PsiQuantum appointed Victor Peng as Interim Chief Executive Officer, while Co-Founder Jeremy O’Brien transitioned to Executive Chairman. The leadership change comes as the company shifts from foundational R&D to large-scale deployment of utility-scale quantum computing systems in Chicago and Brisbane. PsiQuantum said Peng will oversee day-to-day operations and execution as the board conducts a search for a permanent CEO.
PsiQuantum has focused on building fault-tolerant quantum systems using silicon photonics manufactured in high-volume semiconductor fabs. In 2025, the company unveiled its Omega photonic chipset, manufactured at GlobalFoundries in New York, and advanced to the final stage of DARPA’s Quantum Benchmarking Initiative. It also broke ground on a major U.S. quantum computing site in Chicago and continued development of its Brisbane, Australia facility. The company raised more than $1 billion in a Series E round and expanded collaborations spanning aerospace and defense, as well as a broad partnership with NVIDIA covering quantum computing and next-generation silicon photonics for AI supercomputing.
Peng brings more than four decades of semiconductor and systems leadership, including roles as President of Advanced Micro Devices and CEO of Xilinx prior to its $49 billion acquisition by AMD in 2022. At AMD, he led embedded and data center GPU businesses and contributed to the company’s AI hardware and software roadmap. PsiQuantum said his experience scaling complex compute platforms across CPUs, GPUs, FPGAs, and adaptive SoCs aligns with its transition toward commercial deployment of fault-tolerant systems.
- Victor Peng named Interim CEO; Jeremy O’Brien becomes Executive Chairman
- Focus shifts toward execution and deployment of utility-scale systems
- Omega silicon photonic chipset manufactured at GlobalFoundries
- Sites under development in Chicago and Brisbane
- Advanced to final stage of DARPA Quantum Benchmarking Initiative
- Raised over $1 billion in Series E financing
- Partnership with NVIDIA spans quantum and silicon photonics for AI
“PsiQuantum has done the hard work to establish a real foundation for utility-scale quantum computing — from silicon photonics to fault-tolerant architectures and large-scale deployments,” said Victor Peng, Interim CEO of PsiQuantum. “The task ahead is execution.”
🌐 Analysis: PsiQuantum’s appointment of a veteran semiconductor executive signals a pivot from research milestones to industrial-scale manufacturing and deployment. As quantum startups race to demonstrate fault tolerance and scalable architectures, partnerships with foundries, hyperscalers, and AI infrastructure providers will increasingly define competitive positioning across the quantum computing sector.
PsiQuantum is a privately held US-based quantum computing company focused on building large-scale, fault-tolerant photonic quantum computers using standard semiconductor manufacturing. Founded in 2016 and headquartered in Palo Alto, it aims to deliver “utility-scale” systems with around a million logical qubits, targeting deployment in Brisbane and Chicago by around 2027.
- Founded: 2016, Palo Alto, California
- Founders: Jeremy O’Brien, Terry Rudolph, Peter Shadbolt, Mark Thompson
- Core approach: Silicon photonics / photonic qubits manufactured in CMOS fabs
- Flagship goal: Utility-scale, fault-tolerant quantum computers (~1M qubits) by 2027
- Recent valuation: ≈$7B after 2025 fundraising rounds
PsiQuantum’s architecture is based on photonic qubits—single photons traveling through integrated optical circuits. These qubits are generated, routed, entangled, and measured on CMOS-fabricated silicon photonic chips. The thesis: photons are easier to scale in number, and leveraging existing high-volume semiconductor fabs (via partners like GlobalFoundries) provides a practical path to millions of qubits.
The company emphasizes full-stack engineering, including cryogenic infrastructure, optical switching, error correction, and control electronics, all tuned for fault tolerance rather than today’s small noisy devices.
PsiQuantum is developing two major utility-scale sites with government partners:
- Brisbane, Australia: Planned “world’s first utility-scale, fault-tolerant quantum computer,” backed by substantial Australian federal and Queensland funding and targeted to be operational around end-2027.
- Chicago, USA: Anchor tenant at the Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park, where it is building what is described as America’s largest quantum computing project and first million-qubit-scale machine.
