SEEQC Wants to Make Quantum Computing Less Complicated

Quantum computing comes at a massive cost – in cash, energy and resources. One startup wants to overcome these barriers to bring quantum into enterprise at scale. 

SEEQC, which stands for “scalable, energy-efficient quantum computing,” was founded with the goal of making quantum infrastructure less complicated. Instead of the bulky wiring and hardware that many conventional quantum systems require to actually get use out of them, SEEQC’s technology combines elements of both quantum and classical processors on a single chip that controls quantum devices, said John Levy, the company’s CEO. 

The company announced a $30 million funding round on Tuesday, led by VC firms NordicNinja and Booz Allen Ventures. The Series A extension brings the company’s total to nearly $60 million, and will be used to further build out its architecture and go to market, said Levy. 

When SEEQC spun out from chip company Hypres in 2019, its goal was to build the full stack of the “world’s best chip-based quantum computer.” But in meetings with quantum developers like Google and IBM, “We began to realize that everyone that we were talking to had the same set of problems that we were addressing,” he said. 

As it stands, current quantum computing isn’t for everyday use and is “more or less at the prototype level,” Levy said. “We know now that you can build quantum computers, you can run algorithms, you can put them over the cloud. We know that there are some small applications that you can’t do classically. But what we don’t know yet is, ‘How are we going to scale them to enterprise level?’”

SEEQC believes “massive integration at the chip level” is the key to unlocking that scalability, Levy said. “It’s really the integration of all the core functionality of a quantum computer on a chip.” 

So how does it work? The company’s “single flux quantum” processors essentially let you control a quantum computer without tons of additional hardware. 

• These chips operate in the same absolute-zero environment as the quantum computers themselves to allow for digital control of a device’s qubits for things like data processing, readout and error correction, as well as perform classical computing tasks in tandem. 
• This technology works with classical CPUs and GPUs for what Levy calls “true heterogeneous compute.” Its tech also fits into lots of existing quantum hardware, he noted. 

Levy noted the system could make quantum a whole lot cheaper: SEEQC claims its methods reduce costs by 97% and energy usage by up to 100,000 times. Costs and energy consumption pose major roadblocks to scaling quantum to more than a few thousand qubits. 

For enterprises, this could pave the path for broader quantum AI, such as running “very large-scale, very complex [large language models] on quantum computers,” he said. Another use case is pharmaceuticals or materials sciences, said Levy, such as discovering new drugs or chemicals, as it does in its partnership with pharmaceutical company Merck (which is also an investor in the startup). 

“You need to make (these systems) fast, low latency, digital, accurate, etc., and put that all on a chip,” said Levy. “That’s what we have done, and that’s what we’re continuing to do.”