Photonic & Other Modalities

Quantum Computing Inc. has signed a three-year Framework Agreement with Hamad Bin Khalifa University in Qatar, under which QCi will provide cloud-based access to its Dirac-3 system along with an installation in Qatar to support the country's quantum ecosystem and regional leadership. The agreement supports QCi's Entropy Quantum Computing approach, which uses quantum entropy and decoherence as computational resources rather than relying on costly error correction and highly controlled environments. The Dirac-3 platform is a third-generation, rack-mountable system designed to solve complex, real-world optimization problems at room temperature. Among peers, IonQ had progressed through three rounds of tape-outs for its first semiconductor quantum chip and received 256-qubit prototypes by the second quarter of 2026, while Rigetti's 36-qubit Cepheus system uses four 9-qubit chiplets and its Cepheus-1-108Q uses 12 interconnected 9-qubit chiplets and became generally available in April 2026. Over the past year, QCi's shares have plunged 52.4% compared with the industry's 10.9% decline, and the stock trades at a forward 12-month price-to-sales of 40.24X versus the industry's average of 4.20X.

Anderon LLC, an IBM company, has finalized a $1 billion award under the CHIPS and Science Act with the U.S. Department of Commerce to accelerate its research and development of U.S.-based quantum wafer manufacturing. The award, first announced in May under a letter of intent between the Department and IBM, supports Anderon's state-of-the-art 300-millimeter pure-play quantum wafer foundry, which is backed by an additional $1 billion investment from IBM. Headquartered in Albany, New York, the venture serves the quantum industry as a pure-play foundry offering quantum wafer manufacturing to customers across the ecosystem. Anderon CEO Mukesh Khare said the agreement strengthens the company's ability to deliver the manufacturing scale the quantum industry needs, while Jay Gambetta, Director of IBM Research and an IBM Fellow, said Anderon's wafer fabrication focus gives IBM the foundation to execute its quantum roadmap. The company said its first quantum wafers are now running through its manufacturing facility, an early production milestone demonstrating its ability to translate advanced pre-production research into commercial-grade quantum wafer technologies.

Mitsubishi Electric Corporation announced that its ME Innovation Fund has invested in OptQC Corp., a Japanese startup developing optical quantum computer hardware, marking the fund's sixteenth investment to date. OptQC originated from the University of Tokyo and was established on technologies developed by the university's Furusawa Laboratory, a world leader in optical quantum computing. The startup's optical quantum computer uses a proprietary architecture designed to limit increases in system size as qubit counts grow, and it has already delivered its first commercial system to a public research institution as well as hardware modules to private-sector companies. Through the investment, Mitsubishi Electric expects to gain early insights into OptQC's hardware development technologies, related components, customers and market trends. The company aims to lead the field of quantum computing and create new business opportunities by applying those insights to its own quantum technologies, software implementation knowhow and application development in industrial fields.

Infleqtion announced results from its integration of NVIDIA CUDA-Q Logical with the qLDPC open-source library for quantum error correction research, making it among the first organizations building on the platform NVIDIA just announced as a logical orchestration layer for fault-tolerant quantum algorithms. Working with an early-access version of CUDA-Q Logical, Infleqtion researchers constructed and validated a high-rate quantum error correction code that uses approximately six physical data qubits per logical qubit, representing about a fivefold improvement in code rate over the surface-code approach used for comparison. That physical-to-logical qubit ratio is below 10:1 and represents progress toward Infleqtion's architectural target for near-term systems. Infleqtion open-sourced qLDPC last year in work alongside researchers from JPMorgan Chase, and the company is now extending the workflow toward physical execution by adding syndrome extraction, neutral-atom noise modeling and decoder benchmarking. Chief Technology Officer and General Manager of Quantum Computing Pranav Gokhale said the code and the machine must be designed together, while NVIDIA Director of Quantum Product Sam Stanwyck said the integration shows how researchers can design and evaluate logical qubit workloads end to end. Infleqtion will share additional company updates and new milestones at Quantum World Congress in College Park, Maryland, where Chief Executive Officer Matt Kinsella will deliver a plenary keynote on September 24.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney is hosting a two-day investment summit in Toronto starting Monday, aiming to attract global capital for more than 160 projects as Canada navigates a trade war with the United States. Confirmed attendees include BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, Blackstone President Jon Gray, Temasek CEO Dilhan Pillay and APG Groep CEO Annette Mosman, with the summit matching roughly 100 global investors with Canadian CEOs, companies and local officials. Carney has pledged to attract C$1 trillion, or $721 billion, in investment over the next five years by cutting red tape and developing mining, energy, technology and infrastructure projects, though a government source said major deals could take 12 to 18 months to materialize. The prospectus includes 96 data centers in development, an equity investment in Xanadu's photonic quantum computer targeted for commercialization by 2029-2030, the Crawford Nickel Project, and C$900 million in financing sought for a proposed high-speed transportation pod between Calgary and Edmonton. Canada's foreign direct investment flows have averaged around C$23 billion per quarter in 2024 and 2025, up from C$16.3 billion in 2023 and C$15 billion in 2022, though BMO Capital Markets chief economist Doug Porter cautioned it is difficult to lure greenfield investment in a mature economy like Canada's.

