Atlantic Quantum is enabling a step change in global computing capabilities by developing scalable, fault-tolerant quantum computers.
THE CHALLENGE
To power their R&D, Atlantic Quantum needed immense amounts of electricity that would have been cost-prohibitive had the team leased their own commercial real-estate.
THE SOLUTION
The flexibility provided by The Engine allowed Atlantic Quantum to build and power their first quantum computer at The Engine — at a fraction of the cost of commercial real estate.
“The Engine’s flexibility was instrumental in getting Atlantic Quantum out of the lab and to the point where we could demonstrate the feasibility of our technology.”
Tim Menke, PhDCo-founder and COO, Atlantic Quantum
Over the last 50 years, the increasing power of computers — from the first PC to the GPUs that now power AI — have led to an explosion of progress and economic growth. Quantum computers are poised to take this evolution to unimaginable new heights: from discovering new drugs to developing room-temperature superconductors, the technology promises to transform our approach to solving our greatest challenges.
Given their critical importance to the future of American technological leadership, the nation is locked in a global race to build the first quantum computer that can outperform classical computers. But today, quantum computers are held back by high error rates that prevent them from scaling to the point where they could achieve an advantage for practical applications.
To address this problem, Atlantic Quantum is building the first integrated quantum circuits that would allow error-corrected quantum computers to scale — much like how integrated circuits led to Moore’s Law in classical computing.
The company has strong credentials: it was spun out of MIT’s Engineering Quantum Systems Group with a leadership team including Prof. William D. Oliver, one of the most influential voices in the field. But in order to demonstrate their technology and raise the capital they needed to grow, they would need a lot of electricity to power their pilot quantum computer.
It’s a common problem facing Tough Tech companies: unlike digital startups building apps and b2b software, startups building hardware-based solutions — whether in climate tech, biotech, and advanced systems — require capital-intensive infrastructure to build, test, and iterate on their technology. This may include lab space, engineering and fabrication equipment, or — as in the case of quantum computing — large amounts of electricity.
Under conventional commercial real estate arrangements, the electricity provided to a company is proportional to the quantity of floor space leased. By this logic, Atlantic Quantum would have needed to rent a significantly larger — and thus more expensive — space than they actually needed to power their first quantum computer. Given their initial pre-seed funding, they could have leased a larger space outside the city with the electricity they needed, but they would lose access to the rich talent pipeline available in the Boston area.
However, The Engine is not a conventional commercial real estate arrangement. Our interest is in providing Tough Tech companies with the resources they need to scale — and ultimately grow beyond the walls of The Engine. By providing shared access to spaces and equipment, we can flexibly and strategically allocate resources based on the needs of our residents. This means companies don’t get a set allotment of power based on how much space they take up.
By building their first quantum computer at The Engine, Atlantic Quantum was able to prove its unique approach to quantum computing without sacrificing its access to some of the brightest quantum engineers and scientists in the world.
“The facilities team helped us at every step to coordinate modifications to the space and deliver the power necessary to install our pilot quantum computer in The Engine's industrial space. ”
Tim Menke, PhDCo-founder and COO, Atlantic Quantum
The Engine provided the company with a relatively small footprint in the building’s high-bay industrial space to build their quantum computer — roughly 900ft². However, the device consumes roughly a quarter of the building’s total electricity usage. To get the same electricity elsewhere, Atlantic Quantum would have needed to lease in the ballpark of 90,000ft². The arrangement works because while other residents may require more space, most have a fraction of the power needs. These resources are allocated based on need, not on the square footage leased by the resident company.
The team also got help from The Engine in securing non-dilutive funding from government grants, including contracts with the Air Force Research Lab, IARPA, the US Department of Energy, and DARPA. Until there are viable commercial applications for quantum computing, these government grants will be critical to the technology’s continued development — not to mention ensuring America’s leadership in this next-generation computing technology.
"The Engine’s Public Affairs team has helped us tremendously in navigating policy changes and funding opportunities at the state and federal level,” Menke added. “Moreover, they have coached us through structuring our future legislative affairs needs, resulting in a Head of Government job description and recruiting process as well as introductions to high-level candidates for the position.”
The team’s computer has already achieved technical milestones, including peer-reviewed research showing that the company’s fluxonium-based qubit architecture achieves the lowest error rates to date for superconducting qubits, a record they have since broken with the highest ever single-qubit fidelity of 99.998% — a game-changer for fault-tolerant quantum computing.
