French quantum computing startup Alice & Bob has announced that it’s one of five companies selected by the French Ministry for Armed Forces to participate in France’s PROQCIMA initiative, the country’s national quantum computing program.

The PROQCIMA initiative is a key component of France’s National Strategy for Quantum, which aims to catapult the country into a leadership position in the quantum computing arena. The PROQCIMA initiative is funded to the tune of €500 million ($548 million) and designed to foster competition and collaboration among five selected quantum computing startups, including Alice & Bob, to develop a universal, fault-tolerant quantum computer.

The PROQCIMA initiative roadmap aims to present a demonstrator quantum computer with 128 logical qubits by 2030, with the ultimate goal of industrializing a 2048-logical-qubit system by 2035. The program operates under a competitive structure, gradually narrowing down participants over the years based on progress and results, ensuring that only the most promising and innovative technologies move forward.

Quantum computing offers the potential to multiply computing capacities by making calculations that are currently impossible accessible, revolutionizing industries and solving complex problems that are currently beyond the reach of classical computers.

Alongside Alice & Bob, French companies PASQAL SAS, Quandela SAS, C12 Quantum Electronics SAS and Quobly SAS were also selected to participate in the program. “This initiative will support establishing our global leadership and fueling the whole ecosystem’s growth,” Théau Peronnin, co-founder and chief executive of Alice & Bob, said in a statement.

Alice & Bob’s technology significantly reduces the largest barrier in quantum development: error correction. The company offers cat qubits that are designed to be “error-protected” by incorporating error correction that stores quantum information across many particles, making them more resilient to environmental disturbances.

Cat qubits include a hardware-efficient design that reduces the hardware requirements for a fault-tolerant quantum computer by up to 60 times compared to other qubit technologies. The use of cat qubits is said to dramatically reduce the overhead needed for quantum error correction, with an estimated 200-fold reduction of the resources needed to execute complex quantum algorithms, including code-breaking applications compared with other existing approaches.

Alice & Bob is a venture capital-backed startup, having raised approximately $33 million in funding. Investors include Elaia Partners SAS, Banque publique d’investissement, Supernova Invest SAS and Breega Capital SAS.

Photo: Alice & Bob