PsiQuantum’s Brisbane build is already running very late

PsiQuantum, the US startup backed by Blackbird, and the Queensland and federal governments, is already running several months behind schedule on plans to build its Brisbane facility and deliver the world’s first quantum computer.

Founded in Palo Alto in 2016 by four expat Australian professors, PsiQuantum was backed by $940 million in joint funding from the Australian and Queensland governments, 20 months ago in 2024, to build the world’s first utility-scale quantum computer in Brisbane. At the time, the startup said it had “an aggressive plan to have the site operational by the end of 2027”.

But in Senate Estimates in Canberra last week, it emerged that despite plans to start the Queensland capital build in 2025, the project has not yet begun consultation on the draft development plan for the site at Brisbane airport. That process, alone, takes two months.

InnovationAus reports that the deputy secretary of the dept of industry, science and resources (DISR), Helen Wilson, told the committee that public consultation by Brisbane Airport Corporation on the PsiQuantum development was not yet underway. Another DISR official told the senators that they don’t have any “specific dates” for the public consultation period.

The project had been flagged to get underway in mid-2025, so the additional delays could put the build up to 12 months behind schedule.

While the federal government’s $470 million investment – the total package is split 50-50% with the Queensland government – is a mix of equity grants and loans, the initial tranche of capital was meant to flow the company in FY2025

Ms Wilson told the Senate committee that there had been no drawn down at this stage.

The original announcement came with an inference that Australia may get the world’s first quantum computer by 2027.

But within three months of that announcement, the California startup cut a similar deal, worth A$760m over 30 years, to build a plant in Chicago, backed by the city, Illinois government, and local county, with the promise of America’s first million-qubit scale, fault-tolerant quantum computer operating there in 2028.

The timelines for both computers is now closer to 2030.

In September, the company announced that the Chicago project was already underway.

The state government there, led by billionaire governor JB Pritzker, is spending another US$500 million on the Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park (IQMP), including US$200m for a cryogenic plant for the cooling needs for PsiQuantum and users.

That news came just three weeks after the company raised  US$1 billion (A$1.5bn) in a Series E that doubled PsiQuantum’s valuation in four years to US$7bn (A$10.5bn.

Australian VC Blackbird backed PsiQuantum during 2021’s $450 million Series D.

The Brisbane facility includes PsiQuantum’s Asia-Pacific headquarters, with room for 400 staff, a warehouse-style building housing quantum computers cooled to 4 Kelvins (-269°C, known as absolute zero), and a cryogenic plant building with a helium-based cooling system connected to the computer warehouse.