IQM Quantum Computers said a consortium which includes startups, industry, research centres, supercomputing centres and academia has received 12.4 million euros grant from the German Ministry of Education and Research to develop 54-qubit quantum processor in the next four years.
Helsinki-headquartered IQM, which raised 39 million euro A round in November 2020, said it was leading the project and working as a system integrator.
“The scope of the project is to accelerate commercialization through an innovative co-design concept. This project focuses on application-specific quantum processors, which have the potential to create a fastlane to quantum advantage,” it said.
The digital-analog concept used to operate the processors will further lay the foundation for commercially viable quantum computers. The project is intended to support the European FET Flagship project EU OpenSuperQ, announced in 2018 which is aimed at designing, building, and operating a quantum information processing system of up to 100 qubits.
“We must act now if we in Germany and Europe do not want to become solely dependent on American or Asian know-how in this future technology area,” said Dr. Sebastian Luber, Senior Director Technology & Innovation at Infineon
Deploying digital-analog quantum computing, this consortium adds a new angle to the OpenSuperQ project and widens its scope. With efforts from Munich, Berlin and Jülich, as well as Parity QC from Austria, the project builds bridges and seamlessly integrates into the European quantum landscape, IQM said.
”The concept allows us to become a system integrator for full-stack quantum computers by bringing together all the relevant players. As Europe’s leading startup in quantum technologies, this gives us confidence to further invest in Germany and other European countries” said Dr. Jan Goetz, CEO of IQM Quantum Computers
