Sydney quantum computing startup Diraq has secured an initial US$51 million ($73m) from US defence research agency DARPA, with potential funding of up to US$300 million (A$430m) to test its plans for a commercially useful, fault-tolerant quantum computer.
The funding follows Diraq’s selection for Stage C, the final phase of DARPA’s Quantum Benchmarking Initiative, which, a little bit like AI, is trying to figure out by 2033, if quantum computers can deliver more economic value than they cost to build and run. (The challenge being that the only work in near absolute zero ie. −273°C temps).
The first tranche supports 12 months of technical demonstrations, system development and expanded research and testing infrastructure. Stage B involved a development plan, including the risks, ways to address them and prototypes needed to test its approach (things AI has’t really bothered itself about).
Diraq joins three other heavy hitters in the final stage – IBM, IonQ and Atom Computing. Microsoft and PsiQuantum are already part of it after participating in an earlier pilot program.
DARPA’s independent team will look at whether Diraq’s silicon-based systems can be built and operated as intended.
“Stage C is where we begin moving from plans to proof,” program MD Micah Stoutimore said.
Diraq founder and CEO Andrew Dzurak said reaching Stage C shows his startup’s development plan had survived rigorous technical scrutiny.
“This gives Diraq a decisive advantage: we are scaling on a manufacturing base that already exists, while others are still working out how to build one,” he said.
Diraq uses silicon spin qubits (quantum bits that encode and store info in the momentum (ie. spin) of single electrons). Its manufacturing is compatible with conventional semiconductor production. The company says it has demonstrated an eight-qubit array using an industrial chip manufacturing process and is targeting 150,000 physical qubits on a single chip by 2029 and more than two million by 2031.
The UNSW spinout, founded in 2022, has signed an agreement last month to establish operations at the Roadrunner Quantum Lab in New Mexico.
Chairman Scott McGregor, the former Broadcom CEO, said manufacturing costs would determine the winners.
“The quantum computing race will mirror the evolution of the semiconductor industry, and the winners will be decided by manufacturing economics,” he said.
Closer to home, Diraq plans to install a silicon spin quantum computer at an Equinix data centre in Sydney before the end of this year.
The DARPA funding follows a US$38 million letter of intent from the US Department of Commerce under the CHIPS and Science Act to support American production.
Earlier this year, the Australian government’s National Reconstruction Fund invested $20m in the pioneering quantum startup as part of an ongoing $75m raise.
Diraq has more than 130 staff globally, with its US headquarters in Palo Alto and labs in Chicago and Albuquerque.
