In this Member Spotlight, mHUB connected with Brandon Severin, Co-founder and CEO of Conductor Quantum, to discuss how the company is developing AI-powered control software designed to make quantum computers faster and easier to calibrate and scale. As one of the first quantum companies to use mHUB’s growing quantum infrastructure, Conductor Quantum also offers a glimpse into what a broader hardtech ecosystem can provide quantum startups beyond access to specialized equipment: speed, flexibility, real-world testing, and opportunities to collaborate with other builders.
Quantum computers have the potential to solve problems beyond the capabilities of classical computing, but the technology still faces a fundamental challenge: scaling.
Unlike classical computers, which encode information in bits that represent either a zero or a one, quantum computers use quantum bits, or qubits, that can exist in combinations of both states. That makes quantum computing extraordinarily powerful—but operating these systems requires extensive calibration and tuning.
For Conductor Quantum, that is the problem worth solving.
“The challenge with quantum computers today is that there just simply aren't enough qubits for them to be useful,” Severin explains. “It takes a long time to turn these machines on, get them operational. With calibration and tuning, the search space is very, very large.”
Conductor Quantum is developing AI-powered, low-level control software that automates work traditionally performed by quantum engineers in the lab. The goal is to tune and calibrate quantum computers faster than human experts can, helping systems scale to increasingly larger numbers of qubits.
“Ideally, you don't have a billion PhD students doing this to have a billion-qubit quantum computer,” Severin says. “You just have an AI or an operating system.”
For quantum startups, developing sophisticated software is only part of the equation. That software eventually has to interact with real quantum hardware—and gaining access to the specialized facilities needed to do that can be difficult, expensive, and slow.
That is where access to shared infrastructure can dramatically change the development process.
At mHUB, Conductor Quantum was able to access cryogenic infrastructure and begin testing without first having to build an equivalent facility of its own.
“The amazing thing about mHUB and the Bluefors setup here is that it was just really plug and play,” Severin says. “Call the team; they're like, ‘Yep, sure, we have availability.’ Flew in, away we went.”
For a startup, that speed matters.
“It takes so long to set up cryogenic facilities like the one downstairs,” he says. “Being able to actually test the software live and show it working on a real device, but not just one, but 64 devices, is really, really important for us.”
Simulations can only take quantum technology so far.
The conditions surrounding a real quantum device introduce variables that can be difficult to reproduce artificially, including noise generated by the laboratory environment, surrounding buildings, and the hardware itself.
For software designed to control and calibrate quantum systems, those conditions are essential to understand.
“It's very hard to simulate quantum devices,” Severin explains. “The hard thing to simulate is actually the noisy data—the noise from the lab, the noise from surrounding buildings—which all quantum computers and these chips we know will have to deal with.”
That makes physical access to quantum hardware an important part of developing software that can ultimately perform outside a controlled simulation.
And for early-stage companies moving quickly, shared infrastructure can offer another advantage: the ability to test an idea without committing the time and capital required to build an entire facility around it.
“I think everyone will move to this model of renting lab space,” Severin says. “We'll see more people, even the hardware companies, say, ‘Look, we've made a chip. We just want to test it quickly. Our bandwidth is limited here. Can we rent a facility and get the results as fast as possible?’”
Specialized infrastructure may bring a quantum startup through the door, but the value of being part of a larger innovation ecosystem does not stop at the equipment.
Quantum technologies ultimately have to move out of isolated research environments and into the physical world. That creates opportunities for interaction across hardware, software, engineering, manufacturing, and other technical disciplines.
For Conductor Quantum, simply working alongside people building physical technologies created opportunities that would be difficult to replicate in a standalone quantum lab.
“Just being in an environment where people are building, but also building physical things,” Severin says, can change how companies think about the people around them.
Researchers or companies that might initially appear to be competitors can become collaborators when they are working in the same environment and solving adjacent challenges.
“Who you used to think were your competitors based on the published research papers actually could be excellent collaborators,” Severin says. “And that only happens when you can meet people face to face.”
That dynamic is an important part of mHUB’s growing quantum ecosystem.
For emerging quantum companies, access to cutting-edge equipment is critical. But so is being surrounded by engineers, entrepreneurs, researchers, industry partners, and other technology companies confronting the challenges of building and commercializing complex physical technologies.
The combination creates something larger than a laboratory: a platform where quantum companies can test faster, learn from adjacent industries, form new collaborations, and build toward commercialization without having to assemble every resource independently.
Quantum computing remains a highly specialized field, and the infrastructure required to develop it has traditionally been concentrated within a relatively small number of research institutions and corporate environments.
Shared facilities can help change that.
“It's rare to get it all under one roof where anyone can come in and use the facility,” Severin says.
As mHUB continues building its quantum capabilities, companies like Conductor Quantum demonstrate what becomes possible when advanced infrastructure is paired with a broader hardtech community.
For the next generation of quantum startups, the advantage may not come from having every piece of equipment themselves. It may come from having access to the right equipment, the right environment, and the right people—all in one place.