Quantum computing, once it truly arrives, is expected to make significant improvements for a number of different applications, from helping to fight climate change and improving the process of drug discovery. While there are quantum computers out there in operation, developed by companies like D-Wave, Rigetti, IBM, and Google, none have the capability to solve practical problems any faster than a conventional computer. Most observers think that practical computing is about a decade away, or even longer.
Atlantic Quantum, founded earlier this year
by Bharath Kannan, Simon Gustavsson, Youngkyu Sung, Jonas Bylander, and Tim
Menke, aims to speed up that timeline by improving the basic hardware behind
quantum computing. On Thursday, the company announced a $9 million seed
investment led by The Engine, the venture firm spun out of MIT. Other investors
involved with this seed round include Thomas Tull, Glasswing Ventures, Future
Labs Capital, and E14.
The focus of Atlantic Quantum is building
hardware that improves the “coherence” of quantum computation, which reduces
the errors that are the major speed bump for these machines. Qubits, the basic
computing unit of a quantum computer, have an advantage over the bits on the
computer or phone you’re reading this article on because they aren’t reliant on
the binary 1s and 0s that form the foundation of today’s computer science.
Instead, qubits take advantage of principles of quantum physics that let them
exist in more than one state at a time. What’s more, this process enables the hardware to get exponentially faster as you add more qubits, whereas
conventional computers only make linear gains.
Of course, that sounds great, but right now
qubits never achieve their theoretical computational speeds because the process
creates computational errors that have to be fixed. That’s because of what’s
called “decoherence”— when the qubits interact with their local environment,
that changes their quantum states. It’s the subatomic equivalent of
accidentally wiping away part of a math problem you’re doing on a whiteboard
with your sleeve–you have to go back and do that part of the problem again.
The companies building quantum computers do
a lot to reduce the amount of decoherence their machines face. One solution is
to keep everything as close to a temperature of absolute zero as possible,
which helps limit environmental interactions. Other strategies are being worked
on and deployed but many quantum computing companies have also devoted a lot of
their time focused on scale: building processors that contain more and more
qubits. That’s the wrong way to go, argues Milo Werner, a general partner at
the Engine who’s joining the board of Atlantic Quantum. “Until now, the
prioritization of scale over qubit coherence has slowed quantum’s potential.
It’s exciting to see a different path forward - one that will bring us closer
to quantum reality,” he said in a statement.
Atlantic Quantum’s advantage, the company
says, is the superconducting qubit known as fluxonium. Most quantum computers
in operation today use a different setup called a transmon qubit.
“The properties of the fluxonium qubit differ from those of the transmon in several ways, but the key difference being the significantly lower operating frequency of fluxonium versus transmon ,” says CEO Kannan. “ This lower operating frequency has several consequences, which include longer coherence times and simpler control integration for fluxonium.”
While Atlantic’s hardware does have longer
coherence times, it’s still prone to errors like other qubits, so the company
is also focusing on developing software for its qubits that can correct errors
as they arise.
Right now, Atlantic Quantum has two
headquarters, one in Boston and Sweden. The Boston office is focused on system
integration and computer assembly. Cofounder Jonas Bylander, who’s also an
associate professor at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden, will be
spearheading the effort to fabricate and manufacture the chips for the
company’s machines. The seed round allows Atlantic Quantum to grow its team
in both areas.
One of the reasons why Milo Werner was
interested in investing in Atlantic was because of its origins in MIT’s quantum
computer research lab that’s led by William Oliver, which he describes as
“second to none.”
“It is an amazing founding team that we are really excited to back,” she continues. “We focus on backing strong technical leaders and we really see that in Bharath and his team. We look forward to watching them grow.”