Quantum Motion, the London company building qubits out of the same silicon transistors that fill a phone, announced a second close of its Series C on 3 September, adding Imec.ventures, Lansdowne Partners, Sony Innovation Fund, S3 Ventures and Inkef to a round led by DCVC and Kembara.1 The Quantum Insider 2026-09-03 Second close; DCVC and Kembara led first close; new investors Imec.ventures, Lansdowne, Sony Innovation Fund, S3, Inkef; silicon spin on standard CMOS; hundredfold cost, hundredfold space, thousandfold energy claims; Maryland lab; DARPA QBI Stage B; NQCC deployment; Palles-Dimmock and Rousseaux quotes. Open source 2 Quantum Motion 2026-09-03 Company statement of investors, technology and milestones; Perman and Lansink quotes on CMOS and manufacturing. Open source The amount was not disclosed.3 Quantum Zeitgeist 2026-09-03 Round size undisclosed; Inkef an investor since 2020; same cost, space and energy claims; Maryland and DARPA Stage B. Open source The company's claim is economic rather than physical: that fault tolerant quantum computers built on standard CMOS fabrication can cost single digit millions of dollars against 100 million or more for competing architectures, with a hundredfold reduction in space and a thousandfold reduction in energy.1 The Quantum Insider 2026-09-03 Second close; DCVC and Kembara led first close; new investors Imec.ventures, Lansdowne, Sony Innovation Fund, S3, Inkef; silicon spin on standard CMOS; hundredfold cost, hundredfold space, thousandfold energy claims; Maryland lab; DARPA QBI Stage B; NQCC deployment; Palles-Dimmock and Rousseaux quotes. Open source The evidence it offers is a full stack silicon system installed at the UK National Quantum Computing Centre, a new laboratory in Maryland, and selection for Stage B of DARPA's Quantum Benchmarking Initiative.1 The Quantum Insider 2026-09-03 Second close; DCVC and Kembara led first close; new investors Imec.ventures, Lansdowne, Sony Innovation Fund, S3, Inkef; silicon spin on standard CMOS; hundredfold cost, hundredfold space, thousandfold energy claims; Maryland lab; DARPA QBI Stage B; NQCC deployment; Palles-Dimmock and Rousseaux quotes. Open source 2 Quantum Motion 2026-09-03 Company statement of investors, technology and milestones; Perman and Lansink quotes on CMOS and manufacturing. Open source Our assessment, with high confidence, is that the round is a bet on manufacturing rather than on a physics breakthrough; with moderate confidence, that the DARPA slot is the most important item in the announcement because it is the only one an outside party will grade; and with low confidence on the cost claim, which no one has yet demonstrated at fault tolerant scale.

The argument for silicon

Every quantum computing architecture has to answer the same question: how do you get from hundreds of noisy qubits to the millions of good ones that useful error corrected computation requires. Superconducting and trapped ion machines have led on qubit quality and have grown by building bigger, colder and more expensive systems. Quantum Motion's answer is that spin qubits in silicon can be made on the same production lines that make processors, at the same density, and that scale is therefore a foundry problem rather than a laboratory one.1 The Quantum Insider 2026-09-03 Second close; DCVC and Kembara led first close; new investors Imec.ventures, Lansdowne, Sony Innovation Fund, S3, Inkef; silicon spin on standard CMOS; hundredfold cost, hundredfold space, thousandfold energy claims; Maryland lab; DARPA QBI Stage B; NQCC deployment; Palles-Dimmock and Rousseaux quotes. Open source Chief executive James Palles-Dimmock puts it as silicon being the only platform able to deliver the density and scale for practical quantum utility.1 The Quantum Insider 2026-09-03 Second close; DCVC and Kembara led first close; new investors Imec.ventures, Lansdowne, Sony Innovation Fund, S3, Inkef; silicon spin on standard CMOS; hundredfold cost, hundredfold space, thousandfold energy claims; Maryland lab; DARPA QBI Stage B; NQCC deployment; Palles-Dimmock and Rousseaux quotes. Open source

