Atom Computing opens new Boulder facility

BOULDER — Atom Computing Inc. Wednesday opened a new research and development facility in Boulder that the quantum computing company will use to house future generations of its computers. 

The facility is located in the Flatiron Park business park.

Speakers at the ribbon-cutting ceremony included Gov. Jared Polis; Missy Diehl, director of industry relations at the University of Colorado Boulder; and Andrew Wilson, quantum physics division chief at the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

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“The reason Atom will thrive here is all the work around quantum computing that is done here,” Polis said. “Colorado is the proverbial godfather of the quantum industry … Atom’s expansion is another proof point that we are the quantum computing hub in the U.S.”

Atom was founded in Berkeley, California, in 2018, and its global headquarters are still located there. Berkeley is home to Atom’s prototype 100-qubit quantum computer, which explores innovative quantum algorithm development and earlier this year set an industry record for coherence time. Atom also closed a $60 million Series B funding round earlier this year. 

The Boulder facility will house Atom’s second-generation quantum computers as the company scales up. Atom currently is operating five labs in the space, but it has room for up to 12. 

Atom has already integrated itself into Boulder’s scientific community. Diehl praised Atom for its work with the Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics, the research institute at CU Boulder run in partnership by the university and NIST. Additionally, Atom co-founder Ben Bloom received his doctoral degree from the CU Boulder, and JILA physicist Jun Ye serves as Atom’s scientific adviser.

“We know this continued focus will only elevate Colorado as a hub of these technologies,” Diehl said.

Wilson said that the quantum tech ecosystem in Colorado — the Denver area has the highest density of quantum research and development companies in the nation — is crucial to achieving breakthroughs in quantum science. 

“The ecosystem here is the most important thing we have,” Wilson said. “That’s a key advantage here. Success relies on partnerships.”

The Boulder region has developed a significant quantum-computing niche, from CU Boulder and federal laboratories to private-sector companies, such as ColdQuanta Inc. and LongPath Technologies Inc., both based in Boulder, and Quantinuum LLC, a Broomfield company newly spun out of Honeywell International Inc.