The photonic quantum work that Nokia Bell Labs is doing is not just marketing hype, says Luca De Matteis, an analyst at Appledore Research. “Not many players have the understanding and expertise that Nokia has in optical networks,” he says.
Growing quantum competition
Bell Labs isn’t the only organization to recognize the power of photonic computing. In April, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency selected a photonic quantum computing company, Xanadu, as one of 15 companies for its Quantum Benchmarking Initiative.
Other companies working on photonic computing include PsiQuantum, ORCA, Quandela, QuiX Quantum, Photonic, Quantum Computing, AEGIQ, Duality Quantum Photonics, Ephos, g2-Zero, Quantum Source, QC82, and QBoson.
In September, PsiQuantum announced that it raised $1 billion in funding. Their goal? a 1-million-qubit photonic computer by the end of 2027.
Also in September, China’s QBoson showed off a 1,000-qubit photonic quantum computer, which is available now to customers via the cloud. The previous month, the company broke ground on a factory dedicated to the mass production of photonic quantum computers.
According to QBoson, its cloud-based photonic computing platform – previously limited to 550 and 100 qubits – has already processed 68 million computing problems, by over 10,000 developers and more than 900 colleges and universities. The 1,000 qubit threshold allows it to tackle practical problems such as drug molecule design, the company says.