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FROM THE EDITOR.

The other week my wife said I was a contrarian.

I told her: “No, I’m not.”

(To verify this, I just asked her what I was contrarian about and she replied “everything,” which I vigorously refute.)

In any event, most people view the debates and arguments about recent quantum performance announcements as negative and position science and industry in a bad light.

My contrarian position is that these are positive for industry and positive for science.

First, this is how science works. I wished the process could work a little more courteously, but that usually doesn’t happen. I have been in the middle of many scientific debates and I can’t think of one that was handled diplomatically. That’s because scientists — against all stereotypes — can be passionate about their fields.

Second, that we are even having conversations about quantum supremacy for real-world issues and topological qubits and whatever else at this time amazes me. These are conversations that five or six years ago I imagined would be decades in the future. It seems to show the rapid advance of quantum — which is probably why these debates are so necessary and stir such passion.

Now, I would draw the line if any team was intentionally engaging in scientific misconduct. But, I have no evidence that is happening.

So, there is only one topic that I am not contrarian on — wishing you all a great weekend!

— Matt, Chief Content Officer at The Quantum Insider

INSIDER BRIEF.

• Cat Qubits Squeezed

• Not-So-Spooky

• China’s South Africa QKD Connection

• Taming Complexity

• QuamCore Emerges From Stealth

• South Korea Launches Quantum Strategy

• Space-Based Quantum Key Distribution

• IonQ Raises $360 Million

• Infleqtion Secures $6.2Million ARPA-E Award

• Andhra Pradesh Plans ‘Quantum Valley’

• Europe’s First IBM Quantum System Two

• Singapore Invests $24.5 Million

• UKRI and Innovate UK Award Over $15 Million

ANALYST NOTES.

The Noteworthy & Nuanced

Bold claims are not something unusual for quantum news. Earlier this week QuamCore came out of stealth mode with a patent for its planned 1 million qubit superconducting quantum computer. 1 million qubits is an ambitious goal, but not something we haven’t already heard about. The bold part of the claim is that this would all fit into a single cryostat - far smaller than the expected “football field” sized computers that typically come to mind when thinking about scaling superconducting machines.

One-upping the boldness, D-Wave has claimed to have achieved quantum supremacy on a real-world problem. A complex simulation on the quantum annealer took minutes, whereas Frontier (the world's 2nd most powerful supercomputer at the time of writing) would have needed a million years. This strongly resembles Google’s quantum supremacy claim back from 2019 - some time will have to pass for the real value of this achievement to be understood and appreciated.

Back down on Earth (yet not any less exciting), NIST has selected a 5th algorithm for post-quantum encryption. The HQC algorthms will serve as a backup to ML-KEM. The two algorithms are based on different math problems, thus reducing risks if potential vulnerabilities are found. A smooth launch of the new standard is expected in 2027 (that is, unless quantum supremacy goes so far as to break something quantum resistant). — Alan Kanapin, Analyst at The Quantum Insider

The Research Rundown

This week's quantum research highlights how the field continues to balance the pursuit of solutions to fundamental challenges while maintaining pragmatic advances. A quantum many-body scar identification using QCNNs represents an elegant crossover between quantum machine learning and foundational physics—demonstrating how quantum tools may be uniquely suited to solve quantum problems. With 99% accuracy in simulations and even 63% success on noisy IBM hardware, it demonstrates that near-term quantum devices might find their first practical applications in physics research itself. How poetic.

Meanwhile, the MCMC-SPU algorithm for finite-temperature quantum simulations reduces resource requirements for imaginary-time evolution while maintaining fidelity, providing a pathway to quantum advantage in materials science and condensed matter physics.

