Today's Quantum Pulse
GAO flags $200M federal spend on quantum computing amid leadership vacuum
The Government Accountability Office reports that the United States is spending roughly $200 million annually on quantum computing. However, the National Quantum Initiative lacks a single designated lead agency, leaving responsibilities fragmented across multiple departments.
Also developing:
By the numbers: Orange Quantum Systems raises $16.2M seed round
Quantum and Games: The Shift Developers Can’t Afford to Ignore
Quantum computing is poised to reshape game development by tackling the most complex design problems, not by running games in real time. Developers are already leveraging quantum algorithms for procedural generation, rule‑validation across massive worlds, and hard‑to‑find bug elimination, feeding results back into conventional engines. Fault‑tolerant quantum hardware is expected within the next few years, aligning with typical AAA development cycles. This shift promises to lower testing costs and open ambitious projects to smaller studios, potentially democratizing the industry.
Quantum Computing Weekly Round-Up: Week Ending February 21, 2026
The weekly roundup spotlights rapid progress in quantum hardware, with packaging technologies scaling to industrial volumes and a metro‑scale networking demo achieving 50‑kilometer entanglement. Legal and financial frameworks are emerging to manage post‑quantum cryptography risk, while venture capital pours $250 million...
Register Now for UCLA's 2026 Quantum Device Workshop
🚀 Registration is now open for the 2026 Quantum Device Workshop, held at UCLA on June 15–18, 2026 https://t.co/TpnOviTsh8
NIST’s Quantum Breakthrough: Single Photons Produced on a Chip
NIST announced a chip that reliably generates a single photon on demand using quantum‑dot technology. The device achieves near‑perfect efficiency and, when paired with superconducting nanowire single‑photon detectors, can transmit photons up to 600 miles. Mass‑production of the chip is...
Quantum Entanglement Could Link Distant Telescopes for Sharper Images
Researchers from the University of Arizona, University of Maryland and NASA have proposed a quantum‑entanglement‑based long‑baseline interferometry method that eliminates the need for fragile optical links between distant telescopes. By sharing pre‑distributed entangled qubits and using spatial‑mode sorters at each...
Bloomberg Reports: Quantum Startup Pasqal Seeks €200 Million to Fuel Growth
French quantum computing startup Pasqal announced it is in talks to raise €200 million, valuing the company at over $1 billion pre‑money. The round, led by undisclosed investors, would fund the expansion of its neutral‑atom quantum processors and full‑stack hardware‑software platform. Co‑founder...
Coherent Emitters Unlock Brighter, Correlated Light Sources
Researchers at The Chinese University of Hong Kong have demonstrated squeezed superradiant lasing in a quantum many‑body system by coupling a cavity to interacting spin‑½ emitters modeled with the Lipkin‑Meshkov‑Glick Hamiltonian. Their analysis shows that spin‑squeezing generated through coherent all‑to‑all...
Entanglement Boosts Machine Learning of Quantum Systems
Researchers at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona introduced an entanglement‑assisted learning strategy for quantum generative adversarial networks (QGANs). By coupling a randomly initialized auxiliary qubit during training, the method overcomes plateaus and local minima that limit QGAN scalability. In a 72‑qubit...
Federal Government Slips $12.7 Million to 8 Quantum Projects Tackling Energy, Minerals and Health
The Australian federal government allocated an additional $12.7 million to eight collaborative quantum‑technology demonstrators, expanding the $35.9 million National Quantum Strategy. Funding ranges from $1.1 million for a data‑centre cooling solution to $2.4 million for rare‑earth detection in mines. Projects span energy optimisation, medical...
Tower Semiconductor and Xanadu Industrialize Silicon Photonic Quantum Stack
Tower Semiconductor and quantum‑computing startup Xanadu have broadened their partnership to industrialize a silicon‑photonic quantum stack. Leveraging Tower’s PH18 200 mm silicon photonics platform, the joint effort will transition Xanadu’s low‑loss SiN waveguide and integrated photodiode designs from prototype to high‑volume...
Quantum eMotion to Transition Trading Operations to NYSE American Exchange
Quantum eMotion Corp. received approval to list its common shares on NYSE American under the ticker QNC, with trading slated to start around February 24, 2026. The move will see the company exit the OTCQB market while retaining listings on the TSX Venture...
