A couple of big equity investment bets by Australian governments into US quantum firms PsiQuantum and Infleqtion have taken a step forward with a pathway to liquidity revealing itself.
The first of these, PsiQuantum, announced this week a US$1 billion (A$1.5 billion) Series E capital raise, valuing the company at US$7 billion.
PsiQuantum was famously backed by the Australian and Queensland governments, which both contributing equally to a financial package worth A$940 million. Of this amount, US$250 million was in the form of an equity investment.
The PsiQuantum investment, which was announced in April 2024, drew heavy criticism for the process that under-pinned it, with critics saying the government had unfairly favoured the US company at the expense of Australian quantum startups.
But the local sector says PsiQuantum’s progress to a Series E capital raise is great news, revealing a pathway to liquidity for government.
Whatever capital return can be made on that investment is capital that can be recycled into future investments into deep tech.
That potential return is still likely years away, but local quantum leaders say anything that makes a return for taxpayers is a good thing.
The other investment worth noting is Breakthrough Victoria’s $29 million investment in US quantum company Infleqtion (formerly known as Cold Quanta) as part of its US$100 million raise in 2022.
Infleqtion said this week that it would list its shares in the US through a SPAC (special purpose acquisition company) valuing the company at US$1.8 billion (A$2.7 billion).
That will produce a healthy return for the Breakthrough Victoria fund, which is mandated to recycle that capital back into deep tech startups.
And that’s good news.
Elsewhere, there has been plenty of other noteworthy news this week. Australia’s tech darling Atlassian announced that it would acquire The Browser Company for about $1 billion.
The Browser Company makes an AI-driven browser that Atlassian chief executive Mike Cannon-Brookes says will be a game-changer for the company.
And at a time when Tech Council chair Scott Farquhar has called for copyright reform in Australia to allow AI companies free access to copyrighted work in order to train their models, US AI giant Anthropic has agreed to pay a group of authors US$1.5 billion for using their works without permission.
Telstra chief executive Vicki Brady has called for government to get serious about connectivity and data infrastructure by getting serious about deregulation.
She told the Press Club there are huge opportunities for Australia – but only a short window to take advantage of then.
In other news:
Australia enters early talks to join $170bn Horizon Europe – InnovationAus.com [Subscriber]
$1.7bn Defence deal propels Ghost Shark robo-subs into production – InnovationAus.com
OpenAI execs holds talks with Jim Chalmers over ‘strategic’ Australian investment – Capital Brief [$]
Intergenerational inequity as an innovation moonshot: Bill Ferris – InnovationAus.com [Subscriber]
Build sovereign AI now or face ‘lock-in’, Australia warned – InnovationAus.com [Subscriber]
‘We can do it for under $100m’: Start-up joins race to build local ChatGPT – Australian Financial Review [$]
Somebody has to lose’: Why reshaping R&D is so hard – InnovationAus.com [Subscriber]
Do you know more? Contact James Riley via Email.