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  • 🔵 The Quantum Insider Weekly | China's Quantum Curtain. Rare Earth Concerns. And More News in Quantum.

🔵 The Quantum Insider Weekly | China's Quantum Curtain. Rare Earth Concerns. And More News in Quantum.

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FROM THE EDITOR.

Welcome to the Insider Weekly. Quantum, as always, is rapidly evolving. This week’s news is a good example of that.

In China, as we go into more detail below, a new superconducting quantum system based on the “Zuchongzhi 3.0” architecture has been opened for commercial use, marking a step from prototype toward service. The machine—one of the nation’s if not THE nation’s most advanced device — is now accessible through the “Tianyan” quantum cloud platform, supporting remote users and reinforcing China’s push to convert quantum research into operational offerings.

China was in the news a lot this week. There’s been a back and forth about China’s rare-earth exports. We looked into this in depth — and, depending on how this goes in the weeks and months ahead — quantum could certainly be impacted.

In Europe, Swiss Quantum Technology SA has signed a €10 million agreement with D-Wave to deploy an Advantage2 annealing system on the continent.

Finally, we want to congratulate LuxQuanta for their Series A~

We hope these stories help you stay informed about where the quantum frontier is heading — not just in the lab, but into the hands of users.

Have a great weekend!

— Matt, Chief Content Officer at The Quantum Insider

INSIDER BRIEF.

ANALYST NOTES.

The Noteworthy & Nuanced

Europe is seeing all sorts of quantum action this week. For starters, IonQ and D-Wave have become founding members of Q-Alliance, a new quantum initiative in Lombardy backed by the Italian government. This alliance aims to accelerate quantum research, industrial applications, and workforce development through collaboration among universities, research centers, and private industry.

Supporting the Q-Alliance initiative, D-Wave has partnered with Swiss Quantum Technology SA (SQT)  in a €10M deal. This involves deploying an Advantage2 annealing quantum computer with 4,400+ qubits. Customers will be able to access the system through Leap, D-Wave’s cloud, and the deal includes the option for SQT to buy the machine.

While trapped ions and annealing were the spotlight in Italy, the superconducting modality made a splash in Spain. The Basque Government and IBM have unveiled Europe’s first IBM Quantum System Two at the IBM-Euskadi Quantum Computational Center in San Sebastián, powered by a 156-qubit Heron processor. As part of the BasQ initiative, the system supports the IKUR 2030 strategy to advance research in energy, biomedicine, materials, and AI. — 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 that classical methods struggle with. These are early developments, but they hint at where quantum might earn its keep.

Want more research insights? Get them delivered straight to your inbox Monday, Wednesday, and Friday with The Daily Qubit. Subscribe below or use the link to update preferences at the end of this email. 👇️

The Quantum World Tour, launched by ITU and The Quantum Insider, will host its third episode on October 24, 2025, spotlighting Australia’s rapidly advancing quantum ecosystem.

The 90-minute online session will explore how Australia is turning its national quantum strategy into progress across research, commercialization, and workforce development. Speakers and panels will feature leaders from Quantum Australia, academia, startups, and government, highlighting the nation’s strategy, science, and scale in driving global quantum leadership.

➡️ China has placed its superconducting quantum computer into commercial operation, marking a rare public step in the country’s quiet race to industrialize quantum computing.
➡️ The system, based on the “Zuchongzhi 3.0” processor from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), is operated by China Telecom Quantum Group and QuantumCTek Co. Ltd. in Hefei — the country’s quantum hub.
➡️ The computer’s 105 readable qubits and 182 couplers reportedly complete benchmark tasks a quadrillion times faster than the world’s fastest classical supercomputer.
➡️ Commercial access through the “Tianyan” quantum cloud platform allows researchers and enterprises worldwide to test algorithms and applications remotely.
➡️ The deployment reflects Beijing’s drive to convert state-funded research into usable infrastructure, even as China’s broader tech sector remains under tight regulatory control.

Analyst Commentary

Deng Xiaoping’s maxim “hide your strength, bide your time” has long guided China’s strategic approach — emphasizing patience and controlled disclosure. It still shapes the nation’s handling of sensitive technologies such as quantum computing.

China’s quantum program has seemingly followed that dictate — visible mainly through research papers and state-run news. In this week’s announcement about the commercialization opportunities of the Zuchongzhi 3.0 system, we’re provided one of the first slightly opened windows into how the country is moving quantum research out of university labs and into operational platforms.

