Oakland, California (Reuters)-QuEra Computing, a new quantum computer startup founded by researchers from Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), said on Wednesday that it raised funds from investors including Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten. 17 million US dollars.

As funding for emerging technologies surges, it is the latest quantum computer hardware manufacturer to step out of the laboratory.

Although there are various technologies to create so-called qubits or computationally occurring qubits, QuEra's qubits use neutral atoms in a vacuum chamber and use lasers to cool and control them.

Alex Keesling, CEO of QuEra, said: “From 2015 when our laboratory was empty, to 2017, we were in control of the work we did at Harvard and MIT. Among them, 51 neutral atom qubit stages." Co-inventor of the technology. He said that the technology is easy to expand, and QuEra will have a 1000-qubit computer within two years. He said that today it has a 256-qubit machine.

International Business Machines’ quantum computers are already available through the cloud, and its goal is to launch more than 1,000 qubit machines in 2023 https://research.ibm.com/blog/ibm-quantum-roadmap. Several quantum computer researchers said that although it is difficult to compare the performance of different machines based on the number of qubits alone.

Keesling said that for those who want to try out the QuEra machine, the goal is to provide it through the cloud by the third quarter of next year.

Although there are some debates about when quantum computers can solve real-world problems, researchers believe that quantum computers can run millions of times faster than today’s advanced supercomputers, which may enable drawing complex molecular structures and chemical reactions, etc. Missions are made possible to promote the power of artificial intelligence.

(Reporting by Jane Lanhee Lee; Editing by Aurora Ellis)