Quantum networks—where entanglement is distributed across distant nodes—promise to revolutionize quantum computing, communication, and sensing. However, a major bottleneck has been scalability, as the entanglement rate in most existing systems is limited by a network design of a single qubit per node. A new study, led by Prof. A. Faraon at Caltech and conducted by A. Ruskuc et al., recently published in Nature (ref: 1-2), presents a groundbreaking solution: multiplexed entanglement using multiple emitters in quantum network nodes. By harnessing rare-earth ions coupled to nanophotonic cavities, researchers at Caltech and Stanford have demonstrated a scalable platform that significantly enhances entanglement rates and network efficiency. Let's take a closer look at the two key challenges they tackled—multiplexing to boost entanglement rates and dynamic control strategies to ensure qubit indistinguishability—and how they overcame them.

Breaking the Entanglement Bottleneck via Multiplexing
One of the biggest challenges in scaling quantum networks is the entanglement rate bottleneck, which arises due to the fundamental constraints of long-distance quantum communication. When two distant qubits are entangled via photon interference, the rate of entanglement distribution is typically limited by the speed of light and the node separation distance. In typical systems with a single qubit per node, this rate scales as c/L (where c is the speed of light and L is the distance between nodes), leading to long waiting times between successful entanglement events. This severely limits the scalability of quantum networks.

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.

Just as classical data centers rely on distributed computing and high-speed interconnects, the future of quantum computing depends on optical networking and resource sharing between quantum processors. Welinq's quantum memory acts as the backbone of this infrastructure, making it possible to link quantum processors into powerful, scalable networks.

China's Ministry of Finance has allocated $55 billion (¥398.12 billion) for science and technology funding in 2025, marking a 10% increase from the previous year's $50 billion (¥361.9 billion). This expenditure now stands as the nation's third-largest budget item, following only national defense and debt interest payments. The 2024 allocation achieved a 97.6% implementation rate, indicating effective deployment of resources in the technology sector. The funding prioritizes initiatives under the "Science and Technology Innovation 2030" program, with significant investments targeting semiconductors, artificial intelligence, and quantum computing research. Rather than stimulating immediate breakthroughs, the incremental funding increase aims to strengthen existing projects and enhance technological self-reliance amid global competition.

This strategy shows some fiscal constraints imposed by China's economic slowdown while maintaining the country's long-term technological objectives. Supplementary measures bolster direct R&D investment, including enhanced support for fundamental research and specialized financing mechanisms for technology-focused enterprises. Tax reductions and targeted subsidies form part of a comprehensive policy framework designed to foster domestic innovation capabilities. While the funding increase shows commitment to technological advancement, effective project management and efficient resource allocation will be critical success factors, mainly as China competes more globally. Perhaps the most important milestone for this aid package will be supporting the development of advanced lithography tools to make sure that domestic companies can manufacture cutting-edge silicon.

Italian supercomputing centre Cineca today announced an agreement with IQM Quantum Computers, a global leader in superconducting quantum computers, to deliver the most powerful quantum computer in Italy.

IQM Radiance quantum computer, powered by IQM's 54-qubit quantum processing unit (QPU), will be installed in the fourth quarter of 2025. The quantum computer will be integrated into Leonardo, which is one of the world's fastest supercomputers. This will mark a major technology and innovation milestone for Italy and the larger quantum ecosystem.

Equal1 today unveils Bell-1, the first quantum system purpose-built for the HPC era. Unlike first-generation quantum computers that demand dedicated rooms, infrastructure, and complex cooling systems, Bell-1 is designed for direct deployment in HPC-class environments. As a rack-mountable quantum node, it integrates directly alongside classical compute—as compact as a GPU server, yet exponentially more powerful for the world's hardest problems. Bell-1 is engineered to eliminate the traditional barriers of cost, infrastructure, and complexity, setting a new benchmark for scalable quantum computing integration.

Bell-1 rewrites the rule book. While today's quantum computers demand specialized infrastructure, Bell-1 is a silicon-powered quantum computer that integrates seamlessly into existing HPC environments. Simply rack it, plug it in, and unlock quantum capabilities wherever your classical computers already operate. No new cooling systems. No extraordinary power demands. Just quantum computing that works in the real world, as easy to deploy as a high-end GPU server. It plugs into a standard power socket, operates at just 1600 W, and delivers on-demand quantum computing for computationally intensive workloads.

