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By Steven Scheer
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel’s Quantum Machines (QM), whose hardware and software platform aims to accelerate the realization of practical quantum computers, said on Tuesday it had raised $170 million in mid-stage funding.
The investment brings its total funding to date to $280 million and comes as most quantum computing companies globally now rely on the company’s technology to build and scale their systems, it said.
“With this funding, we believe that we are well-positioned to accelerate our expansion, drive innovation, and create long-term value for our stakeholders,” said CFO Nir Ackerman.
Quantum computing holds the promise of carrying out calculations that would take today’s systems millions of years and could unlock discoveries in medicine, chemistry and many other fields where near-infinite seas of possible combinations of molecules confound classical computers.
QM said 2024 had been a watershed moment in quantum computing, with major achievements such as Google’s Willow chip and multiple companies joining IBM in surpassing 1,000 qubits. QM also collaborates with Nvidia’s DGX Quantum hardware system.
Compared to a bit in classical computing, a qubit, or quantum bit, is incredibly fast but also extremely difficult to control and prone to errors.
“The quantum computing ecosystem has opened up and there are now hundreds of teams worldwide advancing the bleeding edge in parallel,” said Itamar Sivan, QM co-founder and CEO. “Bleeding edge” is a term sometimes used to refer to newly developing technologies.
“Significant adoption of quantum computers is around the corner. Quantum is one of the biggest, most important technological races of our generation,” said Sivan.
Last week, Microsoft unveiled a chip that it said showed quantum computing was “years, not decades” away, joining Google and IBM in predicting that a fundamental change in computing technology was closer than recently believed.
QM’s funding round was led by PSG Equity with participation from Intel Capital, Red Dot Capital Partners and existing investors.
Despite a 16-month war with Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza, currently halted by a ceasefire, Israeli high tech firms – a key economic growth driver – are still raising funds.
In 2024, Israel’s startups raised more than $12 billion, up 31% from 2023, according to Startup Nation Central.
(Reporting by Steven Scheer; Editing by Aidan Lewis)
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