The University of Cambridge will house what it has described as the “UK’s most powerful quantum computer” as part of a new partnership with US company IonQ.
The agreement, which represents the largest-ever corporate research partnership for the university, will support the creation of the IonQ Quantum Innovation Centre, which will be based at the Ray Dolby Centre, home of Cambridge’s Cavendish Laboratory. In this centre will be the IonQ 2560qubit quantum computer.
As part of the partnership, Innovate UK will provide access and computing time for UKRI’s National Quantum Computing Centre over three years.
“We’re proud that Cambridge is at the heart of the UK’s next computing revolution,” said Prof Deborah Prentice, vice-chancellor of the University of Cambridge.
“This new and ambitious partnership is the first of its kind for a UK university. It’s not just a new facility for Cambridge — it’s one for the whole of the UK, and it will develop not only exciting new technologies but also the UK’s next generation of leaders in quantum science.”
The partnership will support long-term research funding for quantum science at Cambridge.
“This historic agreement with Cambridge deepens IonQ’s commitment to the United Kingdom and accelerates our technology platform with novel research at one of the world’s most storied physics powerhouses,” said Niccolo de Masi, chairman and chief executive of IonQ.
“By establishing the IonQ Quantum Innovation Centre, we are strengthening the bridge between academic discovery and commercial quantum advantage. We believe this partnership will contribute meaningfully to the UK to help advance scalable quantum computing, networking, sensing, and security.”