#nuquantum

Qubit-Photon Interface QPI

Nu Quantum announced the Cambridge opening of its trapped-ion networking lab. World leader in quantum computer networking is Nu Quantum. This cutting-edge center doubles the company's research infrastructure, showing substantial progress. The expansion aims to accelerate distributed quantum computing development, which is necessary for practical applications.

This is the first industrial R&D laboratory for trapped-ion distributed quantum computing in the UK and Europe, located next to the company's R&D headquarters. After its $60 million Series A, Nu Quantum starts a new QPI era of expansion. Global quantum networking firm's largest fundraising round.

Through the “Entanglement Fabric” Scale

Quantum computing's main issue is scaling. Quantum computers need many more high-quality qubits to do complex tasks. Instead of building a single device, Nu Quantum proposes to incorporate quantum processors into a modular, distributed computing fabric.

This goal depends on the company's “Entanglement Fabric” technology roadmap. This plan creates a strong photonic networking layer to connect multiple quantum computing nodes into a powerful unit. Nu Quantum is creating high-performance entanglement linkages between qubits in multiple nodes to make quantum architecture more adaptive and scalable.

Technical Heart: Qubit-Photon Interfaces

Nu Quantum's multi-node networking testbed will reside in the new Cambridge facility. In this controlled environment, the company will exhibit its industry-leading Qubit-Photon Interface (QPI) technology for trapped-ion qubits. Advanced optical microcavity technology and custom ion traps make these interfaces a precision engineering feat.

QPI hardware outperforms state-of-the-art remote entanglement experiments. Nu Quantum excels in several key areas, making this possible:

Fabricating extremely accurate optical microcavity mirrors to capture photons and interact with ions.

Novel Entanglement Protocols: Developing communication protocols to better entangle the qubit-photon interface over distance.

Systems-Level Integration: Using a holistic approach to ensure that lasers and traps work properly in a distributed network. Dr. Claire Le Gall, Nu Quantum's VP of Technology, stressed the importance of this stage, saying the team is moving from years of basic research and development to rigorous internal testing employing trapped-ion qubits. She called the lab opening a “major milestone” for the team.

A Flexible Architecture

The new laboratory focuses on trapped-ion qubits, although Nu Quantum's technology is versatile. The company recognizes that various modalities compete in the complex quantum landscape. Thus, Nu Quantum's design supports several quantum computing modalities.

As part of an Innovate UK cooperation with Infleqtion, the company unveiled the first neutral atom qubit QPI in 2024, demonstrating its versatility. Nu Quantum's ability to adapt and exploit its networking experience across many Qubit-Photon Interface types ensures that it will remain a crucial infrastructure supplier regardless of the hardware modality that dominates the market.

Investment and talent fuel innovation

Nu Quantum expanded into the new lab due to its recent financial success. Series A financing of $60 million enabled scaling of personnel and infrastructure. Engineering and scientists with trapped-ion technology and atomic, molecular, and optical (AMO) physics expertise are in high demand at the company.The Nu Quantum founder and CEO, Dr. Carmen Palacios-Berraquero, said, “The opening of new laboratory is huge milestone. This will expedite the roadmap to interconnected quantum computer architectures.”

Strengthening Quantum Ecosystem

Nu Quantum is inactive in vacuum. Top-tier partners are crucial to its growth. The new facility will benefit from research ties with Cambridge, Sussex, and the UK's National Quantum Computing Centre (NQCC).

Professor Mete Atatüre, Head of the Cavendish Laboratory at the University of Cambridge and a Founding Advisor to the firm, believes industry-led R&D is necessary for the UK to lead the quantum race. He said the new testbed will push these systems at industry-relevant scales and that the “quantum interconnection challenge remains a bottleneck” for compute and quantum communications.

The facility's cutting-edge equipment shows these collaborations. Key to the facility is a laser suite with wavelength stabilization and photonics delivery designed with the NQCC. This program was funded by the NSSIF, highlighting quantum networking's strategic importance for national security. In Nu Quantum's development environment, foundry subcontractor Infineon Technologies and industry partners like Cisco are crucial.

