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- The Quantum State – July 2026
The Quantum State – July 2026
A monthly newsletter by BTQ Technologies
Anastasia Marchenkova
July 16, 2026
President Donald Trump has signed an executive order — labeled Ushering in the Next Frontier of Quantum Innovation — directing the federal government to adopt a new national quantum strategy, aimed at accelerating the development of powerful quantum computers for scientific research, new work on quantum sensors and networks, tighter supply-chain planning, stronger counterintelligence protections and a broader effort to recruit and retain quantum workers.”
June kept pace with the dynamic developmental drive associated with the quantum industry across policy, infrastructure, and commercial ecosystems. The Trump administration has signed an executive order directing the federal government to accelerate the development of quantum technology while expanding protections against foreign espionage. This move places the emerging field more firmly inside U.S. economic and national security policy.
Also, the quantum industry is attracting more investment from governments and VCs to develop new and existing quantum technologies and infrastructure. Atom Computing raises over $300 million to accelerate the deployment of fault-tolerant, neutral-atom quantum computers; Quobly secures €115 million Series Funding to bring silicon-based quantum computers to market, Hexaware plans to invest £25 million in UK AI, digital services, and quantum computing research expansion; Qubic secures a $2.5 million seed round for quantum computing hardware; and South Korea places quantum computing as one of the core technology fields that will receive huge funding for the next five years.
On the commercial side, BTQ Technologies appoints Brandt Pasco as U.S. strategic advisor for post-quantum cryptography and security; OQC, JPMorgan Chase, and AMD commence research collaboration to develop a new quantum-AI platform in London; and Zapata Quantum teams with NVIDIA to apply agentic AI to accelerate quantum algorithm development. In addition, a new industry study finds quantum computing has entered a capability era, with early movers building an advantage that later entrants will struggle to close.
June maintained the momentum of investments, partnerships, and new technical and managerial appointments by quantum companies for the development and niche implementation of new and existing quantum technologies in commercial and industrial ecosystems.
On Fox Business, BTQ Head of Silicon Product Sean Hackett discusses President Trump’s new quantum executive orders, the security threat posed by quantum computers, and why post-quantum infrastructure must be built before Q-Day.
BTQ is building trusted quantum technology to help secure the digital systems, financial networks, and cryptocurrencies that depend on today’s encryption.
BTQ Technologies Appoints Brandt Pasco as U.S. Strategic Advisor for Post-Quantum Cryptography and Security
BTQ Technologies Corp., a global technology company building the trust infrastructure for the quantum era, has announced the appointment of Brandt Pasco as U.S. Strategic Advisor for post-quantum cryptography and security.
Mr. Pasco will advance BTQ's engagement with U.S. government stakeholders, public-sector agencies, research institutions, national security organizations, and strategic industry partners.
In his role, Mr. Pasco will support BTQ's U.S. strategy across its portfolio of trusted quantum technologies, including post-quantum security, hardware-level cryptographic acceleration, secure digital asset infrastructure, and quantum software.
"Quantum is moving from a research priority to a national infrastructure priority. The recent acceleration of U.S. quantum policy reinforces the importance of building trusted technologies for the systems governments, enterprises, and critical networks will rely on. Brandt brings a rare combination of public-sector experience, national security perspective, regulatory knowledge, and private-market execution. His expanded role will strengthen BTQ's ability to engage with the U.S. government and strategic partners as the quantum market enters its next phase."
