Infleqtion and Cisco Launch Joint R&D to Link Quantum Systems Into Networks

Rigetti Computing said in its latest technology update that the biggest challenge in its quantum roadmap is no longer adding more qubits but improving the performance of its flagship 108-qubit Cepheus system. During the second quarter of 2026 earnings call, management acknowledged that coherence time has become the primary bottleneck limiting two-qubit gate fidelity, even as Cepheus-1-108Q stands among only three generally available gate-based quantum computers with more than 100 qubits. The system currently operates with coherence times of roughly 25-30 microseconds, a level that constrains the reliability of quantum operations. Rigetti is directing engineering efforts toward chip redesigns, fabrication process improvements and new materials, including tantalum-capped superconducting contacts, and management expects these initiatives to gradually double or even triple coherence times over the next several years. In peer updates, Quantum Computing Inc. signed a three-year Framework Agreement with Hamad Bin Khalifa University in Qatar covering quantum computing, sensing and communications, while IonQ secured an $8.18 million commercial agreement with Congruity360 to integrate quantum-safe networking into its enterprise data management platform.

IonQ has announced a multi-year strategic partnership with Korea-based quantum technology and software company SDT, Inc. to bring both advanced quantum computing and quantum networking to the Asia-Pacific region. Under the agreement, IonQ will supply SDT with a Superion 256 quantum computer and its silicon-vacancy quantum memory module, marking the first deployment of both the Superion 256 system and the SiV quantum memory module in South Korea. The Superion 256 system is planned for deployment with an SDT customer in South Korea, where the two companies intend to collaborate on a hybrid quantum-classical data center. SDT also plans to establish a dedicated quantum manufacturing and system-integration facility in Gumi, South Korea, which will serve as the site for IonQ's SiV quantum memory packaging and manufacturing, quantum system assembly, integration and commissioning. The partnership expands the two companies' ongoing collaboration from cloud-based software integration to physical hardware production, assembly, and regional resale, and SDT will also participate in a separate in-country cancer center project developing hybrid quantum-classical infrastructure for medical and biomedical research with IonQ.

CUbIQ Technologies and Coherent Corp. announced a successful proof-of-concept quantum key distribution demonstrator that puts a CV-QKD transceiver in a standard QSFP-28 pluggable form factor running alongside Coherent 200G FR4 OSFP56 optics. The link was tested over an NVIDIA DGX Spark host system via its ConnectX-7 interface with no changes to the existing network, and the companies say the pluggable approach cuts power consumption, cost and footprint by a factor of 100 compared with conventional rack-based QKD systems. CUbIQ said the module derives keys from the quantum properties of the optical signal itself, so an interception attempt leaves a measurable fingerprint and compromised keys are detected and discarded before use. CUbIQ CEO Aaron Albores Mejia said the work with Coherent proves quantum-safe networking can be demonstrated on the AI infrastructure operators are already deploying. The demonstrator is being shown at ECOC 2026 in Málaga, Spain, from 21 to 23 September 2026 at Booth 1051 in the Dutch Pavilion, and the two companies said they are also working toward a next generation of secure, high-capacity optical pluggable transceivers.