According to a recent forecast of the quantum key distribution (QKD) market released by IQT Research, a quantum technology industry-analysis firm, the global QKD market is projected to reach approximately $269 million in 2024, grow to $2.3 billion by 2029, and rise to $9.1 Billion by 2033.

Canadian quantum computing company D-Wave Quantum has recently expanded a quantum education training program with the Canadian Quantum Algorithm Institute (QAI) . The program aims to give Canadian students and researchers at post-secondary institutions access to the Leap quantum cloud service to facilitate the development of quantum applications. D-Wave said that the program has already shown great success in creating a quantum-ready workforce. To date, students have already submitted nearly 5000 problems to the Leap quantum cloud service.

Quantum chip testing equipment supplier Orange Quantum Systems recently announced that InnovationQuarter, the economic development agency of the Netherlands, has become an investor. InnovationQuarter has more than € 300 million in funds under management and primarily invests in disruptive startups & scale-ups.

The University of Maryland's two quantum technology projects have received a $320,000 grant from a Maryland state program aimed at bolstering innovation infrastructure development. Quantum Startup Foundry received $119,000, which will be used for the implementation of its "shared lab" concept. And the quantum startup QC82 received $200,000 for the construction of a 1,000 square-foot integrated photonics testing and packaging facility.

Fujitsu today announced that Fujitsu Australia Limited and The Australian National University (ANU) in Canberra concluded a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to ensure that industry and government professionals, researchers, academics, and students in Australia will soon have access to a world-class quantum research facility. The agreement will see the two organizations partner to establish a center for quantum research, with ambitions to build an onsite quantum computer. As part of the collaboration, Fujitsu will provide ANU researchers and academics with access to Fujitsu’s quantum systems and simulators in Japan.

Danish quantum software start-up Kvantify has completed a EUR 10 million seed round. The round was led by Danish VC Dreamcraft, together with biotech investor Lundbeckfonden BioCapital and the private investment company 2degrees, with participation from multiple institutions. Kvantify said that these funds will initially be used to develop quantum applications focused on the life sciences sector, as well as to boost the further development of quantum algorithms for chemical simulation.

Xanadu, the world leader in photonic quantum computing, has recently announced its partnerships with Japanese quantum startups NanoQT and QunaSys to expand quantum research and support Japan's quantum ecosystem. Xanadu will collaborate with NanoQT on theory research, while its partnership with QunaSys will see its open-source framework PennyLane implemented to support the research done by QunaSys and its industry clients. Additionally, these partnerships will support Japanese universities by providing educational and training resources, supporting existing projects, and creating new opportunities.

The Quantum Economic Development Consortium (QED-C), in a recent report, discusses the crucial role hybridized cryptographic systems that leverage both quantum key distribution (QKD) and post-quantum cryptography (PQC) will play in future defense-in-depth strategies. The report suggests that combining QKD and PQC significantly strengthens the resistance to the quantum threat due to their complementary properties. QKD technology, which can utilize existing optical fiber telecommunications networks, offers a clear theoretical advantage in achieving Information Theoretically Secure (ITS), which is not easy to implement with other methods. QKD offers perfect forward secrecy and long-term confidentiality.

IBM announced yesterday that the fourth Qiskit Fall Fest will kick off in October 2024. The event occurs on university campuses worldwide, allowing participants to engage with the Qiskit community and get hands-on experience with real quantum computers. Activities at the Qiskit Fall Fest include quantum challenges, hackathons, and coding competitions to workshops, social events, and more. 

Quantum eMotion, a developer of quantum security solutions, announced yesterday that it has developed an advanced hardware wallet technology tailored for the cryptocurrency industry. This cutting-edge solution offers a low footprint and competitive cost, incorporating Quantum eMotion's Quantum Random Number Generation (QRNG) and intelligent key generation scheme selection technologies into new commercial applications. This new hardware wallet technology aims to enhance the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of hierarchical deterministic (HD) wallets. 

