C12 announces that it recently raised a financing round of 18 million euros ($19.4 million at current exchange rates). Originally founded in 2020 as a spin-off from the École Normale Supérieure Physics Laboratory, the company has been working on a unique process to create quantum computers based on carbon nanotubes.
While the concept of quantum computing is not new, it is still a work in progress. Many scientific teams have approached this topic from different angles. The goal is to create a scale quantum computer that can perform calculations with a low amount of errors.
But wait, why do we need quantum computers in the first place? Computers as they exist today are based entirely on electronic transistors. And we've gotten very good at making smaller transistors so we can pack more transistors onto a single chip. As a result, computing power has progressed at an exponential rate over the past 60 years.
And yet, today's computer architecture has its limits. Even as companies begin to build larger data centers, some problems simply cannot be solved with traditional computers. It is also not clear whether moore's law will remain valid for years to come.
This is where quantum computers could come in handy.
“If we want to create a model (a comprehensive simulation of a chemical reaction) to know how new drugs will interact with our cells, that is not possible with a conventional approach,” said C12 co-founder and CEO Pierre Desjardins (pictured). photo on the right). ) told TechCrunch.
“There are many optimization problems to solve, whether in transportation, logistics or manufacturing. “They are impossible to run on a conventional computer because there will be too many variables, too many possible scenarios,” he continued.
Matthieu Desjardins, his brother, has a PhD in quantum physics and acts as the company's chief technology officer. At one point during our conversation, Pierre Desjardins even called his brother a “scientific genius.”
And since it's 2024, there's even an ai angle that should convince you that quantum computing research is important. “Today, training a large language model also involves consuming an enormous amount of energy,” says Pierre Desjardins. “And quantum is also a computing method that uses much less energy.”
How to build a quantum computer
C12 says the two key differences from the other teams working on quantum computers are that it uses a different material (carbon nanotubes) and has a specific manufacturing process (a nanoassembly process that is now patented).
“Today I think we are the only ones in the world who control this very special process, which consists of placing a carbon nanotube on top of a silicon chip. And what's absolutely fascinating is the scale. The diameter of a carbon nanotube is 10,000 times smaller than that of a human hair,” said Pierre Desjardins.
Research teams working for large companies such as Google, IBM or amazon currently focus on a different process. Most of them use superconducting materials, such as aluminum, on a silicon substrate.
According to C12, this method has led to initial progress. However, using aluminum will not work at scale due to interference as more qubits begin to be added. While quantum technology is not yet mature, C12 believes it is working on next-generation quantum computing compared to these aluminum-based processes.
The company has installed its first production line in a basement near the Pantheon in Paris. In this facility they manufacture carbon nanotubes, control them, and then integrate them with the silicon substrate.
“It is now operational. Today we produce around one chip per week, which we then test in our mini data center,” says Pierre Desjardins. But let's not expect to see a quantum computer just yet. “We're actually still validating fundamental elements,” he added. At the moment, the company focuses on chips with one or two qubits.
Emulating the quantum
As research and development work progresses, the C12 team is also working on its business ecosystem. Like many quantum companies, C12 has created an emulator called Callisto. Emulators allow developers to write and run quantum code on a classical computer.
They won't get the results they would with a quantum computer, but at least they'll be ready to go when quantum computers become available.
“We are currently focusing on two verticals, the chemical industry and the energy industry. The chemical industry uses it to simulate chemical reactions and the energy industry uses it mainly for optimization problems,” said Pierre Desjardins. Notably, the startup has a partnership with Air Liquide.
And if we return to the financing round, Varsity Capital, EIC Fund and Verve Ventures are investing in it; Existing investors 360 Capital, Bpifrance's Digital Venture fund and BNP Paribas Développement are also participating once again in this round.
Currently, 45 people of 18 different nationalities work at C12, including 22 doctors. With the newly raised capital, C12 plans to sign more partnerships with industry partners. But the company also has a research objective.
“The other objective is to carry out, for the first time, a quantum operation between two qubits located at a great distance from each other,” said Pierre Desjardins. By long distance he means “tens of micrometers” between each other. It doesn't seem like much, but it will be key when it comes to scaling quantum computing.
