Startup pushes enterprises to adopt quantum computing before it goes mainstream

Eighteen months after selling his startup to chipmaker AMD for $665 million, Finnish entrepreneur Peter Sarlin has stepped down as CEO of the unit now known as AMD Silo AI. He is now serving as chairman of two new ventures: the physical AI lab NestAI and Qutwo, an AI startup focused on helping companies prepare for the coming age of quantum computing.

Backed entirely at this stage by Sarlin’s family office, PostScriptum, Qutwo describes itself as “an AI lab for the quantum era.” But rather than waiting for quantum computing to mature fully, the company is already working with enterprise customers. Among them is European fashion retailer Zalando, with which it is building what the two companies describe as “lifestyle agents,” AI tools meant to go beyond basic product search and proactively recommend products and experiences.

Qutwo is built on the idea that AI is approaching an efficiency ceiling that quantum computing could eventually help overcome. Still, the company is not betting on exactly when that shift will happen, Sarlin said. Instead, it is developing Qutwo OS as an orchestration layer that would enable companies to transition from classical computing to quantum computing, while also leveraging hybrid computing systems along the way.

Through PostScriptum, Sarlin has invested in Finnish quantum companies IQM and QMill, and he is among a growing group of investors who believe quantum computing will ultimately outperform classical systems across a broad range of industrial applications while also helping reduce AI’s energy demands. At the same time, he believes the earliest practical uses will require mixed hardware environments and that enterprises would prefer to focus on business problems while Qutwo OS handles the underlying routing.

In that sense, one advantage of the middle-ground approach known as “quantum-inspired” computing is that it is already workable today, because it relies on classical hardware while simulating quantum behaviour, thereby sidestepping many of the obstacles that still hold back quantum hardware. Meanwhile, Qutwo OS is being designed to remain flexible, supporting both quantum and non-quantum algorithms and chips.

Qutwo’s team includes experience from both the quantum and AI worlds. On the quantum side are IQM co-founder Kuan Yen Tan and board member Antti Vasara, who also serves as chair of SemiQon, a Finnish semiconductor startup focused on quantum chips. The enterprise and AI side is represented by Sarlin himself and Kaj-Mikael Björk, a former co-founder of Silo AI. Pekka Lundmark, the former CEO of Finnish telecom giant Nokia, has also joined Qutwo’s board.

Across both fields, the company says its team includes more than 30 quantum and AI scientists, and Sarlin has made clear how he sees the company’s identity. “We’re building for the quantum world, but Qutwo is an AI company,” he said, adding that Qutwo is “pushing AI workloads from classical to quantum.”

That positioning means Qutwo’s potential customer base could be fairly broad. In addition to Zalando, the company has also launched a joint quantum AI research initiative with OP Pohjola, a major Finnish financial services provider.

From the beginning, Qutwo has taken a commercially driven approach and already has what Sarlin described as “large design partnerships which are in the tens of millions.” These design partnerships, in which a vendor develops its product alongside enterprise customers, allow Qutwo to better understand what customers want as it builds its platform. They also reflect a bet by enterprises seeking to secure an early position if quantum computing reaches a meaningful commercial scale.