University of Bristol-founded PsiQuantum has reportedly scooped funding from backers including an Andy Rubin fund as it looks to develop silicon-powered quantum computers.

PsiQuantum, a UK-based quantum computer developer leveraging University of Bristol research, has secured $230m in funding, The Telegraph has reported, citing Pitchbook data.
The capital came from investors including an unnamed venture capital fund formed by Andy Rubin, the developer of the Android operating system, who left the VC firm he founded, Playground Global, last month.
PsiQuantum is looking to commercialise a viable quantum computer within the next five years, using silicon materials to resolve difficulties producing stable quantum information bits which have so far slowed the technology’s development.
The spinout’s technology reportedly involves using marked indentations within silicon chips to channel quantum photons with high accuracy in order to achieve greater stability.
Ultimately, PsiQuantum hopes to facilitate the creation of quantum computers that can be used for general purposes, undertaking a wide range of assignments that require many combinations of potential answers to be queried expediently, a task beyond the capabilities of binary supercomputers.
The company has not previously disclosed any equity funding. It was founded by Jeremy O’Brien who spent 12 years with University of Bristol, as professor of physics and electrical engineering and director of its Centre for Quantum Photonics, until 2018.
O’Brien was reportedly assisted by Terry Rudolph, a professor of quantum physics at the department of physics at Imperial College London’s Faculty of Natural Sciences.