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Boston Globe
2 days ago
- Business
- Boston Globe
The 2025 Tech Power Players in the quantum computing sector
At his prior startups, including networking gear company Acme Packet, which he But at QuEra, researchers are working to advance quantum computing from the theoretical to the practical. In theory, a quantum computer, which replaces electronic transistors with atoms and subatomic particles, should plow through calculations more quickly. That could speed applications from the discovery of new drugs to the design of airplane parts to artificial intelligence. Such a device was outlined in a paper by physicist Richard Feynman in 1982. But getting control of atomic particles so they can make computer calculations without adding errors has proven mind-bogglingly difficult. QuEra is using lasers to trap rubidium atoms in a vacuum chamber at room temperature so the atoms can be carefully manipulated to make the computer's calculations. Other efforts include those of nearby Atlantic Quantum, which uses temperatures close to absolute zero to keep its particles under control. Advertisement Ory says he almost turned the job down, but his wife reminded him of his deep and long-running interest in quantum computing. A Harvard grad, he advised the university for several years on commercializing its quantum breakthroughs, helping nurture a growing quantum ecosystem in the region. Twelve local startups working on quantum tech, including QuEra, have raised a total of more than $400 million in the past three years, according to research firm PitchBook. Advertisement 'With 40 years of building tech businesses and doing business globally, I added a missing ingredient [QuEra] didn't have,' Ory says. That ingredient: experience hiring, strategizing, and raising money. Ory is focused on making sure QuEra has the financial backing to survive until the technical challenges of quantum computing are solved — and so far, so good. The company The company will need workers, from cutting-edge researchers to hardware experts to salespeople. 'What's required to win, it's not solo,' Ory says. 'This isn't tennis, it's football.' More tech power players to watch in the quantum computing sector: Explore more sectors Aaron Pressman can be reached at
Boston Globe
12-02-2025
- Business
- Boston Globe
Allston quantum computing firm plans to nearly double workforce
With working tech and real revenue, the company announced on Tuesday it raised $230 million from backers including Google and Japanese investment firm SoftBank Group, ranking as the fourth-largest quantum computing venture capital deal ever and the largest in Massachusetts, according to data from Pitchbook. Only rivals Quantinuum in Colorado and PsiQuantum in California (in two deals) have raised more. Advertisement Instead of relying on the electronic transistors in standard computer chips, quantum computers calculate using atoms and subatomic particles dubbed quantum bits or 'qubits.' While transistors can only be turned on or off, qubits can inhabit multiple states at one time, allowing a quantum computer to tackle programs that would take a typical computer eons to complete. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Still progress has been slower than hoped. Boston quantum computing software company Jensen Huang, chief executive of AI chip maker Nvidia, The simulations that run on QuEra's devices haven't yet fulfilled the promise of quantum computers to crack problems impossible to solve with standard computers yet but those days are only a few years away, QuEra interim chief executive Andy Ory said. He replaced QuEra founder Alex Keesling, who is now chief technology officer, last summer. 'We stand a very good chance of delivering [programs] you can't do with a classical computer to the market over the next three years or so,' Ory said. The experienced Boston entrepreneur led networking startup Acme Packet through an initial public offering and Advertisement Academics who study quantum computing agree that breakthroughs in the use of lasers, photonic circuits, and other key areas are starting to add up. 'Advances in all these things are coming to a confluence,' said Douglas Petkie, physics professor and head of the department at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. 'I think in terms of major accomplishments happening in three years.' Inside, QuEra's Aquila quantum computer, laser beams trap and manipulate tiny rubidium atoms in an area less than the width of three human hairs. The rubidium qubits in Aquila still generate too many errors to fully realize the promise of quantum computing but early users have been testing the system, which is accessible over Amazon's cloud computing service. As they improve, quantum computers should be able to work in tandem with typical computers on artificial intelligence. A quantum computer could, for example, generate massive amounts of simulated data about the behavior of drug molecules that a typical computer running an AI app could analyze to uncover new cures. And while computers running the latest AI software are using huge amounts of electricity, quantum computers require much less. 'People are talking about starting up Three Mile Island to power data centers building AI and our computer today, as powerful as it is, only takes as much electricity as three hair dryers,' Ory said. QuEra employed 69 people at the beginning of the year and plans to use the new funding to expand to about 130 by year end, Ory said. He does not plan to move far from the company's Allston base, down the road from Harvard, however. Advertisement 'We want to be a bike ride — no further — from the universities, because we are still actively translating a lot of science and we are collaborating,' he said. 'To move too far away at this stage is a hurdle we don't necessarily need to have.' Aaron Pressman can be reached at
