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First some congratulations to ColibriTD. The team reported it has raised a €4 million seed round.

The company said the funding will support research and development, as well as the hiring of quantum researchers and engineers. ColibriTD also plans to expand its partnerships with hardware companies, academic institutions and industry groups.

The round is another sign that investors remain willing to back companies developing practical software for quantum and hybrid computing.

Private funding is only one part of the picture. Public monies are still backing quantum, too.

This week, the U.S. National Science Foundation this week awarded more than $290 million to eight Quantum Leap Challenge Institutes working across quantum computing, sensing, networking and simulation.

Each institute will receive roughly $28 million to $37 million over five years. The research will cover fault-tolerant computing, quantum error correction and other technologies needed to make quantum systems more useful and reliable.

The program also brings together researchers from 36 higher-education institutions across 19 states, federal agencies and more than 30 companies.

This continues to be a global effort. Japan, for example, offered a reminder that national quantum plans ultimately have to produce operating systems.

Japan’s Institute for Molecular Science reported that it has begun operating Shunkai, the country’s first full-stack neutral-atom quantum computer. The system initially has about 50 qubits and was developed with Hitachi and Infleqtion.

Shunkai is expected to scale to about 500 qubits before eventually reaching 10,000 physical qubits with error-correction capabilities by March 2031. Those targets remain ambitious, but the project has so far made steady progress in line with its development timeline.

Have a great weekend, and thanks for reading!

— Krista Elliott, Narrative Content Strategist at The Quantum Insider

Check out this week’s handpicked quantum research studies and news focusing on real-world impact: improving accuracy, reducing latency, using fewer resources, or solving problems that classical methods struggle with.

Quantum Headlines.

The very last item on my list this week is actually the one that piqued my interest the most. A Finish game studio, MiTale, is exploring with simulations how quantum computing could help with foundational work like story dynamics, environment generation, and selected visual effects. The idea is to “enhance player-centered design practices to provide truly unique experiences in each gameplay session.” The game’s website goes on to say, “In collaboration with experts from IBM Quantum Computing, we aim to utilize quantum computer in building the the world and narrative that the player inhabits according to the quirks of a malfunctioning AI, making every gameplay unique! This is the first commercial game on the market utilizing quantum computing into an immersive narrative experience.”

I started off playing an Atari 6400 way back in the ‘80s. My eldest is hoping to go into game development as a career. And it’s incredibly cool to think about how quantum technology is going to push gaming even further into the immersive art form it’s become.

— Krista Elliott, Narrative Content Strategist at The Quantum Insider

China has named quantum technology as a priority frontier field in a new 2026-2030 plan aimed at strengthening the country’s cybersecurity and information technology industries. The plan also targets advances in high-end chips, software, AI, cybersecurity, blockchain, brain-computer interfaces and other strategic technologies. The document does not specify quantum-related funding, technical milestones or which areas of quantum computing, communications or sensing will receive priority.

The U.S. Treasury launched a Quantum-Readiness Task Force to coordinate the financial sector’s transition to post-quantum cryptography and prepare for future quantum-related cybersecurity risks. The public-private initiative will focus on sector-wide PQC transition, third-party and vendor readiness, and risks involving digital assets and emerging technologies. The task force will bring together government, financial institutions, market infrastructure operators and technology providers to address critical dependencies, cryptographic agility, interoperability and operational resilience.

The Quantum Datacenter Alliance will hold its second international forum Oct. 1 in London, bringing quantum and data center leaders together to address the challenges of building utility-scale distributed quantum computers. The forum will focus on system-level issues including quantum processors, networking, error correction, interoperability, middleware, software, algorithms and integration with classical computing infrastructure. Speakers will include executives and technical leaders from Atom Computing, QuEra, NVIDIA, IBM, Q-CTRL, Nu Quantum, Quantinuum and other organizations across the quantum computing ecosystem.

Sweden has launched its first national quantum technology strategy, setting goals through 2036 for research, industry, talent, security and international cooperation. The plan highlights Sweden’s strengths in quantum computing while calling for better coordination, more skilled workers and improved financing for quantum startups and commercialization. The strategy also urges early adoption of quantum-safe cybersecurity measures, including post-quantum cryptography, to address future threats to current encryption.

➡️ Japan’s Institute for Molecular Science has begun operating Shunkai, the country’s first full-stack neutral-atom quantum computer, initially using about 50 qubits with plans to scale the system to roughly 500.

➡️ Shunkai integrates the hardware and software needed to turn user instructions into quantum operations, making it a research platform rather than only an experimental quantum processor.

➡️ Developed with Hitachi and U.S.-based Infleqtion through Japan’s Moonshot R&D Program, the system uses lasers to trap, arrange and control individual neutral atoms that serve as qubits.

