The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has selected and is in negotiations with Microsoft and PsiQuantum for the final stage of a program aimed at determining whether it’s possible to build an industrially useful quantum computer much faster than conventional predictions.
The companies are are now part of the Validation and Co-Design stage of the Underexplored Systems for Utility-Scale Quantum Computing (US2QC) program, one of two programs that make up DARPA’s larger Quantum Benchmarking Initiative (QBI). QBI is designed to rigorously verify and validate whether any quantum computing approach can achieve utility-scale operation — meaning its computational value exceeds its cost — by the year 2033.
The companies have different approaches to their proposed utility-scale quantum computers. Microsoft Corporation, based in Redmond, Washington, is building an error-corrected, utility-scale quantum computer based on a compact superconducting topological qubit architecture, while PsiQuantum, Corp., based in Palo Alto, California, is using silicon-based photonics to create an error-corrected, utility-scale quantum computer based on a lattice-like fabric of photonic qubits. Over 50 experts from DARPA’s test and evaluation team have exhaustively examined both companies’ specific technical approaches, their detailed plans for fault-tolerant prototypes, and their long-term R&D plans, components, architectures, systems development, and application utility.
Read DARPA's announcement (excerpted above)
Read PsiQuantum's announcement
Read LinkedIn post from Microsoft executive