Oratomic Secures $300M to Develop a Functional Quantum Computer with Just 20,000 Qubits
Various companies are exploring different architectural strategies to create the first quantum computer that can commercially outperform existing technologies.
Oratomic, which joined the development race earlier this year with an ambition to produce a utility-scale quantum computer by the decade’s end, has announced a successful funding round of $300 million. This Series A round was co-led by ARCH Venture Partners, Spark Capital, and Khosla Ventures, with support from several notable investors including Bezos Expeditions and General Catalyst.
Founded by physicists from Caltech, Oratomic employs lasers as optical tweezers to secure individual atoms, forming the foundation of its quantum computing model.
The startup emerged after researchers uncovered that their method could manage error correction with a significantly reduced number of qubits, the fundamental units in quantum computing, than previously believed possible. Effective error correction is crucial, as quantum systems are highly sensitive to noise and must be reliable to become practical tools.
“In the past, none of us would have considered starting a quantum computing venture, believing it to be too distant a goal,” said Oratomic’s co-founder and CEO Dolev Bluvstein. “It was only after our recent breakthrough that we all shifted our perspectives.”
Unlike many other quantum firms that are releasing prototypes for researchers and businesses, Oratomic is not interested in creating or marketing systems termed noisy intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ).
Bluvstein emphasized that Oratomic should not be compared to PsiQuantum, a startup valued at $7 billion, as it, too, seeks to avoid the NISQ phase while targeting a functional million-qubit quantum computer by the end of next year.
The approach by Oratomic is deemed to be more straightforward and cost-effective, according to Bluvstein. “Our requirement is approximately 10,000 to 20,000 qubits to construct a functional computer, and we have already demonstrated all essential components needed for it on a smaller scale,” he stated.
A fully operational quantum computer could enable advancements in numerous domains necessitating complex computations, including biotechnology, chemistry, logistics, artificial intelligence, and cryptography.
Companies making strides in creating these machines and designing software for their application have witnessed a surge of investor interest recently. This year has seen several startups, such as Infleqtion and Quantinuum, become publicly traded. Meanwhile, established public companies like Rigetti and IonQ have experienced significant increases in their stock prices over the past year and a half.
Investor Vinod Khosla has expressed strong confidence in Oratomic’s potential to create the first fault-tolerant quantum computer, noting it as his firm’s largest initial investment to date.