➡️ Researchers plan to open parts of the platform to outside users working on applications and quantum error correction, potentially connecting hardware development with Japan’s software, research and industrial communities.

➡️ The project has set a target of 10,000 physical qubits with error-detection and correction capabilities by March 2031, although reaching that scale will require substantial improvements in control, reliability and system integration.

➡️ Shunkai exemplifies Japan’s broader quantum strategy, which combines targeted research, industry-academic collaboration, international partnerships, shared research hubs and support for commercialization.

Commentary:

Japan now has another tangible piece of its national quantum strategy in place.

The Institute for Molecular Science announced this week that Shunkai, Japan’s first full-stack neutral-atom quantum computer, is operational. The system will initially use about 50 qubits, with plans to increase that number to roughly 500 and eventually pursue a much more ambitious target of 10,000 physical qubits by March 2031.

As usual, the qubit numbers will probably receive most of the attention, but the more important part of the description should be “full stack.”

A quantum processor is only one part of a working computer. Users also need software that translates a problem into instructions, control systems that deliver those instructions to the hardware and measurement tools that turn the results into useful information. Shunkai brings these layers together in an operating system that researchers can actually use and improve.

Here’s a quick overview over how these machines work. The computer uses neutral atoms as qubits with lasers — known as optical tweezers — capture and arrange individual atoms. Additional laser or microwave signals control their quantum states. Researchers then read the results by observing light emitted by the atoms.

Neutral-atom systems have attracted interest partly because atoms are naturally identical, can hold quantum information for relatively long periods and may be rearranged during a computation. They also do not require the large dilution refrigerators used by superconducting quantum computers, although they still depend on sophisticated lasers, vacuum equipment and control systems.

As for background, Shunkai was developed under Japan’s Moonshot R&D Program by a team led by Professor Kenji Ohmori. The Institute for Molecular Science led the work, Hitachi contributed to the software stack and U.S.-based Infleqtion worked on the quantum-processing hardware.

That collection of highly regarded participants offers a compact illustration of Japan’s national approach.

Japan’s quantum strategy identifies technology development, international collaboration, industrialization, intellectual property and standards, and workforce development as five major pillars. It also calls for priority investment in areas such as gate-based quantum computers, quantum software, sensing, communications and artificial intelligence, supported by quantum innovation hubs connecting research and industry.

Shunkai touches several of those goals at once. It combines public research funding with university and corporate expertise. It brings a Japanese technology company into the software effort while drawing on an international hardware partner. Plans to give outside researchers access could also help develop applications, error-correction methods and people with experience using an actual neutral-atom system.

What’s worthy of spotlighting here is that, because national quantum plans can easily become lists of funding commitments, research goals and distant targets… and not much else. What we are seeing is aspirations that have turned into operations. These national plans are beginning to produce something that researchers and companies can use, in other words.

There are still reasons for caution. Moving from approximately 50 qubits to 10,000 is not a routine expansion. The project must maintain precise control over larger atomic arrays, improve the quality of quantum operations and demonstrate error detection and correction. Physical qubit count also says little by itself about the system’s ability to solve useful problems.

The project’s external-access plans may therefore be as important as its 2031 target. Allowing software researchers, theorists and companies to work with Shunkai could expose technical weaknesses, encourage new applications and create demand for supporting technologies.

Japan’s strategy is not simply to build one large quantum computer. It is to create the research, industrial and international connections needed to turn quantum technology into a working sector.

To make sure we don’t overhype this progress, Shunkai does not prove that Japan has completed that transition. But it does show that another part of the plan has moved from a policy document into an operating laboratory.

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.

August 31-September 4 -- EQAI 2026: European Summer School on Quantum AI will take place in Lignano Sabbiadoro, Italy.

September 7-8 -- Nordic Chip Summit 2026 will take place at Dipoli in Espoo, Finland.

September 10 -- Quantum Security Awareness (Electricity Edition): Quantum-Safe Grid Operations will take place virtually.      

September 9-10 -- Rice Quantum Frontiers Summit will take place at Rice University in Houston, Texas.

September 9-10 -- Q2B Copenhagen 2026 will take place in Copenhagen, Denmark.

September 15 – Quantum Leap Career Nexus 2026 will take place at the University of Maryland. 

September 23-25 -- Quantum World Congress 2026 will take place at The Hotel at the University of Maryland in College Park, Maryland. 

October 1 -- Quantum in Business (QiB) Conference will take place at The Westin Chattanooga in Tennessee and will be hosted by EPB Quantum. 

October 7 -- City Quantum & AI Summit will take place at Mansion House in London.

October 20-22 -- NVIDIA GTC Berlin 2026 will take place in Berlin, Germany.

November 17-18 -- World Quantum Cannes Festival will take place at the Palais des Festivals in Cannes, France.

Editor: Matt Swayne

Contributors: Krista Elliott