French quantum computing startup Alice & Bob has been awarded $3.9 million by the US Department of Energy to design rare-earth-free magnets.

The funding has been granted as part of the DOE’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) Quantum Computing for Computational Chemistry (QC 3) program.

The three-year project will see Alice & Bob develop fault-tolerant quantum algorithms aimed at discovering rare-earth-free permanent magnets. The quantum startup will partner with Los Alamos National Laboratory, Massachusetts-based energy company GE Vernova’s Advanced Research accelerator, and Professor Emanuel Gull, a visiting Professor at Warsaw University and a Professor at the University of Michigan.

The group will create classical algorithms that can work in conjunction with Alice & Bob’s quantum algorithms, with Los Alamos also tasked with developing tensor network tools to optimize quantum circuits. Additionally, GE Vernova’s Advanced Research accelerator will perform a technoeconomic analysis of material discovery opportunities enabled by the hybrid algorithm.

“Designing high-performance magnets without rare earth elements is one of the hardest problems in material science, as these materials are extremely difficult to simulate with classical computers,” said Juliette Peyronnet, US general manager, Alice & Bob. “A hybrid approach – where classical methods compute environmental parameters and quantum computers simulate highly correlated electronic systems more accurately – could significantly accelerate the discovery of new magnetic materials.”

Marco Cerezo, Los Alamos scientist and laboratory lead on the project, added: “Finding ways to prepare high-quality states via tensor network optimization is a critical tool that will help develop fault-tolerant quantum algorithms applied to challenges like rare-earth-free minerals permanent magnets. This team effort converges expertise to leverage quantum computing for an important, practical outcome.”

Founded in 2020, Alice & Bob claims its superconducting ‘cat qubits’ are protected from bit-flip errors by design, meaning additional error-correcting qubits are only needed to tackle the remaining phase-flip errors.

Alice & Bob has previously said it is alone in developing quantum computers exclusively with this type of qubit, and that its approach makes it possible to create fault-tolerant computers using far fewer qubits.

In February 2025, Amazon unveiled its Ocelot quantum computing chip, also based on cat qubit architecture.

In April of the same year, Alice & Bob was selected as one of 18 quantum computing companies chosen to enter the initial phase of the US government’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (DARPA) Quantum Benchmarking Initiative (QBI).

It was not named as a participant in Stage B of the program, although, at the time, DARPA said Stage A participants missing from the list could still advance.