AQT Integrates IBEX Q1 Trapped-Ion QPU Into Scaleway Sovereign Cloud
Alpine Quantum Technologies and Scaleway have integrated AQT’s IBEX Q1 trapped‑ion quantum processor into Scaleway’s sovereign Quantum‑as‑a‑Service platform. The QPU, featuring all‑to‑all qubit connectivity and high gate fidelity, is accessible via open‑source frameworks without reservation during set time windows. Hosted...
2 Top Quantum Computing Stocks to Buy in 2026
Quantum‑computing stocks have fallen sharply in early 2026, making IonQ and IBM attractive entry points. IonQ (IONQ) trades around $33, bolstered by a 222% YoY revenue jump and recent acquisitions including SkyWater to control chip manufacturing. IBM (IBM) trades near...
Quantum Cryptography Threat Still a Decade Away, Experts Say
"People keep claiming that we'll have a cryptographically-relevant quantum computer soon. The actual quantum experts are giving 10-year time horizons." https://t.co/CLMWr1HiYS
D-Wave Joins Southeastern Quantum Collaborative as an Inaugural Member
D‑Wave Quantum Inc. has joined the newly formed Southeastern Quantum Collaborative (SQC) as an inaugural member alongside the University of Alabama in Huntsville, Davidson Technologies, IBM and Alabama A&M University. The partnership aims to unite academia, industry and government to...
Triplet Superconductivity—Physicists May Have Found the Missing Link for Quantum Computers
Physicists led by Jacob Linder at Norway’s NTNU claim to have observed intrinsic triplet superconductivity in a niobium‑rhenium (NbRe) alloy. The discovery, published in Physical Review Letters, suggests NbRe can carry spin‑polarized Cooper pairs without resistance, a property absent in...
Quantum Co-Laboratory Expands Its National Partnership, Strengthening Canada’s Leadership in Quantum Science and Technology
Canada’s Quantum Co‑laboratory has entered its second five‑year term, adding the University of Calgary’s Institute for Quantum Science and Technology to its existing partners—University of Waterloo, Université de Sherbrooke, and UBC’s Blusson Quantum Matter Institute. The expanded network provides researchers,...
Quantum 'Ghost Imaging' Paves Way for Nanoscale Images at Lower X-Ray Dose
Researchers at Brookhaven National Laboratory’s NSLS‑II have demonstrated quantum‑inspired ghost imaging using entangled X‑ray photon pairs. By correlating a photon that passes through a sample with its untouched partner, they produced high‑resolution images of a tungsten cat and a cardamom...
Palm Beach County Receives $1M Federal Funding to Expand Quantum Ecosystem
The Business Development Board of Palm Beach County secured a $1,031,000 federal grant to coordinate regional quantum technology initiatives and workforce training. Palm Beach State College also received over $2 million to launch a Quantum Innovation Center that will serve as...
Quantum Simulator Reveals Statistical Localization that Keeps Most Qubit States Frozen
Researchers at Duke University used a neutral‑atom Rydberg quantum simulator to observe statistical localization, a phenomenon where most qubit configurations remain frozen despite quantum evolution. The effect, first theorized in 2020, was demonstrated in a one‑dimensional chain of rubidium atoms...
Simplifying Quantum Simulations—Symmetry Can Cut Computational Effort by Several Orders of Magnitude
Physicists Guido Burkard and Joris Kattemölle introduced a symmetry‑based method that slashes the computational effort of quantum simulations by over a thousandfold. By treating repeating lattice patterns as single tiles, the approach replaces thousands of point‑by‑point mappings with a few...
Microscopic Mirrors for Future Quantum Networks: A New Way to Make High-Performance Optical Resonators
Harvard SEAS researchers have introduced a micro‑fabrication technique that creates some of the smallest, smoothest mirrors ever made for photon control. By thermally oxidizing silicon, stripping the oxide, and applying a stress‑engineered dielectric stack, the film buckles into a precisely...
NSF CISE: Making Quantum Computers Resilient to Adversarial Attacks
Researchers at Rice University and Johns Hopkins, funded by multiple NSF CISE grants, introduced a new adversarial state corruption model and accompanying algorithms that enable quantum computers to operate despite noisy or malicious disturbances. The framework assumes attackers can tamper...
Measuring Chaos: Researchers Quantify the Quantum Butterfly Effect
Chinese researchers led by Yu‑Chen Li have, for the first time, precisely quantified the exponential growth of chaos in a quantum many‑body system during a time‑reversal protocol. Using solid‑state nuclear magnetic resonance, they measured out‑of‑time‑ordered correlators (OTOCs) and applied a...
