Ah, quantum computing… that moonshot technology full of potential, full of promise – and packed with enough jargon to make the average person cry.
Qubits, entanglement, superposition, trapped ions, Schrödinger's cat. These terms sound strange because the world of quantum mechanics – in which things can exist in multiple states at the same time – Is strange.
And that's why I want you to bear with me as I bring you this latest news from the vibrant quantum computing startup scene.
ZuriQ, a spin-out from ETH Zurich in Switzerland, has raised $4.2 million to commercialize a new chip architecture that could dramatically increase the number of qubits a trapped-ion quantum computer can process, boosting its computing power.
“The space for devices with a few qubits to serve as toy models is already saturated, and devices with 20-40 qubits will not bring big gains,” said Pavel Hrmo, CEO of ZuriQ. “We need to focus on long-term scalability.”
ZuriQ wants to build a quantum computer with thousands of qubits that is powerful enough to solve incredibly complex problems and revolutionize fields from medicine to cryptography.
How can it do this, you ask? Well, it vaguely has something to do with airplanes, cars and magnetic fields. But first, a quick science lesson.
Qubits are the basic units of information in a quantum computer. Unlike bits in a regular computer, which can only be 0 or 1, qubits can be 0, 1, or both at the same time. This allows quantum computers to solve many problems at once, making them light years faster than even today's best supercomputers.
There are two main types of quantum computers currently in development. The first and most widely used are superconducting quantum computers, developed by companies such as Google and IBM. They use tiny loops of supercooled metal to create qubits. These machines are lightning fast. However, they must be adhered to −273°C at any time and are more error prone than their main competitor, the trapped ion machine.
Trapped ion quantum computers use charged atoms (ions) as qubits. Electric and magnetic fields trap these ions in place and lasers control them to perform calculations. They are very stable and precise, but slower than superconducting quantum computers because of a fatal flaw: ions arranged in a row like cars in a traffic jam become crowded and inefficient as more qubits are added.
That's why increasing the number of qubits in a trapped-ion quantum computer has proven to be a major obstacle for companies developing them, like IonQ and Quantinium – limiting their capabilities. That may be the case until now.
Releasing qubits
ZuriQ has developed a completely new way to design trapped-ion quantum computers by allowing ions (the qubits) to move freely in two dimensions on a quantum chip rather than being restricted to one-dimensional chains. This allows qubits to move in all spatial directions like an airplane, instead of like cars driving across streets and intersections.
If the startup's technology is all it promises, it could enable quantum computers using trapped ions to far surpass the capabilities of their superconducting counterparts.
ZuriQ is driven by fresh financial resources is on track to demonstrate its first machine prototype by the end of this year. The startup said it wants to become the world leader in quantum computing.
“We were very impressed with the speed of implementation of the ZuriQ founding team and the pace of progress towards technical milestones that have previously been difficult to achieve in the community,” said Pascal Mathis, Partner at The Switzerland-based VC Founderfulwhich led the investment round.
The funding comes at an exciting time for quantum computing. Since Google, there has been great interest in this area presented an experimental machine that was able to solve a mathematical equation in five minutes that a conventional supercomputer couldn't do in 10 septillion years – that's older than the universe. The breakthrough brought the dream of quantum computing one step closer to reality. Nevertheless, Nvidia's CEO Jensen Huang was quick to do so Pour cold water on the hype, warns at CES 2025 that practical quantum applications are still 15 to 30 years away.
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