French defense ministry picks startups to develop quantum computers

France’s defense-procurement agency said it awarded contracts to five domestic computer-research startups to develop technology that will allow the country to have two universal quantum computer prototypes by 2032, with the goal of developing quantum systems usable for defense requirements.

The framework agreements with the five companies – Alice & Bob, C12, Pasqal, Quandela and Quobly – are worth up to €500 million (US$545 million), the Armed Forces Ministry said in an emailed statement on March 6.

President Emmanuel Macron announced a national quantum strategy three years ago to equip the country with the computing resources required to guarantee France’s sovereignty in the field. Quantum computing exploits the laws of quantum physics with the goal of solving complex problems faster than with classical computers, a target known as quantum advantage.

“Quantum technology is of major importance to the Armed Forces, with potential applications in cryptography or in communications,” the ministry said in the statement. “The revolution underway will allow us to perceive our environment with unprecedented precession, discover new materials, explore new ways of transmitting information, navigate there where the GPS network is inaccessible.”

The program to develop quantum-computer prototypes will be coordinated by the Defense Digital Agency, known by its French acronym AND, and part of the procurement agency.

Google, IBM and others have built the first wave of quantum computers, but challenges around stability and scalability means commercial applications still face hurdles. In quantum computing, information is stored in quantum bits, or qubits, which can exist in multiple states simultaneously, potentially enabling the technology to outperform a traditional system based on binary bits.

France two years ago announced a hybrid quantum computing network to connect traditional systems and quantum computers, making them available to research institutions, startups and industry partners.

The five French startups “all have what it takes to meet this challenge, but it’s too early to say which of them will succeed in overcoming the various engineering, manufacturing and industrialization hurdles,” the ministry said. “That why this partnership takes the form of a three-stage competition: proof of concept, maturation and then industrialization.”

Four years in to the program, the three most successful projects will be retained to develop the best logic qubits capable of going to scale, according to the ministry. At the eight-year mark, the competition will be limited to two technologies, which will continue to be developed from prototype computers, with a goal of 128 logic qubits, to commercial systems, with a goal of 2,048 qubits, and usable by their first customers.

Paris-based Alice & Bob was founded in 2020 and has raised more than €30 million, working on a universal quantum computer with error correction. C12 , founded in the same year and also based in the French capital, is using carbon nanotubes to build its quantum processor, after securing €10 million in seed funding in 2021.

Pasqal , founded in 2019, has raised more than €140 million to date and is developing a quantum computer using neutral atoms ordered in arrays. Quandela raised more than €50 million in November, and is using photonics as its technology of choice, which the company says is relatively easy to scale and operates largely at room temperature. Quobly is developing error-tolerant quantum-computing processors which it says can be built using existing semiconductor fabs, and the Grenoble-based company in July closed its first funding round of €19 million.

Rudy Ruitenberg is a Europe correspondent for Defense News. He started his career at Bloomberg News and has experience reporting on technology, commodity markets and politics.

法国国防采购局表示，已向五家国内计算机研究初创公司授予合同，以开发相关技术，使法国能够在 2032 年前拥有两台通用量子计算机原型机，目标是开发可用于国防需求的量子系统。

武装部队部在 3 月 6 日的一份电子邮件声明中表示，与 Alice & Bob、C12、Pasqal、Quandela 和 Quobly 这五家公司签署的框架协议价值高达 5 亿欧元（5.45 亿美元）。

三年前，法国总统埃马纽埃尔·马克龙宣布了一项国家量子战略，旨在为法国配备必要的计算资源，以保障法国在该领域的自主权。量子计算利用量子物理定律，目标是比传统计算机更快地解决复杂问题，这一目标被称为量子优势。

该部在声明中表示：“量子技术对武装部队至关重要，在密码学或通信领域具有潜在的应用价值。这场正在进行的革命将使我们能够以前所未有的精度感知周围环境，发现新材料，探索新的信息传输方式，并在GPS网络无法覆盖的区域进行导航。”

开发量子计算机原型机的计划将由国防数字局（法语缩写为 AND）协调，该机构是采购机构的一部分。

谷歌、IBM 等公司已经制造出了第一批量子计算机，但稳定性和可扩展性方面的挑战意味着商业应用仍然面临重重障碍。在量子计算中，信息存储在量子比特（qubit）中，量子比特可以同时存在于多种状态，这使得该技术有可能超越基于二进制比特的传统系统。

两年前，法国宣布建立一个混合量子计算网络，将传统系统和量子计算机连接起来，使其可供研究机构、初创企业和行业合作伙伴使用。

法国工业和工业部表示，这五家法国初创公司“都具备应对这一挑战的条件，但现在断言哪家公司能够成功克服各种工程、制造和工业化方面的障碍还为时过早。因此，此次合作采取了三阶段竞赛的形式：概念验证、成熟阶段和工业化阶段。”

据该部称，项目实施四年后，将保留三个最成功的项目，以开发能够大规模应用的最佳逻辑量子比特。八年后，竞争将仅限于两种技术，这两种技术将继续发展，从原型计算机（目标是128个逻辑量子比特）到商业系统（目标是2048个量子比特），并最终交付给首批客户使用。

总部位于巴黎的Alice & Bob公司成立于2020年，已筹集超过3000万欧元资金，致力于研发具有纠错功能的通用量子计算机。同年成立、同样位于巴黎的C12公司，在2021年获得1000万欧元种子轮融资后，正利用碳纳米管构建其量子处理器。

Pasqal成立于2019年，迄今已融资超过1.4亿欧元，该公司正在开发一种利用排列成阵列的中性原子构建的量子计算机。Quandela在11月融资超过5000万欧元，该公司选择光子学作为其主要技术，并表示该技术相对容易扩展，且主要在室温下运行。Quobly正在开发容错量子计算处理器，该公司表示该处理器可利用现有的半导体晶圆厂制造。这家总部位于格勒诺布尔的公司在7月完成了首轮1900万欧元的融资。

鲁迪·鲁伊滕贝格是《防务新闻》的欧洲记者。他的职业生涯始于彭博新闻社，拥有报道科技、大宗商品市场和政治方面的经验。