Oratomic raises $475M and Universal Quantum nets over $100M on the same day

[Exoplanet Mark]

Two quantum hardware startups announced big funding rounds on Thursday, SiliconANGLE reports. Pasadena based Oratomic raised a $475 million Series B, only three months after a $300 million Series A, which takes its total to $775 million. Its valuation reportedly jumped from $1.5 billion to $5.5 billion in that time. The round was co-led by a long list of names including ARCH Venture Partners, Spark Capital, Khosla Ventures, Index Ventures, General Catalyst and Bezos Expeditions

Oratomic builds reconfigurable neutral atom arrays, and its pitch is unusual. The company believes a fault tolerant machine can be built with about 10,000 qubits, rather than the roughly one million that is usually estimated. If that holds up, it changes the economics of the whole field. CEO Dolev Bluvstein was also refreshingly blunt, telling the Wall Street Journal that the company has no idea what the business models are going to be

Over here in the UK, Universal Quantum raised more than $100 million in a Series A. The company builds modular trapped ion chips, and SiliconANGLE calls it the largest Series A for a UK headquartered quantum computing firm. The round was co-led by DCVC and Firgun Ventures, with EDBI, Artal, Main Sequence and Hostplus also taking part. The money will expand a Singapore research centre, its first outside Europe, and grow operations in the US, Japan and Hamburg

CEO Sebastian Weidt described the modular approach as one of the most credible paths to quantum computing at scale. Universal Quantum has been around for a while as a spin out from the University of Sussex, so it is good to see it land a round of this size. It is a reminder that the UK still produces serious hardware companies, even if many of them end up expanding abroad. Hamburg and Singapore both get a boost from this one

The contrast between the two stories is what caught my eye. One company is openly saying it does not know the business model yet and still tripled its valuation in a quarter. The other has spent years building a modular design and only now raised a Series A of this size. Investor appetite for quantum hardware clearly has not cooled

Is the 10,000 qubit claim believable? And does Universal Quantum expanding overseas worry you for the UK sector?

Oratomic raises $475M for neutral-atom quantum computing, Universal Quantum nets $100M+ - SiliconANGLEsiliconangle.com

[Arthur86]

Modular trapped ion chips that connect together seem like the most practical route to me. You build small modules well and link them, rather than trying to make one giant chip perfect. Plenty of other firms are going the same way, so the competition is tough

Universal Quantum will need to show working links between modules soon. Linking modules cleanly is the hard part. If they crack it, scaling gets much simpler. That is the whole bet

[LegendaryOliver16]

Brilliant news for Universal Quantum. Sussex has been quietly building a strong ion trap group for years, and this is the payoff. I would rather see them expand abroad and stay UK headquartered than get bought out by a US firm. Singapore is a sensible choice given how much the government there is spending on quantum

Hostplus being in the round is interesting too, as it is an Australian pension fund. Pension money in quantum is a sign of confidence

[EdgeNodeCoder]

Bezos Expeditions turning up in quantum is interesting. He has backed some long shot hardware before, so it fits the pattern. The list of co-leads is so long that it almost looks like everyone wanted a piece. That kind of crowded round usually means strong demand rather than careful diligence

[StringTheory]

Admitting you have no idea what the business model is while raising $475 million takes some nerve. In fairness it is an honest answer, because nobody in quantum knows yet

Investors are betting on the technology first and the revenue later. That is fine as long as the technology delivers