Professor Matthias Keller of the University of Sussex called the lab “yet another sign that Nu Quantum is pushing the frontier of quantum networking,” and he was excited to broaden their fruitful relationship.

Vision for the Future

Nu Quantum Company

The Spanish government's €9.75 million investment in Cambridge-born Nu Quantum has changed the worldwide quantum supremacy race. This $60 million (£47 million/€51 million) investment relies on this funding. The largest Series A funding round for a quantum networking business.

For Nu Quantum to become a leading European hub for photonic infrastructure and quantum networking, a Spanish subsidiary is a key requirement of this deal. Dr. Carmen Palacios-Berraquero, CEO and founder of Nu Quantum, and Oscar López Águeda, Minister for Digital Transformation and Public Administration, made the news at the fourth S4i summit in Madrid.

Moving to Distributed Computing

Nu Quantum is pioneering distributed quantum computing while the industry develops more powerful individual quantum computers. Each quantum computer lacks enough qubits to solve practical issues. Their strategy relies on Nu Quantum's Entanglement Fabric technology. Real-time connections combine the computational capability of numerous quantum processors.

A new Spanish subsidiary will focus on commercializing the Quantum Networking Unit. These devices are the quantum world's "switches," while Photonic Integrated Circuits (PICs) will offer the "cables"—ultra-fast, low-loss modules that carry data between nodes.

The best method to commercialize quantum computing for drug discovery, climate modeling, energy optimization, and communications security is via a network, say experts.

Economic Impact and “Technological Sovereignty”

The Spanish Society for Technological Transformation (SETT) funded this investment, which the government says is essential to the PERTE Chip initiative. The PERTE Chip uses NextGenerationEU recovery funds to strengthen local semiconductor and microelectronics capabilities.

The government hopes to achieve numerous strategic goals by building Nu Quantum's infrastructure in Spain:

The project will immediately produce over thirty highly skilled jobs by attracting top individuals from around the world.

Ecosystem Integration: Nu Quantum will work with Barcelona's facility of Photonic Sciences (ICFO), a major Spanish research facility. European Sovereignty: By enhancing Europe's "technological sovereignty," the effort ensures that the continent stays competitive and doesn't rely on American or Asian hardware for infrastructure.

A Leadership “Homecoming”

The agreement is important to Dr. Carmen Palacios-Berraquero personally and professionally. National Grid Partners, Gresham House Ventures, and Amadeus Capital Partners have supported her leadership since she started the company in 2018 as a Cambridge spin-off.

Dr. Palacios-Berraquero said, “It is particularly meaningful to contribute to a national commitment to quantum infrastructure built on PICs and the QNU because it was born and raised in Spain.” She says the financing supports their solution and recognizes Spain's photonics potential.

Minister Áscar López Águeda expressed optimism, noting that Spain is poised for everyday debates on quantum technology. Spain's quantum ecosystem will benefit from Nu Quantum's secure networks, enabling commercial applications.

Understanding Nu Quantum in Detail

Since Nu Quantum is a “key player” in the global quantum business, their technological and strategic issues must be examined.

The Issue: Scalability Bottleneck

The “main challenge” of quantum computing in industry is scalability. Due to quantum state instability, building a huge quantum processor is difficult. Nu Quantum suggests a distributed solution. They suggest a network of smaller computers instead of one large one.

Core Technology: Entanglement Fabric

Entanglement Fabric is the company's signature technology. This architecture connects quantum processors to construct massive, distributed networks.

The Quantum Networking Unit (QNU) is the main hub or “switch” for quantum data.

Photonic Integrated Circuits (PICs): These enable quick, low-loss switching and sensor modules. Quantum circuits preserve quantum features as quantum information moves between processors.

Public-private strategic collaboration

Nu Quantum adopts public-private partnerships. Its $60 million Series A investment closed in December 2025 with a broad collection of foreign and government sponsors. These backers included:

Strategic investors include National Grid Partners, Sumitomo (Presidio Ventures), and East Innovate.

