Photonic, a Canadian quantum computing company, has raised $100 million for its all-silicon quantum computing platform with Microsoft as a new partner, investor, and co-developer.
Numerous industry specialists have hailed Photonic’s innovative approach to quantum computing as a “breakthrough” in the field, prompting the investment and partnership.
The method of photonics entails the construction of quantum computers with silicon spin qubits and a spin-photon interface; that is, a computer that executes quantum computations on silicon hardware using qubits composed of light.
A qubit in quantum computation is comparable to the bits of a binary computer. In contrast to a classical or binary computer, which can only perform calculations with ones and zeros, a qubit can utilize “superposition” and “entanglement,” which are peculiar properties of quantum physics.
These quantum states enable qubits to perform computations similar to binary bits, which can utilize combinations of ones, zeros, ones and zeros, neither ones nor zeros and additional combinations that may be even less intuitive.
A spin qubit augments the situation by incorporating electron spin. Furthermore, Photonic asserts that it has achieved the final element in the quantum computing enigma by integrating a photonic spin interface into an all-silicon hardware solution for a qubit.
Stephanie Simmons, founder and Chief Quantum Officer of Photonic, states that the organization anticipates commercializing a completely functional, fault-tolerant quantum networking system within five years.
The partnership with Microsoft, according to Simmons, will aid in facilitating the following schedule:
“We’re incredibly excited to be partnering with Microsoft to bring forth these new quantum capabilities. Their extensive global infrastructure, proven platforms, and the remarkable scale of the Azure cloud make them the ideal partner to unleash the transformative potential of quantum computing and accelerate innovation across the quantum computing ecosystem.”
