Quantum News Nexus

A closer look at this week’s news:

Oratomic, a neutral-atom quantum computing company based in Pasadena, California, said in a recent press release that it had raised $300 million in Series A funding. The round was co-led by ARCH Venture Partners, Spark Capital, Khosla Ventures, alongside Bezos Expeditions, Index Ventures, General Catalyst, Lowercarbon Capital, Bain Capital, Formation, Nebular, David and Scott Aaronson, and others The firm, which was spun out of Caltech, is a true quantum newbie, having launched this past March. It aims to build the first fault-tolerant quantum computer, which at this point, who isn’t trying to do that? But, the Oratomic team includes luminaries such as legendary Caltech physicist John Preskill. The funding release announcement actually came mid-way through a release that led with an appeal for others to join the Oratomic team, so this start-up looks to be on a fast path for growth.

The National Science Foundation launched Project Triad, which aims “to integrate quantum sensing, quantum networking and quantum computing into a single operational system,” according to a press release. This is yet another announcement from a federal government agency that directly ties back to the Trump administration’s recent Executive Orders on quantum.

Among the project ambitions is a plan to build a National Quantum Virtually Laboratory (NQVL) for proof-of-concept testing for this system. “Currently in the design phase, NSF plans to accelerate several NSF NQVL projects from design to implementation by December 2026 (pending funding availability),” according to the release. That makes it sound like the project’s future could depend on the passage of some further policy, perhaps the National Quantum Initiative Reauthorization Act?

GlobalFoundries and SEALSQ signed a Memorandum of Understanding, under which the pair will focus on numerous areas, including the advancement of post-quantum cryptography in chips (would have been a good fit for my recent Quantum Security Update), as well as cryogenic CMOS for quantum.

Quantum Elements has named software sector veteran Ben Pressley as its new Chief Revenue Officer. Pressley has been a senior official at firms like fabric, Afterpay, and Magento. Los Angeles-based Quantum Elements is working in the area of quantum digital twins, which is starting to seem like a trending topic, having been mentioned by a few other companies in recent weeks.

QIZ Security has raised $17 million in seed funding led by Bessemer Venture Partners, according to the VC firm. The start-up has collaborated with Google Cloud, and come into a market in which the timeline for adoption of post-quantum security measures just got compressed by the Trump administration.

German quantum sensing firm Quantum Diamonds just raised €91 million (more than $104 million USD). One of the most promising applications of quantum sensing involves bringing more precise detection of manufacturing defects in chips, and that is the main thrust of Quantum Diamonds. In fact, the majority of the new funding came via the European Chips Act, under which a new quantum-based semiconductor inspection facility is being built.

“This is a major step in bringing quantum sensing into fabs worldwide,” said Kevin Berghoff, CEO and co-founder of QuantumDiamonds. “The response from leading chipmakers has been clear: they see our technology as essential for solving yield challenges that today’s systems can’t address. With deployments now live in the U.S. and Taiwan and serial production ramping up in Munich, Europe isn’t just participating in the next chip era, it’s helping define it.”

NBA player Kyle Kuzma recently toured IBM’s quantum facilities. This story requires a Barron’s subscription, so I have no idea where it goes from there, but it sounds interesting, and deals with at least two things that occupy a fair amount of space in my brain.

Image by freepik