The investors are speaking the same language. Aaron Perman of S3 Ventures is quoted saying CMOS always wins; Frank Lansink of Inkef, which has backed the company since 2020, says useful quantum computing is a manufacturing problem as much as a physics problem.2 Quantum Motion 2026-09-03 Company statement of investors, technology and milestones; Perman and Lansink quotes on CMOS and manufacturing. Open source 3 Quantum Zeitgeist 2026-09-03 Round size undisclosed; Inkef an investor since 2020; same cost, space and energy claims; Maryland and DARPA Stage B. Open source Imec.ventures is the venture arm of the Belgian semiconductor research institute, which is to say an investor that knows what a fab can and cannot do.1 The Quantum Insider 2026-09-03 Second close; DCVC and Kembara led first close; new investors Imec.ventures, Lansdowne, Sony Innovation Fund, S3, Inkef; silicon spin on standard CMOS; hundredfold cost, hundredfold space, thousandfold energy claims; Maryland lab; DARPA QBI Stage B; NQCC deployment; Palles-Dimmock and Rousseaux quotes. Open source

What has actually been shown

Three things, per the company and its coverage. A full stack silicon CMOS system deployed at the UK National Quantum Computing Centre, which means a machine outside the company's own building.1 The Quantum Insider 2026-09-03 Second close; DCVC and Kembara led first close; new investors Imec.ventures, Lansdowne, Sony Innovation Fund, S3, Inkef; silicon spin on standard CMOS; hundredfold cost, hundredfold space, thousandfold energy claims; Maryland lab; DARPA QBI Stage B; NQCC deployment; Palles-Dimmock and Rousseaux quotes. Open source A US laboratory in Maryland, sited in a hub alongside other quantum hardware companies.3 Quantum Zeitgeist 2026-09-03 Round size undisclosed; Inkef an investor since 2020; same cost, space and energy claims; Maryland and DARPA Stage B. Open source And selection for Stage B of DARPA's Quantum Benchmarking Initiative, the program designed to test whether any company's path to a useful quantum computer by the 2030s is credible.1 The Quantum Insider 2026-09-03 Second close; DCVC and Kembara led first close; new investors Imec.ventures, Lansdowne, Sony Innovation Fund, S3, Inkef; silicon spin on standard CMOS; hundredfold cost, hundredfold space, thousandfold energy claims; Maryland lab; DARPA QBI Stage B; NQCC deployment; Palles-Dimmock and Rousseaux quotes. Open source 2 Quantum Motion 2026-09-03 Company statement of investors, technology and milestones; Perman and Lansink quotes on CMOS and manufacturing. Open source

None of these is a fault tolerant computer or a cost figure for one. The single digit millions claim is a target, and the hundredfold comparison is to rival architectures' current prices, not to what those rivals will charge when they too scale.3 Quantum Zeitgeist 2026-09-03 Round size undisclosed; Inkef an investor since 2020; same cost, space and energy claims; Maryland and DARPA Stage B. Open source The DARPA program is the mechanism that will eventually separate the claim from the marketing, which is why its Stage B slot matters more than the funding.

Who gains and who loses

Quantum Motion gains capital, a US footprint and a seat in the one benchmarking process that carries government weight.1 The Quantum Insider 2026-09-03 Second close; DCVC and Kembara led first close; new investors Imec.ventures, Lansdowne, Sony Innovation Fund, S3, Inkef; silicon spin on standard CMOS; hundredfold cost, hundredfold space, thousandfold energy claims; Maryland lab; DARPA QBI Stage B; NQCC deployment; Palles-Dimmock and Rousseaux quotes. Open source Foundries gain a possible new product line if the approach works, since a silicon quantum processor is a wafer they already know how to make. Imec gains a stake in the outcome its own research has long argued for.1 The Quantum Insider 2026-09-03 Second close; DCVC and Kembara led first close; new investors Imec.ventures, Lansdowne, Sony Innovation Fund, S3, Inkef; silicon spin on standard CMOS; hundredfold cost, hundredfold space, thousandfold energy claims; Maryland lab; DARPA QBI Stage B; NQCC deployment; Palles-Dimmock and Rousseaux quotes. Open source The UK gains a national quantum champion with an American laboratory.

