• QIA and Bpifrance joint venture
• New ‘cat qubit’ technology
• Gulf interest in tech growing

Alice & Bob, a Paris-based quantum computing company, has raised $104 million in a Series B funding round led by an investment joint venture between Qatar Investment Authority and Bpifrance.

The funding will accelerate the development of the French company’s quantum computing platform, which utilises its “cat qubit” technology. A qubit (quantum bit) is the fundamental unit of information in quantum computing. 

Where a usual computer bit can store a value of zero or one, a qubit can store a zero, a one, both zero and one, or other combinations, in what is known as superposition.

This allows for much more complex calculations. Cat qubits – named for the theory of Schrödinger’s Cat – can be in a superposition of two states, which Alice & Bob says reduces errors.

“Quantum computing is poised to transform industries, but the engineering complexity has remained a major hurdle,” said Elie Girard, executive chairman of Alice & Bob.

Alice & Bob

He added that this funding round “offers a clear path forward” to addressing these challenges.

The global race to achieve practical quantum computing has been intensifying. For the Middle East, the implications are particularly relevant as Gulf investors are increasingly backing cutting-edge technologies to diversify their economies and build advanced tech ecosystems.

Alice & Bob has made strides in developing cat qubits, which reduce the hardware complexity of quantum computers. 

“Cat qubits are unique, as they make scaling quantum computers practical: where conventional approaches would require millions of qubits, we would need only thousands,” said Théau Peronnin, CEO of Alice & Bob.

The funding will enable Alice & Bob to expand its team and nearly half of the funds will go toward constructing a lab and production facility.

The investment by Future French Champions (FCC), a partnership between Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) and Bpifrance, emphasises the increasing role of Gulf investors in deep tech. 

“In investing in Alice & Bob, Future French Champions recognises the company as a French leader in quantum computing,” said FFC president Antoine Emmanuelli. “We are eager to see Alice & Bob achieve fault-tolerant quantum computing in this highly competitive, evolving field using unique and innovative technology.”

The funding aligns with the Gulf region’s broader push to position itself as a leader in next-generation technologies.

Qatar, for instance, has been heavily investing in global tech companies, including Elon Musk’s xAI, to diversify its economy and build expertise in fields such as artificial intelligence, quantum computing and renewable energy.

Alice & Bob’s Series B round reflects a broader shift in the quantum computing landscape, as the sector transitions from research to real-world application, said François Robinet, managing partner at AXA Venture Partners, who also invested in the funding round, 

“Quantum computing is leaving the pure R&D space and is entering an industrial phase to soon address real-life use cases, thanks to the technology that Alice & Bob has been developing,” he said.

The Gulf region’s growing investments in high-tech sectors could result in quantum computing playing a central role in solving region-specific challenges such as energy optimisation and water resource management.