(Reuters) -Quantum computing startup PsiQuantum said on Wednesday it has raised $1 billion in its latest funding round at a valuation of $7 billion, and announced a collaboration with Nvidia to speed up development of its quantum computers.
The Series E funding round was led by investment firms BlackRock, Temasek and Baillie Gifford and saw participation from new investors including Nvidia's venture capital arm NVentures, Macquarie Capital and Ribbit Capital.
PsiQuantum said the funding will help the company go ahead with sites in Brisbane, Australia and Chicago, Illinois as well as roll out large test systems to prove its design.
Quantum technology has the potential to perform calculations that would stump even the most powerful AI systems and could unlock a host of scientific and commercial applications, including cybersecurity. The technology may help in drug discovery and in materials research.
The Palo Alto, California-based startup uses a photonic approach — controlling particles of light on silicon chips — which it says can scale up using established semiconductor manufacturing and fiber-optic networking.
PsiQuantum said it will work with Nvidia on programs that run quantum computers, making the designer's chips connect to quantum machines and in turn improving the startup's light‑based silicon‑photonics chips.
The startup aims to build what it says will be the world's first million‑qubit, fault‑tolerant quantum computers.
The company has partnered with GlobalFoundries to fabricate the chips at the latter's New York factory.
(Reporting by Jaspreet Singh in Bengaluru and Max A. Cherney in San Francisco; Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri)
