Silicon Quantum Computing (SQC) is a quantum computing company co-founded by CSIRO and UNSW Sydney. It holds the world record for two-qubit gate fidelity at 99.99%, matching IonQ's trapped-ion record, achieved using phosphorus-in-silicon atom qubits, also known as donor qubits. The company's approach places individual phosphorus atoms with atomic precision using an STM tip, then encapsulates them in silicon to create stable qubits with long coherence times. SQC is based in Sydney, Australia.

Founded in 2017 with initial funding from UNSW, Commonwealth Bank, Telstra, and the Australian government, SQC developed a 10-qubit processor in 2022 and published landmark quantum simulation results in 2023. In February 2025 it demonstrated Grover's search algorithm at 98.9% of the theoretical maximum, published in Nature Nanotechnology.

In November 2025, SQC patterned 250,000 qubit registers in 8 hours using industrial-scale CMOS tools, demonstrating manufacturing scalability, and launched the Quantum Twins simulator with 15,000 qubit registers patterned on silicon, published in Nature. The same month, SQC partnered with SkyWater Technology, a US semiconductor foundry, to advance hybrid computing by combining SQC's quantum device engineering with SkyWater's high-volume US CMOS manufacturing. In January 2026, SQC partnered with Intel and Argonne National Laboratory to deploy 12-qubit quantum dot processors for benchmarking.

In December 2025, SQC achieved 99.99% two-qubit gate fidelity, published in Nature, with the unusual property that qubit quality improves as qubit count increases. Commercial deployments include a system for Telstra that reduced machine learning training time and a rack-mounted system for Australian Defence. SQC reached Stage B of DARPA's Quantum Benchmarking Initiative, one of only 11 companies worldwide at this level. In June 2026, SQC and Telstra demonstrated Watermelon, a quantum reservoir computing system that trained in days and matched deep learnin

Silicon Quantum Computing

Diraq is an Australian quantum computing company building silicon spin qubit processors using CMOS semiconductor fabrication. It spun out of UNSW Sydney in 2022 and is based in Sydney, with offices in the US and Singapore. Diraq has raised more than 135 million dollars in total, including 20 million dollars from Australia's NRFC in February 2026, and it partners with GlobalFoundries for volume manufacturing. The company demonstrated 99.9% control accuracy on imec-fabricated CMOS qubits. Its roadmap targets 100 to 200 qubit systems for research partners by 2026 and a first commercial product, with thousands of physical qubits, in the first half of 2029.

Diraq is a confirmed DARPA QBI participant and has signed a letter of intent to join Illinois Quantum Park, integrating with the US quantum computing ecosystem. In October 2025, Diraq and NVIDIA demonstrated a low-latency hybrid classical-quantum link via NVQLink, enabling one million fault-tolerant operations in under a minute.

In 2025, Diraq published a hot qubits result of 99.85% single-qubit fidelity and 98.92% two-qubit fidelity at 1 Kelvin, a 10x higher operating temperature than conventional superconducting systems, which reduces cooling costs. High-fidelity qubits, above 99% across all metrics, were demonstrated on 300mm wafers at GlobalFoundries and IMEC, confirming industrial CMOS compatibility at volume-manufacturing scale.

In May 2026, Diraq reported progress on scaling qubit count by increasing on-chip density, the central engineering thread for its 2029 commercial target. Update 2026-06-17: Diraq is expanding its U.S. operations by doubling its Palo Alto team to advance its silicon-based quantum computing approach. Source: https://quantumzeitgeist.com/silicon-based-quantum-computing-diraq-doubles/ Update 2026-06-11: Diraq aims to achieve a cost of one dollar per qubit using silicon CMOS manufacturing for scalable quantum computing. Source: https://quantumzeitgeist.com/diraq-qubits-target-per-qubit/ Up

Diraq

Quantum Brilliance is an Australian-German company developing room-temperature diamond nitrogen-vacancy (NV) quantum accelerators that operate without cryogenic cooling. Based in Canberra and Stuttgart, it has raised a $20M Series A from Main Sequence, In-Q-Tel, and Intervalley, plus $13M from NRFC for a commercial Quantum Diamond Foundry in Melbourne, bringing total funding above $33M. Its roadmap targets 25-100 qubit systems by 2026-2027.

In 2025, Quantum Brilliance deployed three QB-QDK2.0 units at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and launched Europe's first room-temperature quantum accelerator at Fraunhofer IAF in May 2025. The company also secured a Germany Cyberagency contract, working with ParityQC, as part of a EUR 35M portable quantum program to build a transportable quantum computer for defense applications by 2027.

