Quantum Computing Inc.

assistance during the conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. Please note, this conference is being recorded. I will now turn the conference over to your host, Rosalind Christian. You may begin.

Thank you, and I want to welcome everyone to the Quantum Computing Inc. Fourth Quarter 2024 Shareholder Update Call. Before we begin, I'd like to remind everyone that this conference call may contain forward-looking statements based on our current expectations and projections regarding future events, and are subject to change based on various important factors. In light of these risks, uncertainties, and assumptions, we should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this call. For more details on factors that could affect these expectations, please see our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. On the call today, we have Dr. William McGann, CEO of QCI, and Chris Bimler, CFO. Bill will provide an update on the business, followed by a question and answer session hosted by both Bill and Chris. With that, I would like to turn the call over to management. Please go ahead, Bill.

Well, thank you, Rosalind, and everyone out there for joining us today. We're extremely excited to share our progress with you after what has been a very, very busy fourth quarter with a lot of significant operational and financial progress to report to you all. With a transformed balance sheet and critical advancements across both our quantum solutions and foundry services business, we are really well positioned to scale and accelerate the commercialization of of our technology in 2025. QCI has been living and breathing quantum for years now, but one change since we last spoke together is that the broader world has definitely started to take notice to the importance of quantum. This is a really exciting momentum in the industry and especially here at QCI. For those that are new to our story, QCI is a nanophotonics company, and we leverage the nonlinear quantum optical properties of a material called thin-film lithium niobate to build high-performance computing solutions for real-world applications today. That's a differentiator. Our approach is unique in the quantum industry because our technology is available and useful today, while many of the quantum players continue to work on that ultimate technology. challenge of a large-scale fault-tolerant system that may remain years away, our focus is in delivering accessible and affordable solutions for quantum-enhanced solutions today and right now. So we'll talk about some of those in a moment. One of the differentiators for our core technology is so-called SWAP-C, which is our ability to deliver superior size, weight, power, and cost advantages. And our DRAC-3 quantum optimization machine operates at room temperature, requires no cryogenic cooling, It fits within a standard data rack in a server room and consumes less than 100 watts, which is a fraction of the power required by many competing systems. So these together, our advantages are critical as the industries that seek important solutions that seamlessly integrate into existing infrastructure while also simultaneously improving computational efficiency. That's kind of our mission. So we're addressing two very primary market needs right now. The first is our Dirac 3 quantum machine is aimed at solving complex optimization problems in transportation, finance, healthcare, fraud detection, and even in improving the optimization of AI algorithms. The second focus has been advancing our photonic chip technology, which we talked about last time. We'll talk a little bit more about that today. And our foundry will provide the building blocks for not only the next generation of our quantum applications, but also for adjacencies in data comm and telecom markets. So I'll give you a little bit of an update on some of the operational highlights for the fourth quarter 2024. What we did there is we really continued to make a lot of progress across our key initiatives, validating both the demand for our quantum computing solutions and for our chip foundry services. One of the major highlights was an expansion of our partnership with NASA. Many of you have heard that we've had numerous contracts with them. On October 17th, we secured our fifth task order with NASA for developing quantum modeling and removal of solar noise from space-borne LiDAR missions using our DRAC-3 machine. The goal of this project is to reduce costs associated with climate monitoring missions while significantly improving the data collection capabilities and results. Then again, on December 17th, We announced an additional contract with NASA to support an initiative for doing what's so-called phase unwrapping using our Dirac-3 machine optimization solver. These are exciting opportunities that demonstrate how our technology can enhance data accuracy and efficiency in large-scale imaging applications. So, more importantly, our ongoing work with NASA over the years has always been laying the groundwork for continued collaboration not only with NASA, but also with other great government agencies and research institutions looking to leverage our quantum solutions for complex computational challenges. So we've made a lot of progress in this area. If we turn a moment now to our quantum photonic chip foundry in Tempe, Arizona, we're in the final stage of commissioning that facility and remain on schedule to begin production in early Q2. The construction is substantially complete as of today, and we are now establishing our design process kits and will be fulfilling customer orders in Q2. Throughout the quarter, we strengthened our industry relationships by signing a couple of memorandums of understanding with Spark Photonics Design and Alcyon Photonics to broaden our collaboration efforts. As part of our 2024 pilot launch, we secured multiple pre-orders through the opening of the FAB. And subsequent to the fourth quarter, we announced a total of five purchase orders for our Tiflin photonic chips. These milestones reinforce our strategy and the growing industry demand for high-performance, energy-efficient photonic integrated circuits, or PICs, and QCI's position as a leader in the emerging U.S.-based Tiflin market, which we feel even more secure about today than we did the last time we spoke. So from a sales and market expansion perspective, we've been actively engaged with commercial and government partners in Q4, and we've attended numerous, up to 10 industry trade shows and conferences, making numerous presentations, presenting quantum optimization and our photonic chip solutions to some of the key decision makers and a long list of potential customers. This focused outreach is really helping us drive better adoption, visibility, and strengthening our customer relationships to expand our presence across multiple sectors we try to serve. One additional example is that we had the opportunity in November of last year to present at the Quantum Frontiers Conference at Los Alamos National Laboratories This is a key moment for us because we get to sit and talk with key thought leaders and on panels to discuss how quantum optimization solutions, particularly associated with our direct machine, today are solving real world problems. And while there's been some debate in the industry about the timeline for quantum computing adoption, our model is different and our approach is different. Our photonic quantum machines are already demonstrating tangible value in important government and commercial applications. And it was a nice opportunity to be able to talk about some of those with a very small focus group of thought leaders in the industry. Our work with NASA and our expanding foundry services underscore this, proving quantum technologies are not just theoretical concepts, but they are here now and ready to deploy. Chris is going to talk to you in a moment, if I can get over my cold hair, I apologize for that, and discuss our financial progress in more detail later. But another key highlight of the quarter was bolstering our balance sheet. With a significantly stronger financial position this year versus last, we're really well positioned like never before, really, to scale the operations at QCI and execute and accelerate our commercial strategy to expand the industry adoption of its quantum photonic solutions. And as we move into 2025, we're going to remain really focused on driving revenue from that foundry in our quantum machines, We're going to expand our industry partnerships like we gave you a few examples of in our customer base. We're going to continue, as always, our R&D innovation to push the boundaries of what is possible in photonic computing. So with that, I'm going to turn over the call now to our CFO, Chris Bemler, who will walk us through some of the financials. Over to you, Chris.