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QuEra Computing expands to Maryland’s Capital of Quantum

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September 22, 2026 by Ivy Delaney

QuEra Computing will expand its operations to Maryland’s Discovery District, bringing its neutral-atom quantum computing technology to the heart of the Capital of Quantum initiative. The Boston-based company has established an agreement with the University of Maryland’s National Quantum Laboratory (QLab), granting researchers cloud access to QuEra’s Aquila platform, offering up to 256 qubits for hands-on development.

“We are excited to offer our user community access to QuEra’s neutral atom-based systems,” said Norbert Linke, Director of QLab. This move adds a fourth qubit modality, neutral atom, to Maryland’s growing portfolio of superconducting, trapped-ion, and silicon quantum approaches.

QuEra Computing Expands Access via University of Maryland QLab

QuEra Computing deepened its ties to the Maryland quantum ecosystem by establishing an office within Discovery District Maryland, a hub designed to foster collaboration between industry, academia, and federal research institutions. The arrangement allows hands-on development and testing of quantum applications utilizing up to 256 qubits, a capability now accessible to a wider user base.

The strategic location within Discovery District Maryland places QuEra alongside companies like Microsoft, Quantum Motion, and IQM, and immediately adjacent to partners including the National Institute of Standards and Technology, NASA Goddard, and the Army Research Laboratory. Corey Stambaugh, Director of the Capital of Quantum, emphasized the significance of QuEra’s arrival, stating, “QuEra’s decision to establish an office in Discovery District Maryland strengthens our growing quantum hardware cluster and brings a powerful new neutral-atom platform into Maryland’s expanding ecosystem.” This concentration of resources is intentional, designed to accelerate innovation through synergistic partnerships.

Unlike some competing platforms, neutral-atom systems operate at room temperature, avoiding the need for complex and costly dilution refrigerators. The ability to rearrange atoms during computation offers dynamic connectivity, potentially reducing computational overhead for certain algorithms. This will allow scientists, educators, and entrepreneurs to develop and test hands-on quantum applications with this quickly developing hardware platform.

This commitment to accessibility reflects a broader trend toward democratizing quantum computing, enabling a wider range of individuals to explore and contribute to the field. Stambaugh further elaborated on the collaborative spirit driving this initiative, saying, “This is exactly the kind of industry–university partnership we’re building—connecting leading companies with UMD talent, research capabilities, and nearby federal partners to accelerate innovation and grow the region’s quantum economy.” QuEra’s office is located in the Discovery Center, providing access to flexible workspaces, custom labs, and direct engagement with the University of Maryland’s research community.

We are excited to offer our user community access to QuEra’s neutral atom-based systems. This will allow scientists, educators, and entrepreneurs to develop and test hands-on quantum applications with up to 256 qubits offered by this quickly developing hardware platform.

Norbert Linke, Director of QLab, the National Quantum Laboratory at the University of Maryland
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Avatar of Ivy Delaney

Ivy Delaney

Ivy Delaney has been working with neural networks and machine learning since the mid-nineties, back when a couple of hidden layers and a long afternoon of training counted as ambitious. She has watched the field go from academic curiosity to the thing quietly running underneath everything, and she brings that long view to quantum computing. For Quantum Zeitgeist she covers the ground where the two fields meet. That means quantum machine learning and the variational algorithms it leans on, and it also means the less glamorous but more interesting story of classical machine learning already doing real work inside quantum machines, decoding error-correcting codes, calibrating noisy hardware and learning the error models that simulators depend on. She writes about the hardware those algorithms have to run on too, and about the post-quantum cryptography scramble that the same hardware has set off. Her stories typically start with the paper, whether that is peer-reviewed work, conference proceedings or an arXiv preprint, with the source linked so you can hold a claim up against the research it came from. She is unimpressed by benchmarks that will not say what they beat, and by demonstrations that only work in the press release.

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