Quantum Computing Report by GQI - Week 46, 2023

Quandela Receives €50 Million ($53.5M USD) in Funding

Quandela, a French quantum hardware startup developing photonic based processors, received has closed on €50 million in funding to support international expansion and continue with their R&D efforts. The investors include Serena, Credit Mutuel Innovation, the European Innovation Council Fund, Bpifrance, OMNES Capital and Quantonation. This amount also include funding from the French government through the France 2030 Plan. The company also announced it had delivered their first quantum computing machine, called MosiaQ to the OVHcloud datacenter. MosiaQ is a photonics based processor that can support anywhere between 2 and 12 qubits. The company also indicated it has started the production of three additional machines in its factory for delivery in 2024. A press release about the funding is available from Quandela on their web site here and another press release announcing the installation of the MosiaQ processor at OVHcloud can be accessed here.

IonQ Announces Q3 2023 Financial Results

IonQ has announced its Q3 financial results and reported revenues of $6.1 million for the quarter. This represents an 11% increase over the Q2 revenues of $5.5 million and a 111% increase over the Q3 2022 revenues of $2.7.6 million. However, operating costs also continued to increase coming in at $48.3 million in Q3 versus $38.6 million in Q2. Adjusted EBITDA loss was $22.4 million this quarter versus $19.4 million in Q2. The company ended the quarter with $485.1 million in cash, cash equivalents, and investments.

The company announced Q3 bookings of $26.3 million which appear to be primarily driven by a contract award from the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) for two barium based ion trap systems for quantum networking research and application development. Because of this Q3 booking the company increased its full year 2023 bookings forecast to $60 – $63 million from their previous forecast of $49 – $56 million. Q4 revenue is forecasted to range between $5.3 and $6.1 million with the full year 2023 revenue forecast is also projected to range between $21.2 to $22 million, an increase from their previous forecast of $18.9 million to $19.3 million.

Of particular note to us is the company stated it is filing an S-3 Shelf Registration Statement that would allow it to offer up to $500 million in securities. The company currently has ample cash for its operations but stated they did this as an option to fund strategic growth or pursue potential M&A opportunities that could occur in the future.

In the company’s earnings release, they reiterated some of the commercial and technical highlights that we have reported here in the future. These include progress with its barium based platforms, the contract award from the AFRLand announcement of the upcoming IonQ Forte Enterprise and IonQ Forte Tempo processors. The company also mentioned they were included in the 2023 Deloitte Technology Fast500? List of the Fastest-Growing Companies in North America.

Additional information about IonQ’s Q3 results can be seen in a press release located here and their SEC 10-Q report which can be accessed here. An investor update presentation is also available here.

D-Wave Reports its Q3 2023 Financial Results

D-Wave Quantum Inc. has reported its Q3 results and said it achieved revenue of $2.56 million in Q3 compared to $1.71 million in Q2 and $1.69 million a year ago in Q2 2023. Operating expenses decreased to $19.9 million in Q3 from the $21.6 million the company had in Q2 and compared to $16.2 million in Q2 2023. Adjusted EBITDA loss was $11.6 million versus $4.9 million in Q2.

The company ended the quarter with $53.3 million in cash, the highest balance ever held by the company. The company started the quarter with $7.5 million in cash but raise approximately $62 million in cash during the quarter primarily due to its Equity Line of Credit (ELOC) arrangement with Lincoln Park Capital Fund and its four year loan term agreement with PSPIB Unitas Investments II Inc. As of this writing the D-Wave stock price (QBTS) was at $0.72 and the company faces a delisting (for the second time) from the New York Stock Exchange because its price is below $1 per share. The company has six months to cure the deficiency.

On the commercial side, the company announced it has signed new and expanded deals with a number of customers during the quarter including BBVA, QuantumBasel, NTT Docomo, Poznan Superconducting and Networking Center, and Satispay. The company also continued to show continued increase in quarterly bookings versus 2022 as well as continued increase in deal size per booking.

The company also reported continued progress on the technical side including progress in its gate model quantum computer development program, enhancements to its Constrained Quadratic Model (CQM) hybrid solver, research on error mitigation techniques for its forthcoming Advantage2 annealer, SOC Type 2 compliance for protection of customer data, and other administrative and operational software improvements.

Additional information about D-Wave’s Q3 2023 financial results is available in a press release posted on their web site here.

Rigetti Computing Reports on Its Q3 2023 Financial Results

Rigetti Computing achieved revenue in Q3 of $3.1 million versus $3.3 million in Q2 2023 and $2.8 million in Q3 of 2022. Operating costs were $19.1 million in Q3 versus $18.9 million in Q2 and $33.3 million in Q3 of 2022. This year over year decrease was largely due to a reduction in stock compensation expense along with a company reduction in force implemented earlier this year. Loss from Operations was $16.8 million in Q3 versus $16.2 million in Q2 and $31.3 million in Q2 2022. The company ended the quarter with $110 million in cash, cash equivalents, and available-for-sale investments compared with $105 million at the end of Q2. The increase was due to the sale of $12.7 million of stock as part of a common stock purchase agreement with B. Riley.

