Paris, France, October 23 2025 -- Quandela, GENCI and CEA today announced the delivery of Lucy, a 12-qubit universal digital photonic quantum computer, to the Très Grand Centre de calcul (TGCC) of CEA. The system, delivered by the French-German consortium Quandela – attocube systems AG, was procured by the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking in the context of the consortium EuroQCS-France.

A new European quantum capability

Lucy, the most powerful photonic quantum computer ever deployed in a European computing centre, has just been delivered to the TGCC. Equipped with 12 photonic qubits, the system offers researchers and industrial users an unprecedented platform to experiment with quantum algorithms, explore hybrid HPC–quantum workflows and develop early-stage applications in fields such as optimization, chemistry, and machine learning.

Lucy is strongly focused on end-user engagement. Hosted and operated at CEA’s TGCC, where it will be coupled to the Joliot-Curie supercomputer, Lucy will be made accessible to a wide community of European users. Initial application areas include energy grid optimization and renewable integration, financial portfolio optimization and risk modelling, logistics and supply chain management, as well as aerospace design, materials, and trajectory optimization.

By enabling these use cases, Lucy strengthens Europe’s position at the forefront of quantum research while preparing industry for future breakthroughs.

A quantum computer made in EU

Lucy was acquired by EuroHPC in the context of the consortium EuroQCS-France. Building on the successful deployments at OVHcloud in 2023 and Exaion’s datacentres in Canada in 2024, it marks a new milestone in Europe’s quantum journey. Assembled in just twelve months at Quandela’s facilities, the system showcases the strength of European collaboration: cryogenic modules engineered by attocube systems AG near Munich, quantum devices manufactured in Quandela’s semiconductor pilot line in Palaiseau, and final integration at Quandela’s factory in Massy. With 80% of its components sourced in Europe – including all of its critical parts – Lucy exemplifies Europe’s capacity to design and deliver sovereign quantum technologies.

Early remote access to drive adoption

The system has entered an acceptance phase before its opening to European researchers at the beginning of 2026. To accelerate adoption and enable the European research community to prepare for this new capability ahead of Lucy’s full deployment, EuroHPC and GENCI have already provided remote access to other Quandela photonic quantum processors hosted in Massy, with computing resources granted by the GENCI’ eDARI web portal. Users can program and run algorithms directly using Quandela’s Perceval and MerLin (tailored to address Quantum Machine Learning problems) environments, ensuring a smooth transition to on-premises access when Lucy becomes fully operational.

In parallel, GENCI, CEA and Quandela are already delivering webinars and dedicated training sessions to prepare user communities. These initiatives cover practical access to the cloud QPU (Quantum Processing Unit), quantum machine learning use cases, and hands-on training on Lucy at TGCC. By combining early access with training, the objective is to foster a broad adoption of quantum computing across academia and industry.

Lucy will be the second QPU integrated in the TGCC supercomputing environment, emphasising CEA’s expertise in mastering the complexity of large computing infrastructures. This is a major step in enabling hybrid quantum computing for high performance applications.