Qunnect and Cisco Demonstrate Metro-Scale, High-Speed Quantum Entanglement Swapping Over Commercial Fiber
Qunnect and Cisco have demonstrated metro‑scale quantum entanglement swapping over 17.6 km of commercial fiber in New York City, achieving record rates of 1.7 million local pairs and 5,400 pairs per hour across deployed fiber. The system maintained over 99 % polarization fidelity...
French VC Quantonation Raises €220 Million for Flagship Quantum and Deep-Physics Fund
Quantonation Ventures closed its second flagship fund at €220 million, making it the world’s largest dedicated quantum‑investment vehicle by assets under management. The round attracted both returning backers such as Vertex Holdings and new limited partners including the European Investment Fund,...
An Italian Court Annuls a Previous €47 Million ($55.6M USD) Award to IBM for Providing a Quantum Computer at the...
In December 2024 the Campania region launched a €62.1 million tender for a quantum computer at the University of Salerno. After extending the deadline by one week, IBM submitted a late bid and was awarded the contract in September 2025 for...
Quantum Computer Flaws Pinpointed Using Novel Energy Decay Spectroscopy Technique
Scientists at the SQMS Center and Fermilab unveiled a fixed‑frequency energy‑decay spectroscopy method that characterises two‑level system (TLS) defects in superconducting transmon qubits without tuning the qubit frequency. By repeatedly preparing the second excited state and analysing correlated decay of...
Faster Quantum Calculations Unlock Efficient Molecular Ground State Preparation
Researchers at the German Aerospace Center and Ruhr University Bochum introduced a protocol that merges the ExcitationSolve optimizer with energy‑sorting and one‑variational‑parameter couple‑exchange (OVP‑CEO) operators to streamline variational quantum eigensolver (VQE) ground‑state preparation. The method selects all relevant operators in...
New Optimisation Methods Tackle Complex Logistical and Network Challenges
Researchers at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology introduced Quadratic Unconstrained Binary Optimisation (QUBO) formulations for core location‑science problems such as the p‑Median and Fixed‑Charge Facility Location problems. They derived a tight bound for the penalty parameter, guaranteeing equivalence between the QUBO...
NTT Data to Establish Innovation Ecosystem with Melbourne Uni
NTT Data and the University of Melbourne have signed a memorandum of understanding to create an innovation ecosystem that blends the university’s research strengths with NTT Data’s global technical expertise. The partnership will focus on three pillars: cultivating digital talent,...
Breakthrough Victoria Scores 5x Uplift on Investment in US Quantum Startup Listing on the NYSE
Breakthrough Victoria’s A$29 million stake in US‑based Infleqtion has generated a five‑fold value increase after the company listed on the NYSE via a SPAC merger. Infleqtion raised US$550 million, debuting at US$14.25 per share and closing at US$15.59, a 14% first‑day gain....
Quantum Computing Can Solve the Hardest Port Scheduling Problems
Quantum computing is emerging as a complementary tool for the most complex optimization challenges in maritime logistics. While classical platforms handle data and routine analytics, hybrid workflows off‑load dense, constraint‑heavy subproblems—such as berth allocation, crane sequencing, and drayage routing—to quantum...
Winning AI Race Requires Physics‑driven, Not Just Chatbot, Models
The AI race will not be won with chatbots that predict the next word. In today’s Wall Street Journal, I argue that staying ahead of China requires a new class of AI models built on physics, chemistry, and quantitative reasoning, not...
Pasqal Delivers Italy’s First Neutral Atom Quantum Computer
Pasqal has delivered a 140‑qubit neutral‑atom quantum computer to Italy’s CINECA supercomputing centre, marking the nation’s first on‑site neutral‑atom system. The QPU is tightly coupled with Leonardo, one of the world’s most powerful pre‑exascale supercomputers, creating a hybrid HPC‑quantum architecture....
Kipu Quantum Launches Rimay for Industrial Quantum-Enhanced Machine Learning
Kipu Quantum announced the general availability of Rimay, a quantum‑enhanced feature extraction service that plugs into existing classical machine‑learning pipelines. The platform leverages digitized counterdiabatic driving on IBM’s 156‑qubit processors to capture higher‑order data correlations inaccessible to classical algorithms. Early...
Comcast, Classiq, and AMD Demonstrate Quantum-Optimized Internet Resilience
Comcast, Classiq, and AMD completed a technical trial that used quantum algorithms to improve global internet routing resilience. The experiment tackled the NP‑hard problem of finding vertex‑disjoint backup paths by applying the Quantum Approximate Optimization Algorithm (QAOA) in a hybrid...