Infleqtion announced a collaboration with Cisco to pursue joint research and development focused on connecting, operating, and scaling quantum systems. The two companies will explore architectures to link individual devices into distributed, more capable networks, an important step toward making distributed quantum systems a reality. The work pairs Infleqtion's neutral-atom quantum computers and sensors with Cisco's networking stack, and Cisco is advancing research on an end-to-end quantum networking stack designed to dynamically distribute quantum entanglement across connected devices on demand, including the recently debuted Cisco Universal Quantum Switch research prototype. The companies intend to explore convergence of sensing and compute, quantum memory and optical transduction, and network-aware quantum software. Representatives from both companies will appear at the Quantum World Congress September 23 to 25 in College Park, Maryland, and the Cisco Quantum Summit October 6 to 7, held virtually.

Xanadu Quantum Technologies and ASML have announced a collaboration to develop advanced lithography processes for Xanadu's photonic quantum hardware, aiming to reduce optical losses in quantum computing chips and accelerate the path to utility-scale quantum computing. The partnership will explore how lithography innovations can improve patterning control and lower-loss photonic structures, addressing the technical challenge of optical loss influenced by line edge roughness. Xanadu's CEO, Dr. Christian Weedbrook, emphasized the importance of fault tolerance and error correction, while ASML's Stan Baron expressed enthusiasm for supporting next-generation photonics applications. This collaboration marks a significant step for Xanadu in advancing its photonic quantum technology and solidifying its position in the semiconductor and quantum computing ecosystem.

Fujitsu has announced the development of the world's first working prototype of a diamond-spin quantum computer that incorporates tin-vacancy centers into photonic integrated circuits, marking a significant step toward scalable quantum computing. The prototype operates at -271.6°C, which is higher than the typical operating temperature of superconducting quantum computers, and has been demonstrated to work with Fujitsu's Hybrid Quantum Computing Platform without requiring specialist knowledge. This achievement builds on joint research initiated in 2020 with Delft University of Technology and QuTech, and represents a milestone toward a modular architecture for scaling quantum computers. Fujitsu's roadmap targets a 250 logical qubit system by fiscal 2030 and a 1,000 logical qubit system by fiscal 2035, with the diamond-spin approach offering high fidelity and optical connectivity that could also integrate with superconducting systems.

Diraq and Equinix announced plans to deploy a Diraq quantum computer at an Equinix data center in Sydney, Australia, marking the world's first silicon spin quantum computer to operate in a shared commercial data center. The system features an eight-qubit silicon chip with self-contained cryogenic cooling and control electronics, drawing less than 20kW of power and fitting within existing data center infrastructure. Scaling to higher qubit counts requires only a chip replacement, making the system easily upgradable. The collaboration aims to test real-world performance, chart a path to commercial scale, and begin partner and customer conversations. Installation at Equinix's Sydney data center is expected to be completed in October 2026.

Quantum Computing Inc. reported second-quarter revenue of $5.6 million, more than 9,000% higher than the $61,000 it posted a year earlier, according to its SEC filing. Revenue grew 51% from the first quarter's $3.7 million, driven by photonics product sales across government, educational, and commercial customers. Net loss narrowed to $11.8 million from $36.5 million a year earlier, helped by a shrinking paper loss on warrant derivatives, while the company ended the quarter with a $42.5 million order backlog and $1.3 billion in cash. The quarter also included the acquisition of NHanced Semiconductors, which launched a second chip fabrication facility and contributed to a 114% rise in operating expenses to $21.8 million. The stock traded near $9 on Friday, Aug. 21, part of a rally that lifted seven quantum computing stocks, including D-Wave Quantum, Rigetti Computing, IonQ, Infleqtion, IQM Quantum Computers, and IBM.