Quantum Brilliance

Q-CTRL is an Australian quantum control software company founded in 2017 as a spinout of the University of Sydney by Michael Biercuk. It is based in Sydney with offices in Los Angeles and Berlin. The company makes Black Opal for quantum education, Fire Opal for quantum error suppression middleware, and Boulder Opal for quantum control R&D. Fire Opal delivers hardware-agnostic algorithmic error suppression, improving circuit performance on IBM, IonQ, and other hardware by up to 10,000 times. Q-CTRL also develops quantum-enhanced sensing algorithms for defense and navigation. It raised $113M in a Series B in 2024 to scale its quantum firmware and quantum sensing products.

In February 2026, Q-CTRL launched Ironstone Opal, the first commercially available quantum navigation system for defense and aerospace, validated in air, land, and maritime trials, achieving a 100x improvement in GPS-denied navigation precision. The Boulder Opal platform is part of the Quantum Utility Block architecture with QuantWare and Qblox for push-button data center quantum computers.

In August 2025, DARPA awarded Q-CTRL $24.4M, or A$38M, under its Robust Quantum Sensors program for the Ironstone Opal quantum navigation system, which demonstrated 111 times greater accuracy than high-end inertial navigation in GPS-denied conditions. Lockheed Martin is a named subcontractor, and the sensors are being deployed for Australian Defence and AUKUS partners. In March 2025, the US Defense Innovation Unit selected Q-CTRL for prototype development of Ironstone Opal. Validated trials include the Royal Australian Navy's MV Sycamore, and the company has partnered with ANELLO Photonics for GPS-denied environments.

In February 2025, Q-CTRL received a £1M SBRI Quantum Catalyst Fund grant to optimize UK rail scheduling with Network Rail, demonstrating routing of 26 trains over 18 minutes using 103 qubits at a major London hub.

Q-CTRL won TIME Magazine's Best Innovation of the Year award in 2025, and in April 

Q-CTRL

Iceberg Quantum is a University of Sydney spinout developing hardware-agnostic quantum error correction architectures. The company raised a $2M pre-seed in March 2025 and a $6M seed round led by LocalGlobe with Blackbird and DCVC in early 2026, $8M in total. Its flagship Pinnacle architecture claims RSA-2048 could be broken with fewer than 100,000 physical qubits, dramatically below the millions estimated in conventional approaches, using quantum LDPC error correcting codes. Iceberg partners with PsiQuantum, Diraq, and IonQ to develop and validate its architecture. Based in Sydney, Australia.

Iceberg Quantum

Senetas is an Australian network-encryption company founded in 1997, headquartered in Melbourne and listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX: SEN). It builds CN-series hardware encryptors that governments, defence ministries, and Tier-1 enterprises use to encrypt high-speed Ethernet, IP, and Fibre Channel networks.

Through a long-running partnership with Thales, which distributes the CN encryptors as the SafeNet HSE series, Senetas has shipped quantum-resistant variants that integrate NIST PQC algorithms (ML-KEM, ML-DSA) alongside classical AES-256, giving customers a defence-in-depth path against the harvest-now-decrypt-later threat. In November 2025, Senetas formed a strategic alliance with Nokia to embed its quantum-resistant encryption in Nokia's optical and IP network products, and in September 2025 its CN-series encryptors were certified under Malaysia's PKTN scheme.

Senetas

The Australian National University (ANU) Quantum Optics Group is a quantum research center at ANU, a university founded in 1946. It develops quantum random number generation technology and quantum security solutions.

In May 2022, ANU partnered with API3 to launch API3 QRNG, the first true random number generator for smart contracts. It uses quantum vacuum fluctuations measured through balanced homodyne detection. The numbers are generated from electromagnetic field vacuum fluctuations across all frequencies, providing ultra-high bandwidth, truly unpredictable randomness rather than pseudo-random output.

The QRNG system is hosted on Amazon Web Services with encrypted data transmission, and is free to use, requiring only gas fees, on 13 blockchain platforms including Polygon, Avalanche, Fantom, Metis, Moonbeam, and RSK. Applications include gaming, NFTs, lotteries, crypto wallet generation, and other blockchain uses. The group serves blockchain platforms, gaming companies, cryptographic applications, and research institutions that need provably random numbers from natural quantum processes.

ANU Quantum Optics Group

The ARC Centre of Excellence for Quantum Computation and Communication Technology (CQC2T) is Australia's leading quantum research center, established in 2000. It brings together quantum researchers from universities across Australia to advance quantum computing, quantum communication, and quantum technology.

