Atom Computing nabs $60M Series B, nears 2nd gen computer

CARY

Atom Computing, a quantum computing startup with a presence in Cary, has raised $60 million in a Series B round from investors, as it finishes work on its second-generation quantum computer.

Last year, Atom unveiled a 100-qubit quantum computer with a coherence time of 40 seconds. Those are important measurements in the quantum computing world — determining how powerful the computer is and how long it can remain stable enough to solve a computing task.

While classical computers work by doing calculations made up of 1s and 0s, a quantum computer approaches the calculation from a different framework. They instead take advantage of how particles operate at the subatomic level, and instead of using 1s and 0s, the computers process information in quantum bits, or qubits, a combination of a 1 and 0.

The more qubits a computer can process, the faster and stronger it is. An equation that might take a classical computer years to finish could conceivably be solved in minutes by a quantum computer.

“With 100 qubits, there’s not much you can do of commercial value,” said Rob Hays, the company’s Cary-based CEO. “You can test some theories on them and get some response, but there’s not much of commercial value that you can do with 100 cubits. You really need thousands and eventually millions of qubits to do that.”

Hays said Atom’s first-generation computer was about proving that the company’s particular approach to quantum computers — using lasers to manipulate qubits — was stable enough to be reliable.

Now that it has a working concept, the company is aiming for something more powerful, Hays said, though he did not reveal how many qubits its second-generation machine would have.

“We will be announcing it as a public cloud service in the coming months,” he said in a video interview, adding it will be available to some business clients.

It could take years to get quantum computers to the point where they have broad commercial applications, but there’s already a host of software companies developing programs to work with the hardware being created by Atom and its competitors.

The field has attracted billions of dollars of investments, and some of the world’s largest tech companies, like Google and IBM, are also working in the field.

Many companies are beginning to meet with Atom and other firms, expressing interest in how to use quantum power to solve problems in their respective fields, whether it is optimizing airline and logistics routes or helping discover new molecules for pharmaceutical companies.

“The meetings that I’m having lately have been with large Fortune 500-type companies,” he said. “They have a handful of folks that they’ve hired that are dabbling in quantum computing today and trying to learn and figure out what they want to do with it.”

Originally founded in Berkeley, California, the company began to move some operations to Cary after hiring Hays, a former Lenovo executive based at the computer company’s Morrisville office. Most of the company’s engineering work is done in California and Texas, while its executive team operates in Cary.

Atom’s latest round of cash was led by Third Point Ventures and included Venrock, Innovation Endeavors, Prime Movers Lab and Prelude Ventures.

Atom grew from 20 to 40 employees last year, according to Hays, and it likely will double its headcount again with the new capital. Atom says that Cary represents around 10% of its workforce, a rate that is expected to continue as it grows.

Hays said the Triangle’s quantum computing ecosystem should mature quickly in the coming years, with hardware firms like Atom and IonQ, co-founded by a Duke professor, growing here as well as the presence of N.C. State University’s quantum computing hub.

“I think we have the potential to build a workforce of people that are the future of computing,” Hays said. “IT jobs constantly evolve and quantum computing is really the next wave of it. If we can get people trained up here locally, then I think we have the opportunity to be kind of a center of excellence in the region.”

This story was produced with financial support from a coalition of partners led by Innovate Raleigh as part of an independent journalism fellowship program. The N&O maintains full editorial control of the work. Learn more; go to bit.ly/newsinnovate