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FROM THE EDITOR.

There were a lot of headlines in quantum this week. Arguably one of the most interesting is Classiq’s SoftBank–CDP investment. We will discuss more in detail, but Softbank’s investment builds on its Series C. We can also argue that it signals rising confidence in enterprise-scale quantum software development.

Slightly off-topic. I’m a little bit of a weirdo. I like reading earnings reports and diving into those earnings calls. Reading the transcripts actually. Like I said, a little weird. However, in quantum, a little weirdness can come in handy because mentions of quantum are often buried deep in these reports and statements. This week, buried within Microsoft’s earning transcript, there was a small statement — no more than a few sentence — with big impact for quantum Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella predicted quantum would be the next accelerator for cloud technology. Microsoft has shown an aptitude for picking the “next big thing” in technology. If the company is right about quantum, it is a huge vote of confidence in this emerging industry.

To be completely transparent, in this case, I was pointed to the story by a few mainstream finance reporters — likely weirdos — who picked up on this juicy tidbit.

Have a great weekend!

— Matt, Chief Content Officer at The Quantum Insider

INSIDER BRIEF.

• Right On The Quantum Dot

• Corporate Lessons For Science Startups

• New State of Quantum Matter?

• Quantum Spaceplane

• Karnataka's Quantum Plan

• The Price of Ignoring Quantum

• French Quantum Update For July

• IonQ's Research Partnership

• Quantum Art

• Patented Cool Tech

ANALYST NOTES.

The Noteworthy & Nuanced

Fujitsu is building a superconducting quantum computer with over 10,000 physical and 250 logical qubits by fiscal 2030. The star of the plan is Fujitsu’s STAR architecture for early fault-tolerant computing. Backed by Japan’s NEDO post-5G initiative through 2027, Fujitsu also plans to integrate superconducting and diamond spin qubits by 2035 to achieve a 1,000 logical qubit system and drive industrial quantum readiness.

At the Quantum India Bengaluru 2025 summit, CM Siddaramaiah unveiled Karnataka’s ₹1,000 crore plan to make the state Asia’s top quantum tech hub. The five-pillar strategy includes talent building, a 1,000-qubit goal, a Quantum Hardware Park, venture funding, and global partnerships. With backing from India’s National Quantum Mission, Karnataka aims to deliver quantum-driven solutions in defense, healthcare, and governance, fueling a $20B quantum economy by 2035.

Quantum Art reached a key milestone in scalable quantum computing with the creation of a 200-ion linear chain in a trapped-ion system. Using advanced cryogenic and trap-chip technologies, the team overcame common zig-zag instabilities. This achievement supports their path to a modular, optically segmented 1,000-qubit architecture by 2027. — Alan Kanapin, Analyst at The Quantum Insider

The Research Rundown

Check out this week’s handpicked quantum research. These are studies headed for real-world impact: improving accuracy, reducing latency, using fewer resources, or solving problems classical methods struggle with. These are early developments, but they hint at where quantum might earn its keep.

• IBM researchers used a quantum machine learning method called projected quantum kernel (PQK) to improve predictions of CAR T-cell effectiveness and identify high- vs. low-cytotoxic designs. The quantum approach captured nonlinear patterns in sparse, high-dimensional data that classical methods often miss, which may optimize cancer immunotherapy design.

• Researchers Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham and King Abdulaziz University developed QKDTI, a quantum kernel-based machine learning framework that improves drug-target interaction prediction. QKDTI outperforms classical and other quantum models across diverse datasets, achieving up to 99.99% accuracy.

• Researchers from NYU Abu Dhabi, University of Melbourne, IIT Bombay, and others introduced a hybrid quantum-classical federated learning system for financial fraud detection. This method improved anomaly detection by about 5% over classical models and improved resilience against attacks.
  
