May 2025

Insider Brief: Heriot-Watt University has opened the UK’s first optical ground station for quantum key distribution, enabling secure satellite-to-ground communication using single photons. The facility, HOGS, integrates with Heriot-Watt’s fiber network and will support research in quantum communications, space debris tracking, and high-speed optical links, offering industry access for testing Read more…

Insider Brief: Norma signed an MOU with UAE-based Al Fardan Ventures to establish a quantum computing R&D center in the Middle East, aiming to support regional demand in AI, cloud, data centers, and quantum technologies. The partnership reflects a joint strategy to drive innovation, economic growth, and talent development across Read more…

Insider Brief IonQ has demonstrated two new hybrid quantum-classical methods that enhance large language models and generate synthetic materials data, signaling progress in practical AI applications using quantum computing. In one study, IonQ integrated quantum circuits into a large language model, achieving higher classification accuracy and projected energy savings compared Read more…

Insider Brief The Quantinuum team reports in a blog post that matching strength-to-strength-to-strength of quantum computing, supercomputing and generative artificial intelligence could lead to new discoveries. The company explains that its Generative Quantum Eigensolver (GQE) uses quantum-generated data to train an AI that proposes better quantum circuits in a feedback Read more…

Insider Brief A new QED-C report finds that combining quantum computing and artificial intelligence could unlock novel applications and significantly accelerate progress in both fields. The study identifies four key areas where QC and AI can assist each other, including accelerating circuit design and error correction, enabling new hybrid algorithms, Read more…

Insider Brief The House Science Committee will hold a hearing on May 7 to assess how the National Quantum Initiative is advancing U.S. leadership in quantum technology. Witnesses from Google, Microsoft, PsiQuantum, and QED-C will testify on topics including commercialization, workforce development, and public-private collaboration. The hearing follows a proposed Read more…

Insider Brief A USC-led study has demonstrated quantum advantage in approximate optimization, showing that a quantum annealer outperforms the best-known classical algorithms on certain complex problems. Using quantum annealing correction on a D-Wave processor, researchers suppressed noise and created over 1,300 logical qubits to solve spin-glass problems more efficiently than Read more…

Insider Brief MIT researchers have demonstrated the strongest nonlinear light-matter coupling ever recorded in a quantum system, enabling significantly faster quantum operations and readout. The new architecture, based on a superconducting “quarton” coupler, achieved coupling strengths roughly ten times higher than previous designs, potentially allowing quantum processors to run ten Read more…