Microsoft launched its Majorana 1 chip—the world's first quantum processor powered by a Topological Core architecture—last month. The company's debuting of its Majorana design was celebrated as a significant milestone—in 2023, an ambitious roadmap was published by Microsoft's research department. At the time, a tall Majorana particle-based task was set: the building of a proprietary quantum supercomputer within a decade. Returning to the present day; outside parties have criticized Microsoft's February announcements. The Register published an investigative piece earlier today, based on quotes from key players specializing in the field of Quantum studies. Many propose a theoretical existence of Majorana particles, while Microsoft R&D employees have claimed detection and utilization. The Register referred back to recent history: "(Microsoft) made big claims about Majorana particles before, but it didn't end well: in 2021 Redmond's researchers retracted a 2018 paper in which they claimed to have detected the particles."

As pointed out by Microsoft researcher Chetan Nayak; their latest paper was actually authored last March 2024, but only made public in recent weeks. Further details of progress are expected next week, at the American Physical Society (APS) 2025 Joint March Meeting. The Register has compiled quotes from vocal critics; starting with Henry Legg—a lecturer in theoretical physics at the University of St Andrews, Scotland. The noted scholar believes—as divulged in a scientific online comment—that Microsoft's claimed Quantum breakthrough: "is not reliable and must be revisited." Similarly, collaborators from Germany's Forschungszentrum Jülich institute and the University of Pittsburgh, USA released a joint video statement. (Respectively) Experimental physicist Vincent Mourik and by Professor Sergey Frolov outlined: "distractions caused by unreliable scientific claims from Microsoft Quantum."

Traditional cybersecurity measures are proving insufficient for addressing emerging cyber threats such as malware, ransomware, phishing and data access attacks. Moreover, future quantum computers pose a security risk to today's data through "harvest now, decrypt later" attack strategies. Cybersecurity technology powered by NVIDIA accelerated computing and high-speed networking is transforming the way organizations protect their data, systems and operations. These advanced technologies not only enhance security but also drive operational efficiency, scalability and business growth.

Accelerated AI-Powered Cybersecurity
Modern cybersecurity relies heavily on AI for predictive analytics and automated threat mitigation. NVIDIA GPUs are essential for training and deploying AI models due to their exceptional computational power.

GSMA MWC Barcelona, runs from March 3 to 6, 2025 at the Fira Barcelona Gran Via in Barcelona, Spain. AMD is proud to participate in forward-thinking discussions and demos around AI, edge and cloud computing, the long-term revolutionary potential of moonshot technologies like quantum processing, and more. Check out the AMD hospitality suite in Hall 2 (Stand 2M61) and explore our demos and system design wins. Attendees are welcome to stop by informally or schedule a time slot with us.

As modern networks evolve, high-performance computing, energy efficiency, and AI acceleration are becoming just as critical as connectivity itself. AMD is at the forefront of this transformation, delivering solutions that power next-generation cloud, AI, and networking infrastructure. Our demos this year showcase AMD EPYC, AMD Instinct, and AMD Ryzen AI processors, as well as AMD Versal adaptive SoC and Zynq UltraScale+ RFSoC devices.

Today, Amazon Web Services (AWS) announced Ocelot, a new quantum computing chip that can reduce the costs of implementing quantum error correction by up to 90%, compared to current approaches. Developed by the team at the AWS Center for Quantum Computing at the California Institute of Technology, Ocelot represents a breakthrough in the pursuit to build fault-tolerant quantum computers capable of solving problems of commercial and scientific importance that are beyond the reach of today's conventional computers.

AWS used a novel design for Ocelot's architecture, building error correction in from the ground up and using the 'cat qubit'. Cat qubits-named after the famous Schrödinger's cat thought experiment-intrinsically suppress certain forms of errors, reducing the resources required for quantum error correction. Through this new approach with Ocelot, AWS researchers have, for the first time, combined cat qubit technology and additional quantum error correction components onto a microchip that can be manufactured in a scalable fashion using processes borrowed from the microelectronics industry.

AI reasoning models and agents are set to transform industries, but delivering their full potential at scale requires massive compute and optimized software. The "reasoning" process involves multiple models, generating many additional tokens, and demands infrastructure with a combination of high-speed communication, memory and compute to ensure real-time, high-quality results. To meet this demand, CoreWeave has launched NVIDIA GB200 NVL72-based instances, becoming the first cloud service provider to make the NVIDIA Blackwell platform generally available. With rack-scale NVIDIA NVLink across 72 NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs and 36 NVIDIA Grace CPUs, scaling to up to 110,000 GPUs with NVIDIA Quantum-2 InfiniBand networking, these instances provide the scale and performance needed to build and deploy the next generation of AI reasoning models and agents.