Quantum computing stocks surged on Friday after second-quarter earnings reports showed significant revenue gains across the sector. D-Wave climbed 7% after BMO Capital Markets initiated coverage with an Outperform rating and a $35 price target, citing an addressable market opportunity of $450 billion to $850 billion. Rigetti jumped 9% as system and component sales reached $4.1 million, up from zero a year earlier, while Quantum Computing leaped 8% after revenue rose to $5.6 million from $65,000. IQM Quantum Computers popped 7% after second-quarter revenue increased 27% year over year to $7.8 million and it guided full-year revenue of $49 million to $55 million, and Infleqtion surged 9% on a 112% year-over-year revenue jump. IonQ increased 7.5% after announcing a partnership with the Canadian Microelectronics Corporation to expand quantum computing access to Canada-based researchers and businesses.

D-Wave Quantum announced in August 2026 that it secured up to C$300,000 in funding from Canada's National Research Council and published peer-reviewed Nature research on a high-fidelity, hardware-level error-correcting two-qubit gate already integrated into its dual-rail gate-model systems. The government-backed software project and fault-tolerant gate-model breakthrough underscore D-Wave's effort to commercialize both annealing and gate-model quantum platforms for complex, real-world optimization and simulation workloads. The Nature paper directly reinforces D-Wave's dual-platform story and its long-term gate-model roadmap, connecting the near-term push to make Advantage2 more useful through better software with a tangible hardware step toward fault tolerance. However, the modest NRC grant and gate breakthrough do not materially change the near-term picture, where the key catalyst remains scaling real-world deployments and the biggest risk is persistent heavy losses if rising R&D and go-to-market spend fail to translate into larger, recurring contracts.

Infleqtion has entered a new subcontract with Eaton to apply quantum computing to power grid reliability and contingency analysis. The project will use Infleqtion's quantum algorithms to help utilities assess complex grid scenarios that are difficult to handle with classical computing, aiming to support more resilient grid planning as power networks become more distributed and data intensive. The work ties Infleqtion's neutral atom platform directly to a critical infrastructure workflow, alongside the company's existing focus on defense, sensing, and timing systems. Investors will watch whether this Eaton subcontract turns into follow-on utility or grid operator work that shows up in Infleqtion's reported sales, guidance, or disclosed contract wins over the next few quarters.

Quantum Computing Inc. and Quantinuum are highlighted by Zacks Investment Research as having average analyst price targets implying more than 75% upside in August following their second-quarter results. Quantum Computing's average target of six analysts represents a 104.8% increase from its last closing price of $8.95, while Quantinuum's average target of twelve analysts implies a 76.2% gain from $56.1. The broader quantum sector saw accelerating commercialization in the second quarter, with IonQ and D-Wave reporting 60% and 62.4% of revenues from commercial customers respectively, and D-Wave's first-half bookings surging 1,120% year over year to $35.5 million. Quantinuum's second-quarter revenues jumped 279% year over year, and the company guided to $28-$32 million in 2026 revenue, supported by partnerships with Oracle and HPE and over $2 billion in liquidity following its June IPO. Quantum Computing enters the second half with a $42.5 million backlog, $1.3 billion in cash, and potential growth from its Dirac-3 deployment, NeuraWave commercial readiness, and Planck Dynamics agreement.

Infleqtion reported a second-quarter 2026 non-GAAP net loss of $11.82 million, wider than the $6.1 million loss a year earlier, while revenue jumped 116% to $12.6 million and beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 23.6%. Growth was entirely organic and quantum-driven, led primarily by execution on NASA's Quantum Gravity Gradiometer program, and remaining performance obligations rose to $21 million. About 92% of revenue came from the United States and roughly 80% from the U.S. government and agencies. The company remains on track to demonstrate 30 logical qubits on its Sqale quantum computer in 2026 and is under contract to deploy a neutral-atom quantum computer at the Illinois Quantum & Microelectronics Park in 2027. Management raised full-year 2026 revenue guidance to approximately $43 million, and the Department of Commerce selected Infleqtion for a letter of intent providing for up to $100 million in proposed funding, subject to definitive agreements and government approvals.