On July 2nd, NATO's Transatlantic Quantum Community (TQC) held its founding conference in Brussels, Belgium. Denmark, serving as the first national chair, hosted the meeting. Last September, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg called for the development of a dedicated network that would enhance Allied cooperation and harness the benefits of quantum technologies to strengthen deterrence and defence, which led to the birth of the TQC. It is reported that the community's first annual plenary is expected to take place this autumn.

Canadian researchers from the Institute for Quantum Computing (IQC) recently released a modular open-source Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) software package on GitHub. It allows users to model realistic QKD protocols and calculate the generation rate for secure quantum keys using user-submitted variables for real-world scenarios. 

The Enrico Fermi Summer School on Quantum Computers and Simulators with Atoms will be held from July 5th to 14th, 2024, in the town of Varenna, Italy. This course, is tailored for PhD students and early postdoctoral researchers. Attendees will gain both theoretical and practical insights into quantum computation, quantum simulation, and related fields such as ultracold quantum gases and quantum metrology.

Yesterday, the Economic Development Administration (EDA) under the U.S. Department of Commerce announced approximately $504 million in subsidy funds for 12 technology centers across the United States. Among these,  Elevate Quantum Tech Hub, led by Elevate Quantum in Colorado, is expected to receive $41 million in funding. This funding will support its three initiatives, including constructing open-access quantum labs and fabs, providing inclusive workforce development programming, and coordinating the consortium’s overall strategy, stakeholder and investor engagement, and executive management.

BeQCI, the consortium charged with deploying the first-ever open quantum communication infrastructure in Belgium, has reached an important milestone in its Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) mission. Belnet, the Belgian National Research Network, has successfully set up the required infrastructure and realized the first QKD links together with Imec and UGent. It is understood that BeQCI, funded by the EU and the Belgian Science Policy Office, serves as the branch of the European Quantum Communication Infrastructure (EuroQCI) program in Belgium.

The European collaborative project MetSuperQ, led by PTB, Germany, has recently launched. This project aims to advance the development of metrological tools for superconducting qubits to enhance the characterization and performance of quantum circuits and materials. The MetSuperQ project will address discrepancies in how qubit metrics are reported by harmonizing measurement methodologies and fostering collaboration among national metrology institutions.

Post-Quantum, a post-quantum cryptography (PQC) technology company in the UK, announced yesterday that it has been selected by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) of the United States to join its “Migration to Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC)” led by the National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence (NCCoE). It is understood that the consortium currently has 36 member organizations.

In a recent study, a research team from Chiba University in Japan developed a novel data assimilation technique designed for quantum annealing machines. In the study, the team formulated the four-dimensional variational data assimilation (4DVAR) cost function, into a quadratic unconstrained binary optimization (QUBO) problem, which quantum annealers can solve. This new quantum annealing approach accelerates data assimilation, thereby addressing a main computational bottleneck for numerical weather predictions. With this algorithm, the research team successfully solved data assimilation on quantum annealers for the first time.

Recently, researchers from Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH) have employed Nanoimprint Lithography (NIL) to fabricate metasurfaces embedded with quantum dots. The research team integrated quantum dots with titanium dioxide (TiO2) to create the metasurface. Unlike conventional methods, this approach embeds the quantum dots directly within the metasurface during its creation. Their experiments demonstrated that the more photons emitted from the quantum dots that were coupled to the resonant modes of the metasurface, the higher the luminescence efficiency. The team’s metasurface achieved up to 25 times greater luminescence efficiency compared to a simple coating of quantum dots.

The HyperSpace project, an intercontinental network for quantum key communication, recently published its research achievements for the first half of the year. According to reports, the HyperSpace project aims to advance the vision of a global quantum communication network and was launched in October 2022. Coordinated by the "Quantum Communication" group at the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering IOF, the project has received €2.8 million in funding from the European Commission's Horizon Europe program and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.