CQC2T conducts fundamental research in silicon quantum computing, quantum error correction, quantum algorithms, and quantum device fabrication. It serves as a central hub for Australia's quantum research ecosystem and fosters collaboration between academia and industry to position the country as a major player in global quantum technology.

CQC2T

Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CommBank) is an Australian multinational bank founded in 1911 and headquartered in Sydney, Australia. It is a leader in quantum computing within the Australian banking industry, conducting quantum research and quantum security trials.

CommBank has demonstrated quantum-secure blockchain networks and quantum random number generation for banking security. It works with quantum computing companies, including Q-CTRL and other Australian quantum startups, to develop practical applications for banking, and it explores quantum algorithms for fraud detection, risk management, and financial optimization. Serving Australian banking markets that need quantum-enhanced security and computational capabilities, CommBank positions Australia as a leader in quantum finance.

Commonwealth Bank

Eigensystems is a Sydney-based quantum education startup founded in 2023 by Associate Professors Simon Devitt and Chris Ferrie of the University of Technology Sydney (UTS). The company develops tactile, narrative-driven quantum learning tools to widen access to quantum computing education. Its flagship product, Quokka, is a 30-qubit portable quantum computer emulator built to operate like a real quantum computer, making quantum computing accessible to educators and enthusiasts worldwide.

Launched at Quantum Australia in February 2024, the Quokka raised US$100,000 through Kickstarter, the first crowdfunding campaign in quantum education. Eigensystems won the Australian Good Design Award in 2024 and has shipped hundreds of Quokka devices globally. Its education partners include Aalto University (Finland), Yoobee College (New Zealand), the University of Costa Rica, Keio University, and the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology. The company is part of the Australian Quantum Software Network and also has a presence in Texas, USA.

Eigensystems

Emergence Quantum is an Australian quantum technology company that launched in May 2025 as a spinoff from the University of Sydney. It was co-founded by Professor David Reilly and Dr. Thomas Ohki, both formerly of Microsoft's quantum computing division. The company develops qubit-agnostic quantum control systems, cryogenic electronics, and quantum sensing technologies, specializing in the connective tissue between qubits and software stacks, including the cryogenic control electronics needed to scale quantum computers.

The founding team of roughly 20 members came from Microsoft's Quantum research program and contributed to the development of Microsoft's Majorana 1 quantum chip. In July 2025, Emergence Quantum established a strategic collaboration with IonQ to advance quantum computing hardware. The company's first commercial products became available in late 2025, focused on helping quantum computing systems scale more effectively through advanced control and sensing technologies.

Emergence Quantum

Main Sequence Ventures is an Australian deep tech venture capital firm founded in 2017 and established by CSIRO, Australia's national science agency. It has surpassed $1 billion in total funds under management, with Fund III of $450 million AUD announced in 2023. The firm has invested in 53 startups and collaborated with 28 Australian universities, and its portfolio companies have a combined value of about A$6.8 billion.

Quantum computing is one of Main Sequence's priority investment areas, alongside decarbonization, cybersecurity, and advanced semiconductor technology. Its notable quantum computing investment is Q-CTRL, the Sydney-based quantum infrastructure software company, in which Main Sequence was a co-investor in the $113M Series B. The firm uses CSIRO's scientific networks to identify breakthrough technologies from Australian research institutions, giving it deal flow in the Asia-Pacific quantum ecosystem. Its General Partners include Mike Zimmerman (CEO), Phil Morle (Partner), and Martin Duursma (Partner).

Main Sequence Ventures

The Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) is Australia's national nuclear science organisation. It contributes to quantum technology through its expertise in neutron scattering, materials characterisation, and quantum materials research. ANSTO operates the OPAL research reactor at Lucas Heights, New South Wales, which enables neutron scattering measurements used to characterise quantum materials, including superconductors, topological materials, and magnetic systems relevant to qubit development.

ANSTO's quantum materials research supports Australia's broader quantum technology ecosystem, providing materials characterisation services to silicon qubit developers including Silicon Quantum Computing (SQC) and UNSW quantum research groups. The organisation's Centre for Accelerator Science produces isotopically pure silicon, a critical resource for silicon spin qubit development. Nuclear spin noise from Si-29 isotopes limits qubit coherence, so it must be minimised through isotopic enrichment.

ANSTO participates in Australia's National Quantum Strategy and contributes to the AUKUS Pillar II advanced technology cooperation programme, which includes quantum technologies as a priority area. Its quantum sensing work focuses on quantum-enhanced neutron imaging and precision measurement applications relevant to nuclear security, materials science, and biomedical research.

