium atoms, which have balanced positive and negative charges, and can be controlled with lasers. Neutral atom-based qubits have gained increased relevance in recent years because they are believed to have advantages for connectivity and scalability, and also can operate at room temperature, significant because systems based on superconducting qubits require large and costly cooling systems to operate. Other advocates of neutral atom systems include France’s Pasqal and Berkeley, California-based Atom Computing, among others. IonQ, a publicly-traded firm already making progress selling its quantum systems to research clients, employs a related approach called trapped-ion quantum computing.

As it is still early in the evolution of quantum computing, none of these methods for creating qubits has proved to be the clear winner, but Google Quantum AI’s investment in QuEra might be its first high-profile act supporting the neutral atom method. And, it is not just a financial bet, as Boger told Fierce Electronics that QuEra staff will collaborate with Google Quantum AI scientists.

Andy Ory, QuEra’s Interim CEO, added in a statement, “Google Quantum AI’s strategic investment in QuEra, which we recently closed, is a testament to the strength of our technology, our world-class team, and our long-term partnerships with Harvard and MIT. This investment from Google Quantum AI, coupled with an additional financing initiative to be announced in the coming weeks, allows us to execute on our vision and company strategy, and positions us as the recognized market leader for neutral atom-based quantum computing solutions. Google Quantum AI is a leader in quantum computing and this investment recognizes the potential of different quantum computing technologies, and specifically QuEra’s leading neutral-atom technology.”

QuEra offered no further details about the nature of the “additional financing initiative” mentioned by Ory.