New Amplifier Design Promises Less Noise, More Gain for Quantum Computers
RIKEN researchers have unveiled a new Josephson traveling‑wave parametric amplifier (JTWPA) that cuts added noise to 0.68 quanta, just 0.18 above the quantum limit, while delivering high gain. The device replaces lossy dielectric with a spiraled, fish‑bone‑like tapered waveguide, simplifying...
IQT The Quantum Dragon Podcast Episode 80 – Certified Unpredictability
In this 16‑minute episode, host Brian Siegelwax and Dr. Stephen Walborn discuss quantum random number generators (QRNGs), focusing on their use cases, self‑testing, and certification processes. They explain the physical mechanisms that guarantee true randomness and compare API‑based services with...
Building a Quantum Ecosystem From Scratch with Martin Laforest
In this episode, Sebastian talks with Martin Laforest, a physicist‑turned‑VC at Quantacet, about the practical challenges of building a quantum ecosystem from the ground up. Laforest explains how Quebec turned a 1970s academic gamble into a $400 M quantum hub, emphasizing...
Three Lower Bounds Achieve Near-Exact Ground-State Energies
Variational #quantumalgorithms and classical variational methods, such as #tensornetwork techniques, provide upper bounds on ground-state energies. However, to meaningfully assess their performance and reliability, these results should be complemented by efficiently computable lower bounds. https://t.co/Fxs5ORiqcW This work demonstrates that three distinct types...
Researchers Reveal Magnetism with Quantum Potential
Researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory discovered that a tantalum‑tungsten‑selenium (TaWSe2) crystal self‑organizes into triangular clusters of ten atoms, contrary to the expected random distribution. The clustered arrangement creates localized strain that triggers a magnetic transition when the material is...
Quantum Breakthrough Makes Once‑impossible Problems Solvable
I’ve been waiting for a moment like this. Google’s new quantum chip solved a 150-year-old problem in 2 hours. 13,000× faster than one of the world’s best supercomputers. That’s not incremental. That’s a different category. Their Willow chip ran an algorithm that models how atoms...
TelaQ Launches, Advancing Quantum Network Optimization
New release of telaQ, a flagship product of nodeQ (personal investment) and a leader in the optimization of quantum networks. https://t.co/BkKJK6PVSR
Delta Gold Technologies and Penn State Partner on Scalable Gold-Based Quantum Materials Research
Delta Gold Technologies has entered a three‑year research sponsorship and exclusive licensing deal with Penn State University to develop gold‑nanocluster quantum materials. The collaboration, also involving the University of Toronto, demonstrates tunable spin polarization ranging from 7 % to 40 % and...
Light-Matter Coupling Creates New Quasiparticles for Advanced Physics Exploration
Researchers have demonstrated strong coupling of electrically tunable dipolar excitons in a gated bilayer MoS₂ device integrated with a one‑dimensional photonic crystal. The hybrid system creates composite polariton quasiparticles, with three distinct polariton branches observed as the applied electric field...
New Materials Exhibit Superconductivity After Surface Functionalisation with Common Elements
A first‑principles screening of 128 out‑of‑plane ordered double‑transition‑metal MXenes identified 32 compounds that are mechanically, dynamically and thermodynamically stable and predicted to be superconductors. Transition temperatures range from 0.1 K to a record 52 K, with Mo₂ScN₂O₂ delivering the highest T₍c₎ and...
Is Quantum Technology the Next Great Alternative Asset?
The article evaluates quantum technology as an emerging alternative asset, emphasizing public‑market exposure over private‑equity deals. It notes that pure‑play quantum stocks such as D‑Wave, Rigetti, IonQ and Quantum Computing Inc. exhibit high volatility and limited near‑term cash flows, while...
Neural Networks Boost Accuracy of Quantum Simulations for Complex Materials
Researchers at ETH Zürich have introduced a neural‑based selected configuration (NQS‑SC) method that outperforms the traditional NQS‑VMC approach for electronic structure calculations. In benchmark tests on molecules with strong static correlation, NQS‑SC reduced ground‑state energies by an average of 0.027 Hartree...
Atoms and Molecules Combined Unlock Faster Quantum Entanglement Generation
Researchers have unveiled a hybrid quantum platform that pairs polar molecules with neutral‑atom Rydberg ancillae to achieve fast, high‑fidelity entanglement. By exploiting a resonant dipole‑dipole exchange between molecular rotations and atomic Rydberg transitions, the scheme delivers a controlled‑phase gate operating...