Quantum Circuits recently raised $26 million in a Series B round led by Sequoia Capital Partners and others, a funding round that brings the startup, which was founded in 2015, to a total of $84 million already raised. The company expects to begin selling its quantum computing capabilities in the cloud as a service this year.

The CEO of Xanadu, a Canadian photonics-based quantum computing company, has revealed that the company is in the midst of a funding round of $100-200 million. The financing, whose participants may all be from Canadian institutions, is expected to close by the end of this year or early next year.

Terra Quantum recently demonstrated a long-distance Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) technology over a fiber optic line exceeding 1707 km. They employed a Quantum-Protected Control-Based Key Distribution (QCKD) protocol, achieving the bit rate of 0.9 bits per second at that distance.

On May 22, the United States and Germany signed a Joint Statement on Cooperation in Quantum Information Science and Technology (QIST) in Berlin, alongside a Joint Committee Meeting on science and technology cooperation between the two nations. The statement is based on shared values that combining the expertise of each country is crucial to realizing QIST technologies for the benefit of humanity, and reflects the longstanding history of QIST research and development collaborations between the countries.

The German research center Jülich, Frankfurt University, ParTec, and Quantum Machines have collaborated to develop a 25-qubit superconducting quantum computing system, which has been integrated into the supercomputing infrastructure at the Jülich Supercomputing Center. Reportedly, the system utilizes QuantumWare's quantum chips, Bluefors' cryogenic refrigerator, Quantum Machines' OPX quantum control system, and the QBridge software environment introduced through collaboration between ParTec and Quantum Machines.

UK quantum computing company Phasecraft is to open its first international office in Washington DC, USA. The company says that operating in the US will allow it to tap into the country's deep tech talent and deepen its relationships with the world's top quantum hardware companies. Professor Steve Flammia, chief research scientist at Amazon's AWS Quantum Computing Center, has reportedly left the company and has joined the Phasecraft team and will lead the US business.

Alice&Bob, the developer of fault-tolerant quantum computers, announced yesterday that an advance in cat qubit technology, demonstrated by the company in collaboration with the QUANTIC team, has been published in the journal Nature. The research, which enables quantum tuning of cat quantum bits with bit-flip times of more than 10 seconds, demonstrates an unprecedented improvement in the stability of superconducting qubits, marking a critical milestone toward useful fault-tolerant quantum computing. 

A senior White House official disclosed at a conference on Monday that the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) will release post-quantum cryptographic algorithms in the next few weeks. In addition, a spokesperson from NIST also stated recently that the agency plans to officially release post-quantum cryptography standards this summer.

According to the latest news from Bloomberg, the US government is likely to require companies it collaborates with to have the ability to protect their data and technologies from attacks by quantum computers as early as July this year.

Yesterday, Luxembourg and Belgium signed a cybersecurity deal to strengthen protection from threats against critical infrastructure in both countries. This agreement is part of the European Quantum Communication Infrastructure (EuroQCI) initiative, which aims to utilize quantum technology to strengthen the security of European infrastructures and encryption systems. It is reported that the two countries will establish a cross-border quantum communication connection within the framework of the respective national initiatives LuxQCI and BeQCI.

Aramco, one of the world’s leading integrated energy and chemicals companies, has signed an agreement with Pasqal, a global leader in neutral atom quantum computing, to install the first quantum computer in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Under the agreement, Pasqal will install, maintain, and operate a 200-qubit quantum computer, with deployment planned for the second half of 2025.

JPMorgan Chase recently announced that it has successfully implemented a high-speed quantum-secured crypto-agile network (Q-CAN), connecting two data centers over deployed fibers. Its third quantum node has also been established, currently serving as a next-generation quantum technology research platform for testing banking and financial applications. The Q-CAN network utilizes quantum key distribution (QKD) technology to protect multiple independent high-speed virtual private networks (VPNs).

Recently, the lawmakers on Cyber Innovative Technologies, and Information Systems (CITI) of the House Armed Services Subcommittee have been promoting the establishment of a military-focused Quantum Computing Center of Excellence(COE) to help the U.S. Department of Defense strategically scale the technology and build on current momentum. If this new provision is passed, the Quantum COE will be established within 10 years after the enactment of the legislation.

Quantum computing leader IonQ has revealed plans to unveil its financial results for the quarter ending March 31, 2024, on May 8, 2024. The announcement will be made after the close of financial markets. A conference call is scheduled for 4:30 PM Eastern time on the same day to discuss the results and provide insights into the company's future prospects.

Researchers from the Dutch quantum research institution QuTech have announced plans to build Europe's first quantum computer with 100 qubits. The device is scheduled to be completed in 2026 and will be open to the public. This project is funded by the Dutch quantum industry organization Quantum Delta NL through the European OpenSuperQPlus program.