May 28, 2026 -- Today, the EuroHPC JU inaugurated a new EuroHPC quantum computer, located in Spain. This new inauguration highlights the EuroHPC JU’s continued commitment to deploying a sovereign and state-of-the-art quantum computing infrastructure across Europe.

The inauguration ceremony was hosted by the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC) -Centro Nacional de Supercomputación (BSC-CNS) and attended by María González Veracruz, Secretary of State for Digitalization and Artificial Intelligence (SEDIA) of the Government of Spain; Núria Montserrat, Minister of the Department of Research and Universities of the Government of Catalonia;  Juan Cruz Cigudosa, Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Universities of the Government of Spain, Óscar Díez, Head of the Quantum Computing at the European Commission and Daniel Opalka, Head of Unit, Research and Innovation of the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking.

Hosted and operated by BSC in Barcelona and supplied by Qilimanjaro Quantum Tech, and Do IT Now,  EuroQCS Spain is an analogue quantum computer, which allows implementing quantum annealing routines. The first-generation system will offer 10 physical qubits, with planned upgrades expected to significantly enhance both coherence times and the number of data qubits.

EuroQCS-Spain will be integrated into MareNostrum 5, one of Europe’s world-class EuroHPC pre-exascale supercomputer, enabling a hybrid classical–quantum architecture accessible to European researchers, industry, and public users.

The first-generation system is currently undergoing its final calibration at BSC, and end-user onboarding is expected very shortly.

More details

Quantum annealing is effective in solving certain types of optimisation problems. The method is based on the concept of adiabatic evolution, where a system slowly evolves from an initial- into a final state. The final state is designed in such a way that it represents the optimal solution of the optimisation problem, the so-called global optimum. Quantum annealing has been shown to be particularly effective for solving problems with a large number of local optima.

Quantum annealers can be used in various fields, molecular modelling physical phenomena problems, finance, logistics optimisation challenges, as well and Quantum Machine Learning and AI model training.

Owned by the EuroHPC JU, EuroQCS-Spain is co-funded with a total acquisition cost of EUR 8.5 million. The EuroHPC JU will fund 50% of the costs and the remaining 50% will be funded by the Spain's Ministry for Digital Transformation and the Civil Service complemented with a contribution from Portugal. The system is expected to be in operation for three years.

To date, the EuroHPC JU has procured six quantum computers, located across Europe. Four of these systems have already been inaugurated since last year:

• PIAST-Q in Poznań, Poland in June 2025,
• VLQ in Ostrava, Czechia in October 2025,
• Euro-Q-Exa in Munich, Germany in February 2026,
• Lucy near Paris, France in April 2026.

The deployment of these quantum computers across Europe aims to offer the widest possible variety of European quantum computing platforms and hybrid classical-quantum architectures, including analogue quantum simulators based on neutral atoms, trapped ions, superconducting circuits, and photonics to adiabatic systems, enabling the execution of annealing routines. This approach positions Europe at the forefront of this emerging field while providing European end-users with access to diverse and complementary quantum technologies.

In addition to these six systems, two analogue quantum simulators, Jade and Ruby, have been procured under the EuroHPC JU project HPCQS and inaugurated end of 2025 in Germany (Julich Supercomputing Centre, JSC) and France (GENCI).

Procurement processes are also currently ongoing for additional EuroHPC quantum computers to be hosted and operated by SURF in the Netherlands and by LuxProvide in Luxembourg.