NVIDIA GB200 NVL72 on CoreWeave
NVIDIA GB200 NVL72 is a liquid-cooled, rack-scale solution with a 72-GPU NVLink domain, which enables the six dozen GPUs to act as a single massive GPU. NVIDIA Blackwell features many technological breakthroughs that accelerate inference token generation, boosting performance while reducing service costs. For example, fifth-generation NVLink enables 130 TB/s of GPU bandwidth in one 72-GPU NVLink domain, and the second-generation Transformer Engine enables FP4 for faster AI performance while maintaining high accuracy. CoreWeave's portfolio of managed cloud services is purpose-built for Blackwell. CoreWeave Kubernetes Service optimizes workload orchestration by exposing NVLink domain IDs, ensuring efficient scheduling within the same rack. Slurm on Kubernetes (SUNK) supports the topology block plug-in, enabling intelligent workload distribution across GB200 NVL72 racks. In addition, CoreWeave's Observability Platform provides real-time insights into NVLink performance, GPU utilization and temperatures.

Japan's central government will adjust its control over cutting-edge chips and quantum computer-related technology—a Japan Times news article proposes that new regulations will come into effect by the end of May. The report suggests that the nation's governing body is expanding its list of export-controlled items to include: "advanced chips, lithography equipment and cryo-coolers needed for the manufacture of quantum computers." The publication has gathered this information from revised foreign exchange laws. According to economy ministry officials, companies will be required to apply for external trade licenses—extra measures are being put in place to prevent the export of cutting-edge items to foreign military organizations. The updated terms are viewed as another step in tightening the supply of advanced semiconductor products to mainland China. Recent global events have paved the way for a new wave of AI chip-related restrictions.

Naturally, China has expressed concern regarding upcoming changes—they anticipate problems affecting supply chains and normal commercial exchanges between enterprises. According to the Japan Times report, the Ministry of Commerce in Beijing: "hopes Japan will make sure the measures don't hinder the economic and trade development between the two countries." The two nations have enjoyed a cordial semiconductor-centric trade relationship, skewed more in favor of Japan. Industry watchdogs believe that Chinese manufacturers have generated significant demand for Japanese-made production equipment. Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) has updated its documents. According to the latest report, 42 new entities worldwide have been added to a list of: "foreign companies and organizations that would be subject to export oversight on any dual-use items. The additions come into effect on Feb. 5, it said. A total of around 110 Chinese companies, research institutions and other entities are on the list."

Rigetti Computing, Inc., a pioneer in full-stack quantum-classical computing, announced today the public launch of its 84-qubit Ankaa-3 system. Ankaa-3 is Rigetti's newest flagship quantum computer featuring an extensive hardware redesign that enables superior performance. Rigetti also celebrates major two-qubit gate fidelity milestones with Ankaa-3: successfully halving error rates in 2024 to achieve a median 99.0% iSWAP gate fidelity, as well as demonstrating 99.5% median fidelity fSim gates.

Ankaa-3 is now available to its partners via the Rigetti Quantum Cloud Services platform (QCS)and will be coming to Amazon Braket and Microsoft Azure in the first quarter of 2025. Users will be able to operate these higher fidelity and universal iSWAP gates for a wide range of algorithmic research, with a median gate time of 72 nanoseconds. The faster (median 56 nanoseconds), more specialized fSim gates are useful for specific algorithms such as random circuit sampling, as recently demonstrated on Google's Willow system.

Quobly, a leading French quantum computing startup, has reported that FD-SOI technology can serve as a scalable platform for commercial quantum computing, leveraging traditional semiconductor manufacturing fabs and CEA-Leti's R&D pilot line.

The semiconductor industry has played a pivotal role in enabling classical computers to scale at cost; it has the same transformative potential for quantum computers, making them commercially scalable and cost competitive. Silicon spin qubits are excellent for achieving fault-tolerant, large-scale quantum computing, registering clock speeds in the µsec range, fidelity above 99% for one and two-qubit gate operations and incomparably small unit cell sizes (in the hundredths of 100 nm²).

Google Quantum AI lab has announced a huge advancement in quantum computing with its new Willow processor. The chip demonstrated remarkable error correction capabilities and computational power beyond traditional supercomputers, including ExaFLOP machines such as Frontier and El Capitan. In research published in Nature, Google's team showed that Willow can exponentially reduce error rates as more qubits are added to the system—a feat known as operating "below threshold" that has been a major challenge in quantum computing since 1995. Using arrays of quantum bits in increasingly larger grids, the team successfully cut error rates in half with each expansion. The chip's performance is particularly recorded in random circuit sampling (RCS), where Willow completed calculations in under five minutes. Something like that would take today's fastest supercomputer approximately ten septillion years to solve—a timespan far greater than the universe's age.