ANSTO

API3 partnered with the Australian National University (ANU) Quantum Optics Group to launch API3 QRNG in May 2022, the first true random number generator for smart contracts. It uses quantum vacuum fluctuations measured through balanced homodyne detection. ANU's quantum random numbers are generated from electromagnetic field vacuum fluctuations at all frequencies, providing ultra-high bandwidth and truly unpredictable randomness rather than the output of pseudo-random generators.

API3 QRNG is free to use, requiring only gas fees, and is available on 13 blockchain platforms including Polygon, Avalanche, Fantom, Metis, Moonbeam, and RSK. The system is hosted on Amazon Web Services with encrypted data transmission, and random numbers are destroyed after use.

Applications include gaming, NFTs, lotteries, crypto wallet generation, and other blockchain uses that need quantum-level unpredictability. API3 QRNG addresses Web3 security demands by providing randomness based on quantum mechanics for decentralized applications, smart contracts, and cryptographic operations that require provably random numbers from natural quantum processes.

API3

The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) is Australia's national science agency and a central institution in Australia's quantum technology ecosystem. CSIRO's quantum research spans silicon spin qubits, quantum-enhanced sensing, and quantum applications development, with a strategic role in translating quantum research from Australia's universities into commercial applications.

CSIRO maintains close partnerships with Silicon Quantum Computing (SQC), the UNSW-led venture targeting 10-qubit utility-scale silicon spin qubits, and it supported the foundational quantum research at UNSW that led to the world-record 99.99% two-qubit gate fidelity milestone achieved in December 2025. CSIRO's quantum sensing research covers quantum magnetometers for geological surveying, quantum gravimeters, and quantum-enhanced timing systems with applications in mining, agriculture, and defence.

CSIRO administers the Quantum Technologies Future Science Platform (QT FSP), which coordinates cross-disciplinary quantum research across the organisation. It also plays a role in Australia's National Quantum Strategy, contributing to the quantum workforce pipeline, quantum applications development for Australian industries, and international quantum research partnerships with the US through AUKUS, the UK, and Japan. The agency operates the Data61 quantum algorithms group, which works on quantum-classical hybrid methods for optimisation and machine learning. Update 2026-03-19: CSIRO demonstrated a novel quantum battery that charges faster as it scales up. Source: https://quantumzeitgeist.com/csiro-quantum-batteries-validates-potential/

CSIRO

The ARC Centre of Excellence for Engineered Quantum Systems (EQUS) is Australia's major government-funded quantum technology research centre. It operates as a national consortium of five universities: the University of Queensland (lead), the University of Sydney, Macquarie University, the University of Western Australia, and RMIT University. EQUS is funded by the Australian Research Council (ARC) and focuses on engineering quantum systems for practical applications.

EQUS research spans quantum error correction and fault-tolerant quantum computing, quantum-enhanced sensing, quantum communication protocols, and quantum hardware including superconducting circuits, optomechanical systems, and photonic quantum devices. The centre's engineering focus drives practical technology development alongside fundamental physics research, with industry partnerships across quantum computing, quantum sensing, and defence applications.

EQUS contributes to Australia's National Quantum Strategy and AUKUS Pillar II advanced technology cooperation. Since its founding, the centre has trained over 200 PhD students and postdoctoral researchers in quantum engineering, building the talent pipeline for Australia's commercial quantum sector. EQUS takes part in international research collaborations and serves as the primary point of contact for Australian quantum research within the Asia-Pacific quantum ecosystem.

EQUS

Nomad Atomics is an Australian company developing compact, low-cost cold-atom gravimeters, magnetometers, and atomic clocks for field deployment. The company manufactures portable quantum sensors designed for rugged field use in mineral exploration, archaeology, and defense applications. Nomad Atomics addresses the challenge of making quantum sensors practical for field operations by combining cold atom technology with robust engineering and compact form factors suitable for deployment outside laboratory environments.

Nomad Atomics

Optus, formally Singtel Optus Pty Limited, is an Australian telecommunications company founded in 1981 and headquartered in Sydney. A subsidiary of Singtel, it serves Australian telecommunications markets with mobile broadband and fixed-line services.

Optus is exploring quantum networking technologies, including quantum key distribution trials and quantum-safe telecommunications infrastructure. It works with Australian quantum technology companies and research institutions on quantum communications, and is investigating quantum encryption to prepare its network infrastructure for quantum technologies. Through this work, Optus contributes to the Australian quantum technology ecosystem and supports quantum communications research and quantum networking development for the telecommunications industry.

