Germany Backs €122 Million Push for 1,000-Qubit Quantum Computer

The German government has officially selected a consortium led by Braunschweig-based startup QUDORA Technologies to develop a large-scale quantum computing system. According to the Quantum Computing Report, this initiative, known as the NFQC-1k project, carries a budget of €122 million, equivalent to approximately $138.8 million USD. The selection was made under the Quantum Computing Competition organized by Germany’s Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR), marking a significant step in the nation's technological strategy.

The project is structured as a five-year effort involving a seven-member research and industrial consortium. Its primary objective is to construct a fault-tolerant trapped-ion quantum computer that features at least 1,000 physical qubits. The technical specifications outlined in the report also target the creation of 50 logical qubits, with a requirement for logical gate error rates to remain below 0.01%. This ambitious target positions the NFQC-1k as a key milestone under Germany's High-Tech Agenda Deutschland, which aims to deploy advanced quantum computers by 2030.

QUDORA Technologies will serve as the system integrator for the consortium, leveraging its proprietary Near Field Quantum Control (NFQC®) technology. The company's approach is central to overcoming current scaling barriers in quantum computing. Beyond the hardware development, the initiative aims to establish a semiconductor pilot line for high-performance quantum processing units, further solidifying Germany's infrastructure for future quantum technologies.