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.

Welinq, a leader in quantum networking technology, has launched the first commercial quantum memory designed specifically for quantum data centers with world-record performance. Quantum computing is reaching a turning point: with more than 100 individual quantum computers deployed in dedicated infrastructures, the next challenge is networking them into scalable, high-performance architectures.

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.

Realizing practical advantages and societal benefits from quantum-scale phenomena has been a long-sought milestone in quantum information science. The U.S. National Science Foundation today announced the initial $5 million investment across five pilot projects designed to help reach that milestone by taking the first steps toward creating the NSF National Quantum Virtual Laboratory (NQVL), a first-of-its-kind national resource to enable faster discovery and development of use-inspired quantum technologies.

Denmark is set to redefine photonic quantum computing with the launch of a five-year research and innovation initiative, backed by a DKK 16.2 million grant from the Innovation Fund Denmark. The ‘Fault-Tolerant Quantum Photonics’ (FTQP) project will propel quantum hardware into the future with new fault-tolerant computing architectures centered around deterministic single-photon emitters.

A team of researchers from the 5th Institute of Physics at the University of Stuttgart is making important progress in the field of quantum simulation and quantum computing based on Rydberg atoms by overcoming a fundamental limitation: the limited lifetime of Rydberg atoms. Circular Rydberg states are showing enormous potential for overcoming this limitation. The renowned journal Physical Review X reports on this in its latest issue.

ORCA Computing, has announced the acquisition of the Austin, Texas-based Integrated Photonics Division of GXC. This division is known for delivering advanced photonics solutions to top U.S. commercial and government entities including the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

The UN has declared 2025 as the “International Year of Quantum Science and Technology. EPFL is leading the way in cutting-edge quantum research and the democratization of these exciting technologies.

With the NRW Return Programme, the state of North Rhine-Westphalia supports young researchers who have ventured abroad from Germany and now wish to return to NRW. A maximum of six grants of up to 1.25 million euros each are awarded annually for five years to establish a junior research group. Paderborn University, together with physicist Jun. Prof. Dr Nicholas A. Güsken, was successful and received one of the grants.