Venture financing includes IQ financing, Amadeus Capital Partners, Gresham House Ventures, and Morpheus Ventures.

Spain's SETT, UK's NSSIF, and Cambridge Enterprise Ventures are government and institutional. Effects on Real Industries

Nu Quantum provides networked computing capacity to unlock economic value in numerous key areas:

Healthcare: Complex molecular simulations accelerate drug discovery.

Sustainability: Energy and climate modeling improvements.

Simulating complicated materials.

UK Series A Round Funding

Nu Quantum obtains $60 million in A Series funding for quantum computer networking, the largest ever.

The pioneer in distributed quantum computing, Nu Quantum, closed an oversubscribed $60 million funding round, the largest by a pure-play quantum networking startup and the largest quantum Series A in the UK. Gresham House Ventures and Morpheus Ventures joined National Grid Partners in the fundraising. Sumitomo (Presidio Ventures), Cambridge Enterprise Ventures, East Innovate, NSSIF, Amadeus Capital Partners, IQ Capital, and Ahren Capital remained supporters.

This large investment will help Nu Quantum increase its diverse personnel, accelerate its Entanglement Fabric plan, and expand globally. Nu Quantum needs to integrate quantum processors into a more powerful distributed quantum computer to achieve fault tolerance and unleash the $1 trillion quantum computing economy.

Solving the Scaling Issue

Despite the fact that quantum computers can model molecules and simulate and optimise systems like electric grids and financial markets, the industry has traditionally focused on improving individual quantum processors. True utility and fault tolerance require expanding systems to 1,000 times more qubits.

Nu Quantum's quantum networking stack tackles this difficulty and lets quantum computers evolve by combining processors into a modular, distributed computing fabric. This method is comparable to how networking helped establish cloud and AI data centres and high-performance computing in traditional computers. Quantum data centres with distributed architectures and Entanglement Fabric networking could enable mass commercialisation, according to Nu Quantum.

For distributed, fault-tolerant computing, the company's modular, interoperable Entanglement Fabric networking layer provides connectivity speeds and architecture. For sophisticated calculations, quantum computers need high-quality qubit entanglement. Photonic quantum networking must establish entanglement relationships between qubits in neighbouring processors to transcend solitary processors. High-fidelity and high-speed modular scaling of quantum computers, communication, and sensor networks is the biggest technical challenge. Nu Quantum's design can scale for multiple Qubit modalities.

Investor Verification, Future Plans

Dr Carmen Palacios-Berraquero, Nu Quantum's CEO and founder, noted that few were considering networked or distributed quantum computing as a scaling option seven years prior to the company's founding. She said the funding validates their strategy and solution's maturity for expansion.

Investors trusted Nu Quantum's industry-resolution strategy:

Steve Smith, President of National Grid Partners and Chief Strategy and Regulation Officer of National Grid, said Nu Quantum is leading the way in bringing this powerful technology to market and solving modern problems.

Maya Ward, Investment Director at Gresham House Ventures, expressed optimism that Nu Quantum can unlock useful, large-scale quantum advantage by addressing fidelity and scaling challenges.

Nu Quantum is addressing scalability, a major quantum computer challenge, according to Morpheus Ventures Partner Damien Petty.

Nu Quantum chair Dr. Hemant Mardia compared quantum computing to classical computing, noting that photonic networking was vital to data centre expansion and that Carmen Palacios-Berraquero is building a comparable paradigm.

To achieve an ambitious strategy, substantial fundraising will fund product development and deployment. This requires building on its first quantum networking subsystems, the Quantum Networking Unit in 2025 and the Qubit-Photon Interface in 2024. Its pioneering Distributed Quantum Error Correction will guide system architecture.

Quantum Datacenter

 Nu Quantum leads the global utility-scale quantum computing forum.

Los Angeles and Cambridge, UK, June 27, 2025: Nu Quantum, a quantum networking provider, recently convened industry leaders to accelerate utility-scale quantum computing. The first Quantum Datacenter Alliance (QDA) Forum, held on June 26 at Battersea Power Station's historic Control Room A, showed that cross-industry collaboration is necessary to realise quantum technology's economic potential.