Superconducting and trapped ion companies lose nothing today, but the narrative that their machines cost 100 million dollars and up is now being used against them by a competitor with credible backers.1 The Quantum Insider 2026-09-03 Second close; DCVC and Kembara led first close; new investors Imec.ventures, Lansdowne, Sony Innovation Fund, S3, Inkef; silicon spin on standard CMOS; hundredfold cost, hundredfold space, thousandfold energy claims; Maryland lab; DARPA QBI Stage B; NQCC deployment; Palles-Dimmock and Rousseaux quotes. Open source Investors in those architectures face a question about terminal cost they did not have to answer when scale was the only issue. The loser if Quantum Motion is wrong is the thesis that manufacturing solves quantum, and the investors who funded it.

The counter case

Silicon spin qubits have promised CMOS compatibility for a decade, and the reason they have not led the field is that qubit quality, uniformity across a wafer and the control electronics at cryogenic temperatures have been harder than the manufacturing argument implies. A hundredfold cost advantage is meaningless if the qubits need a thousandfold more of them to reach the same logical error rate. The round size is undisclosed, which in a sector where large rounds are announced loudly may mean it is modest.3 Quantum Zeitgeist 2026-09-03 Round size undisclosed; Inkef an investor since 2020; same cost, space and energy claims; Maryland and DARPA Stage B. Open source And DARPA's Stage B is a selection to be evaluated, not an endorsement; companies exit the program when the evaluators are not convinced.2 Quantum Motion 2026-09-03 Company statement of investors, technology and milestones; Perman and Lansink quotes on CMOS and manufacturing. Open source The company's own framing, that CMOS always wins, is a slogan from classical computing whose transfer to quantum is exactly what remains to be proved.2 Quantum Motion 2026-09-03 Company statement of investors, technology and milestones; Perman and Lansink quotes on CMOS and manufacturing. Open source

What to watch

  • DARPA Stage B outcome. Advancement to the next QBI stage, or exit, when the program announces its next selection would be the first independent verdict on the roadmap.1 The Quantum Insider 2026-09-03 Second close; DCVC and Kembara led first close; new investors Imec.ventures, Lansdowne, Sony Innovation Fund, S3, Inkef; silicon spin on standard CMOS; hundredfold cost, hundredfold space, thousandfold energy claims; Maryland lab; DARPA QBI Stage B; NQCC deployment; Palles-Dimmock and Rousseaux quotes. Open source
  • A published logical qubit result. Peer reviewed demonstration of error correction below threshold on a silicon spin device within 18 months would move the cost claim from target to plausible.1 The Quantum Insider 2026-09-03 Second close; DCVC and Kembara led first close; new investors Imec.ventures, Lansdowne, Sony Innovation Fund, S3, Inkef; silicon spin on standard CMOS; hundredfold cost, hundredfold space, thousandfold energy claims; Maryland lab; DARPA QBI Stage B; NQCC deployment; Palles-Dimmock and Rousseaux quotes. Open source
  • A foundry partner named. A disclosed production agreement with a commercial CMOS fab by the end of 2027 would show the manufacturing thesis has a manufacturer.2 Quantum Motion 2026-09-03 Company statement of investors, technology and milestones; Perman and Lansink quotes on CMOS and manufacturing. Open source
  • Round size disclosed. A regulatory filing revealing a Series C total above 200 million dollars would signal conviction; a smaller figure would suggest the investors are buying an option.3 Quantum Zeitgeist 2026-09-03 Round size undisclosed; Inkef an investor since 2020; same cost, space and energy claims; Maryland and DARPA Stage B. Open source

The claim is that quantum computing is a manufacturing problem, and manufacturing is a solved one. The investors have paid to find out whether the first half of that sentence is true.