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PhotonicEst. 2016Toronto, Ontario

Xanadu

Xanadu

Photonic quantum, at room temperature.

Photonic quantum computing on room-temperature silicon chips — accessible from anywhere through its PennyLane software.

Room-Temperature Quantum

Xanadu's photonic chips run at ordinary room temperature — no cryogenics required.

Led by Christian Weedbrook (CEO)

The Story

Timeline.

2016

Founded in Toronto by Christian Weedbrook to commercialize photonic quantum computing.

2020

Launches Xanadu Quantum Cloud, offering photonic hardware over the internet.

2022

Borealis claims quantum computational advantage on Gaussian Boson Sampling.

2024

Reveals Aurora, a network of chip-scale photonic modules pointing at fault tolerance.

What makes them different

Key Facts

  • Chips run at room temperature — no dilution refrigerator anywhere on site.
  • PennyLane is one of the most-used quantum machine learning libraries.
  • Bets on continuous-variable quantum computing with squeezed light.
  • Backed by Bessemer, Georgian, OMERS and the Canadian government.

Real-world pilots

Quantum Uses Today

  • Cloud-based photonic experiments for global researchers.
  • Quantum machine learning research via PennyLane.

If they succeed

Potential Applications

  • Photonic fault-tolerant machines with networked chip modules.
  • Quantum-safe communications and quantum internet backbones.
  • Molecular vibrational spectroscopy simulations.