--- title: PsiQuantum has a plan to make a massive quantum computer... description: PsiQuantum, a startup founded in 2016, is building a photonic quantum computer using particles of light (photons) routed through chips manufactured at... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/psiquantum-has-a-plan-to-make-a-massive-quantum-computer-out-of-light-z3vvzaly3 twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: PsiQuantum has a plan to make a massive quantum computer out of light | daily.dev og:description: PsiQuantum, a startup founded in 2016, is building a photonic quantum computer using particles of light (photons) routed through chips manufactured at... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/psiquantum-has-a-plan-to-make-a-massive-quantum-computer-out-of-light-z3vvzaly3 og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/z3VVzalY3.png og:image:alt: PsiQuantum has a plan to make a massive quantum computer out of light og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # PsiQuantum has a plan to make a massive quantum computer out of light **[MIT Technology Review](https://daily.dev/sources/technologyreview)** · 19 min read · 1 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary PsiQuantum, a startup founded in 2016, is building a photonic quantum computer using particles of light (photons) routed through chips manufactured at GlobalFoundries. Unlike competitors using superconducting qubits (Google, IBM) or electrons (Intel), PsiQuantum bets on photons because they maintain quantum states well and can be processed using existing semiconductor fab infrastructure. The company has raised $1 billion, broken ground on sites in Chicago and Australia, and is under evaluation by DARPA's quantum benchmarking program. Its target is a one-million-qubit machine capable of transformative applications in drug discovery, materials science, and cryptography. Key challenges include manufacturing barium titanate crystals in-house, cooling photon detectors to near absolute zero, and scaling error correction across hundreds of connected cabinets. The Australian facility aims to be hardware-ready by end of 2027, though a fully operational fault-tolerant computer remains further out. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### Why is PsiQuantum using photons instead of superconducting qubits like Google and IBM? Photons can maintain quantum states for very long periods and are less prone to certain types of decoherence, but they scatter easily and rarely interact with each other, making entanglement hard. A 2001 discovery by researchers from Los Alamos National Laboratory and the University of Queensland found that routing photons through beam splitters and detectors could fake the interactions needed for quantum computation, which became the basis for PsiQuantum's architecture. _daily.dev surfaces deep-dive coverage like this for engineers weighing different quantum hardware bets._ ### What temperature does PsiQuantum's quantum computer need to operate at? PsiQuantum's cabinets currently run at 2 Kelvin (about -456°F), with a goal of operating slightly warmer at -452°F. Unlike superconducting quantum computers that must cool the entire machine to these temperatures, PsiQuantum's photonic design only requires the single-photon detectors to be this cold, reducing the overall refrigeration burden and cost. _Readers tracking exotic hardware constraints like cryogenics find comparisons like this on daily.dev._ ### When will PsiQuantum's Australian quantum computing site be ready? PsiQuantum expects its Australian site's cooling systems to be installed and ready for hardware by the end of next year, meaning the facility will be operational in that sense, not that a full-scale quantum computer will be running by then. The company disputes earlier reporting that suggested 2027 was the deadline for a complete working machine, framing it instead as infrastructure readiness only. _daily.dev helps engineers separate marketing timelines from real technical milestones in quantum computing._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [PsiQuantum breaks ground on utility-scale quantum computer](https://daily.dev/posts/psiquantum-breaks-ground-on-utility-scale-quantum-computer-2g2l4zxk6) · The Next Web · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [PsiQuantum Supercomputer: Aiming for a Million Qubits](https://daily.dev/posts/psiquantum-supercomputer-aiming-for-a-million-qubits-2fdwydz84) · IEEE Spectrum · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Photonic Quantum Technology Companies in 2026](https://daily.dev/posts/photonic-quantum-technology-companies-in-2026-ocvmgf87b) · The Quantum Insider · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [PsiQuantum Finalizes $100 Million Award with the U.S. Department of Commerce](https://daily.dev/posts/psiquantum-finalizes-100-million-award-with-the-u-s-department-of-commerce-8bymrhrob) · The Quantum Insider · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#quantum-computing](https://daily.dev/tags/quantum-computing) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/psiquantum-has-a-plan-to-make-a-massive-quantum-computer-out-of-light-z3vvzaly3) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"PsiQuantum has a plan to make a massive quantum computer out of light","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/psiquantum-has-a-plan-to-make-a-massive-quantum-computer-out-of-light-z3vvzaly3","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/psiquantum-has-a-plan-to-make-a-massive-quantum-computer-out-of-light-z3vvzaly3"},"datePublished":"2026-07-14T08:54:35.350Z","dateModified":"2026-09-13T21:53:30.508Z","description":"PsiQuantum, a startup founded in 2016, is building a photonic quantum computer using particles of light (photons) routed through chips manufactured at...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/0032d4c673e6154578c4cc3a588204bc?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/0032d4c673e6154578c4cc3a588204bc?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"MIT Technology Review","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"MIT Technology Review","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/a8d03889722f4f22b3986e0b395ff076","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/technologyreview"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/psiquantum-has-a-plan-to-make-a-massive-quantum-computer-out-of-light-z3vvzaly3","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":1},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"quantum-computing","timeRequired":"PT19M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"MIT Technology Review","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/technologyreview"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"PsiQuantum has a plan to make a massive quantum computer out of light"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/psiquantum-has-a-plan-to-make-a-massive-quantum-computer-out-of-light-z3vvzaly3#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"Why is PsiQuantum using photons instead of superconducting qubits like Google and IBM?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Photons can maintain quantum states for very long periods and are less prone to certain types of decoherence, but they scatter easily and rarely interact with each other, making entanglement hard. A 2001 discovery by researchers from Los Alamos National Laboratory and the University of Queensland found that routing photons through beam splitters and detectors could fake the interactions needed for quantum computation, which became the basis for PsiQuantum's architecture. daily.dev surfaces deep-dive coverage like this for engineers weighing different quantum hardware bets."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"What temperature does PsiQuantum's quantum computer need to operate at?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"PsiQuantum's cabinets currently run at 2 Kelvin (about -456°F), with a goal of operating slightly warmer at -452°F. Unlike superconducting quantum computers that must cool the entire machine to these temperatures, PsiQuantum's photonic design only requires the single-photon detectors to be this cold, reducing the overall refrigeration burden and cost. Readers tracking exotic hardware constraints like cryogenics find comparisons like this on daily.dev."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"When will PsiQuantum's Australian quantum computing site be ready?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"PsiQuantum expects its Australian site's cooling systems to be installed and ready for hardware by the end of next year, meaning the facility will be operational in that sense, not that a full-scale quantum computer will be running by then. The company disputes earlier reporting that suggested 2027 was the deadline for a complete working machine, framing it instead as infrastructure readiness only. daily.dev helps engineers separate marketing timelines from real technical milestones in quantum computing."}}]} ```