Before quantum computing arrives, this startup wants companies to already use it

Eighteen months after selling his startup to chipmaker AMD for 665 million dollarsFinnish businessman Peter Sarlin has left his position as CEO of the unit now known as AMD Silo AI. He is now president of two new companies: AI physical laboratory to goand QuDosan AI startup aimed at helping businesses prepare for the era of quantum computing

Currently fully funded by Sarlin’s family office, PostscriptQuTwo describes itself as “an artificial intelligence laboratory for the quantum age.” However, rather than waiting for quantum computing to mature, it is already working with enterprise clients, including European fashion retailer Zalando, with which it is developing what the two companies call “lifestyle agents,“Artificial intelligence tools designed to go beyond product search and proactively suggest products and experiences.

QuTwo is based on the premise that AI is hitting a wall of efficiency that quantum computing could eventually help solve. But the company isn’t betting on when that will happen, Sarlin told TechCrunch. Instead, the startup is building QuTwo OS as an orchestration layer that allows companies to move from classical to quantum computing, making use of hybrid computing along the way.

Sarlin invested in Finnish quantum companies IQM and QMill through PostScriptum, and is one of a growing number of investors who believe that eventually surpass classical computers in a wide range of industrial applications while alleviating the energy demands of AI. But he also believes that initial use cases will require mixed hardware environments and that companies will prefer to focus on their business problems while QuTwo OS takes care of routing.

In that sense, the potential advantage of the middle ground known as “quantum-inspired” computing is that it is already viable today, because it uses classical hardware while simulating quantum behavior, circumventing the obstacles that still hinder quantum hardware. Meanwhile, QuTwo OS is designed to be flexible and support quantum or non-quantum algorithms and chips alike.

The QuTwo team brings expertise on both sides of the quantum AI divide. On the quantum side, there is IQM co-founder Kuan Yen Tan and board member Antti Vasara, also president of SemiQon, a Finnish semiconductor startup focused on quantum chips. The business side is equally represented by Sarlin himself and Kaj-Mikael Björk, one of his former co-founders of Silo AI. Pekka Lundmark, former CEO of Finnish telecoms giant Nokia, also joined QuTwo’s board of directors.

In both areas, the team has more than 30 quantum and artificial intelligence scientists, and Sarlin is clear about where the company stands. “We’re building for the quantum world, but QuTwo is an AI company,” he said, meaning QuTwo is “driving AI workloads from classical to quantum.”

This also means that your customer base could be quite broad. Beyond Zalando, QuTwo also launched a joint quantum AI research initiative with OP Pohjola, a major Finnish financial services provider.

From the beginning, QuTwo has been commercially minded and already has “large design partnerships running into the tens of millions,” Sarlin said. Design partnerships, in which a supplier co-develops its product alongside enterprise customers, are a way for QuTwo to know what those customers expect as it builds its product. They are also a bet for companies looking to establish an early foundation when quantum computing arrives.