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A $300 Million Bet on a New Quantum Approach
Series A round co-led by major venture firms signals investor confidence in Oratomic's error-correction breakthrough
Oatomic, a quantum computing startup founded by Caltech physicists, announced this week that it has raised $300 million in a Series A funding round. The round was co-led by ARCH Venture Partners, Spark Capital, and Khosla Ventures, with participation from Bezos Expeditions, Index Ventures, General Catalyst, Lowercarbon Capital, Bain Capital, and others. This investment underscores a wave of enthusiasm among investors for companies aiming to build the first commercially viable quantum computer.
The company entered the race earlier this year with a goal to develop the first utility-scale quantum computer by the end of the decade. Unlike many other quantum startups that are currently offering noisy intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) prototypes to researchers and corporations, Oratomic plans to bypass that stage entirely. The startup's co-founder and CEO Dolev Bluvstein told TechCrunch that the decision to start the company came only after a recent breakthrough changed the founders' minds about the feasibility of building a useful quantum machine in the near term.
Optical Tweezers and Fewer Qubits: A Simpler Path to Error Correction
Oatomic uses lasers to hold individual atoms, reducing the qubit count needed for fault-tolerant computing
Oatomic's quantum computer is based on a technique that uses lasers as optical tweezers to hold individual atoms in place. The company's researchers discovered that this approach can correct errors using significantly fewer qubits than previously thought possible. Effective error correction is a critical challenge in quantum computing because quantum systems are highly sensitive to noise from their environment. Oratomic's method aims to overcome this hurdle with greater efficiency.
Bluvstein explained that Oratomic's system requires roughly 10,000 to 20,000 qubits to build a useful, fault-tolerant computer. For comparison, PsiQuantum—a startup valued at $7 billion that is also bypassing the NISQ stage—aims to deliver a million-qubit quantum computer by the end of next year. Bluvstein argued that Oratomic's approach is fundamentally simpler and less expensive, and that the company has already experimentally demonstrated all core components required for a full-scale machine at a slightly smaller scale.
The Race for Utility-Scale Quantum Computing
Investors see potential across biotech, AI, cryptography, and logistics, but technical hurdles remain
A full-scale quantum computer could enable breakthroughs in any field that requires complex calculations, including biotechnology, chemistry, logistics, artificial intelligence, and cryptography. This potential has driven a surge in investor interest. Several quantum startups, including Infleqtion and Quantanium, have gone public this year, while public companies like Rigetti and IonQ have seen their share prices rise over the past 18 months.
Investor Vinod Khosla expressed strong confidence in Oratomic, writing on X that the investment was his firm's largest initial investment yet. However, the quantum computing landscape remains highly uncertain. Multiple architectural approaches are being pursued by different companies, and no single method has yet proven to be the path to a practical, fault-tolerant quantum computer. Oratomic's approach, while promising, still faces the challenge of scaling from experimental demonstrations to a full-scale system by the end of the decade. The company's success will depend on its ability to maintain its error-correction advantage and secure continued funding and talent in a competitive field.
Based on reporting from techcrunch.com