Manufactured at Google's specialized facility in Santa Barbara, the 105-qubit Willow chip also achieved impressive coherence times, with qubits maintaining their quantum states for up to 100 microseconds—five times longer than previous generations. Dr. Hartmut Neven, who founded Google Quantum AI in 2012, emphasized that the breakthrough brings quantum computing closer to scaling into more complex systems for data processing. Potential applications include discovering new medicines, designing more efficient batteries for electric vehicles, and accelerating fusion energy research. The next challenge for Google's quantum team is demonstrating a "useful, beyond-classical" computation that addresses practical applications. While Willow has shown superior performance in benchmark tests, researchers are now focused on developing algorithms that can tackle commercially relevant problems that are impossible for traditional computers to solve.

IonQ, a leader in the quantum computing and networking industry, today announced the delivery of IonQ Forte Enterprise to its first European Innovation Center at the uptownBasel campus in Arlesheim, Switzerland. Achieved in partnership with QuantumBasel, this major milestone marks the first datacenter-ready quantum computer IonQ has delivered that will operate outside the United States and the first quantum system for commercial use in Switzerland.

Forte Enterprise is now online servicing compute jobs while performing at a record algorithmic qubit count of #AQ36, which is significantly more powerful than the promised #AQ35. With each additional #AQ, the useful computational space for running quantum algorithms doubles. A system with #AQ36 is capable of considering more than 68 billion different possibilities simultaneously. With this milestone, IonQ once again leads the industry in delivering production-ready systems to customers.

Infineon Technologies AG, a global leader in semiconductor solutions, and Quantinuum, a global leader in integrated, full-stack quantum computing, today announced a strategic partnership to develop the future generation of ion traps. This partnership will drive the acceleration of quantum computing and enable progress in fields such as generative chemistry, material science, and artificial intelligence.

"We are thrilled to partner with Quantinuum, a leader in quantum computing, to push the boundaries of quantum computing and generate larger, more powerful machines that solve meaningful real-life problems," said Richard Kuncic, Senior Vice President and General Manager Power Systems at Infineon Technologies. "This collaboration brings together Infineon's state-of-the-art knowledge in process development, fabrication, and quantum processing unit (QPU) technology with Quantinuum's cutting-edge ion-trap design expertise and experience with operating high-performance commercial quantum computers."

Today at its inaugural IBM Quantum Developer Conference, IBM announced quantum hardware and software advancements to execute complex algorithms on IBM quantum computers with record levels of scale, speed, and accuracy.

IBM Quantum Heron, the company's most performant quantum processor to-date and available in IBM's global quantum data centers, can now leverage Qiskit to accurately run certain classes of quantum circuits with up to 5,000 two-qubit gate operations. Users can now use these capabilities to expand explorations in how quantum computers can tackle scientific problems across materials, chemistry, life sciences, high-energy physics, and more.

Gaijin Entertainment and Matter Team are happy to announce Active Matter, a new mind-bending tactical hardcore shooter set in a fractured multiverse. The game will be available for purchase on PC (at Steam and Gaijin.Net stores), PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S in 2025. The exact price and release date will be announced later. The Closed Beta Test of Active Matter is planned for 2024 at Gaijin.Net, and players are welcome to sign up at the game's official website to make sure they do not miss this opportunity.

Active Matter players control operators stuck in a time loop, returning, time and again, to the same point after each death. They choose a loadout and enter quantum-unstable zones, rich in active matter - a substance capable of warping and ripping the very fabric of space and time. Rivals from other timelines, physics-breaking anomalies that change gravitational force and ethereal beings stand in the way. Players harvest active matter, collect the loot and extract to a safe area before the whole zone ceases to exist with everything inside it.

The EuroHPC Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC JU) has signed a purchase agreement with IQM Quantum Computers (IQM), a global leader in designing, building, and selling superconducting quantum computers. Under the agreement, IQM will deliver two advanced Radiance quantum systems of 54 qubits and 150 qubits in the second half of 2025 and by the end of 2026, respectively.

The two distinct systems, featuring high-quality qubits and industry-leading fidelities will play a pivotal role in executing quantum algorithms across a range of application domains.

IBM announced today the completion of its latest expansion of the IBM Quantum Data Center in Poughkeepsie, New York, which operates the highest number of available utility-scale quantum computers at a single location in the world. These systems are a part of the more than a dozen quantum computers offered to global clients via the IBM cloud.

