JPMorgan Chase leads $500M funding round for Honeywell/Cambridge quantum unicorn

The fundraise was joined by Mitsui & Co and Amgen at a valuation of approximately $5 billion.

Quantum computing company Quantinuum recently closed a $500-million funding round at a valuation of approximately $5 billion. The round was led by JPMorgan Chase and joined by Mitsui & Co and Amgen, with a follow-on investment from Honeywell.

Quantinuum is a merger spinout from Cambridge Quantum Computing and Honeywell Quantum Solutions. It was founded in 2021.

Quantinuum is pleased to announce the closing of a $300 million equity fundraise at a $5 billion pre-money valuation. Our investors in the funding round were JP Morgan Chase & Co, @MitsuiandCo, and @Amgen, and a follow-on investment by @Honeywell.https://t.co/i6cyJFhhWu

— Quantinuum (@QuantinuumQC) January 16, 2024

Quantum funding

The funds will be used to “accelerate the path towards achieving the world’s first universal fault-tolerant quantum computers,” according to a press release.

JPMorgan Chase global chief information officer Lori Beer commented that a partnership with Quantinuum would be good for fintech:

“Financial services has been identified as one of the first industries that will benefit from quantum technologies. As such, we have been investing in quantum research and our team of experts — led by Dr. Marco Pistoia — have made groundbreaking discoveries.”

Fault tolerance

Quantum computers exist today, but for the most part, they’re experimental. The goal of a fully fault-tolerant quantum system capable of quantum advantage — performing useful functions that classical computers can’t — remains out of reach for the time being.

There are a number of companies, universities and government laboratories working on creating error-free quantum computers.

IBM, considered the industry leader by many experts, for example, has a target of 2029 to reach an “inflection point” in quantum computing. Meanwhile, the MIT/Harvard spinout QuEra expects to reach fault tolerance by 2026.

Related: WEF identifies AI and quantum computing as emerging global threats

Quantum fintech

One of the major technological barriers in fintech is the fact that binary computers (like the device you’re reading this article on) aren’t very good at processing large amounts of variables in real time.

Quantum computers, on the other hand, are projected to be capable of taking relatively massive amounts of data and processing it in very little time. This is because quantum bits, or “qubits,” are capable of exploiting quantum mechanics to perform calculations.

Because of this, many experts believe fintech applications such as portfolio management and risk management could become exponentially more accurate with the advent of a quantum computing system capable of quantum advantage in the relevant computational areas.