For review, several large Chinese tech firms — including Baidu and Alibaba — previously announced ambitious quantum computing programs before quietly scaling them back or exiting amid regulatory crackdowns. Against that backdrop, this deployment by China Telecom Quantum Group (CTQG) and QuantumCTek represents a shift: a return — partial or complete, we don’t know — toward state-backed commercialization where academic research is directly linked to industrial capacity.

The Zuchongzhi 3.0 chip was developed by USTC physicists Pan Jianwei, Zhu Xiaobo, and Peng Chengzhi, continuing a line of superconducting quantum processors that have steadily increased in qubit count and performance. Earlier this year, the team demonstrated stable operation across 105 qubits — surpassing previous Chinese records and approaching the scale of contemporary Western systems.

The commercial system built on that chip now connects to the Tianyan quantum cloud, which aggregates multiple superconducting computers into an 880-qubit cluster. According to The China Daily, Tianyan has attracted users from 60 countries, with more than 2 million experiments conducted since its launch in 2023.

Such open access mirrors global trends led by IBM, Google, and Rigetti — offering cloud interfaces that let developers run quantum experiments without maintaining cryogenic hardware.

A Glimpse Behind The Quantum Curtain

The Zuchongzhi 3.0 system’s claimed performance — completing quantum random circuit sampling tasks a quadrillion times faster than a classical supercomputer — remains difficult to independently verify. The benchmark, widely used to demonstrate “quantum advantage,” primarily tests speed rather than practical utility. But the symbolism is significant: it indicates China’s determination to compete at the same experimental frontier as the U.S.

Officials describe the new platform as a “crucial step” toward practical quantum applications in encryption, materials simulation, and artificial intelligence. Obviously, those are critical use cases that have national security and defense implications. If sustained, it could seed a domestic market for quantum cloud services — one integrated with government priorities such as secure communications and computing sovereignty.

The move also demonstrates that even amid political and commercial uncertainty, China’s state-linked research apparatus continues to deliver operational technology. While Western observers often focus on private-sector champions like IBM or Google, China’s model fuses public institutions and telecom infrastructure to accelerate scaling.

Hefei’s Quantum Ecosystem

Another aspect of China’s quantum ecosystem revealed in this short, but revealing announcement is the importance of Hefei. The city — and capital of Anhui Province — has emerged as the geographic heart of China’s quantum effort. It’s home to USTC’s national laboratories, startups and now CTQG’s data center. The region shows how the country’s vertically integrated model works: academic discovery, state investment and commercial deployment occurring within one urban innovation corridor.

In Hefei, the strategy emphasizes centralized coordination — what might be described as “directed commercialization.” It allows China to align its academic, industrial and security interests under a single policy umbrella. This structure is in contrast to Western market models that rely on corporate competition and venture funding.

Is opening beefier quantum computers up to commercial concerns a middle path to brining business innovation into the equation for China? That’s an open question.

Whatever the case, because China’s quantum activities are rarely disclosed in detail, this commercial deployment does offer a rare data point. It suggests that the nation’s quantum ambitions have entered a pragmatic phase — less about global headlines and more about building controllable, revenue-generating systems.

For international observers, it’s a reminder that the race to quantum utility is not confined to Western companies or open research collaborations. Behind closed doors, state-directed innovation can still move quickly when research, regulation, and infrastructure are aligned.

Quantum technology in China remains difficult to read — but each new revelation like this announcement brings the picture into slightly sharper focus.

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.

💸 JPMorganChase launched a 10-year, $1.5 trillion Security and Resiliency Initiative to finance and invest in industries critical to U.S. economic and national security, including supply chain, defense, energy, and frontier technologies like AI, cybersecurity, and quantum computing.

🤖 SiC Systems, a spinout from the Technical University of Denmark, launched with funding from QDNL Participations, Propagator Ventures, Plug and Play, and Wavepeak Ventures to develop a multiagent AI platform that combines process modeling, generative AI, and quantum-enhanced computing for real-time decision-making in complex physical systems.

⚡️ Saudi Aramco announced Dammam 7Q, one of the Middle East’s largest quantum computing emulators, built on its Dammam 7 supercomputer and powered by NVIDIA’s CUDA-Q platform. The system can simulate up to 30 qubits per GPU, enabling researchers to test hybrid quantum algorithms for seismic imaging and energy exploration.

