A Bristol quantum computing company has been hired by the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to help determine whether the technology can deliver on its promise by 2033.<\/p>\n
Phasecraft will provide proprietary software and algorithms to DARPA’s Quantum Benchmarking Initiative (QBI), which aims to assess whether utility-scale quantum computing is achievable within seven years.<\/p>\n
The company’s hardware-agnostic algorithms, which in some cases are millions of times more efficient than previous work, will be used to estimate the resources needed for practical quantum applications in two key areas: materials and molecular modelling, and hard optimisation problems.<\/p>\n
Ashley Montanaro, co-founder and chief executive of Phasecraft, said: “For all the emphasis we see on hardware in the field, it is gratifying to have a government partner like DARPA appreciate the importance of quantum algorithms in the race to achieve industrially useful quantum computing. Our quantum algorithms are delivering meaningful results today, and we’re excited to join the impressive QBI team.”<\/p>\n
If Phasecraft’s algorithms show that key applications require fewer logical qubits than previously thought, it could change the US government’s investment strategy in quantum technology.<\/p>\n
The company works with leading hardware firms including Google Quantum AI, IBM, Quantinuum and QuEra.<\/p>\n
Phasecraft was founded in 2019 by Montanaro, Prof Toby Cubitt and Prof John Morton, quantum scientists from UCL and the University of Bristol.<\/p>\n
The contract follows the company’s recent $34m Series B funding round, which brought total investment to over $50m including grant and contract funding.<\/p>\n
In October, Phasecraft launched Mondrian, a quantum-enhanced software platform designed to speed up classical optimisation algorithms for industries including energy, finance and logistics.<\/p>\n
The company will work as a technical expert on a contract led by the University of Maryland’s Applied Research Laboratory for Intelligence and Security to support DARPA’s benchmarking initiative.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Phasecraft’s algorithms will inform Defence investment strategy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":32973,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[120785,50204],"coauthors":[160],"class_list":["post-36917","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","category-technology","tag-bristol-and-bath","tag-featured-story"],"yoast_head":"\n