The Qatari sovereign wealth fund adds yet another company to its set of “forward-looking, tech-led” investments.
The Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) has invested in a quantum computing company seeking to build the world’s first commercially viable and fault-tolerant quantum computers.
The Qatari sovereign wealth fault announced on Wednesday that it had joined an investment round valued at $1 billion (about QAR 3.65 billion) in PsiQuantum’s Series E fundraise.
PsiQuantum will use the funds to “break ground on utility-scale quantum computing sites in Brisbane, Australia and Chicago, United States,” QIA said in a statement.
Similarly, the latest investment will also be used to “deploy large-scale prototype systems to validate systems architecture and integration, and further advance the performance of its quantum photonic chips.”
QIA joined the likes of reputed investors BlackRock, Temasek, and Baillie Gifford, among others, in the round that values the company at $8 billion (about QAR 29.1 billion).
“Our architecture is built to scale, our systems are integrating quickly, and with this funding, we’re ready to take the next decisive steps to deliver quantum computing’s full potential,” said PsiQuantum’s co-founder and CEO, Jeremy O’Brien, in a statement.
Founded in 2016, the company is also collaborating with giant NVIDIA across various projects, such as the development of quantum algorithms and software.
Its main focus, with the funds secured, will be to scale up Barium Titanate (BTO) manufacturing, the company said in its statement.
BTO is currently one of the world’s highest-performing electro-optic materials, carrying immense potential in the manufacturing of next-generation AI supercomputers capable of low-power, high-speed optical networking.
“PsiQuantum is now positioned at the forefront of what could be a trillion-dollar industry, able to solve some of humanity’s biggest challenges,” said Luke Ward, Baillie Gifford’s private companies investment manager.
With the investment, PsiQuantum becomes the latest addition to QIA’s AI and tech portfolio, which the Qatari authority says emphasises “forward-looking, tech-led companies”.
Early in September, QIA announced that it had joined a cohort of major global investors in U.S.-based artificial intelligence safety and research company Anthropic’s Series F fundraise worth $13 billion (approximately QAR 47.3 billion).
In June, it joined Series F fundraising for Applied Intuition, a leader in vehicle intelligence, adding to the list consisting of Turkish AI Insider, social media platform X’s xAI, and AI platform Cresta and Databricks.