A significant development for the company is that it sold another 9 qubits QPU to a U.S. national laboratory in Q3 following a similar sale made to the Superconducting Quantum Materials and Systems Center (SQMS) at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Q2. These QPUs will be used for research and will provide an additional source of revenue for the company as they pursue additional sales of these device. In addition, the company received a five-year Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract from the Air Force Research Lab (AFRL) to provide foundry services. The company also mentioned that they received in Q3 a DARPA IMPAQT contract to research quantum algorithms for solving combinatorial optimization problems and a Innovate UK grant in October along with HSBC, the University of Edinburgh, and the National Quantum Computing Centre to study how quantum can be used in anti-money laundering algorithms.

The company’s technical roadmap continues per its previous announced plan. They current have 9 qubit, 24 qubit, and 84 qubit Ankaa-2 designs in-house and are focusing on techniques to improve qubit quality. They are currently achieving 98%+ two-qubit gate fidelity on the 9 qubit device, 98% in the 24 qubit device, and 97% on the 84 qubit Ankaa-2. The company’s goal is to reach 98% fidelity on the Ankaa-2 by the end of the year and 99% in 2024. The newer devices use a new topology and utilize tunable couplers in the design.

For additional information about Rigetti’s Q3 financial report you can access the press release available on their website here, a webcast recording of their Q3 investor call here, and an investor presentation that can be accessed here.

IQM Announces Its Upgradable Radiance Series Quantum Processors with both 54 and 150 Qubit Versions

IQM has announced its Radiance series of upgradable quantum processors. These are based upon IQM’s superconducting quantum technology and the processors will come in two versions, a 54 qubit version available availability planned for Q3 2024 and a 150 qubit version with availability planned for Q1 2025. Customers purchasing the 54 qubit version will be able to upgrade to the 150 qubit version when it is available. And customers with the 150 qubit version should be able to upgrade to more advanced IQM processors when those become available. Target customers for these machines include businesses, high performance computing centers, data centers and governments. One of the first customers to receive the 54 qubit version will be the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland which had previously installed an IQM 20 qubit machine earlier this year. A press release from IQM announcing these new machines can be accessed here and a web page for the Radiance series of quantum processors is available here.

Quantum Machines and QuEra Receive a Grant to Develop a Photonic Control Unit

Quantum Machines and QuEra Computing are two companies that are working on developing practical quantum computers. Quantum Machines provides quantum control solutions that can orchestrate quantum and classical operations, while QuEra Computing offers neutral atom quantum computing platforms that can solve various problems using a flexible programmable geometry approach.

The two companies have received an innovation grant from the Israel-U.S. Binational Industrial Research and Development (BIRD) Foundation to jointly develop over a 24 month period a photonic control unit (PCU) that can significantly accelerate the computational power of quantum computers. The PCU is based on QuEra’s advanced photonic microchips and Quantum Machines’ high-speed analog controllers. The PCU will be integrated into QuEra’s quantum computers and Quantum Machines’ testing facilities and product lines.

The PCU can also address other types of optically driven quantum systems, such as ions, NV centers, and optically addressable spin qubits. This will allow for scaling up quantum computers and providing value to other quantum market segments, such as quantum sensors and communications devices.

The BIRD Foundation supports projects without receiving any equity or intellectual property rights from the participating companies or the projects themselves. BIRD funding is repaid as royalties from sales of products that were commercialized because of BIRD support. The Foundation provides funding of up to 50% of a project’s budget, beginning with R&D and ending with the initial stages of sales and marketing. The Foundation shares the risk and does not require repayment if the project fails to reach the sales stage.

Additional information about this award is available in a news release located on the QuEra website here.

Fermilab SQMS Center Opens “The Quantum Garage”

The Superconducting Quantum Materials and Systems Center (SQMS) at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory has built a 6,000 square foot lab devoted to advanced research in quantum technology. The facility will provide start-ups, academia and industry with access to advanced scientific tools, equipment, and facility to perform their cutting-edge research. This includes two large dilution refrigerators as seen by the frames in the background of the picture above. The facility will also help train a future quantum workforce, among one of the key missions of SQMS. SQMS has 34 partners across industry, academia and federal labs, including Ames National Laboratory, NASA, NIST, Northwestern University, Rigetti Computing, the Italian Institute of Nuclear Physics, the U.K. National Physics Laboratory and others who will be able to participate in the use of the facilities. A press release announcing the opening of the Quantum Garage has been posted on the Fermi website here and a video of the event celebrating the opening is available here.

Quantum Motion Partners with the University of Pennsylvania to Help Develop Test Techniques for Quantum Motion’s Spin Qubit Chips

Quantum Motion will be providing the Penn Quantum Hardware Lab at the University of Pennsylvania with its latest silicon qubit chips along with funding to work on techniques for testing Quantum Motion’s silicon-based quantum processor chips. The funding provided will support a postdoctoral scholar, a PhD student, for three years as well as additional testing equipment in the lab. The Penn Quantum Hardware Lab has considerable expertise in developing new methods to encode and control electron spin qubits to enable devices with improved qubit-to-qubit connectivity and new control approaches. A press release has been posted by Quantum Motion announcing this collaboration and it can be seen on their website here.

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