Peter Sarlin's Qu Two reaches $380M valuation in angel round | Tech Crunch
Overview
Qu Two, the Finnish AI lab founded by former AMD Silo AI CEO Peter Sarlin, is now valued at €325 million (approximately
Qu Two’s name is a nod to quantum computing, but it hasn’t gone all-in on quantum. Its core product, Qu Two OS, is an orchestration layer that directs tasks to classical, quantum or hybrid architectures — with the idea that enterprise use cases are often best served by “quantum-inspired” computing, which uses classical chips to simulate quantum behavior on more reliable hardware.
Details
Enterprise AI will be Qu Two’s bread and butter. The company already secured some $23 million in committed revenue thanks to design partnerships with the likes of retail giant Zalando, for which it helped develop AI assistants. “AI is the North Star that we will continue to aim for. Quantum is just a new type of compute,” said Sarlin, who is adamant that Qu Two is an AI company.
Momentum has been building around Europe-based AI labs, and several of them have become overnight unicorns. Just last week, former Deep Mind researcher David Silver secured $1.1 billion for his new endeavor, Ineffable Intelligence. Qu Two’s valuation and round size are somewhat modest in comparison but will let it pursue its roadmap under less pressure.
According to Sarlin, who serves as Qu Two’s executive chairman, this was a decision he also made for his previous company, Silo AI, which AMD acquired for $665 million in 2024. “I had a lot of investors who would have wanted to pour a lot of money into making Silo into Europe’s Open AI, but I didn’t believe in that play,” he told Tech Crunch.
The main difference is that Qu Two wants the freedom to think long term, with a five- to ten-year horizon. “We are on a mission to build the globally leading AI company for the next paradigm, given that Europe did not succeed in building the AI company for this era,” Sarlin said.
It’s not that Sarlin is bearish on European AI, of which he is a prolific backer. Nor is he necessarily critical of extra-large rounds — he volunteered that he is also an investor in Yann Le Cun’s Ami Labs, which raised $1.03 billion, and in British-American venture Recursive Superintelligence, which is rumored to be following the same path. But he didn’t see a billion-dollar round as the right fit for Qu Two — nor VC money, at least for now.
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Until recently, Qu Two was solely funded through Sarlin’s family office, Post Scriptum, which also incubated Nest AI, the other company where he serves as executive chairman. But whereas Nest AI raised some $115 million in a funding round led by Finland’s sovereign fund and Nokia, Qu Two wasn’t seeking to raise external funding.
However, when the lab’s soft launch generated significant interest earlier this year, Sarlin decided he would say no to checks from VCs and strategic investors, but yes to an angel round in part due to the geopolitical moment Europe is currently navigating.
With Europe increasingly looking to favor local alternatives to U. S. tech providers, there are tailwinds for AI made in Finland. But there is also investor appetite for a company that promises to facilitate more ambitious R&D initiatives in the fields where the region already has strong players, such as the automotive, life sciences and gaming sectors.
Conversely, Sarlin expects that Qu Two’s angel investors could open doors across Europe. There are definitely quite a few introductions he could request from this group, which includes Yuri Milner, Xavier Niel, Nico Rosberg, Dieter Schwarz and Niklas Zennström, and as well as many startup founders from Hugging Space, Legora, Miro, Skype, Supercell, Wolt, and more.
This will also support Qu Two’s growth. It recently expanded into Sweden, and has been hiring. According to Sarlin, some 50 quantum and AI scientists have joined the team, which includes two other second-time entrepreneurs: his former cofounder at Silo, Kaj-Mikael Björk; and Kuan Yen Tan, a cofounder at IQM, the Finnish quantum company that is set to go public.
Qu Two’s connection with IQM is also a reminder that the company believes we are about to enter the quantum era — it just can’t wait. “The question for repeat founders like [us] is how can we have even a larger impact. In the long term, it’s important for Europe that we build the AI company for the next paradigm out of Europe. But, in the short term, we can have a significant impact in driving ambitious R&D moon shots in Europe,” Sarlin said.
Key Takeaways
- Qu Two, the Finnish AI lab founded by former AMD Silo AI CEO Peter Sarlin, is now valued at €325 million (approximately 29 million)
- Qu Two’s name is a nod to quantum computing, but it hasn’t gone all-in on quantum
- Enterprise AI will be Qu Two’s bread and butter
- Momentum has been building around Europe-based AI labs, and several of them have become overnight unicorns
- According to Sarlin, who serves as Qu Two’s executive chairman, this was a decision he also made for his previous company, Silo AI, which AMD acquired for $665 million in 2024