On the materials front, Osaka Metropolitan University's simplified formulas for quantifying entanglement in electron systems remind us that mathematical innovations are also relevant. Their surprisingly elegant expressions for entanglement entropy reveal unexpected quantum patterns in nanoscale materials. Similarly, the comprehensive review of tensor networks highlights how these mathematical structures provide essential tools for taming quantum complexity across simulation, error correction, and machine learning applications. — Cierra Choucair, Journalist & Analyst at The Quantum Insider

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INSIDER SPOTLIGHT: D-Wave Deep Dive: A Look at The Quantum Advantage Findings — And The Questions That Remain

➡️ D-Wave researchers report that superconducting quantum annealers outperformed leading classical methods in solving certain problems with greater accuracy and efficiency, according to a study published in Science.

➡️ The study suggests that quantum processors can provide practical advantages beyond boson sampling and random circuit sampling, tasks previously cited in quantum advantage claims.

➡️ The researchers tested superconducting quantum processors, comparing their performance on quantum dynamics simulations with tensor network and neural network-based classical simulation techniques.

➡️ However, competing research challenges some of D-Wave’s conclusions, showing that classical techniques such as belief propagation and variational Monte Carlo methods can, in some cases, match or surpass the quantum annealer’s accuracy.

➡️ The findings highlight the evolving competition between quantum and classical computing in solving complex optimization and simulation problems.

Analyst Commentary

D-Wave’s study adds another chapter to the ongoing debate over quantum advantage, demonstrating that quantum annealers can solve certain physics problems more efficiently than classical methods. But as is often the case in quantum computing, the results are not uncontested.

The study’s main contribution is its focus on practical applications. Unlike previous demonstrations of quantum advantage that centered on generating random numbers or abstract benchmarking tasks, this research addresses a computational problem relevant to materials science, condensed matter physics, and artificial intelligence. If quantum annealers can consistently outperform classical methods in simulating complex quantum systems, this could strengthen their case for real-world applications.

But some researchers argue that the conclusions require further scrutiny. Alternative classical methods, such as belief propagation and time-dependent variational Monte Carlo (t-VMC), have been shown to produce comparable or even superior results in some instances. This raises the question: is quantum advantage in this domain an absolute threshold, or is it just a moving target?

There are a few broader takeaways from this study. First, the findings underscore the importance of benchmarking quantum performance against the best available classical methods. Quantum supremacy—once defined as the point where quantum computers definitively outperform classical systems—has become a more fluid concept as classical computing techniques continue to improve. Second, the results suggest that quantum computing’s value proposition will depend not just on hardware improvements but also on finding the right problems where quantum methods provide an undeniable edge.

This leads to a more unconventional perspective. The quantum industry has long been framed as a “horse race” between competing quantum modalities. But the more accurate analogy may be a Triple Crown—a series of different races where quantum companies must prove themselves not just in one-off demonstrations but across a range of applications. And, in an unexpected twist, a once-overlooked competitor—advanced classical computing—is proving to be a formidable challenger in this evolving contest.

DATA SPOTLIGHT.

Microsoft released Majorana 1, the first iteration of their QPU based on topological qubits. Topological qubits are based on Majorana quasiparticles, made by superconducting nanowire devices made of InAs (indium arsenide). The chip has 8 qubits, but by design is intended to house 1,000,000 qubits in the future. Core to the chip architecture are tetrons: next steps from Microsoft involve a 4×2 tetron array which should be equivalent to 2 logical qubits. This low ratio (physical to logical qubits) highlights the superior error correction benefits of topological qubits - for comparison, IBM’s Condor QPU with 1121 physical qubits is equivalent to 12 logical qubits. Fidelities for the QPU have not been disclosed, though from Microsoft’s paper in Nature we know that their assignment error probability in parity measurements is 1%.

INDUSTRY HIGHLIGHTS.

🌊 Fermioniq, QuiX Quantum, and Deltares have formed a partnership to develop quantum-powered hydrodynamic simulation solutions for improved water management, combining their respective expertise in quantum software, photonic quantum hardware, and water research with funding from Dutch government ministries.

🖥️ Quantum Brilliance and Pawsey Supercomputing Research Centre have developed a hybrid workflow that integrates quantum processors with GPU and CPU computing resources, powered by NVIDIA GH200 Grace Hopper Superchips for seamless interaction between virtual and physical quantum systems.