Quantum Computing's second-quarter results and the closure of its NHanced Semiconductor acquisition may indicate an inflection point is near, according to Wall Street analysts. Wedbush analyst Matt Bryson noted the company delivered a Dirac-3 optimization system to a global consulting firm and that its NeuraWave photonic reservoir computing platform reached commercial readiness, securing an initial five-unit order from Planck Dynamics under a framework agreement with an aggregate program value above $10 million. Bryson maintained a Neutral rating and $12 price target, calling Quantum Computing the most speculative public quantum name. Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Troy Jensen, with a Neutral rating and $10 price target, estimated the company could capture at least 5% of the quantum hardware, software, and services market by 2035, equating to $375 million in sales, with a present value of $159 million and an implied market cap of roughly $2.2 billion.

Quantum Computing Inc. outlined a capital expenditure plan of $50 million to $100 million for upgrades at its newly acquired NHanced Semiconductors facility, part of its Fab 2 initiative. CFO Christopher Roberts said the spending range is probably closer to $75 million but noted the company is still in the planning stages and unlikely to spend near that amount this year. The disclosure came during the company's second-quarter 2026 earnings call, where CEO Dr. Yuping Huang highlighted the completion of the NHanced acquisition, which launched Fab 2 ahead of schedule and expands advanced packaging and semiconductor manufacturing capabilities. The company also reported that its NeuraWave photonic reservoir computing platform reached commercial readiness, with a framework agreement from Planck Dynamics carrying a potential aggregate program value of more than $10 million. Q2 revenue rose to $5.6 million from $3.7 million in the prior quarter, while contract backlog increased to $42.5 million from $16 million.

Xanadu Quantum Technologies advanced its hardware roadmap by achieving 0.085 dB edge-coupling loss while increasing thin-film lithium niobate and silicon nitride fabrication by 75% and 50%, respectively. The aggregate optical-loss gap has been reduced by up to 200x over roughly four years, with a further 5-10x reduction still required to reach the threshold for scalable fault-tolerant operation. The company ended 2Q26 with $312.8 million of cash and raised $67.2 million through a synthetic ATM facility, supporting faster roadmap investment. Revenue increased 43% year-over-year to $1.5 million, though it declined sequentially from $2.8 million in 1Q26 due to the timing of DARPA Stage B revenue. Xanadu expects to provide a more detailed loss and hardware roadmap around the end of summer or Analyst Day, which could serve as a near-term catalyst.

SEALSQ Corp has started the commercial phase of quantum photonics technology from Miraex SA, following its full acquisition of the Swiss company in June 2026. The acquisition, completed on June 2, 2026, was financed through SEALSQ’s $200 million Quantum Fund, which has already deployed more than $65 million into strategic quantum technology investments. Miraex’s proprietary Thin Film Lithium Tantalate Photonic Integrated Circuit platform converts quantum information between microwave and optical frequencies, addressing a key scaling challenge in quantum computing and networking. The commercial rollout targets distributed quantum computing, quantum networking, quantum sensing, and the Quantum Orbital Space Cloud. SEALSQ says the integration strengthens its Quantum Sovereign Vertical Stack, combining secure semiconductors, post-quantum cryptography, and quantum communications into a single sovereign platform.

IonQ is the quantum computing stock to buy on the recent dip, while Rigetti Computing should be sold and Infleqtion held, according to an analysis. IonQ leads the industry in accuracy with 99.99% 2-qubit gate fidelity, driven by its trapped-ion approach that uses charged atoms and on-chip microwave antennas for stability. Rigetti’s superconducting qubit systems offer speed but lag in accuracy, with its Cepheus-1-108Q system achieving only 99.1% fidelity and missing a DARPA program milestone. Infleqtion’s neutral-atom technology, which achieved 99.73% fidelity in 2024, balances speed and accuracy and has found a niche in quantum sensing for government clients.