  — Cierra Choucair, Journalist & Analyst at The Quantum Insider

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INSIDER SPOTLIGHT: SoftBank Vision Fund 2 Makes Strategic Investment in Classiq, Expanding Series C

➡️ Classiq has expanded its Series C round with new investments from SoftBank Vision Fund 2 and CDP Venture Capital, bringing total funding to $173 million — the most for any quantum software company to date.
➡️ The company’s platform offers high-level quantum program design and circuit compilation across all major hardware, targeting enterprise and research users alike.
➡️ This latest backing underscores confidence in Classiq’s position as the operating system layer for quantum computing, bridging the gap between abstract models and real devices.
➡️ SoftBank’s technical due diligence and CDP’s strategic support reflect growing international interest in quantum software as the foundation for commercial readiness.

Analyst Commentary

Let’s face it, quantum hardware has always drawn the spotlight — but it’s the software stack that will play a critical role in determining the winner — or winners — of the platform game. With this week’s announcement, Classiq has made its case to be that layer: we can think of it as the Rosetta stone between end users and future quantum machines, between that awesome quantum computational potential and the vast possibilities of real world solutions.

The extended Series C round, now backed by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 and Italy’s CDP Venture Capital, adds both capital and credibility. It’s a signal that deep-pocketed investors aren’t just betting on the quantum dream — they’re scrutinizing technical fundamentals and asking whether a platform can scale with the industry. According to SoftBank, Classiq passed that test.

If you’ve followed Classiq, this new capital isn’t a pivot, it’s a continuation. In May, the company closed its $110 million Series C, already the largest for any quantum software startup. The new additions bring its war chest to $173 million and deepen its positioning as the abstraction layer atop cloud-based quantum hardware. Microsoft, AWS, IBM, IonQ, and Quantinuum are all part of the integration map.

So what does Classiq actually do? In short: it lets enterprise teams and scientists describe what they want a quantum computer to compute, without having to handcraft the circuits from scratch. Its platform takes those high-level models and automatically compiles them into low-level instructions, tailored for different hardware targets. That’s not trivial. It’s what separates toy demos from scalable workflows.

There’s also a strategic element here. Quantum hardware may remain fragmented for years. Classiq’s value is in offering developers a way to future-proof their code, to write once, target many. That makes the platform especially attractive for governments and large enterprises trying to avoid vendor lock-in while hedging bets across modalities.

The funding timing is notable. While quantum VC has cooled in some segments, Classiq’s raise suggests that investors still see software as a near-term lever for value. And not just in one country. CDP’s investment reflects national-level thinking, aligning with Europe’s digital sovereignty agenda. Meanwhile, SoftBank’s entry could hint at broader ambitions for quantum-AI synergies or ecosystem orchestration across its portfolio.

Importantly, the company isn’t claiming commercial quantum advantage today. Instead, it’s positioning itself as the scaffolding others will build on — the IDE, compiler, and backend abstraction all in one. The vision is bold but not ungrounded: become the Microsoft of quantum, not by emulating Windows, but by being the environment where useful applications get built.

In a field still rich with uncertainty, that’s a bet on tooling and timing. Classiq is wagering that when quantum moves from lab to industry, developers won’t want to touch gates. They’ll want software that handles the complexity for them. That might be the real competitive edge.

DATA SPOTLIGHT.

PacketLight Networks and NEC demonstrated quantum key distribution over a 400G dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) network using a dual-fiber setup. They integrated NEC’s QKD system with PacketLight’s PL-4000M 600G Muxponder, achieving 100% data throughput and low latency, verified via a 100GbE tester. The QKD ran over a dedicated parallel fiber, maintaining quantum signal integrity. The result: a cost-effective, scalable quantum-safe model with zero performance tradeoffs on existing high-capacity infrastructure.

INDUSTRY HIGHLIGHTS.

🪖 A new report from New America warns that quantum computing is affecting military deception by both exposing and enhancing the concealment of operations. As quantum decryption threatens secure communications, quantum-secure encryption and its intersection with AI could redefine how militaries mislead or detect each other in future warfare.

📻️ Patero and Eridan have integrated post-quantum cryptography into Eridan’s ultra-low-power 5G radios, enabling secure, energy-efficient private networks for critical infrastructure.

🌵 Quantinuum is establishing a quantum R&D hub in Albuquerque focused on photonics control for its trapped-ion systems, making this its first physical presence in New Mexico and expanding its U.S. operations beyond Colorado.