Yahoo
11-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Google leads $230M convertible note for Boston quantum computing startup QuEra
Quantum computing, long relegated to the realm of theoretical, feels like it is back on the agenda as a potentially viable alternative to the expensive race for more powerful compute. On the heels of some notable advancements in quantum chips and error correction (two of the key areas that have kept quantum computers from becoming a reality), today a startup out of Boston called QuEra said that it has closed financing of $230 million from the likes of Google and SoftBank. The plan is to use the money to get it to its next stage of growth: building a 'useful' fully-quantum computer in the next three to five years. But notably, the financing is not equity. It's a convertible note that QuEra's team says will be converted into equity when the company next raises an equity round. The company, which is currently being led by an interim CEO — the enterprise tech vet Andy Ory — declined to give a timeline for that next equity funding round. To date, QuEra has raised just under $50 million, including this $17 million round that we covered 2021. QuEra said that the longer list of investors signed on to this convertible note are Google (leading), with SoftBank Vision Fund, Valor Equity Partners, and QuEra's existing investors, including QVT Family Office, Safar Partners, and others that are not being named. As this is a note, there is no valuation being provided with this latest financing. But Yuval Boger, QuEra's COO, described the valuation as 'a very substantial increase' compared to QuEra's previous round. 'I know you probably have a very good sense of what the valuation of a $230 million significant up-round might be,' he added. A conservative, basic guess is $400 million, although it's a note, not equity, so anything can happen. One detail that does give QuEra a notable boost: the company is already making revenues. Specifically, Ory cited a $41 million sale of a QuEra quantum computer to Japan. will be sitting alongside Nvidia technology (running classical computing) in a new supercomputer project. The company has also been seeing some revenues coming in by way of its cloud services. In November 2022 started to offer quantum compute over AWS, by way of its 256-qubit computer (its first generation machine), which today, Boger said, is mostly used for pilots and proof-of-concept experiments. QuEra is exploring expanding that to other clouds but so far has not announced anything. Boger said that the financing from Google — which QuEra said is supported by Google's Quantum AI business unit — does not include any tie-ins of any kind of Google Cloud Platform. QuEra's funding is part of what looks to be a notable surge for quantum computing startups. Less than two weeks ago, Alice&Bob, another quantum computing startup based in Paris, snapped up $104 million. Other big rounds have included Cambridge, Engliand-based Riverlane, building technology to correct quantum errors, raising $75 million; quantum chip maker SEEQC, which raised $30 million in January. Quantum Machines in Israel is reportedly also in the process of raising $100 million. (We have reached out to Quantum Machines and it has declined to comment on those reports.) And perhaps the biggest of all, last year, Quantinuum raised $300 million at a $5 billion valuation. There is now talk of it listing at a $10 billion valuation. For the moment, given we have yet to see a fully-functioning, commercially available quantum machine, a lot of the work among these and other companies are doing is scattered across a range of approaches, all aiming for ways to improve error and fail rates when computations are carried out. The particular aim for QuEra — which had 69 employees at the end of 2024 and aims to have 130+ by end of 2025 — is to build a neutral atom quantum super computer, which relies in part on using lasers to cool atoms in the computing process to reduce errors. 'We think we have the right architectural approach to actually get to what we would consider the Holy Grail, which would be quantum computing that is discontinuous with real quantum advantage,' said Ory in an interview. 'Taking a partner like Google to look at what we're doing, and the people we've been able to attract… it's all coming together, and we feel validated and that QuEra is at a position where its resources, its science and its people are going to allow us to be one of a few companies to really deliver the first scalable, useful quantum computer.' But so far, with the multitude of approaches, it hasn't been a race but rather a marathon, with no firm finish line. Alex Keesling, the co-founder and former CEO of QuEra who invented the technology that is at the core of the product, is now in a role overseeing the technical implementations as QuEra works to build out its hardware, and QuEra, like others in the space, are working to flexible deadlines as they inch closer to bringing their ideas to reality. The longer term promise is a tantalising one. As compute gets more expensive and new technologies like AI are putting ever greater pressure on resources, the industry is looking for solutions that could leapfrog those workloads, or at least complement them, with something more powerful. Believers say quantum computing will be the solution. 'We believe that if we can get to 100 logical error-corrected qubits with the ability to run a million instructions without an error, that there will be useful applications for quantum computing that offer advantages over regular computers,' Ory said. 'We believe that. We think that's going to create a tremendous amount of value for material science, life science, simulation, optimization problems and so forth.' Sign in to access your portfolio
