Introducing Photonic’s Journey to Scalable Quantum Computing

Written by Photonic’s CEO Dr. Paul Terry

The potential of quantum computing has long been clear. It is set to enable society to discover life-saving medicines, to safeguard the security of our increasingly digital lives, to support the fight against climate change through discoveries of new materials and chemicals, and so much more.

Today, we’re making three announcements at Photonic that we believe bring us a significant step closer to turning quantum computing’s potential into reality:

We are introducing our unique quantum architecture. We are on track to deliver one of the world’s first scalable, fault-tolerant and unified quantum computing and networking platforms, using photonically linked silicon spin qubits.
We are announcing a strategic collaboration with Microsoft. Leveraging our technology combined with Microsoft’s extensive capabilities and global infrastructure, this collaboration positions our two companies to unlock the next stages of development in quantum supercomputing and quantum networking.
We are announcing an investment round of $100M USD. This comes from top-tier investors including British Columbia Investment Management Corporation (BCI), Microsoft Corporation, the UK government’s National Security Strategic Investment Fund (NSSIF), Amadeus Capital Partners, and Inovia Capital. I’m particularly grateful for the support of such knowledgeable investors and the confidence they have in our team and our technology. This brings our total funding raised to date to $140M USD.

Why are we excited?

We believe we have correctly identified the breakthrough that will allow us to offer a scalable, distributed, and fault-tolerant solution within five years, significantly ahead of industry expectations. While that is an audacious target, we believe our architecture is uniquely positioned to reduce the world’s time horizon to practical and useful quantum computing and quantum networking.

This architecture combines highly connected silicon spin qubits with a spin-photon interface, allowing us to leverage the memory and computing capabilities of spins with the connectivity of photonics. This allows us to scale our system horizontally and, thus, form the building blocks of a truly scalable, fault-tolerant system.

For more details on our technology approach, you can read this new whitepaper from my colleague Stephanie Simmons, Photonic’s Founder and Chief Quantum Officer.

What comes next?

For the last three years, we have been quietly focused on developing our technology and our company. I’m particularly proud of the expert team we have built, which now numbers over 120 across our headquarters in Vancouver, across Canada and our new subsidiaries in the United Kingdom and United States, which we were very pleased to open earlier this year.

Fuelled by these breakthroughs in our technology, the significant backing of expert investors, and our collaboration with one of the world’s leading technology companies, we believe we now stand on the cusp of a technological inflection point within quantum computing. I’m incredibly excited about what the years ahead will bring, both for Photonic and for the quantum industry overall. And if you have a passion for quantum technologies and want to join us on this journey, you can check out our open roles, of which there will be several more in the months ahead.

Dr. Paul Terry
Chief Executive Officer

Dr. Paul Terry leads the team at Photonic. He is a seasoned entrepreneur, engineer, and angel investor specializing in disruptive technologies. Paul advises VCs and governments on economic, technical, health, and national defense strategies.