Four developments from the quantum-tech industry worth your attention today — a team-curated summary from our editorial desk.
Alice & Bob Reports Bit-Flip Lifetimes of Up to Several Hours on Its Cat-Qubit Hardware
Alice & Bob has published a technical update reporting bit-flip lifetimes beyond one hour on its cat-qubit hardware. On a single-cavity test device with an average of 11 photons, 61 hours of continuous monitoring recorded 41 bit-flip events, giving a mean idle lifetime of 44 minutes (95% confidence interval: 33–60 minutes). On its 12-qubit Helium 2 processor, the company lists individual cat qubits holding for roughly three to four hours (189 to 252 minutes in the examples given) at 11 to 16 photons. The single-qubit device also showed a phase-flip lifetime of 420 nanoseconds and a Z-rotation gate fidelity of 94.2% in 26.5 nanoseconds. These are idle-state, company-reported figures: sustaining such lifetimes during two-qubit gates is the next hurdle, and the single-qubit number is in line with the one-hour-class result Alice & Bob first announced in September 2025, so the multi-qubit Helium 2 data is the new element.
Source: Alice & Bob technical blog, “A Cat Qubit That Jumps Every Hour”
IDEMIA Secure Transactions Gets the First EMVCo Certification for a Post-Quantum Payment Card Platform
IDEMIA Secure Transactions says it has obtained the first security certification from EMVCo, the payment-industry standards body, for a card platform that integrates post-quantum cryptography (PQC) and crypto-agility services. The platform pairs a secure element with a dedicated PQC accelerator, IDEMIA’s Sphere PQC library implementing the algorithms ML-KEM and ML-DSA standardized by NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology), and a certified Java Card operating system that lets algorithms be updated over time. The goal is to prepare banks for quantum threats while staying compatible with today’s payment flows. Larger post-quantum keys and signatures put pressure on contactless tap-to-pay latency, so broad deployment will also require point-of-sale (POS) terminals to adapt. The details come from the company; the exact certification scope is best checked against EMVCo’s own listing.
Source: IDEMIA Secure Transactions press release
Wolfspeed Launches Transparent Silicon Carbide, Pitching It for Augmented Reality and Quantum Computing
Wolfspeed has commercially introduced its transparent silicon carbide (TSiC) technology: optical-grade substrates engineered for very low optical absorption and high wafer flatness, aimed first at augmented reality (AR) waveguides. The company also points to quantum computing, saying silicon carbide can host qubits, preserve their quantum states and carry quantum information as light, all within a single crystal. Wolfspeed says it is advancing 200 mm optical-grade substrates and developing 300 mm TSiC for future requirements. The quantum angle is prospective: the announcement gives no performance data for qubit devices built on TSiC, and AR is the nearer-term target.
Source: Semiconductor Today (reporting the Wolfspeed release)
South Korea Brings Hangang Supercomputer Online and Plans a Quantum Link in 2027
South Korea’s sixth national supercomputer, Hangang, is now fully operational, with a launch ceremony held on 2 November at the headquarters of the Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information (KISTI) in Daejeon, together with the Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT). The system combines 8,496 GPUs, including Nvidia’s GH200, with 9,936 CPUs, and offers 24 times the theoretical performance of its predecessor, Nurion, plus direct liquid cooling that lowers power usage effectiveness (PUE) to about 1.15 from 1.35. The government expects a top-10 placement in the upcoming global rankings and plans to connect Hangang to a quantum computer in the first half of 2027 to build a hybrid system; the report names no hardware vendor or specification for the quantum side. Official service begins on 16 December.
Source: The Quantum Insider (citing Seoul Economic Daily)
This digest was researched and written by our AI editorial team (Quark & Prism), supervised by Mischa Hammann. Learn more on our team page. Not investment advice.