Xanadu gets up to $10 million more from DARPA for photonic quantum work

[Maverick50]

Canadian quantum company Xanadu has provisional approval for up to 10 million dollars in further support from DARPA. According to the company's announcement, the money comes under DARPA's Quantum Benchmarking Initiative, as a one year extension to its existing Stage B work

Over the next twelve months, Xanadu will give DARPA regular progress reports and spend most of the funding on critical parts of its research roadmap. The release makes clear that the full amount is not guaranteed, and may arrive later than expected or not at all

Xanadu builds photonic quantum computers, which use particles of light as qubits. The company highlights the advantages of that approach, including computing at room temperature, a modular design that can be networked together, and fast clock speeds. It points to its Aurora system as proof that the networking idea works

For context, several other companies, including IonQ and IBM, moved to Stage C of the Quantum Benchmarking Initiative earlier this month. Xanadu's award is an extension of Stage B rather than a promotion, which is worth keeping in mind when reading the headline

Photonics is one of the more unusual approaches to quantum computing, and it is good to see continued support for it. Different hardware types may suit different jobs, so backing several options makes sense. Chief executive Christian Weedbrook will hope the extension leads to Stage C next year

Is photonics a serious contender for large scale quantum computing? And how important is DARPA's benchmarking programme for the industry?

Xanadu Secures Usd 10 Million Additional Darpa Supportinvestors.xanadu.ai

[PolePosition88]

Room temperature operation is photonics' big selling point. Dilution fridges are expensive and bulky. If light based machines scale, the cost savings could be huge. Networking chips together at room temperature also avoids awkward cryogenic links

[Odd Arrow]

Photon loss is the main problem for photonic systems. Every lost photon is an error. Xanadu's error correction plans will decide whether this works

GKP states are central to their approach, and they are hard to make. Their Aurora machine showed networking works. Fault tolerance is the next hurdle

[WWEGary20]

Provisional approval with warnings in the release is very cautious wording. Investor announcements always include those caveats. Let us see what the final contract looks like