Quantum computing startup PsiQuantum raised $1 billion to help break ground on facilities in Chicago and Brisbane, Australia, that will host its first photonics-based, fault-tolerant quantum computers, it announced Wednesday.
The new funds, which value the company at $7 billion, will also go towards improving its GlobalFoundries-manufactured quantum photonic chips, which use light to generate, manipulate, and measure qubits, the units that fuel more powerful computations than their binary counterparts. Of the methods being tested to build and scale quantum computers, PsiQuantum is the only major player betting on photonics, due to the existing infrastructure built around the technology.
BlackRock, Singapore’s Temasek, and Baillie Gifford led the round, with participation from Nvidia’s venture capital arm and Qatar Investment Authority. It’s among the largest sums of venture capital injected into a quantum firm since PsiQuantum’s $620 million raise by Australian government groups last year.