Useful Quantum Computing

Utility-level The construction and use of quantum systems to unlock practical applications and significant commercial value is called “quantum computing.” It represents a future when quantum technology is applied outside labs to solve complex problems.

Following is a detailed explanation:

Purpose and Definition:

Programs like the Quantum Datacenter Alliance aim to accelerate utility-scale quantum computing.

The “future of quantum computing rests on the ability to scale – to datacenter-scale systems which will unlock real-world utility and commercial value,” said Nu Quantum founder and CEO Carmen Palacios-Berraquero.

To solve the planet's most pressing problems, quantum systems must be “thousands of times more powerful than those available today” to achieve “transformational utility”.

Key elements and requirements for success:

Utility-scale datacenter scaling By definition, quantum computing involves integrating quantum devices into datacenters and eliminating them from labs. This requires overcoming complex scale operational and technical challenges.

Utility-scale requires “collective and purposeful action” and “close collaboration across the industry”. The QDA aspires to unite top quantum computing stack companies through cooperation and innovation.

Strong Infrastructure: “Data centre integration is the key to taking quantum out of the lab and into the market,” stated NTT DATA's Tom Winstanley. Besides developing qubits, this requires “creating the infrastructure, standards, and partnerships that make quantum commercially viable at scale”.

To build massive quantum data centres and enable “the real large-scale future of quantum computing distributed throughout the world,” QuEra's Alex Keesling said, “Networking between QPUs [Quantum Processing Units] is also something that still needs to be demonstrated and it will be a key component.” Datacenter-scale quantum computing requires a “Entanglement Fabric” to connect quantum processors, which Nu Quantum is building to accelerate revolutionary utility and fault-tolerance.

The classical computer stack featured “separate sectors, with many companies in each that provide solutions for that layer,” according to Hermann Hauser of Amadeus Capital Partners. These layers must “work together seamlessly for distributed quantum computing” for a utility-scale “fault-tolerant scale quantum computer,” he said.

Addressing Technical and Operational Issues: Utility-scale quantum computing requires concentrated meetings and discussions on problems like:

Production and reliability of quantum computers. Out-scale connectivity techniques.

scalable quantum error correction algorithms.

system integrators, including HPC and data centre providers.

importance of interfaces and interoperability.

rapid industry and supply chain maturity.

advocating industry standards, architecture, and benchmarking.

Collaboration with end users is necessary to discover quantum's most effective ways for measurable benefits.

Utility-scale quantum computing is the concept of a quantum ecosystem in which quantum systems are robust, reliable, networked, standardised, and integrated into the current computer infrastructure, making them usable and accessible for real-world applications.

Quantum Datacenter Alliance

The Quantum Datacenter Alliance (QDA) was launched in February 2025, connecting prominent quantum computing companies. Its main goal is to speed up the development of commercially viable quantum systems by addressing the complex issues of datacenter quantum computing.

The QDA is detailed below:

Overall Goal and Definition:

The QDA aims to accelerate utility-scale quantum computing. This involves applying quantum technologies beyond the lab for practical applications and profit.

It addresses the biggest quantum infrastructure scaling challenges to make quantum commercially viable.

Origins and Collaboration:

QDA was officially founded in February 2025.

It fosters collaboration on crucial operational and technology issues.

The curriculum promotes teamwork and creativity to integrate ecological viewpoints. Nu Quantum CEO Carmen Palacios-Berraquero called for “collective and purposeful action, along with close collaboration across the industry” to build datacenter-scale solutions.

Key Activities and Focusses:

Industry standards, architectural design, interoperability, benchmarking, and system maturity are promoted by the QDA.

Initial forum discussions focused on datacenter-based quantum computing service characteristics. These included: Quantum processor production and dependability.

Out-scale connectivity techniques.

Scalable quantum error correction codes.

The crucial role of system integrators, including HPC and data centre providers.

Interoperability and interfaces matter.

