VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland was selected by Canadian full-stack photonic quantum supercomputing company Xanadu as a partner to accelerate the development of their photonic quantum supercomputers.

With over two decades of experience in superconducting technologies, VTT will leverage its expertise in quantum technology, photonics, and microelectronics integration to provide Xanadu with the volume and quality of components required to build Xanadu’s fault-tolerant universal quantum supercomputer.

The first project in this partnership is focused on scalable manufacturing of superconducting photon detectors, which are used in Xanadu’s quantum computer to measure entangled quantum states of light. These detectors count how many photons are present in each output of Xanadu’s photonic chips. The number of photons encodes information that enables the synthesis of error-corrected qubits for fault-tolerant quantum super computation.

“At VTT, we are committed to advancing the field of quantum technologies through research and strategic partnerships with companies that have the ambition to be pioneers in their fields. We see a lot of potential in our partnership with Xanadu to continue and grow in the future,” said Tauno Vähä-Heikkilä, VTT’s Vice President of Microelectronics and Quantum Technology.

Xanadu, which was founded in 2016, recently closed a EUR 88 million (USD $100 million) Series B funding round led by Bessemer Venture Partners. It brings Xanadu’s total investment to date to EUR 129 million (USD $145 million) to accelerate the progress toward building a fault-tolerant quantum computer with one million physical qubits.

“We have searched globally for the right manufacturing partners. We chose to work with VTT based on their experience in fabrication, combined with their capability to manufacture our needed components in significant quantities. Their technical expertise as well as their openness and business-friendly manner, make us confident that this technology partnership will bring us closer to a fault-tolerant quantum computer, capable of solving the world’s biggest computation problems,” said Matthew Collins, Xanadu’s Low-Temperature Team Lead.