Optus

QDX is a computational drug discovery platform powered by quantum mechanics. It was co-founded in 2023 by Giuseppe M. J. Barca, an Associate Professor at the University of Melbourne whom The Australian named one of Australia's Top 250 Researchers in 2024, and Loong Wang, an entrepreneur whose first two tech companies were valued at nearly $2 billion when sold. The company specializes in high-performance quantum simulations that accelerate the design of new therapeutics.

QDX has a Canberra office on the ANU campus and locations in Singapore, and employs several graduates of the ANU School of Computing. The self-funded startup is seeking a dedicated fundraise to scale its Rush platform. Less than a year after incorporating, it closed commercial deals with pharmaceutical companies and tech start-ups in Australia, Singapore, and the United States.

QuantX Labs develops quantum optical atomic clocks, including TEMPO, which delivers up to 10x the performance of GNSS-based systems in a compact package suited to land or space deployment. The company concentrates on space-grade quantum timing solutions for navigation and communications.

Working with the University of Adelaide, QuantX is launching the first orbital demonstration of an optical frequency comb component via SpaceX in December 2025. The launch is backed by a $3.7 million grant from the Australian Space Agency's Moon to Mars initiative.

In March 2026, QuantX Labs deployed an optical frequency comb aboard an Exotrail spacevan via SpaceX on the KAIROS mission, validating the key optical component of its TEMPO.Space optical atomic clock in orbit. Full deployment of the clock system is planned for later in 2026, a major milestone toward space-based quantum timing services. Update 2026-03-31: QuantX Labs launched an optical frequency comb into orbit to validate its TEMPO.Space optical atomic clock technology. Source: https://quantumzeitgeist.com/quantx-labs-technology-validates-key/

QuantX Labs

Quantum Terminal is an Australian quantum technology company founded in 2018. It develops quantum computing applications for the financial services and fintech sectors, focusing on quantum algorithms for portfolio optimization, risk analysis, derivatives pricing, and financial modeling.

The company provides quantum software tools and quantum computing access for financial institutions exploring quantum advantage in computational finance, and it works with financial services firms and quantum computing providers to develop practical applications for banking, trading, and investment management. Its customers span banks, hedge funds, asset managers, and fintech companies that need quantum-enhanced computational capabilities for complex financial calculations and risk management.

Quantum Terminal

QuintessenceLabs is an Australian quantum cybersecurity company founded in 2008. It develops quantum-safe security products including quantum key management systems, quantum random number generators, and post-quantum cryptography implementations.

The company provides end-to-end quantum cybersecurity platforms that protect sensitive data and communications for government agencies, defense organizations, and enterprises against both current and future quantum computing threats. Its solutions draw on quantum physics to deliver provable security guarantees and forward compatibility with emerging quantum-safe standards.

QuintessenceLabs

Telstra Group Limited, formerly Telstra Corporation, is an Australian telecommunications company founded in 1975 and privatized in 1997, headquartered in Melbourne, Australia. It conducts quantum networking trials, running quantum key distribution (QKD) demonstrations and exploring quantum-safe telecommunications infrastructure.

Telstra works with Australian quantum technology companies including Q-CTRL and Silicon Quantum Computing to advance practical quantum communications. In October 2025, Telstra and Silicon Quantum Computing announced results from a joint initiative that took quantum computing out of the lab and into the telecommunications industry, a milestone in Australia's move toward quantum-enabled digital infrastructure. The company also explores quantum encryption for secure communications and quantum networking for future telecommunications infrastructure.

Telstra serves Australian telecommunications markets, enterprise customers, and government agencies that need quantum-safe communications. Through this work it contributes to the Australian quantum technology ecosystem, advancing quantum communications and quantum networking and helping position Australia as a quantum technology leader in the Asia-Pacific region. Update 2026-06-06: Telstra and Silicon Quantum Computing's Watermelon quantum reservoir matched deep learning accuracy for network prediction after training in days. Source: https://quantumzeitgeist.com/sqc-quantum-system-telstra-trained/

Telstra

Archer Materials (ASX: AXE) is an Australian ASX-listed company developing the 12CQ qubit processor chip, designed to operate at room temperature and integrate with existing semiconductor electronics, distinguishing it from cryogenic quantum computers. Based in Adelaide, the company applies quantum technology to computing and human health monitoring applications. Archer achieved a breakthrough in quantum chip spin detection, validating key components of their room-temperature qubit approach. In late 2025, Archer reported further device milestones, including electrical detection of quantum spin states on-chip, with a full single-qubit proof-of-function targeted for mid-2026.

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