Quantum Infrastructure & Investment
 Atom Computing Raises More Than $300 Million to Accelerate Deployment of Fault-Tolerant, Neutral-Atom Quantum ComputersAtom Computing announced it has raised more than $300 million in total funding to accelerate the development and deployment of commercial-scale fault-tolerant quantum computers. The total includes a $100 million Series C investment round and a signed letter of intent with the U.S. Department of Commerce for $100 million. |  Quobly Secures €115 Million Series A to Bring Silicon-Based Quantum Computers to MarketQuobly, a French quantum computing company, has announced the closing of a €115 million (about $134 million USD) Series A financing to accelerate the industrialization of its silicon-based quantum computers and bring its first commercial product to market by the end of 2026. |
 Hexaware to Invest £25 Million in UK AI, Digital Services, and Quantum Computing Research ExpansionHexaware Technologies, a global provider of IT solutions and services, plans to invest £25 million (approx. 33 million USD) to expand its UK operations, a move expected to create around 1,200 jobs across Manchester, Leeds, and Birmingham over the next three to five years. The investment will accelerate innovation at scale across new and emerging technologies, including AI, digital services, and quantum computing. |  Qubic Secures $2.5 Million Seed Round for Quantum Computing HardwareQubic, a quantum technology company developing low-noise cryogenic amplifiers that solve one of the major bottlenecks to scaling for quantum computing and with promising applications in sensing and defence, has announced it has closed an oversubscribed round of venture capital financing amounting to $2.5 million USD ($3.5 million CAD). |
Quantum in Industry
Zapata Quantum Teams with NVIDIA to Apply Agentic AI to Accelerate Quantum Algorithm Development
Zapata Quantum has announced it is applying agentic AI to accelerate quantum algorithm development by automating quantum resource estimation (QRE) workflows, in collaboration with NVIDIA. The effort initially targets applications in quantum chemistry, including drug discovery, energy, and advanced materials development.
“We believe that automation, powered by advances in AI and informed by domain-specific knowledge, is the key to scaling quantum application development for real-world applications such as drug discovery. By working alongside NVIDIA, we’re applying agentic AI to address the challenge of efficiently benchmarking quantum algorithms, an underappreciated bottleneck in quantum application development.”
"Agentic AI is proving transformative in shortening the timeline to useful quantum applications. This work with Zapata shows how crucial accelerated computing and AI are for practical and scalable quantum resource estimation, and how impactful that can be for developing meaningful applications in areas such as industrial quantum chemistry.”
Zapata said the approach has been tested in the field of homogeneous catalysis, building on its DARPA Quantum Benchmarking work, and the company has recently filed a provisional patent application for an “agentic framework for quantum.”
OQC, JPMorgan Chase and AMD Commence Research Collaboration to Develop New Quantum-AI Platform in London
OQC, JPMorgan Chase, and AMD have announced a research collaboration leveraging a new and dedicated quantum-AI data center built by OQC in London. JPMorgan Chase researchers will test near-term quantum and hybrid quantum-classical computing applications in a secure enterprise environment to examine how quantum computing, AI, and high-performance classical infrastructure can work together to address complex financial services challenges.
JPMorgan Chase will be OQC’s first dedicated user of the U.K. platform, which is expected to be fully operational within 12 months. The environment will physically integrate the OQC GENESIS quantum system with AMD-supported AI and classical compute, high-performance computing resources, and application-level tooling for simulation, optimization, AI model development, and benchmarking.
The partners will research hybrid quantum-classical use cases, including portfolio optimization, quantum machine learning, AI-assisted quantum circuit improvement, and the development of future financial algorithms.
Quantum Computing Breakthroughs
 QTREX Develops Cryogenic Chip Carrier for Quantum Computing ApplicationsQTREX Quantum Ltd., a company focused on advancing Additively Manufactured Electronics (AME) for quantum computing infrastructure, has announced a major technical and strategic milestone: the company has successfully produced a cryogenic chip carrier for quantum processors using its proprietary single-build AME process, based on a design supplied by a major U.S. full-stack quantum computing company. |  Microsoft Says New Quantum Chip 1,000 Times More Reliable Than PredecessorMicrosoft has said its new quantum chip, Mayorana 2, is vastly more reliable than its previous version, Mayorana 1, paving the way for a quantum computer to solve commercially useful problems within three years. The tech giant says the qubits on Majorana 2, its new chip, survive for an average of 20 seconds, rather than the milliseconds of Majorana 1, which means the new chip is 1,000 times more reliable. |
 QuDef Launches SQOUT, the First Quantum Threat Intelligence Platform for QKD and Quantum Communication SystemsQuDef has announced the commercial availability of SQOUT®, the first dedicated Quantum Threat Intelligence and Security Assessment platform for Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) and other quantum communication systems. SQOUT gives CISOs, risk managers, red and blue teams, QKD vendors, integrators, and certification bodies a single operational tool to model, assess, and defend the quantum communication systems now being deployed across Europe and beyond. |  New Research Shows Distributed Quantum Computing can Enable Resilient and Elastic Systems at ScaleNew research from Nu Quantum, the category leader in distributed quantum computing, shows that networked, distributed quantum computing systems can be designed to tolerate the failure of individual Quantum Processing Units (QPUs). The simulations show that in a distributed system with quantum information encoded across the entire network rather than on a single QPU, catastrophic node failure can be corrected. |
South Korea Commits 200 Trillion Won to R&D, Quantum Listed as Strategic Tech
South Korea will make quantum technologies one of the country’s core national research priorities under a five-year science and technology plan that commits more than 200 trillion won (approx. 130 billion USD) to government research and development, covering 2026 through 2030.