RIBER, the global leader in molecular beam epitaxy equipment for the semiconductor industry, reported a 19% increase in first-half 2026 revenue to €12.8 million. Systems sales were €7.7 million from three machine deliveries, while services and accessories revenue surged 71% to €5.1 million. The total order book stood at €26.8 million, down 3% year-on-year, partly due to French authorities refusing export licenses worth over €8 million. The company is advancing its ROSIE platform for silicon-based integrated photonics, with a second unit shipping in July to a U.S. quantum computing player and first BTO/STO samples expected in the fourth quarter.

Lake Street reiterated a Buy rating on Quantum Computing Inc. with a price target of $16. The firm cited the company's recent acquisition of NHanced Semiconductors, completed on June 23 and valued at $73.1 million in cash and stock plus up to $72.0 million in additional earnout payments. Lake Street views the deal as a follow-on to the Luminar Semiconductor acquisition that closed in February, together deepening Quantum Computing's photonics manufacturing and advanced-packaging capabilities. Management is framing the acquisition as the launch of Fab 2, arriving years ahead of the company's roadmap, and the firm believes it can accelerate the shift from research and prototyping toward scalable commercial production.

The global quantum sensor market is projected to grow from $401.8 million in 2025 to $726.7 million by 2030, at a compound annual growth rate of 12.6%. Rising demand for ultra-precise measurement, navigation, and timing technologies across aerospace, defense, healthcare, automotive, agriculture, energy, and environmental monitoring is driving expansion. Key applications include navigation in GPS-denied environments, high-resolution medical imaging, real-time electric vehicle battery monitoring, precision agriculture, and trace-pollutant detection. Advances in atomic gyroscopes, chip-scale atomic clocks, and nitrogen-vacancy diamond magnetometers are accelerating commercialization, supported by government programs, defense funding, and private investment. The integration of quantum sensors with artificial intelligence, Internet of Things connectivity, and edge computing is expected to enhance real-time data analysis for resilient navigation, predictive maintenance, and continuous monitoring.

European tech investment in the second quarter of 2026 saw capital infrastructure become more visible around strategic sectors, according to Zubr Capital's latest digest. Beyond large equity rounds, support increasingly came through growth capital vehicles, public equity channels, guarantees, and credit facilities, with EIFO committing €200 million to the Scaleup Europe Fund and the British Business Bank recording over €695 million in direct equity activity in British science and tech scaleups. Hybrid capital also played a larger role, as Nscale secured an additional €670 million for AI data centre infrastructure in Norway, ICEYE obtained a €300 million revolving credit facility, and InSoil closed a €120 million senior secured credit facility backed by an EIF guarantee. DefenceTech matured further, with Germany's Quantum Systems commanding a €1 billion Series D, the planned €500 million E2D growth fund targeting dual-use scaling gaps, and the EIF Defence Equity Facility 2.0 setting an initial €1 billion target. Quantum computing emerged as a distinct investment cluster, highlighted by Oxford Quantum Circuits' €301 million round, IQM Quantum Computers' €275 million Series B, and QuantWare's €152 million raise. The UK maintained its lead with large rounds and fund closes such as Mouro Capital Fund III's €343.7 million first close, while Central and Eastern Europe showed signs of moving beyond small experiments, with Viktor closing a €64.7 million Series A and EIF and Poland's BGK committing €85 million to three Polish venture funds focused on defence, frontier technology, and AI. Direct US strategic capital also moved into European scaleups, with NEURA Robotics' up to €1.2 billion Series C including Tether, Qualcomm, Amazon, and NVIDIA, and QuantWare's round featuring Intel Capital and In-Q-Tel.

A new report on the global silicon photonics market forecasts growth through 2037, noting that photonic quantum computing attracted roughly US$2.1 billion in private capital in 2025, overtaking superconducting systems. The report, titled "Silicon Photonics, LPO/LRO and NPO/CPO: Global Market 2027-2037," frames the market around AI-driven data communications and the newly commercial photonic-quantum segment, quantifying the transition to co-packaged optics, near-package optics, and linear-drive pluggable and receive optics. It details the evolution of optical transceivers, with 1.6-terabit transceivers commercialized in 2026 and 3.2T expected to sample around 2027, and covers competing platforms, manufacturing challenges, and divergent CPO ecosystems from NVIDIA and Broadcom. The analysis includes market sizing with base, bull, and bear scenarios, unit shipments, and CAGRs, along with 160 company profiles.