Microsoft invests and partners with Photonic to develop quantum networking

Photonic is a company that is trying to build one of the first scalable, fault-tolerant, and unified quantum computing and networking platforms based on photonically linked silicon spin qubits. The company has over 120 employees with a head office in Canada and has recently opened offices in the United Kingdom and the United States.

Yesterday, Photonic announced it has raised an investment round of $100M USD from Microsoft, the UK government’s National Security Strategic Investment Fund (NSSIF), and others.

Along with the investment round, Photonic also announced partnership with Microsoft to work on the following next stages of development in quantum networking.

• At the Stage 1 physical layer, we will aim to deliver entanglement between two separate quantum devices via photons through telecom fiber.
• To enable the Stage 2 link layer, we will aim to deliver a never-before demonstrated quantum repeater that can capture, entangle, and hold quantum information reliably for a short time.
• Finally, at the Stage 3 network layer, we will focus on delivering from our co-innovation collaboration a reliable quantum repeater, one that is fault-tolerant and operational with our Azure cloud. With this technology, we can overcome any limitations on distance in the network, and enable the ability to create a full-scale, global quantum internet.

Microsoft and Photonic will combine Photonic’s spin-photon architecture that natively supports quantum communication over standard telecom wavelengths with the global scale infrastructure of Azure to integrate quantum networking capabilities into everyday operating environments.

“Our strategic collaboration with Microsoft will enable us together to accelerate the pursuit of quantum at scale,” said Dr. Stephanie Simmons, Founder and Chief Quantum Officer of Photonic and Co-chair of Canada’s National Quantum Strategy Advisory Board. “Microsoft is the perfect partner for Photonic, enabling us to tap into global infrastructure, proven platforms, and the tremendous scale of Microsoft Azure.”

“We are thrilled about joining forces with Photonic in improving the world through quantum technologies,” said Jason Zander, Executive Vice President of Strategic Missions and Technologies, Microsoft. “There is an opportunity to ignite new capabilities across the quantum ecosystem extending beyond computing, such as networking and sensing, and unlocking applications and scientific discovery at scale across chemistry, materials science, metrology, communications, and many other fields. The capabilities we aim to deliver together with Photonic can enable this vision and bring about quantum’s impact far more quickly than otherwise possible.”