A startup led by a Nobel laureate wants to build quantum computers the same way iPhone chips get made

[Bob93]

Qolab, a quantum hardware startup founded in 2022 and headquartered in Madison, Wisconsin, just closed a $54.2 million Series B led by UC Investments, the arm that invests on behalf of the University of California, bringing its total funding to $76.7 million. The pitch is refreshingly unglamorous for quantum computing, stop treating qubit fabrication like a delicate lab craft and start treating it like ordinary semiconductor manufacturing

The leadership team reads like a quantum hardware all-star lineup. CTO John Martinis is a pioneer of superconducting qubits who won the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics for his foundational work on scalable quantum systems and previously served as chief scientist on Google's quantum hardware team. CEO Alan Ho was head of product at Google Quantum AI and helped coordinate Google's landmark 2019 quantum supremacy experiment alongside Martinis. Head of hardware Robert McDermott is a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor and a leading expert in quantum measurement and cryogenic interconnects. Martinis was also appointed to the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology earlier this year

The core problem Qolab is targeting sits in how superconducting qubits get built in the first place. Each one relies on a Josephson junction, a thin insulating barrier sandwiched between two layers of superconducting aluminum, traditionally made using electron-beam lithography and an evaporation lift-off technique involving organic photoresist stencils. That process leaves microscopic chemical residue behind, producing uneven junction sizes and low yield across a wafer, tolerable for building a handful of qubits in a lab, but a dead end for anything approaching the millions of qubits fault-tolerant quantum computing will eventually need. Qolab's fix adapts standard 300mm silicon foundry tools, the same equipment used to make chips for phones and PCs, replacing the lift-off process with precision subtractive etching that produces a cleaner material interface and more consistent qubits

Rather than building one large, fragile chip, Qolab bonds separate qubit and wiring wafers into modular tiles with integrated cryogenic amplifiers and filters built in, cutting down on the tangle of external coaxial cables a quantum refrigerator would otherwise need. The company, whose name is a contraction of quantum collaboration, has deliberately built a horizontal partnership model instead, working with control hardware specialists like Quantum Machines rather than building every layer of the stack itself, letting Qolab focus specifically on perfecting low-noise, high-yield superconducting processors while partners handle everything else

Qolab Wants To Rewrite The Rules For Superconducting Quantum Hardwarewww.forbes.com