World Fund $128 million investment in IQM is a sign of confidence that the Finnish quantum computing company will one day deliver full carbon cuts by the megatonne.
Companies like IQM raise awareness of the potential of quantum computing by focusing on how it could impact fields like chemistry and machine learning, but skeptics argue about their capacity to deliver.
IQM’s quantum computers are touted as helping mitigate climate change by the year 2027. The company has also said it is already working on new battery tech in conjunction with a car manufacturer, and the funds raised from World fund for the project will be spent on further research into other areas such as quantum chemistry and better battery technology indications.
The idea of using quantum computing to mitigate climate change may not be so far-fetched. Microsoft Azure CTO Mark Russinovich suggests that the technology can aid with carbon capture, and possibly even improve efficiency for this process.
The German VC said that IQM is innovating in climate change with the potential to remove 100 million tonnes of carbon from the atmosphere yearly by 2040. The latest investment round includes both EU funds and Tencent, who bought up shares. This letter-of-intent brings IQM’s valuation near $1 billion with a post-money plan.
Some quantum computing companies have faced accusations of exaggerating their progress. Maryland-based IonQ has talked up its advances in quantum computing, but activist investor Scorpion Capital recently accused the company of fraud, calling its tech a “useless toy that can’t even add 1+1.” IonQ’s founders pushed back on the accusations, saying they were “amused at the extreme level of ignorance behind this attack.” In a related field, former staffers at British quantum encryption company Arqit reportedly questioned the usefulness and maturity of its quantum tech.
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