🖥️ Fujitsu plans to build a superconducting quantum computer with over 10,000 physical qubits and 250 logical qubits by fiscal 2030, using its STAR architecture to enable early fault-tolerant quantum computing.

🇮🇳 At Quantum India Bengaluru 2025, Karnataka unveiled a ₹1,000 crore plan to become Asia’s leading quantum hub, with the intention to build a $20 billion quantum economy by 2035.

💰️ Japan will invest approximately approximately $335 million USD to jumpstart the industrialization of its quantum tech sector, supporting over 10 companies—including Fujitsu, KDDI, and startups like OptQC and Jij—across hardware, software, and operating systems.

⛓️ Quantum Art has successfully demonstrated a stable 200-ion linear chain in a trapped-ion system. This achievement validates their trap-chip engineering and cryogenic control approach.

💰️ Classiq has expanded its Series C round with new investments from SoftBank Vision Fund 2 and CDP Venture Capital to accelerate enterprise-scale quantum software development.

🧊 Zero Point Cryogenics has patented a new cryogenic system, the Phase Separation Refrigerator, that enables continuous cooling to 500 millikelvin without large volumes of costly helium-3. g

💡 PacketLight Networks and NEC successfully demonstrated quantum key distribution over a 400G DWDM network using dual fiber links, achieving full data throughput and low latency.

🚀 Keysight Technologies has delivered the world’s largest commercial quantum control system to Japan’s AIST G-QuAT center, enabling precise control of over 1,000 qubits.

🥼 Xanadu and HyperLight have demonstrated ultra-low-loss thin-film lithium niobate photonic chips, achieving some of the lowest waveguide and switch losses ever reported for quantum computing.

🌍️ QAI Ventures has launched its 2025 Global Hackathon Series, to be held across Calgary, Geneva, and Singapore to prototype QuantumAI solutions for the UN SDGs in energy, life sciences, and finance.

🚀 The U.S. Space Force’s upcoming X-37B Mission 8 will test the most advanced quantum inertial sensor ever flown in space, enabling precise navigation without GPS by measuring atomic motion. This demonstration supports navigation in GPS-denied and cislunar environments.

🔉 In the first episode of The Quantum Economy Podcast, SEEQC CEO John Levy discusses the technical and commercial hurdles in scaling superconducting quantum chips, and introduces the idea of “quantum natives,” a generation shaped by probabilistic thinking.

EVENTS.

Aug. 31– Sept. 5 -- IEEE Quantum Week 2025 will be held in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Sept. 16-18 -- Quantum World Congress 2025 will be held at Capital One Hall in Greater Washington. The event is a chance for the world’s quantum ecosystem to come together and bring a quantum-ready future into focus.

Sept. 24-25 -- Q2B25 Paris at Cité des Sciences et de l’Industrie, Paris, France.

Sept. 29-Oct. 1 -- Quantum.Tech Europe is taking place in Rotterdam, Netherlands. The event will bring together the whole quantum supply chain to drive forward the commercial applications of Quantum Technologies.

Oct. 6-10 -- 8th International Conference for Young Quantum Information Scientists (YQIS25) will take place in Barcelona, Spain. YQIS is a conference series organized by and for PhD students and early-career researchers working across the broad field of quantum information.

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

Oct. 8 -- The Quantum Insider, in partnership with the Business Development Board of Palm Beach County and Quantum Coast Capital, will host Quantum Beach 2025, an officially recognized event of the International Year of Quantum (IYQ2025). Register here.

Oct. 13-17 -- Quantum Reference Frames 2025 will bring together leading experts on quantum reference frames and the many related subjects in the first focused event in the new era of quantum frame covariance. QRF 2025 is co-funded by the Quantum Information Structure of Spacetime consortium.

Oct. 19-21 -- Q+AI will be held in New York City. This event will uncover the coming wave of Quantum + AI, include 50+ speakers, daily mentoring sessions and 16 sessions, one continuous track.

Nov. 10-12 -- European Quantum Technologies Conference 2025 will be held at Øksnehallen, Copenhagen, Denmark.

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.