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

[Layla17]

Having Martinis, Ho and McDermott all on the same founding team is about as strong a credibility signal as this field can produce, that's three genuinely foundational figures in superconducting quantum computing under one roof

[BigDogCena41]

Adapting existing 300mm silicon foundry tools instead of inventing entirely new fabrication equipment is such a pragmatic shortcut, leverages decades of mature semiconductor manufacturing rather than reinventing everything from scratch

[Cobalt Pilgrim]

The chemical residue problem from lift-off stencils is exactly the kind of unglamorous, easy to overlook manufacturing detail that ends up being the real bottleneck standing between lab demos and actual scale

[VoidSentinel66]

Integrating cryogenic amplifiers and filters directly into the tile packaging to cut down on coaxial cabling ties nicely into that other research about eliminating the million cable problem in scaling quantum hardware

[Western Depot]

The name being a contraction of quantum collaboration and the deliberate horizontal partnership model is a different philosophy than companies trying to own the entire stack themselves

[Galaxy Sofia]

UC Investments leading the round is an interesting look, a university endowment fund betting directly on quantum hardware manufacturing rather than the more typical venture capital path

[Zoe90]

Removing the scaling burden from theoretical error correction software and placing it on reliably manufactured hardware instead is a smart bet if the fabrication claims actually hold up at real production volume

[CosmicRay17]

The appealing part of this approach is that it starts with a factory ecosystem that already knows how to make tiny, repeatable structures. Quantum hardware does not need to reinvent every manufacturing step if established silicon tools can provide the precision and scale.

That could turn fabrication from a handcrafted laboratory exercise into something more predictable. The hard part will be proving that a process designed for classical chips can preserve the delicate quantum behaviour needed after the wafer leaves the clean room.

[Molly32]

A 300mm wafer sounds wonderfully industrial, but wafer size alone does not guarantee useful quantum devices. Yield matters enormously when a processor needs many components to behave consistently and a single bad region can affect the whole system.

The startup will need strong testing, repair strategies, and ways to select or connect the best devices. Semiconductor manufacturing has spent decades learning how to manage defects, so borrowing that experience is a sensible starting point rather than a shortcut around physics.

[LostEdge10]

The story of an early wafer moving through a familiar-looking factory would be a nice reminder that quantum computing may eventually depend on very ordinary industrial routines. Behind the futuristic claims are lithography, inspection, packaging, and a long queue of equipment that someone has to maintain.

The Nobel connection brings credibility, but it does not replace engineering. A brilliant theory still has to survive contamination, temperature changes, wiring constraints, and the occasional machine that refuses to cooperate before breakfast.

[John_62]

The most encouraging feature is the attempt to solve quantum hardware as an industrial problem. Instead of asking how to build one remarkable machine, the company is asking how to produce a family of devices with consistent behaviour.

That shift is essential if quantum computing is ever going to leave specialist laboratories. The route may take longer than the headline suggests, but it is aimed at the right bottleneck: repeatability.

[CrowSting09]

This strategy could be especially useful if the quantum devices are compatible with existing control electronics or packaging methods. The less custom infrastructure required around each chip, the easier it becomes to build a complete system rather than a beautiful isolated experiment.

Still, compatibility needs to be demonstrated at the system level. A wafer can look familiar while the final device requires unusual cooling, readout, and assembly that reintroduce the old bottlenecks.