Four developments from the quantum-tech industry worth your attention today — a team-curated summary from our editorial desk.
Germany’s QSolid Project Closes With a 30-Qubit Chip in Testing
QSolid, a German joint project coordinated by Forschungszentrum Jülich, is wrapping up after nearly five years. Alongside a 10-qubit system that has already been tested and made available, the 26-partner consortium is now testing a 30-qubit system built on the same technology, with what it calls promising results. Fraunhofer IPMS contributed cryogenic characterization of CMOS control circuits together with GlobalFoundries and other partners, plus interposers that connect the quantum chip to the control chip. The project had a budget of €76.3 million, 89.8% of it funded by the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR), and held its closing event in Jülich from 27 to 29 October. The announcement describes the 30-qubit chip as having a low error rate but does not publish error figures, so independent performance data remains to be seen.
Source: Fraunhofer IPMS release, via Silicon Saxony
Jülich Team Reports 6.8-Nanosecond Single-Qubit Gates at Over 99.98% Fidelity
Physicists at Jülich, RWTH Aachen University and the University of Cologne report single-qubit gates lasting 6.8 nanoseconds with fidelities above 99.98% on a superconducting transmon processor, published in Nature Communications. Driving transmon gates this fast normally causes leakage into non-computational states; their “R2D” pulse-shaping method suppresses it, with a reported leakage rate below 2×10⁻⁵ per gate and a reduction of more than a factor of 20 compared with standard DRAG (Derivative Removal by Adiabatic Gate) protocols. The work was carried out within QSolid. It demonstrates single-qubit gates on an isolated transmon; whether the approach carries over to densely packed multi-qubit chips and fast two-qubit gates, where cross-talk becomes a concern, is still open.
Source: Nature Communications, “Ultrafast single-qubit gates through multi-photon transition removal”
UK Space Agency Publishes Quantum Technology Roadmap for Space
The UK Space Agency published its Quantum Technology Roadmap for Space on 27 October, setting strategic priorities for the UK sector for 2026–2040. The 52-page document focuses on where quantum technologies can make a specific contribution to UK space capability through the 2035–2040 horizon, from resilient timing and sensing to more secure communications. It treats quantum computing as a longer-term opportunity, best pursued through close engagement with wider national programmes.
Source: GOV.UK, Quantum Technology Roadmap for Space
Infleqtion Runs Its Tiqker Optical Atomic Clock at Sea During a US Navy Exercise
Infleqtion says it operated its Tiqker optical atomic clock continuously for two weeks aboard the US Navy support vessel RV Merlin in the Southern California operating area, during the Maritime Big Play Pacific exercise sponsored by the Office of the Under Secretary of War for Research & Engineering. The demonstration also supported BARB-26, a Navy exercise on subsea and seabed warfare, and exposed the clock to large temperature swings and sustained vibration. Infleqtion positions Tiqker as a GPS-independent timing reference for communications and radar when satellite signals are unavailable, jammed or spoofed. It builds on a 2025 trial aboard the Royal Navy’s XV Excalibur uncrewed submarine testbed and 2024 UK flight trials with QinetiQ and BAE Systems. The company’s release gives no quantitative timing data and describes the exercise as an evaluation to inform future naval integration.
Source: The Quantum Insider (carrying the Infleqtion press release)
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.