Nord Quantique, Xanadu, Photonic advance to next phase of DARPA quantum race

All three Canadian companies participating in a United States military-backed quantum computing research program have advanced to its next round.

“We’re pleased that DARPA believes we have a line of sight and want to continue working with us in getting us through to that finish line.”

Sherbrooke-based Nord Quantique, Toronto-based Xanadu, and Vancouver-based Photonic were selected to participate in Phase B of the Quantum Benchmarking Initiative (QBI), a program run by the US’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). The companies have made it one step closer to the potential $316 million USD ($445 million CAD) in funding that’s up for grabs if they can develop a functional, fault-tolerant quantum computer.

“We’re pleased that DARPA believes we have a line of sight and want to continue working with us in getting us through to that finish line,” Nord Quantique CEO Julien Camirand Lemyre told BetaKit in an interview. “We’re extremely confident in our technology, but it’s always reassuring.”

Nord Quantique works on superconducting qubits with a special type of error correction at the level of the qubit—the basic programming units of quantum computing. The 50-person team says it has developed a method of computing that keeps the size of a quantum system compact and more energy-efficient than its competitors.

The year-long second phase of the program awards companies an initial $5 million USD and the opportunity to negotiate for another $10 million USD, which Lemyre said would have to be matched by the participating companies, either from their balance sheet or external investors.

Photonic, which develops silicon spin qubits that it networks together, has been focused on solving scalability. In a statement, Photonic founder and chief quantum officer Stephanie Simmons said that Phase A allowed the company “to demonstrate the promise of our distinctive architectural approach” to doing just that.

The 18 participants in Stage A, which included tech giants Hewlett Packard Enterprise and IBM, got $1 million each to conceptualize a utility-scale quantum computer and submit a report. Eleven firms, including IBM and the three Canadian companies, made it to the second phase. Xanadu’s Christian Weedbrook told BetaKit that while the first phase focused on the plausibility of a company’s approach, Stage B will evaluate their research and development pathway.

“I told the team, ‘we have to get through to the next stage,’” Weedbrook said. “They really delivered.”

The QBI program aims to accelerate the timeline toward a commercially usable quantum computer, as the subject has led to market volatility and debate among quantum leaders. Experts have estimated that this goal might be feasible anywhere from five to 20 years from now. The defence applications of quantum technology are widespread, from advanced remote sensing to hack-resistant cryptography.

In Nord Quantique’s estimation, the QBI program, which assembles hundreds of the world’s quantum experts to review the projects, acts as a “due diligence” mechanism in a rapidly changing quantum landscape.

In its federal budget Tuesday, the Canadian government unveiled $334.3 million for the quantum tech industry over five years. About $223 million will go to research, while the remaining $111.2 million is slated for the industry and defence. More details are expected to be released in the upcoming Defence Industrial Strategy. Both Weedbrook and Lemyre said they hadn’t heard anything further about how the money would be spent.

Xanadu and Photonic have both been awarded grants through the Canadian defence department’s Innovation for Defence Excellence and Security (IDEaS) program. The companies were awarded $1 million apiece to develop early-stage tech solutions for defending North America against aerospace and maritime threats.

Lemyre told BetaKit that the intellectual property (IP) of developments made during the DARPA program will be owned by the participating companies. A document on the QBI website discussing IP rights states that “each agreement will be negotiated separately and to the mutual benefit of both parties.”

On his end, Weedbrook said that Xanadu plans to file any patents in both Canada and the US, and that DARPA hasn’t yet provided further details on how the US Department of War plans to work with companies who create full-scale quantum computers. “We’re excited to find out, though,” he said.

Feature image courtesy Nord Quantique.