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French quantum-computing startup Alice & Bob announced a €100 million Series B in January 2025 to develop a fault-tolerant, universal quantum computer. Future French Champions, AVP (formerly AXA Venture Partners) and Bpifrance led the round, joined by returning investors Elaia Partners, Breega and Supernova Invest, with the European Innovation Council also reported as an institutional participant.
The financing is development capital, not evidence that a useful quantum computer already exists. Alice & Bob’s roadmap targets useful quantum computing near the end of the decade, including a planned 100-logical-qubit system called Graphene around 2030. In May 2026, the company said an investment from NVIDIA’s venture arm, NVentures, extended the Series B; the additional amount was not disclosed.
What the €100 million round actually means
Alice & Bob, founded in 2020 by Théau Peronnin and Raphaël Lescanne, is using the round to move from small-scale demonstrations toward integrated, error-corrected systems. The company says the money will support a roughly 4,000-square-metre research and production facility in Paris, multi-qubit development, manufacturing, error-correction research and hiring across quantum physics, engineering, software and business.
A later company announcement describes the Paris advanced quantum lab as a $50 million project. That figure should not be treated as the amount spent from the Series B unless the company explicitly links the two numbers. Alice & Bob has subsequently described its total funding as €130 million, reflecting financing beyond the original €100 million announcement.
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| Financing development | What is established |
|---|---|
| Original round | €100 million Series B announced in January 2025 |
| Lead investors | Future French Champions, AVP and Bpifrance |
| Returning investors | Elaia Partners, Breega, Supernova Invest and Bpifrance |
| Additional participation | The European Innovation Council was reported by CNP Open as an institutional participant |
| Later extension | NVentures invested in an extension announced May 22, 2026; the amount was not disclosed |
Sources: Bpifrance, CNP Open and Alice & Bob.
Why useful quantum computers are difficult to build
Quantum information is exceptionally sensitive to noise. A physical qubit—the hardware element that stores quantum information—can lose or corrupt its state through imperfect control, environmental effects and interactions with other components.
Useful universal machines therefore require error correction. A logical qubit is an error-corrected unit encoded across several physical qubits. The computer must repeatedly detect and correct errors without destroying the quantum calculation. As systems grow, the overhead extends beyond the qubits themselves to microwave control, wiring, packaging, cryogenics, calibration and power.
- Physical qubit: an individual hardware element carrying quantum information.
- Logical qubit: an error-corrected computational unit built from multiple physical qubits.
- Fault tolerance: reliable operation despite noise as the processor scales.
- Quantum utility: valuable performance on a meaningful problem, rather than simply a high qubit count.
That is why a funding round and a promising physical-qubit result are not the same as a working fault-tolerant computer.
How Alice & Bob’s cat qubits are supposed to help
Alice & Bob uses superconducting “cat qubits,” named after the cat-state concept in quantum mechanics. The architecture is noise-biased: its design is intended to suppress bit-flip errors, one of the main ways quantum information can be corrupted.
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The proposed advantage is efficiency, not error elimination. If bit flips occur less often, an error-correction scheme may need fewer physical qubits and less supporting hardware to protect a logical qubit. The company’s technical explanation is available in its technical white paper.
Other problems remain. Phase flips, leakage, control errors and coupling imperfections still have to be measured and corrected. A noise-biased design can simplify one part of the error-correction problem while making the remaining error channels more important. The decisive question is whether many cat qubits can be fabricated, connected and operated together while preserving the claimed advantage.
Scaling path: cat qubit → multiple physical cat qubits → logical qubit → fault-tolerant processor → useful application
What Alice & Bob has demonstrated so far
Alice & Bob says its Boson 4 chip demonstrated strong cat-qubit performance and was made available through the cloud in May 2024. Its white paper reports a record bit-flip time among superconducting qubits. Those are company-reported technical results, not proof that the company has already built a commercially useful, fault-tolerant universal machine.
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Outbyte Driver Updater FREEScan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →Outbyte PC Repair FREEClear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →The company has been working toward its first error-corrected logical qubit. The Series B is intended to fund the difficult transition from isolated or small-scale demonstrations to multi-qubit systems, where fabrication variation, wiring, calibration and correlated errors become central engineering problems.
