Company: memq
Co-Founders: Charles Foley (Chairman & CEO), Manish Singh (Co-founder & CPO), Sean Sullivan (Co-founder & CTO), Josh Atkinson (Director of Business Development)
Website: https://memq.tech/
About memq
Founded in 2023, memQ is a US-domiciled company located in Chicago, Illinois – the nexus for quantum computing worldwide – a market that has seen $16B+ invested in quantum just in the last year, as it is expected to change how we view and work with the world. However, even though we are surrounded by so many quantum computing companies, research labs, and universities in/around Chicago, one thing makes memQ wildly different: we are not just another quantum computing company. In fact, memQ exists to let different quantum vendors and their very different systems work together to solve problems by pioneering quantum networking.
Most quantum compute companies, including giants such as Google, IBM, Microsoft, and others, are seeking to become the leader in this brave new world by finding better ways to harness larger numbers of qubits (the fundamental compute element of quantum computing) on a single dense chip to address bigger problems. Each believes their chosen qubit type (superconducting, trapped ion, photonic, nitrogen vacancy, electron spin, etc.) and/or proprietary design will make them the leader by reaching 100,000 to 1M qubits on a chip in the next few years. memQ instead chose to attack the problem differently: what if you could network these disparate systems together, achieving utility scale and commercial feasibility faster and with less risk? By doing that, we could allow users of quantum technology to put these powerful systems to work faster, more easily, and more cost-effectively.
From a scientific and technological perspective, our challenges were daunting, requiring breakthrough thinking to accomplish what industry giants could not. Quantum computers, by their nature, cannot work together over classical IT networks the way supercomputing clusters do – any attempt at that will destroy the fragile quantum state that embodies the power of quantum computing. So memQ developed a way to let quantum computers connect and work together over a new type of quantum network, so they can address ever-larger problems, regardless of qubit type or vendor. Quantum has long been an environment dominated by massive systems, cryogenic infrastructure, rooms of lasers and lenses, and miles of coaxial cable. But we at memQ chose a radically different approach. What if we could blend the power of quantum physics with the stability, reproducibility, and economics of CMOS process chips? In essence, this could reflect a leap forward similar to when vacuum tubes were replaced by transistors and integrated circuits…more capability on a fraction of the footprint, produced in commercial fabs.
The result is what the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy called earlier this year a breakthrough approach that blends the science of quantum technologies with proven, existing semiconductor manufacturing processes to deliver reliable production of quantum networking components at scale. This breakthrough approach is embodied in the industry and is its only end-to-end networking solution for connecting quantum computers. We are now leading a team of universities and software companies to build on this with a heterogeneous compiler that lets any/all quantum systems take advantage of scale-out quantum computing.
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