The country's Ministry of Science and ICT outlines that of the more than 200 trillion won in planned government R&D spending, 60 trillion won (approx. 38.7 billion USD) will be directed toward 55 technologies across 10 national strategic technology fields. Those fields include artificial intelligence, semiconductors, advanced biotechnology, and quantum technologies.
“The next five years will be a critical period that will determine the next 30 years of Korea’s future. We will ensure that the relevant ministries, the private sector, and local governments work as one team so that Korea becomes a strong nation that does not waver in the face of changes in the external environment and supply chain issues. In particular, we will strive to ensure that all citizens can benefit from the achievements of science and technology.”
South Korea’s plan places quantum within a broader industrial strategy built around advanced computing, chips, communications, and regional technology hubs. Quantum systems depend on many of the same assets the country is already trying to strengthen, such as high-end semiconductors, advanced materials, cryogenic engineering, photonics, precision manufacturing, and large-scale computing infrastructure.
Quantum Security & Blockchain
 STMicroelectronics Unveils World’s First ST54M Secure Mobile Chip with Post-Quantum Cryptography for Next-generation Connected ServicesSTMicroelectronics, a global semiconductor leader serving customers across the spectrum of electronics applications, has introduced the ST54M, a secure mobile chip designed to help smartphone and personal electronics manufacturers meet upcoming quantum-ready security requirements while supporting a seamless user experience across connected services. |  Symmatrics Introduces Quantum Secure VPN to Eliminate Credential-Based Attacks and Future-Proof Secure AccessSymmatrics, a quantum-secure data protection platform, has announced its next-generation VPN, providing secure remote access hardened against today's credential-based cyberattacks and emerging quantum threats. Symmatrics' VPN, known as the QPN (Quantum Protected Network), introduces a fundamentally different model designed to eliminate credential-based access and replace it with one-time-use symmetric key encryption and trusted device authentication. |
📊Market Insights
New Industry Study Finds Quantum Computing Has Entered a Capability Era, With Early Movers Building an Advantage Later Entrants Will Struggle to Close
Quantum computing has moved past the question of whether organizations can access a quantum system and onto whether they can build something useful around one.
According to the IQM’s State of Quantum 2026 report, a fourth annual industry study conducted alongside Quantum Insider, enterprise engagement with quantum computing is now widespread, with 89% of surveyed organizations reporting hands-on activity, but only 13% reporting any level of production deployment, highlighting a significant gap between experimentation and operational use.
Furthermore, the report introduces a Quantum Readiness Index that scores the global market at 58 out of 100 in the “Developing” tier, indicating that hiring, budgets, and pilot projects are advancing faster than intellectual property creation and scaled deployment, with only 9% of organizations maintaining a resourced quantum IP program.
“Markets mature when their questions do. A year ago, people were still asking whether quantum investment had peaked. This year’s report closes that debate. Capital is arriving at scale, and it is going to the companies with demonstrated results behind their roadmaps. The question now is not whether there is money in quantum. It is whether your organization is building the capability to be ready when that investment turns into a commercial product.”
📬 Stay Connected
June continued the trajectory of increased investment inflows from governments and VCs, more collaborations by startups and companies in and outside the quantum industry, and the niche application of quantum technologies for commercial and industrial purposes, while the Trump administration has signed an executive order directing the federal government to accelerate the development of quantum technology while expanding protections against foreign espionage. This move places the emerging field more firmly inside U.S. economic and national security policy.
Across the board:
There is more investment inflow, with multi-million-dollar funding to accelerate quantum technology development and deployment and to expand or build new infrastructure.
Strategic collaborations are on the rise, from Zapata Quantum-NVIDIA to OQC-JPMorgan Chase-AMD.
Quantum technology is being deployed outside research labs, as more quantum applications are integrated into niche commercial and industrial workflows.
Contact us at quantumstate@btq.tech
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