Quantware, the quantum chip “supply chain” competition is officially underway… receives $178 million in funding and publicly unveils a design for 10,000 qubits

Dutch quantum computing hardware company QuantWare B.V. successfully received $178 million (approximately 262 billion Korean won) in investment. The company plans to use this funding as a foundation to expand the production of quantum chips based on “open architecture” and accelerate the commercialization of a new design, “VIO-40K,” capable of supporting processors with up to 10k qubits.

This round of funding was led by Intel Capital, IQT, and ETF Partners. Existing investors Forward.One, Invest-NL Deep Tech Fund, InnovationQuarter Capital, GroundState Ventures, and Gravit Ventures also participated in this financing. The company stated that this round was oversubscribed.

QuantWare is not a company that directly manufactures finished quantum computers. Its goal is to play a core role in the quantum computing supply chain. Some in the market compare the company to the “TSMC” of quantum computing. Its structure involves designing, manufacturing, and supplying quantum processors (QPU) for other enterprises and research institutions, enabling them to produce their own devices.

The company’s QPU is manufactured using a superconducting substrate architecture similar to that of Google and IBM. Its main customers are universities, startups, and national laboratories. These clients can skip basic research and directly use the pre-made chips to develop experimental quantum computers.

QuantWare will invest the new funds into the development of “Kilofab.” Kilofab is a dedicated quantum open-architecture manufacturing facility aimed to become the world’s largest once completed. The company expects that, through this facility, the production capacity of QPUs will increase approximately 20-fold compared to current levels. Customers can send their quantum chip designs to QuantWare, which will then manufacture them using its proprietary process.

Announced on the same day, VIO-40K is a quantum processor design supporting the development of chips with up to 10k qubits. The company explained that its scale is about 100 times larger than current leading designs. Co-founder and CEO Matt Lijlaarsdam stated, “The goal is to realize a 10k-qubit processor on an open architecture accessible to the entire industry. Kilofab will provide industrial-scale manufacturing capacity to meet the rapidly growing global demand.”

Kilofab is based on QuantWare’s proprietary “VIO” technology. VIO is a modular quantum processor architecture focused on increasing computational performance under the same power consumption. According to the company, it has already provided operational quantum processors to over 50 companies and research institutions across more than 20 countries. The company also claims that, by shipment volume, it is the world’s largest commercial QPU supplier.

Kike Mirajes, from Intel Capital, said that recent quantum startup companies have faced difficulties in chip packaging and manufacturing, hindering design scaling, but QuantWare recognized this early and responded with VIO. He commented, “This is a company that combines technological ambition with execution capability,” and mentioned its potential to become the foundation of future superconducting quantum systems.

This investment indicates that the quantum computing market is moving beyond the “research phase” into full-scale infrastructure competition. The focus has shifted from who can develop more powerful algorithms to who can reliably produce quantum chips at large scale. Whether QuantWare can occupy a core position in the supply chain is highly watched.

TP AI Note: This summary was generated based on the TokenPost.ai language model. The main content of the article may be omitted or inconsistent with facts.