Sparrow Quantum, a leading European supplier of photonic quantum chips, has secured €21.5 million in Series A funding to accelerate the development and commercialization of its world-leading quantum chip technology. The investment round was led by PensionDanmark, with strong backing from EIFO and Novo Holdings and additional investments from existing investors 2xN, LIFTT, and the European Innovation Council. This investment will enable Sparrow Quantum to meet the growing demand for photonic quantum hardware by accelerating R&D, expanding chip production, and bringing next-generation quantum chips to market.

VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland and IQM Quantum Computers, one of the global leaders in superconducting quantum computers, have completed and launched Europe’s first 50-qubit superconducting quantum computer, now open to researchers and companies through VTT QX quantum computing service.

PsiQuantum today announces Omega, a quantum photonic chipset purpose-built for utility-scale quantum computing. Featured in a newly published paper in Nature, the chipset contains all the advanced components required to build million-qubit-scale quantum computers and deliver on the profoundly world-changing promise of this technology. Every photonic component is demonstrated with beyond-state-of-the-art performance. The paper shows high-fidelity qubit operations, and a simple, long-range chip-to-chip qubit interconnect – a key enabler to scale that has remained challenging for other technologies. The chips are made in a high-volume semiconductor fab, representing a new level of technical maturity and scale in a field that is often thought of as being confined to research labs. PsiQuantum will break ground this year on two datacenter-sized Quantum Compute Centers in Brisbane, Australia and Chicago, Illinois.

SEEQC, the first company to create digital chips to power full-stack quantum computing systems that work with all quantum computing technologies – has raised $30 million to further accelerate the capabilities and commercial rollout of its chip platform. The round was led by NordicNinja and Booz Allen Ventures with participation from SIP Capital, alongside existing investors EQT Ventures, M-Ventures (Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany) BlueYard Capital, FAM and Asset Management.

The Netherlands will have a European pilot plant for photonic chips. This future generation of chips will process information with light instead of electrons. A total of 380 million euros in public investment has been made available for this project by Europe and eleven participating countries, which participate in the Chips Joint Undertaking for this project. Twente will receive a significant share, a mega-boost for chip technology in Twente.

Q.ANT, a pioneer in photonic processing for AI, has launched a dedicated production line for its high-performance photonic AI chips at the Institute of Microelectronics Stuttgart (IMS CHIPS), marking a significant semiconductor manufacturing milestone. By integrating Q.ANT’s patented photonic chip technology on the base of Thin-Film Lithium Niobate (TFLN) material and upcycling the existing CMOS production facility at IMS CHIPS, the partners have established a first-of-its-kind manufacturing line to accelerate the production of energy-efficient, high-performance processors for AI applications. Q.ANT has invested € 14 million in machinery and equipment to complement the new line for photonic chips.

Quantum Computing Inc. (“QCi” or the “Company”), an innovative, integrated photonics and quantum optics technology company, today announced it has received a fifth purchase order for its thin film lithium niobate (TFLN) photonic chip foundry. The latest order comes from a research group based in Canada to support its research efforts on quantum photonics.

Demcon has partnered with TNO and the University of Twente to accelerate low-energy modulation of silicon nitride (SiN) photonic chips. These advanced photonic chips promise to create cheaper, faster, and more energy-efficient devices, enabling earlier disease diagnostics, safe self-driving vehicles, and more efficient data communication. By combining their expertise, Demcon, University of Twente and TNO are set to drive significant advancements in photonic chip technology. The research is partly funded by the National Growth Fund project PhotonDelta.

Twente will become the center of a global revolution in photonics with the development of New Origin, an advanced production facility for photonic chips. Thanks to a grant from the province of Overijssel and the involvement of regional development company Oost NL as a shareholder, the company is progressing from planning to the actual construction of the plant.

MIT physicists have created a new and long-lasting magnetic state in a material, using only light. In a study appearing today in Nature, the researchers report using a terahertz laser — a light source that oscillates more than a trillion times per second — to directly stimulate atoms in an antiferromagnetic material. The laser’s oscillations are tuned to the natural vibrations among the material’s atoms, in a way that shifts the balance of atomic spins toward a new magnetic state.