State, Roadrunner lure Illinois quantum startup to Albuquerque

Photon Queue is getting $500,000 to grow its quantum memory tech

The New Mexico Economic Development Department and Roadrunner Venture Studios awarded $500,000 in grant funding to Photon Queue, an Illinois quantum computing startup, to locate and hire in Albuquerque.

Roadrunner Venture Studios is an Albuquerque firm that invests in early-stage deep technology startups such as Photon Queue, a two-year-old company, and provides them with resources to grow.

Last year, the state awarded Roadrunner $25 million to create a quantum venture studio campus in Downtown Albuquerque. There, quantum computing companies and enthusiasts can test their ideas on the world’s first open-access quantum network and expensive machinery such as dilution refrigerators that run it.

“Photon Queue is exactly the kind of high-growth, high-impact company New Mexico is working to attract and support,” Nora Meyers Sackett, director of the department’s Technology and Innovation Office, said in a statement. “The company’s decision to establish operations here reflects the strength of New Mexico’s emerging quantum ecosystem and our commitment to investing in the next generation of advanced technology jobs.”

Photon Queue is developing memory systems for quantum computing that its co-founder and CEO, Nathan Arnold, said will bypass the need for that expensive hardware. In an interview, Arnold likened his technology to RAM, or random-access memory, used in traditional computing.

“Our overall goals are to become the premier provider of this memory technology to the quantum computing field,” Arnold said. “Really, we want our memory system to be embedded into the full stack of every quantum computer out there regardless of the qubit modality.”

Qubits are the units of information that make quantum computing powerful. Compared to binary bits of 1s and 0s used to transmit data in modern computing, qubits can exist in multiple states simultaneously, allowing quantum computers to solve extraordinarily complex problems.

Adam Hammer, the CEO and co-founder of Roadrunner, said locating key operational aspects of Photon Queue’s business to Albuquerque “is adding to the state’s growing quantum cluster and creating a pathway for more advanced technology companies to build in New Mexico and ultimately in America.”

“Photon Queue is building foundational infrastructure for the quantum computing industry, and we are excited to bring that work to New Mexico and the Roadrunner Quantum Lab,” Hammer said.

Photon Queue spun out of Arnold’s Ph.D. work at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Previously, Arnold worked for Sandia National Laboratories. Photon Queue has already secured contracts with Sandia to deliver on the technology, Arnold said.

Photon Queue currently has five employees. Arnold said the figure would double soon.

About $200,000 of the money going to Photon Queue is from the EDD’s New Mexico Quantum Technologies Award, with the rest coming from Roadrunner. On Tuesday, the state also announced $1 million that will be shared among five other quantum-oriented businesses.

“The state of New Mexico is making a very strong stance in quantum,” he said. “They are putting in a lot of effort to become a national quantum hub.”

Justin Horwath covers tech and energy for the Journal. You can reach him at jhorwath@abqjournal.com.