Quantum Computing Firm Quantinuum Valued at $5 Billion

Quantum computer firm Quantinuum has been valued at $5 billion following a $300 million fundraising round.

The round, which included participation by JPMorgan, will help Quantinuum develop “the world’s first universal fault-tolerant quantum computers, while also extending Quantinuum’s software offering to enhance commercial applicability,” the Honeywell-owned company said Tuesday (Jan. 16).

Quantinuum noted in a news release that JPMorgan had worked with the company since 2020.

“Financial services has been identified as one of the first industries that will benefit from quantum technologies,” said Lori Beer, the banking giant’s chief information officer.

“As such, we have been investing in quantum research and our team of experts — led by Dr. Marco Pistoia — have made groundbreaking discoveries, partnering with quantum computing leaders like Quantinuum.”

As covered here last year, quantum computing is driven by qubits (quantum bits) that break information down across fundamentally different planes and allow quantum processors to take on complex problems in fundamentally different — and more advanced — ways by putting the quantum information into a state of superposition.

“This new approach to presenting and solving complex problems via quantum superpositions will leave a lot of legacy processes in the proverbial dust and create a mix of both opportunity and risk for security-critical operations in sectors like healthcare and finance,” PYMNTS wrote.

The reason? Quantum computers are projected to gain the ability to solve all of the mathematical encryption schemes now being used around the world to safeguard sensitive information and valuable data.

Michael Jabbara, global head of fraud services at Visa, told PYMNTS last year that bad actors had begun stealing encrypted data in anticipation of quantum computing tools entering the market and allowing them to decrypt the information.

“Observers believe that creating one-way function encryption schemes that are impossible for tomorrow’s quantum computers to crack may not ever be a possibility,” that report said.

But the news isn’t all bad, as quantum computing may also unlock an array of new opportunities, especially in the financial and payments sectors.

“Quantum computing can run complex simulations at unprecedented speeds, leading to better-informed investment and business decisions, and its ability to process huge amounts of data instantaneously will make it invaluable in areas like risk analysis and credit underwriting,” PYMNTS wrote.