🤝 AIST and ORCA Computing have formed a partnership to advance the industrialization of scalable photonic quantum computing by addressing system engineering challenges and optimizing hardware-software integration for quantum-classical systems.

🌐 Andhra Pradesh is establishing a Quantum Valley in Amaravati, collaborating with IIT Madras, TCS, and IBM to advance quantum computing research while integrating the initiative into its broader DeepTech Research Park to attract global investments and top researchers.

🖥️ QIA researchers have developed QNodeOS, the first operating system for quantum networks that enables programmable applications across diverse hardware platforms without requiring system-specific code.

🧪 Lockheed Martin has secured a Defense Innovation Unit contract to prototype a quantum-enabled Inertial Navigation System that provides precise navigation without GPS in contested environments, partnering with Q-CTRL and AOSense.

💸 Infleqtion has secured $6.2 million in first-ever quantum technology funding from ARPA-E to develop quantum-enhanced solutions for optimizing energy grids, collaborating with Argonne National Laboratory, EPRI, and NREL to integrate quantum computing into power systems for improved efficiency and reduced operational costs.

💸 South Korea has launched a ₩1 trillion Science and Technology Innovation Fund that includes ₩20 billion annually for quantum startups and plans to train 2,500 quantum researchers, though industry experts criticize the investment as insufficient compared to global competitors like the U.S., China, and the U.K.

🖥️ The Basque Government and IBM will install Europe's first IBM Quantum System Two in San Sebastian by the end of 2025, featuring IBM's Heron processor to enable utility-scale quantum computing while developing educational programs.

💸 Singapore launched the $24.5 million HQCC 1.0 initiative to integrate quantum computing with HPC and AI while establishing industry partnerships with AMD and CSC Finland and introducing talent development programs for researchers, as part of a broader infrastructure expansion.

EVENTS.

March 20 -- NVIDIA's GTC 2025 featuring the inaugural Quantum Day event.

March 25-27 -- Quantum Australia Conference will be held in Brisbane. The conference will explore the theme The Translation of Quantum – how current and future industries can leverage the power of quantum.

March 31-April 1 -- Qubits 2025, D-Wave’s annual user conference is themed “Quantum Realized” and will spotlight customer success stories, technical roadmap updates, scientific achievements, and advancements in quantum AI. The event takes place at the Phoenician Resort in Scottsdale, Arizona.

April 2-4 -- NQCC’s Scalability in Quantum Computing Conference from 2nd-4th April 2025 in Oxford, UK.

April 14 -- The 2025 Global Industry Challenge officially launches on World Quantum Day, bringing together innovators, researchers, and industry leaders to tackle real-world problems in life sciences, financial services, energy, and beyond

April 14-16 -- QuantumTech Washington D.C. April 15-16 - Main Conference and Expo. April 14 - Cryptography Spotlight Day. Conrad Hotel, Washington D.C.

May 14-15 -- Q2B Tokyo 2025

May 20-22 -- Join us for the 3rd annual IQT Nordics, May 20-22, 2025 in Gothenburg, Sweden, and contribute to scaling quantum computers towards real world applications.

June 9-12 -- Adiabatic Quantum Computing (AQC) 2025 Conference will be held at the campus of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada from June 9-12, 2025. The AQC conference series, now in its 14th year, is an annual international gathering of researchers working on diverse aspects of quantum computing. 

June 18-19 -- Quantum Now|ICI Quantique will be held in Montréal, Québec, Canada.

October 8 -- The Fifth Anniversary of The City Quantum & AI Summit at the Mansion House in the City of London takes place this year with the subtitle Race for Growth.

Dec. 1-4 -- QUEST-IS 2025 Quantum Engineering Sciences and Technologies for Industry and Services From Quantum Engineering to Applications for Citizens. EDF Lab, Paris-Saclay, France