Snowcap Compute, a startup developing a superconducting compute platform, has launched with $23m in seed funding, led by Playground Global.

The seed funding round saw participation from Cambium Capital, focused on compute and deep tech, and Vsquared Ventures, a European firm with experience in semiconductor investments.

The company’s architecture is designed for high performance and energy efficiency, targeting data centres optimised for AI, quantum, and high-performance computing (HPC).

“The platform delivers the performance and efficiency needed to power advanced AI inference and training, as well as HPC and quantum-classical hybrid workloads,” the company said in a press statement.

The startup is led by a team of silicon industry experts, including Mike Lafferty, former director of Cadence’s “More than Moore” engineering group, which focused on superconducting and quantum technologies.

The founding team also includes chief science officer Anna Herr, and chief technology officer Quentin Herr.

They are joined by advisors Brian Kelleher, former SVP of GPU engineering at Nvidia, and Phil Carmack, former VP of silicon engineering at Google.

Snowcap CEO Michael Lafferty said: “Superconducting logic lets us push beyond the limits of existing CMOS technology, achieving orders-of-magnitude gains in processing speed and efficiency. That performance is essential for the future of AI and quantum computing.”

Snowcap’s platform, built on decades of research, is engineered to support next-generation quantum and low-temperature compute systems.

The company stated that it has addressed key engineering challenges, “including scaling, fab compatibility, EDA challenges, and system architecture issues,” which have previously hindered the commercialisation of superconducting technology.

Snowcap added that it aims to deliver “dramatic gains in speed and energy efficiency for AI, quantum, and high-performance computing” through its superconducting compute platform.

Snowcap board chair and Playground Global general partner Pat Gelsinger said: “Snowcap represents a rare opportunity to realise dramatic performance and power efficiency gains.

“Reimagining a post-CMOS world from the ground up with the most capable and experienced team in superconducting technology is exactly the kind of breakthrough that Playground was built to enable. The implications for AI, quantum and HPC are both thrilling and profound.”