Alice & Bob and Partners Awarded $3.9M ARPA-E Grant for Quantum Magnet Design

Alice & Bob, test of a change in collaboration with Los Alamos National Laboratory and GE Vernova, has been awarded $3.9 million from the U.S. Department of Energy’s ARPA-E Quantum Computing for Computational Chemistry (QC3) program. The three-year project aims to develop fault-tolerant quantum algorithms to identify rare-earth-free permanent magnets, which are essential components for electric motors and turbines. The effort is directed toward providing a technical alternative to neodymium-iron-boron (NdFeB) magnets, whose supply chains are currently geographically concentrated and subject to political constraints.

The technical objective of the project is to achieve a 10,000-fold speed-up in computing time compared to current state-of-the-art classical simulations. The team will implement a hybrid approach where classical algorithms, developed by a group led by Professor Emanuel Gull, calculate environmental parameters while Alice & Bob’s quantum algorithms simulate highly correlated electronic systems. Los Alamos National Laboratory will contribute tensor network tools for quantum circuit optimization, and the performance targets will be validated experimentally on Alice & Bob's cat-qubit hardware as well as through theoretical resource estimates.

Classical computers struggle to accurately model the complex quantum interactions between electrons that define the magnetic behavior of candidate materials. By using quantum processors to model these systems directly, the consortium intends to enable realistic material calculations within a 24-hour window. GE Vernova’s Advanced Research accelerator will support the project by performing a technoeconomic analysis to evaluate the commercial viability of materials discovered through the hybrid algorithm. If successful, the researchers indicate that the framework could be adapted to broader applications in computational chemistry and materials science.

For the complete technical details on the ARPA-E award and the rare-earth-free magnet project, consult the official Alice & Bob announcement here.

March 31, 2026