AMD plans to invest in PsiQuantum as they team up on quantum computers

AMD plans to invest in PsiQuantum, as the two expand their partnership on quantum computing. The companies announced the deal on 12 November. Neither said how much AMD will invest.

PsiQuantum already uses AMD’s Versal FPGAs to develop its fault-tolerant quantum computer. These are chips that engineers can reprogram after manufacture. The new deal adds AMD’s Instinct GPUs, EPYC CPUs and ROCm software. PsiQuantum brings its silicon photonics, which uses light to compute.

The two will co-design the infrastructure that runs large quantum computers. They will also build hybrid software that mixes quantum, high-performance and AI computing. They expect the result to be the world’s most powerful hybrid computing fabric, the companies said.

“Quantum computing will enable solving problems in healthcare, materials, energy, finance, and other domains that are out of reach today, working in concert with AI and high-performance computing,” said Victor Peng, PsiQuantum’s chief executive.

Error correction and drug discovery

Working with AMD, PsiQuantum researchers have tuned PRISM, a machine-learning decoder, to run fast on programmable chips. Its job is to correct errors in real time in large photonic quantum computers. The companies linked a research paper on the work.

The first focus will be drug discovery. PsiQuantum runs its chemistry methods on AMD GPUs. The companies say this has already produced breakthrough results in simulations of covalent inhibitors, molecules relevant to cancer drug research.

The work fits the US Department of Energy’s Quantum Genesis list of science problems for quantum computers, the companies said.

“We see that same opportunity with quantum computing, where leadership in classical computing is essential to building systems at scale,” said Mark Papermaster, AMD’s chief technology officer.

A footprint in Chicago

PsiQuantum is the anchor tenant of the Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park in Chicago. The two companies will look at working together there too. They plan to share more at the SC26 supercomputing conference in Chicago, from 15 to 20 November.

In October, the Pentagon offered PsiQuantum a conditional $150m loan. The same month, AMD agreed to invest $1bn in Meta. Last week, it reported a record quarter.