Israeli software company Classiq is raising $33 million from the investment legs of Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) and Samsung Electronics, among others.
What would the quantum computer be like, you were just wondering? The fact that giants like HPE and Samsung are now pumping large amounts of money into Classiq through their investment vehicles shows that the race is not over yet. A quantum computer is a new kind of computer in which the processor is based on the principles of quantum mechanics. The result should be that such a quantum computer will eventually work millions of times faster than today’s most advanced supercomputers.
We will probably have to wait for years for that ‘everything changing’ quantum computer, but it is striking that several companies active in the field of quantum computing have gone public in the past year. Moreover, many new players are also emerging from the research labs – both in hardware and software – who can count on the necessary financial support. Classiq, headquartered in Tel-Aviv, is one of them.
Classiq has a software platform that other software developers can use to build very specific quantum applications. This can range from tools to optimize financial products to software for discovering new medicines. The fact that giants such as HPE and Samsung are co-investing in the start-up is seen by many experts as proof that the quantum computing market is heating up again. Classiq has now raised a total of $48 million in its 20 months of existence.
Quantum computers are only at the beginning of their development and only count a limited number of quantum bits or qubits: the strength of the processor. Last year, IBM said it was developing a 127-qubit processor, but researchers say it would take several thousand qubits to deliver on its quantum computing promises fully. So think of algorithms that can cause breakthroughs: the so-called ‘game-changers’.