Quantum computing, long seen as the next great leap in technology, took a dramatic step closer to reality this week as PsiQuantum, a Palo Alto-based startup, announced a landmark $1 billion Series E funding round. The deal, unveiled on September 10, 2025, values the nine-year-old company at $7 billion and marks one of the largest private investments in quantum technology to date, according to reporting from InsideHPC and MIT Technology Review.
The round was led by funds managed by BlackRock affiliates, Temasek, and Baillie Gifford, with a striking roster of new investors joining the fray. Macquarie Capital, Ribbit Capital, NVentures (Nvidia’s venture capital arm), Adage Capital, Qatar Investment Authority, Type One Ventures, Counterpoint Global (Morgan Stanley), 1789 Capital, and S Ventures (SentinelOne) all participated. Existing backers Blackbird, Third Point Ventures, and T. Rowe Price Associates also doubled down, signaling broad confidence in PsiQuantum’s vision.
The fresh capital will be used to break ground on utility-scale quantum computing sites in Brisbane, Australia, and Chicago, USA—ambitious projects that, if successful, would mark a turning point in the race to build practical quantum computers. PsiQuantum’s plans include deploying prototype systems to validate their architecture and integration, as well as pushing forward the performance of their quantum photonic chips and fault-tolerant architecture.
“Only building the real thing—million-qubit-scale, fault-tolerant machines—will unlock the promise of quantum computing,” said Professor Jeremy O’Brien, PsiQuantum’s co-founder and CEO, in a statement to InsideHPC. “We defined what it takes from day one: this is a grand engineering challenge, not a science experiment. We tackled the hardest problems first—at the architectural and chip level—and are now mass-manufacturing best-in-class quantum photonic chips at a leading U.S. semiconductor fab. With this funding, we’re ready to take the next decisive steps to deliver the full potential of quantum computing.”
PsiQuantum’s approach stands out in the fiercely competitive field. The company is betting on photonic qubits—quantum bits encoded in light—leveraging the mature infrastructure of semiconductor manufacturing. Their chips are designed in-house and produced at GlobalFoundries’ Fab 8 in New York, a commercial foundry known for its high-volume output. Crucially, PsiQuantum has integrated Barium Titanate (BTO), one of the world’s top-performing electro-optic materials, into its process. BTO is used to create ultra-high-performance optical switches, a component long considered a bottleneck in scaling up optical quantum computers.
PsiQuantum manufactures 300mm wafers of BTO at its California facilities, then integrates these with wafers from GlobalFoundries. The new funding will help ramp up BTO production to the levels needed for utility-scale machines. Interestingly, this BTO-enabled optical switch technology isn’t just for quantum computing—it’s also catching the eye of AI supercomputer makers, who are grappling with the energy and data demands of ever-larger AI models.
The company has made notable advances in other areas, too. According to MIT Technology Review, PsiQuantum has developed a high-density cooling solution, capable of chilling hundreds of quantum chips in a single cabinet—sidestepping the “chandelier”-style cryostats often seen in the industry. They’ve also demonstrated high-fidelity quantum networking between distant cabinets using standard telecom fiber, a key requirement for scaling quantum machines beyond the confines of a single room.
Dr. Pete Shadbolt, PsiQuantum’s co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer, described the company’s trajectory as moving from the “centimeter scale” of chip design to the “kilometer scale” of data-center-sized infrastructure. “We do have a very aggressive road map to get to big systems, but we’re not trying to do it all in one leap,” Shadbolt told MIT Technology Review. “We have the chips, we have the switches, we have a scalable cooling technology, we can do networking, we have found the sites, we have the commercial motive and the government support—we’re ready to get on and build utility-scale systems.”
Since its Series D financing in 2021, PsiQuantum has established a high-volume manufacturing process for its integrated photonic chipset, with all components performing beyond the state-of-the-art, according to the company. With this latest cash infusion, PsiQuantum’s total fundraising now tops $1.8 billion, cementing its place among the best-funded quantum startups in the world.
The timing of PsiQuantum’s announcement is no coincidence. The quantum sector has seen a flurry of activity in recent weeks, with Finnish company IQM raising $320 million, Quantinuum (a Honeywell joint venture) bringing in $600 million at a $10 billion pre-money valuation, and Infleqtion planning a $540 million SPAC public offering. Nvidia’s NVentures, which joined PsiQuantum’s round, has also recently invested in QuEra and Quantinuum, signaling a strategic bet on multiple quantum platforms.
Nvidia’s involvement is especially telling. At CES in January 2025, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang had publicly estimated that useful quantum computers were still two decades away, a comment that rattled quantum stocks. But by June, at the GPU Technology Conference in Paris, Huang had revised his stance, declaring, “quantum computing is reaching an inflection point.” Now, Nvidia’s venture arm is putting its money where its mouth is, with PsiQuantum as a centerpiece of its quantum portfolio.
PsiQuantum and Nvidia are not just linked by investment. The two companies are collaborating across a broad range of development areas: quantum algorithms, software, GPU-QPU integration, and the advancement of PsiQuantum’s silicon photonics platform. “No quantum computer is going to be useful in a vacuum,” Shadbolt explained to MIT Technology Review. “Quantum computers are going to generate data [for AI] and they also need input from GPU clusters. So, that’s a really natural place for Nvidia to get involved.”
Industry observers see this as part of a broader trend. As AI supercomputers grow in scale and complexity, the integration of photonics—using light to transmit information—has become increasingly attractive for managing massive data flows and reducing energy consumption. Recent innovations, such as TSMC’s COUPE process for fusing photonic and electronic integrated circuits, underscore the industry’s appetite for such hybrid technologies.
Investors are betting that quantum computing could be the next trillion-dollar industry, with the potential to solve problems far beyond the reach of today’s AI. Tony Kim, head of the Fundamental Equities Technology Group at BlackRock, put it bluntly: “Now, we are at the dawn of an adjacent computing platform—rooted in quantum mechanics—that will allow us to simulate the physical world with transformative accuracy.” Luke Ward, investment manager at Baillie Gifford, echoed this optimism, saying, “PsiQuantum is now positioned at the forefront of what could be a trillion-dollar industry, able to solve some of humanity’s biggest challenges. This goes beyond what is possible with AI.”
With sites selected in Chicago and Brisbane, a world-class team, and a war chest to match, PsiQuantum’s next steps will be closely watched by the tech world. The journey to a million-qubit, fault-tolerant quantum computer is far from over—but for PsiQuantum and its backers, the future has never looked brighter.
