Quantum computing startup Atom Computing has secured funding from the Danish government.

The Export and Investment Fund of Denmark (EIFO) this week announced an investment of 70 million DKK ($10.21 million) in Atom.

State-owned EIFO is the national promotional bank and export credit agency of Denmark. Invest in Denmark, also involved in the deal, is part of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark.

“Denmark has already established itself as an important player in the international quantum industry,” said Minister for Industry, Business and Financial Affairs, Morten Bødskov. “It is with pride that we have managed to succeed in making Denmark an attractive country to locate a business. It is evidence to the fact that the visions of the current administration’s quantum strategy makes a tangible difference and creates new partnerships as well as international collaboration.”

California-based Atom will locate its European HQ in Denmark.

“Atom Computing is excited to partner with Denmark due to the country’s continued investment in quantum research coupled with the clear motivation from academia, government, and industry to advance the field of quantum computing out of the labs into deployment,” said Rob Hays, CEO of Atom Computing. “We believe this partnership advances the national strategic imperatives of both our countries.”

Founded in 2018, Atom is developing an atomic array-based quantum computer, and is one of the first companies to develop a 100-qubit prototype of that approach.

The company previously told DCD it has two additional systems in development at its facility in Boulder, Colorado. In the near term, the company is soon set to offer access to its system via a cloud portal, followed by the public cloud, and finally offering systems on-premise. NREL is an early customer.

Rather than the golden chandeliers and dilution fridges that require supercooling, Atom’s system uses optical tables and lasers for its quantum mechanics. Atom’s current system sits on a 5ft by 12ft optical table; Hays told us his company’s current systems require ‘a few tens of kilowatts’ for the whole system, including the accompanying classical compute infrastructure – equivalent to a few racks.

“The way we've built our facility, we have a kind of hot/cold aisle,” he told DCD. “We have what you can think of as like a hot bay where we put all the servers, control systems, electronics, and anything that generates heat in this central hall. And then on the other side of the wall, where the quantum system sits, are individual rooms around 8 feet by 15 feet. We have one quantum system per room, and that way we can control the temperature, humidity, and sound very carefully.”