Intel has 70 people working on quantum computing. Its CEO is betting on the next frontier - calcalistech.com

Intel is betting on quantum computing as one of the technologies that could shape computing a decade from now, even as the company’s CEO acknowledges that the industry has yet to determine which approach will ultimately work. The company already has about 70 people working on quantum computing, CEO Lip-Bu Tan said on the QuantumJane podcast, and is developing its own technology based on silicon spin qubits. More importantly for a company whose historic advantage has been manufacturing, Intel is testing whether those qubits can eventually be produced using its semiconductor fabrication capabilities. “We have like 70 people working on this and then this is spin quantum and we also have a fab,” Tan said in an interview with QuantumJane at Intel’s headquarters in Silicon Valley. “We’re also working on some of this, testing whether it works.” Tan said quantum computing has become part of Intel’s strategic direction for the next five to 10 years, suggesting that the company views the technology not simply as a research project but as a potential extension of its manufacturing and computing businesses. Quantum computing remains divided among several competing technologies, including superconducting circuits, trapped ions, photonics, neutral atoms and silicon spin qubits. Intel is pursuing the last of these. The basic idea is to use the spin of electrons in silicon to create qubits, allowing the company to draw on technologies and manufacturing techniques developed for conventional semiconductor production. Intel has already developed silicon spin-qubit technology and says its Tunnel Falls chip was designed using industrial transistor fabrication techniques with scalability and high-volume manufacturing in mind. The company is also developing the supporting control and testing infrastructure needed to move toward larger systems. “You have to figure out what are the different technology approaches that will work,” he said. “And then at the end, how do you do mass production?” That is where Intel believes it may have something that many quantum startups do not. “And that’s when you notice that you need to have a fab. A good fab that can support that,” Tan said. “That’s where Intel plays a very different important role.” The company is not claiming that its architecture has won the race. Tan explicitly said the verdict remains open. “I think there’s a lot of different methods,” he said. “I think you should try different ways.” The challenge is that building a useful quantum computer requires much more than demonstrating that individual qubits work. Error correction, control systems, software, power and the physical infrastructure all have to work together. That is also why Tan’s investment in Israeli startup Classiq is significant. Classiq is not trying to build the quantum processor itself. The company develops software designed to allow organizations to build quantum applications without having to work directly with the underlying hardware. Tan described the company as an attempt to build “the next Cadence” for quantum computing, a reference to the chip-design software company where he previously served as CEO. “They want to be the next Cadence to computers, quantum computing,” Tan said. Classiq was founded in 2020 by Nir Minerbi, Amir Naveh and Yehuda Naveh. The company has developed a software platform that allows quantum applications to be designed in a hardware-agnostic way, potentially allowing users to work across different quantum machines rather than building software around a single type of processor. Tan said he was attracted to Classiq partly because of the technical strength of its team and because it had already begun working with customers on potential applications. “I met the team.

The team is super technical and brilliant,” he said. “I like it, their approach.” He also pointed to applications including chemistry and medicine as areas where quantum computing could eventually demonstrate its value. “At the end of the day, if you’re gonna scale, it’s based on what application, what solution you try to address,” he said. “And how accurate is that. Can you make it repeatable? Whether you can scale it.” Classiq has since attracted substantial international backing. In May 2025, the company announced a $110 million Series C, bringing its total funding to $173 million. Existing investors included Tan. Two months later, SoftBank Vision Fund 2 and CDP Venture Capital invested another $10 million to $20 million, bringing Classiq’s total funding to as much as $200 million. Tan said he believes quantum computing could ultimately have an impact far beyond its current niche. “This can be ten times bigger than AI using classical computing to quantum computing,” he said. But he also repeatedly stressed how early the industry remains. “The verdict is still out,” Tan said. “It’s still very early.”