Intel Capital has invested in Q-Factor, a quantum computing company aiming to build a million-qubit computer using neutral atom technology. Founded by physicists from the Weizmann Institute and the Technion, Israel Institute of Technology, Q-Factor secured $24 million in seed funding led by NFX and TPY Capital, alongside grants from the Israel Innovation Authority. The company intends to overcome limitations hindering current quantum computers, which remain too small to provide practical commercial value; Q-Factor’s approach focuses on scaling beyond the few thousand qubits currently achievable. “The quantum computing industry needs a substantial change, not just incremental improvements,” said Prof. Ofer Firstenberg, Q-Factor’s co-founder and chief scientist, asserting that incremental improvements will not bridge the gap to useful computation. Neutral Atom Architecture Targets Million-Qubit Scalability Q-Factor has secured $24 million in seed funding to pursue an ambitious goal: building a quantum computer capable of exceeding one million qubits. Unlike superconducting or trapped ion approaches, neutral atoms offer inherent advantages in coherence and control, utilizing light-based manipulation rather than relying on extreme cooling or intricate wiring. Despite these benefits, existing neutral atom platforms struggle to scale beyond a few thousand qubits, a critical barrier to achieving practical quantum computation. The founders of Q-Factor identified specific architectural bottlenecks preventing substantial increases in qubit count, leading them to develop a novel approach designed for continuous scalability. This is not simply about incremental improvements to existing designs; the team believes a fundamental shift is necessary to realize the full potential of quantum computing. Ofer Firstenberg, co-founder and chief scientist of Q-Factor, explained, “Current systems are too small to deliver on the promise of quantum computing, and incremental improvements alone aren’t going to close that gap. We’ve developed an architecture designed for continuous scalability, a trajectory that can take neutral atom systems from thousands of qubits