Accelerating industry and supply chain maturity.

Contacting end users to ensure quantum solutions benefit them.

Like classical computing's “horizontalization,” the QDA advocates a tiered, cooperative quantum approach where many levels must “work together seamlessly for distributed quantum computing.”

Quantum networking, a significant focus, may enable the “real large-scale future of quantum computing distributed throughout the world” and gigantic quantum data centres. Nu Quantum, a founding member, seeks to create a “Entanglement Fabric” for quantum computing scale-out to connect quantum processors and enable datacenter-scale quantum computing.

Members of the founding:

The QDA unites many notable companies, including:

Global technological leader Cisco

The first forum was hosted by distributed quantum computing network Nu Quantum.

NTT DATA offers data centre and IT services, superconducting quantum computing, and QphoX (networked quantum computation via quantum interfaces).

Quantineum (trapped ion quantum computing)

QuEra, neutral-atom quantum computing

Future Outlook:

The QDA plans to continue convening sector leaders at future meetings.

This ongoing effort aims to advance the quantum industry towards scalable, commercially viable quantum computing.

Nu Quantum

Nu Quantum Introduces Dynamic Entanglement Quantum Networking Unit

British company Nu Quantum unveils the first Quantum Networking Unit. This might lead to modular, scalable quantum data centres, like Cisco's routers opened the internet. From theory to reality, quantum scale-out is here.

This week marked a major step towards building a large-scale quantum computer that can solve issues beyond supercomputers. British business Nu Quantum introduced the first Quantum Networking Unit (QNU) to industrially and reliably connect quantum processors for datacenters.

 Qubits, not bits, make the QNU the quantum equivalent of an internet router or switch. Connecting numerous quantum processors will build a distributed quantum computer that is far more powerful than its parts. Similar to Google, Microsoft, and Amazon server rooms, this 19-inch rack-mounted, air-cooled QNU is adapted for quantum information and designed for datacenter deployment.

Scaling quantum computers is a major technical challenge, therefore this development is significant. Quantum computers use qubits to decipher cryptography, mimic medication research, and improve logistics. Qubits are sensitive to heat, radiation, and electromagnetic noise, making coherence harder to maintain.

Dr Carmen Palacios-Berraquero, Nu Quantum's founder and CEO, says networking quantum computers is essential for commercial scale. The QNU overcomes this gap by providing a quantum network layer that lets several quantum processors work together.

The QNU's major components are the quantum photonics-based Real-Time Network Orchestrator and Dynamic Entangler. The Dynamic Entangler connects qubits across machines by creating “entanglement,” a phenomenon in which one particle swiftly impacts another even at a distance. The Real-Time Network Orchestrator ensures this process is fast, error-free, and reliable for corporate use.

At Nu Quantum, entanglement fidelities can reach 99.7%, latency 300 nanoseconds, and error rates below 0.3%. The unit connects four trapped-ion quantum computers and can be upgraded to incorporate superconducting or photonic qubits.

Before previously, quantum networks were primarily experimental, with lab demonstrations of delicate topologies. Like Cisco's first internet routers, Nu Quantum's QNU is the first attempt to commercialise this notion into a rack-mountable industrial device. Nu Quantum board member and quantum veteran Dr. Bob Sutor said networking smaller devices is necessary to build large, powerful quantum computing systems.

Nu Quantum faces global competition from China, the US (IBM, Google, PsiQuantum), the EU, and the UK (which announced its National Quantum Strategy in 2023 with a £2.5 billion investment). Cambridge University's Cavendish Laboratory spin-off Nu Quantum has raised £8.5 million in private investment with SBRI support. Nu Quantum is the first to claim that it has a fully commercialised networking unit ready for usage in real systems. Delft University of Technology has displayed quantum internet links.

The QNU is a “product prototype” for Nu Quantum's multi-node testbed. Next stages include testing larger networks, improving timing synchronisation with CERN's White Rabbit precision timing technology, and working with quantum processor manufacturers. Error-corrected, fault-tolerant quantum computers may require millions of qubits with extremely low error rates.