PsiQuantum

PsiQuantum, Corp. (formerly PsiQ) is an American quantum computing company based in Palo Alto, California. It is developing a general-purpose silicon photonic quantum computer.

History
PsiQuantum was co-founded in 2016 by Jeremy O'Brien, Terry Rudolph, Peter Shadbolt, and Mark Thompson. They are or were professors and researchers at the University of Bristol and Imperial College London, England.

As of July 2021, PsiQuantum was reported to have raised $665 million from investors at a valuation of $3.15 billion. Its investors include BlackRock, Baillie Gifford, and Microsoft's venture fund M12.

In 2022, PsiQuantum and GlobalFoundries received U.S. federal funding for quantum computer research and development. PsiQuantum also entered into a collaboration with the Air Force Research Laboratory.

In 2023, DARPA selected PsiQuantum as one of the companies to receive funding under its Underexplored Systems for Utility-Scale Quantum Computing (US2QC) program. The UK Government also provided funding for PsiQuantum to open a facility in the UK. In 2024, the Australian government announced a A$940million investment into the company via share purchases, grants and loans. In the wake of the announcement, O'Brien stated that the aim of the company was to have a functioning quantum computer by 2029. Crikey's political editor, Bernard Keane, noted that the company had previously put forward a 2025 deadline. Bernard and other commentators also claimed the selection process by the Australian government lacked transparency.