☎️ Telstra and Silicon Quantum Computing demonstrated how quantum machine learning can enhance telecom analytics, using SQC’s Watermelon quantum reservoir to predict network performance as accurately as Telstra’s deep learning models, but with faster training and lower hardware costs.

📚️ Qilimanjaro Quantum Tech and QURECA Ltd have partnered to advance quantum education and workforce development by combining Qilimanjaro’s expertise with QURECA’s global training and certification programs. The collaboration will deliver workshops and hands-on learning through Qilimanjaro’s SpeQtrum QaaS platform.

🇪🇸 The Basque Government and IBM have unveiled Europe’s first IBM Quantum System Two at the IBM-Euskadi Quantum Computational Center in San Sebastián. As part of the BasQ initiative, the system supports the Basque Country’s IKUR 2030 strategy in energy, biomedicine, materials, and AI.

💰️ Isentroniq has raised €7.5 million in a pre-seed round led by Heartcore Capital to address quantum computing’s cryogenic wiring bottleneck. The funding will support team expansion, advanced testing infrastructure, and development of a cryo-interconnect product.

🗾 RIKEN and SoftBank have selected 21 organizations and research teams (including Toyota, Mitsubishi Chemical, and Kyoto University) for Japan’s JHPC-quantum test-user program, which links quantum computers with the Fugaku supercomputer.

💶 LuxQuanta has raised €8 million in Series A funding led by Big Sur Ventures and A&G to accelerate global expansion and production of its Continuous-Variable Quantum Key Distribution (CV-QKD) technology for quantum-safe communications.

💵 D-Wave Quantum Inc. has signed a €10 million deal with Swiss Quantum Technology SA to deploy its 4,400+ qubit Advantage2 annealing quantum computer in Europe to support Italy’s Q-Alliance initiative.

🪙 BTQ Technologies has demonstrated the first quantum-resistant Bitcoin implementation, replacing traditional ECDSA signatures with NIST-standardized ML-DSA to defend against future quantum attacks that could compromise Bitcoin’s $2.4 trillion market.

👩‍💻 Aqora will power the Bradford Quantum Hackathon 2025, hosted by Quantinuum and the University of Bradford, uniting participants to develop quantum-enabled solutions for global challenges aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The event offers £25,000 in prizes.

🇮🇹 IonQ and D-Wave have joined as founding members of Q-Alliance, a government-backed initiative in Lombardy aimed at establishing Italy as a leading global quantum hub. The alliance will combine D-Wave’s annealing and IonQ’s trapped-ion technologies to advance research, industrial adoption, and workforce development.

EVENTS.

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. 3-4 -- Chicago Quantum Summit will bring together global leaders in quantum science and engineering, hosted by the Chicago Quantum Exchange

Nov. 4-5 -- QED-C Annual Meeting will gather global quantum leaders to discuss industry challenges, encourage collaboration, and shape strategies.

Nov. 6 -- Quantum computing with atomic qubit arrays with Mark Saffman - University of Wisconsin and Infleqtion.

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

Nov. 12-14 -- Quantum Machines, the leading provider of advanced hybrid quantum-classical control solutions, will host AQC25, the second Adaptive Quantum Circuits Conference.

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.

Dec. 3-5 -- Quantum Education Summit 2025 will advance accessible, inclusive quantum education through keynotes, workshops, and a collaborative white paper on workforce development and policy alignment.

Dec. 9-11 -- Q2B 2025 Silicon Valley Q2B is back for the eighth year in a row, connecting the international quantum community computing ecosystems. The event will feature top academics, industry end users, government representatives and quantum computing vendors from all over the world.

Dec. 17-18 -- Science Diplomacy - Bridging divides in a fragmented world will be held in Copenhagen, Denmark. The conference explores how science diplomacy can bridge divides and promote innovation, competitiveness, and international cooperation.

January 27 and 28, 2026 -- Qubits 2026 D-Wave is bringing its annual user conference, Qubits, to Boca Raton, Florida. The event will be held at The Boca Raton resort.

April 27-30 -- The Quantum Matter International Conference & Expo (QUANTUMatter2026) will take place at the Barceló Sants Hotel in Barcelona. The conference to foster the incubation of new ideas & collaborations at the forefront of quantum technologies, emerging quantum materials and novel generations of quantum communication protocols, quantum sensing and quantum simulation.