The roadmap toward 2030
Alice & Bob’s roadmap is a target sequence, not a guaranteed delivery schedule:
- Establish cat-qubit performance and suppress dominant error channels.
- Build and test systems containing multiple coupled qubits.
- Demonstrate an error-corrected logical qubit.
- Scale the architecture toward a universal, fault-tolerant processor.
- Develop a useful quantum computer near the end of the decade.
The company describes Graphene as a planned 100-logical-qubit quantum computer associated with a 2030 target. “Useful” is not a universal industry threshold: the relevant application, runtime, cost, reliability and comparison with classical or hybrid computing still need to be specified. See the roadmap and the Paris lab announcement.
What the investment signals—and what it does not
Quantum hardware demands specialized facilities and long development cycles, so €100 million gives Alice & Bob more runway to build infrastructure before relying on substantial commercial revenue. The investor syndicate and the later NVentures investment also show strategic interest in the architecture. Alice & Bob says its work with NVIDIA is intended to connect cat-qubit systems with NVIDIA’s accelerated-computing ecosystem.
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Those signals are not technical validation. Capital raised, independently reproduced performance, paying customers and government-program participation measure different things. A well-funded project can still miss its engineering milestones.
What DARPA’s involvement adds
DARPA selected Alice & Bob for Stage A of its Quantum Benchmarking Initiative in April 2025. The program examines whether different approaches could plausibly reach useful, fault-tolerant quantum computing within a decade. Stage A is an evaluation phase, not certification that Alice & Bob has solved fault tolerance.
The initiative frames the right test: not which company has the largest headline qubit count, but which architecture can reach reliable, useful operation at an acceptable cost and scale. See Alice & Bob’s announcement and DARPA’s overview.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.How to interpret the “up to 200 times” claim
Alice & Bob says its cat-qubit architecture could reduce hardware requirements for a useful large-scale quantum computer by up to 200 times compared with competing approaches. This is an architecture-level estimate, not an independently established industry multiplier.
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The result depends on the assumptions used for the comparison:
- the physical error model and target logical error rate;
- the algorithm and workload;
- connectivity and control architecture;
- the definition of “hardware requirements”;
- fabrication yield, cryogenic equipment and electronics; and
- which competing architecture is used as the baseline.
Fewer physical qubits could reduce overhead, but specialized fabrication and control may introduce costs elsewhere. The claim becomes meaningful only when demonstrated on equivalent logical-qubit targets and system-level error budgets.
The tests that will decide whether the bet works
- First logical qubit: a repeatable error-corrected operation under meaningful conditions.
- Multi-qubit correction: evidence that several cat qubits can be coupled without losing their noise bias.
- Manufacturing yield: reproducible devices rather than one exceptional chip.
- System scaling: larger processors with manageable wiring, cryogenics, calibration and control.
- Independent benchmarks: scrutiny from academic, government or customer evaluations.
- Valuable workload: a result whose cost, reliability and runtime compare favorably with classical or hybrid alternatives.
What this announcement does not mean
- It is not a finished quantum computer or a product launch.
- Cat qubits do not eliminate quantum errors.
- Alice & Bob does not automatically need 200 times fewer qubits in every comparison.
- 2030 is a company roadmap target, not a guaranteed delivery date.
- The undisclosed NVentures investment cannot be added to the original €100 million as a known amount.
- DARPA participation is not certification of fault tolerance.
Frequently Asked Questions
When did Alice & Bob announce the €100 million round?
The Series B was announced in January 2025. Some partner pages use January 21, while Bpifrance published January 28; “January 2025” avoids implying a discrepancy is a separate financing.
Has Alice & Bob already built a useful fault-tolerant quantum computer?
No. The company is funding multi-qubit development and work toward a first logical qubit. Its useful-computer ambition, including Graphene around 2030, remains a roadmap target.
What is a cat qubit?
It is a superconducting qubit designed with a noise-biased error profile that suppresses bit flips. It still requires error correction for other error mechanisms and for scalable fault-tolerant operation.
The Bottom Line
The €100 million round gives Alice & Bob substantial resources, infrastructure and strategic backing to test whether cat qubits scale. The financing is meaningful progress, but the central proof—reliable logical qubits and a useful fault-tolerant processor—remains ahead.
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