Last week, the Financial Times reported that a group of Britain’s best-known quantum computing scientists had moved quietly to Silicon Valley to found a startup called PsiQ. The lure was the abundance of venture capital that can’t be had in Europe. 

The American VC firm Playground, set up by Android’s founder Andy Rubin, has invested in the new company. Judging by Playground’s track record – two of its most notable successes were sold to Amazon.com Inc – PsiQ may very well end up becoming part of Big Tech’s trophy collection one day.