Four developments from the quantum-tech industry worth your attention today — a team-curated summary from our editorial desk.
BlueQubit Reports Quantum Advantage in Random-Circuit Sampling on Publicly Accessible IBM Hardware
BlueQubit reports running random-circuit sampling (RCS) on IBM’s Nighthawk r2 processor, which is available through standard IBM Quantum accounts. The 61-qubit, 36-cycle circuit with 918 CZ gates yielded one million samples in 19 seconds of quantum-processor time; the authors estimate the same task would take roughly 110 years on the Frontier supercomputer. They say it is, to their knowledge, the first such demonstration on a commercially available processor by a team outside its builder. The 110-year figure is an estimate rather than a measured runtime, the authors acknowledge that improved classical methods could lower it, and the work is a preprint on arXiv that has not been peer reviewed.
Source: BlueQubit research blog (paper: arXiv:2609.28657)
NIST Publishes Final Report on the Transition to Post-Quantum Cryptography
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) released the final version of NIST IR 8547, Transition to Post-Quantum Cryptography Standards. The report identifies quantum-vulnerable algorithms in existing NIST standards and lays out a transition plan built on the post-quantum standards published in 2024. It notes that some algorithms may be disallowed in federal systems after set dates, allows hybrid schemes that combine conventional and post-quantum cryptography, and urges organizations to prioritize data that must stay confidential for decades because of “harvest now, decrypt later” risks. Related federal timelines call for high-value and high-impact systems to move key establishment by 2030 and digital signatures by 2031, with 2035 as the overall federal target.
Source: NIST news release
QuantrolOx Raises €12 Million to Automate Quantum-Computer Tuning
QuantrolOx, an Oxford University spinout with a base in Finland, raised a €12 million Series A round led by IW Capital, with the European Innovation Council (EIC) Fund and existing backers including Hoxton Ventures participating. Its machine-learning software automates the tuning and control of quantum devices — a bottleneck the company says it addresses across different hardware architectures — and it reports tuning a device in under 70 minutes, ahead of the best human benchmark in its published research. The money is earmarked for commercial growth and the company’s U.S. expansion.
Source: Tech.eu
PsiQuantum Shows an 8×8 Optical Circuit Switch for AI Clusters
PsiQuantum unveiled an 8×8 optical circuit switch built on the low-loss silicon-photonics platform it developed for quantum computing, aimed at interconnect bottlenecks in dense AI clusters rather than at quantum processors. According to the report, the demonstration unit shows about 1.2 dB insertion loss, 40 dB channel isolation and switching in under 3 milliseconds, and omits the barium titanate layer used in the company’s quantum chips. PsiQuantum is sampling the hardware to prospective enterprise customers and says product lines will be detailed in the coming months; scaling beyond 8×8 without hurting loss budgets remains an open challenge.
Source: Quantum Computing Report
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.