Microsoft and Photonic Inc. have announced a strategic collaboration to advance quantum networking and computing. The partnership will combine Photonic’s spin-photon architecture, which supports quantum communication over standard telecom wavelengths, with Microsoft’s Azure infrastructure. The aim is to integrate quantum networking capabilities into everyday operating environments. Jason Zander, Executive Vice President of Strategic Missions and Technologies at Microsoft, and Dr. Stephanie Simmons, founder and Chief Quantum Officer of Photonic, highlighted the potential of the collaboration to accelerate scientific discovery and innovation in quantum computing. The partnership will focus on three stages of quantum networking, including the development of a reliable quantum repeater.
Quantum Computing Collaboration between Photonic Inc. and Microsoft
Photonic Inc., a company specialising in scalable, fault-tolerant, and distributed quantum technologies, has announced a strategic co-innovation collaboration with Microsoft. The shared goal of this partnership is to advance the next stages in quantum networking and enhance the quantum computing ecosystem with new capabilities. This will be achieved by integrating Photonic’s novel spin-photon architecture, which supports quantum communication over standard telecom wavelengths, with Microsoft’s global scale and state-of-the-art infrastructure.
The collaboration aims to integrate quantum networking capabilities into everyday operating environments. The new technologies developed through this partnership are expected to enable reliable quantum communication over long distances and accelerate scientific research and development with quantum computing devices.
Powering the Quantum Ecosystem with Advanced Quantum Networks
The collaboration between Photonic and Microsoft aims to enhance the quantum ecosystem by extending its capabilities beyond computing to include networking and sensing. This could unlock applications and scientific discovery at scale across various fields such as chemistry, materials science, metrology, and communications.
The vision of this collaboration requires a fundamental capability: entanglement distribution over long distances. Photonic’s unique architecture is based on highly connected silicon spin qubits with a spin-photon interface. This novel approach communicates using ultralow-loss standard telecom fibres and wavelengths. When paired with Microsoft’s global infrastructure and the scale of the Azure cloud, this technology will integrate new quantum networking capabilities into everyday operating environments.
Three Stages of Quantum Networking
The collaboration between Microsoft and Photonic will address three stages of quantum networking. At the first stage, the physical layer, the aim is to deliver entanglement between two separate quantum devices via photons through telecom fibre. The second stage, the link layer, aims to deliver a quantum repeater that can capture, entangle, and hold quantum information reliably for a short time. Finally, at the third stage, the network layer, the focus is on delivering a reliable quantum repeater that is fault-tolerant and operational with the Azure cloud. This technology could overcome any limitations on distance in the network and enable the creation of a full-scale, global quantum internet.
Co-innovation to Accelerate Scientific Discovery
The collaboration between Microsoft and Photonic is based on the belief that global collaboration and co-innovation are necessary to unlock the full promise of quantum computing. The goal is to empower people to find solutions to the biggest challenges facing our industries and our world. The collaboration plans to integrate Photonic’s unique quantum hardware into Microsoft’s Azure Quantum Elements offering as it becomes available. This will enable scientific exploration at foundational quantum computing levels, with a commitment to reach higher levels of resilience and scale on the path to quantum supercomputing in the future.
Photonic’s Novel Approach: Photonically Linked Silicon Spin Qubits
Photonic’s platform is based on proven spin qubits in silicon, offering a native telecom networking interface and the manufacturability of silicon. With Azure Quantum Elements, quantum solutions will be fully integrated with advancements in high-performance computing (HPC) and AI. This integration will transform research and development processes, preparing for the seamless adoption of quantum supercomputing at scale.
“We are thrilled about joining forces with Photonic in improving the world through quantum technologies. There is an opportunity to ignite new capabilities across the quantum ecosystem extending beyond computing, such as networking and sensing, and unlocking applications and scientific discovery at scale across chemistry, materials science, metrology, communications, and many other fields. The capabilities we aim to deliver with Photonic can enable this vision and bring about quantum’s impact far more quickly than otherwise possible.”—Jason Zander, Executive Vice President of Strategic Missions and Technologies, Microsoft.
“It will take a global ecosystem to unlock the full promise of quantum computing. No company or country can do it alone. That’s why we’re incredibly excited to be partnering with Microsoft to bring forth these new quantum capabilities. Their extensive global infrastructure, proven platforms, and the remarkable scale of the Azure cloud make them the ideal partner to unleash the transformative potential of quantum computing and accelerate innovation across the quantum computing ecosystem.”—Dr. Stephanie Simmons, founder and Chief Quantum Officer of Photonic and the Co-Chair of Canada’s National Quantum Strategy Advisory Board.
Quick Summary
Microsoft and Photonic Inc. are collaborating to advance quantum networking by integrating Photonic’s unique spin-photon architecture with Microsoft’s Azure infrastructure. The partnership aims to enable reliable quantum communication over long distances and accelerate scientific research and development with quantum computing devices.
- Microsoft and Photonic Inc. have announced a strategic collaboration to advance quantum networking and computing technologies.
- Photonic’s unique spin-photon architecture, which supports quantum communication over standard telecom wavelengths, will be combined with Microsoft’s Azure infrastructure.
- The collaboration aims to deliver reliable quantum communication over long distances and accelerate scientific research and development with quantum computing devices.
- Jason Zander, Executive Vice President of Strategic Missions and Technologies at Microsoft, and Dr. Stephanie Simmons, founder and Chief Quantum Officer of Photonic, highlighted the potential of the partnership to unlock new capabilities across the quantum ecosystem.
- The collaboration will focus on three stages of quantum networking: delivering entanglement between two separate quantum devices via photons through telecom fiber, developing a quantum repeater that can capture, entangle, and hold quantum information, and creating a reliable, fault-tolerant quantum repeater operational with Azure cloud.
- The ultimate goal is to overcome limitations on distance in the network and enable the creation of a full-scale, global quantum internet.
- Photonic’s unique quantum hardware will be integrated into Microsoft’s Azure Quantum Elements offering as part of the collaboration.