To advance its mission of bringing useful quantum computing to the world, IBM has heavily invested in deploying advanced quantum hardware architectures. First introduced late last year, the IBM Quantum Heron processor has now been deployed in IBM's global Quantum Data Center in Poughkeepsie.

Quantum computing. Drug discovery. Fusion energy. Scientific computing and physics-based simulations are poised to make giant steps across domains that benefit humanity as advances in accelerated computing and AI drive the world's next big breakthroughs. NVIDIA unveiled at GTC in March the NVIDIA Blackwell platform, which promises generative AI on trillion-parameter large language models (LLMs) at up to 25x less cost and energy consumption than the NVIDIA Hopper architecture.

Blackwell has powerful implications for AI workloads, and its technology capabilities can also help to deliver discoveries across all types of scientific computing applications, including traditional numerical simulation. By reducing energy costs, accelerated computing and AI drive sustainable computing. Many scientific computing applications already benefit. Weather can be simulated at 200x lower cost and with 300x less energy, while digital twin simulations have 65x lower cost and 58x less energy consumption versus traditional CPU-based systems and others.

NVIDIA today announced that it will accelerate quantum computing efforts at national supercomputing centers around the world with the open-source NVIDIA CUDA-Q platform. Supercomputing sites in Germany, Japan and Poland will use the platform to power the quantum processing units (QPUs) inside their NVIDIA-accelerated high-performance computing systems.

QPUs are the brains of quantum computers that use the behavior of particles like electrons or photons to calculate differently than traditional processors, with the potential to make certain types of calculations faster. Germany's Jülich Supercomputing Centre (JSC) at Forschungszentrum Jülich is installing a QPU built by IQM Quantum Computers as a complement to its JUPITER supercomputer, supercharged by the NVIDIA GH200 Grace Hopper Superchip. The ABCI-Q supercomputer, located at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) in Japan, is designed to advance the nation's quantum computing initiative. Powered by the NVIDIA Hopper architecture, the system will add a QPU from QuEra. Poland's Poznan Supercomputing and Networking Center (PSNC) has recently installed two photonic QPUs, built by ORCA Computing, connected to a new supercomputer partition accelerated by NVIDIA Hopper.

MICLEDI Microdisplays today announced a first closing of its Series A funding round with participation from imec.xpand, PMV, imec, KBC and SFPIM demonstrating strong support for the company's value proposition and commercial and technological progress achieved in the seed round. Series A follows a significant seed round award and additional non-dilutive funding in the form of grants and other vehicles from VLAIO. This brings the company's total funding to date to nearly $30 million.

"The company's achievements during this seed round have been astounding," said Sean Lord, CEO of MICLEDI. "Our door is open to engagements with some of the world's largest and most innovative electronic product manufacturing companies, most of whom are working on their own internal development projects for augmented reality (AR) displays in such diverse use cases as smart-wearable devices and automotive HUDs. This level of total funding to date is almost unheard of for a four-year-old startup."

In Sept. 2023, Quantum Machines (QM) unveiled OPX1000, our most advanced quantum control system to date - and the industry's leading controller in terms of performance and channel density. OPX1000 is the third generation of QM's processor-based quantum controllers. It enhances its predecessor, OPX+, by expanding analog performance and multiplying channel density to support the control of over 1,000 qubits. However, QM's vision for quantum controllers extends far beyond.

OPX1000 is designed as a platform for orchestrating the control of large-scale QPUs (quantum processing units). It's equipped with 8 frontend modules (FEMs) slots, representing the cutting-edge modular architecture for quantum control. The first low-frequency (LF) module was introduced in September 2023, and today, we're happy to introduce the Microwave (MW) FEM, which delivers additional value to our rapidly expanding customer base.

NVIDIA today announced that Australia's Pawsey Supercomputing Research Centre will add the NVIDIA CUDA Quantum platform accelerated by NVIDIA Grace Hopper Superchips to its National Supercomputing and Quantum Computing Innovation Hub, furthering its work driving breakthroughs in quantum computing.

Researchers at the Perth-based center will leverage CUDA Quantum - an open-source hybrid quantum computing platform that features powerful simulation tools, and capabilities to program hybrid CPU, GPU and QPU systems - as well as, the NVIDIA cuQuantum software development kit of optimized libraries and tools for accelerating quantum computing workflows. The NVIDIA Grace Hopper Superchip - which combines the NVIDIA Grace CPU and Hopper GPU architectures - provides extreme performance to run high-fidelity and scalable quantum simulations on accelerators and seamlessly interface with future quantum hardware infrastructure.