Ah, quantum computing… that moon technology full of potential, full of promise – and filled with enough jargon to make the average person cry.
Qubits, entanglement, superposition, trapped ions, Schrodinger’s cat. These terms sound strange because the world of quantum mechanics—where things can exist in several states at once— IS strange.
And that’s why I want you to bear with me as I relay this latest news from the buzzing 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 handle, adding to its computing power.
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“The space for small qubit devices acting as toy models is already saturated, and 20-40 qubit devices will not bring huge profits,” 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, powerful enough to solve wickedly complex problems and revolutionize fields from medicine to cryptography.
How can he do that, you ask? Well, there’s something fishy about 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.
Now, there are two main types of quantum computers under development. The first and most common are superconducting quantum computers, created by Google and IBM. They use tiny loops of supercooled metal to create the cube. These cars are lightning fast. However, they should be kept in -273°C at any time and are more error-prone than their main rival, the ion-blocked machine.
Trapped-ion quantum computers use charged atoms (ions) as qubits. Electric and magnetic fields lock these ions in place, and lasers scan them to perform calculations. They are very stable and accurate, but slower than superconducting quantum computers because of a fatal flaw: ions lined up, 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 proved a major hurdle for companies developing them, such as IonQ and Quantinium — putting a limit on their capabilities. That is, perhaps, until now.
Placing free cubes
ZuriQ has developed an entirely new way to design trapped-ion quantum computers by allowing ions (qubits) to move freely in two dimensions on a quantum chip instead of being confined to one-dimensional chains. This allows qubits to move in all spatial directions like an airplane, rather than like cars moving along roads and through intersections.
If the startup’s technology is anything to go by, it could enable quantum computers with trapped ions to far exceed the capabilities of their superconducting counterparts.
Fueled by new funding, ZuriQ is on track to demonstrate its first prototype car by the end of this year. The startup said it aims to become the leading provider of quantum computing worldwide.
“We have been very impressed by the speed of execution of the ZuriQ founding team and the pace of progress towards technical milestones that have been elusive in the community until now,” said Pascal Mathis, partner at VC Founderful based in Switzerlandwho led the investment round.
The funding comes at an exciting time for quantum computing. Interest in this area has been buzzing since Google revealed an experimental car that was able to solve a mathematical equation in five minutes that a traditional supercomputer could not master in 10 septillion years – which is older than the universe. This discovery brought the dream of quantum computing one step closer to reality. However, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang was quick pour cold water on the hype, warning at CES 2025 that practical quantum applications are still 15-30 years away.