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Eighteen months after selling his startup to chipmaker AMD for $665 million<\/a>, Finnish entrepreneur Peter Sarlin has left his role as CEO<\/a> of the unit now known as AMD Silo AI. He is now chairman at two new ventures: physical AI lab NestAI<\/a>, and QuTwo<\/a>, an AI startup aimed at helping companies prepare for the era of quantum computing<\/p>\n Currently fully funded by Sarlin\u2019s family office, PostScriptum<\/a>, QuTwo describes itself as \u201can AI lab for the quantum era.\u201d Rather than waiting for quantum computing to mature, however, it is already working with enterprise customers \u2014 including European fashion retailer Zalando, with which it is developing what the two companies call \u201clifestyle agents,<\/a>\u201d AI tools designed to go beyond product search and proactively suggest products and experiences.<\/p>\n QuTwo is built on the premise that AI is hitting an efficiency wall that quantum computing may eventually help solve. But the company is not betting on when that will happen, Sarlin told TechCrunch. Instead, the startup is building QuTwo OS as an orchestration layer that allows companies to shift from classical to quantum computing \u2014 making use of hybrid computing along the way.<\/p>\n Sarlin invested in Finnish quantum companies IQM<\/a> and QMill through PostScriptum, and is one of a growing number of investors who believe it will eventually outperform classical computers<\/a> in a wide range of industry applications while easing AI\u2019s energy demands. But he also thinks that initial use cases will require mixed hardware environments, and that enterprises would rather focus on their business problems while QuTwo OS takes care of the routing.<\/p>\n In that respect, the potential advantage of the middle ground known as \u201cquantum-inspired\u201d computing is that it is already viable today, because it uses classical hardware while simulating quantum behavior, working around the hurdles that still hinder quantum hardware. Meanwhile, QuTwo OS is designed to be flexible, supporting quantum or non-quantum algorithms and chips alike.<\/p>\n QuTwo\u2019s team brings experience on both sides of the quantum-AI divide. On the quantum side, there\u2019s IQM cofounder Kuan Yen Tan and board member Antti Vasara, also chair at SemiQon, a Finnish semiconductor startup focused on quantum chips. The enterprise side is equally represented, by Sarlin himself and Kaj-Mikael Bj\u00f6rk, one of his former cofounders at Silo AI. Pekka Lundmark, the former CEO of Finnish telecom giant Nokia, also joined QuTwo\u2019s board.<\/p>\n Across both areas, the team counts over 30 quantum and AI scientists, and Sarlin is clear where the company stands. \u201cWe\u2019re building for the quantum world, but QuTwo is an AI company,\u201d he said, meaning that QuTwo is \u201cpushing AI workloads from classical to quantum.\u201d<\/p>\n Techcrunch event<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSan Francisco, CA<\/span> This also means that its customer base could be quite broad. Beyond Zalando, QuTwo also launched a joint quantum AI research initiative with OP Pohjola, a major Finnish financial services provider.<\/p>\n From the outset, QuTwo has been commercially minded and already has \u201clarge design partnerships which are in the tens of millions,\u201d Sarlin said. Design partnerships \u2014 in which a vendor co-develops its product alongside enterprise customers \u2014 are a way for QuTwo to learn what those customers expect as it builds its product. They are also a bet from enterprises looking to establish early footing when and if quantum computing does arrive.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOctober 13-15, 2026<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n