Quantum Computing News, High Performance Computing

SoftBank joins research institute, Quantinuum to link quantum with AI data centers

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November 10, 2026 by Ivy Delaney

An upgrade to Quantinuum’s Reimei quantum computer at RIKEN now enables researchers to address more complex scientific problems than previously possible with the prior H1 system. RIKEN and Quantinuum expanded their partnership to advance quantum-AI hybrid supercomputing, with plans to collaborate with Japanese universities and SoftBank Corp. to build domestic infrastructure and connect the quantum computer with AI data centers in Japan.

“With the upgraded Reimei quantum computer, we will be able to tackle more complex and larger-scale scientific problems that were difficult to address with the previous H1 system,” says Mitsuhisa Sato, Division Director of the Quantum-HPC Hybrid Platform Division at the RIKEN Center for Computational Science (R-CCS).

RIKEN and Quantinuum Advance Quantum-AI Hybrid Supercomputing

The collaboration between RIKEN and Quantinuum now includes plans to develop a domestically produced, fault-tolerant quantum computer, built with contributions from Japanese universities and suppliers. RIKEN and Quantinuum will also collaborate with SoftBank Corp. to explore the connection of the quantum computer with AI data centers in Japan.

This connection aims to support use case development across critical sectors including electronics, energy and life sciences, by combining the power of quantum, super and conventional AI computing. The newly signed Memorandum of Understanding will expand research into the use of quantum computing for AI for Science, a key initiative being promoted by RIKEN, with a strategic emphasis on applying quantum resources to accelerate scientific discovery.

With the upgraded Reimei quantum computer, we will be able to tackle more complex and larger-scale scientific problems that were difficult to address with the previous H1 system, further advancing quantum-HPC hybrid computing through our ongoing JHPC-quantum project.

Mitsuhisa Sato, Division Director of the Quantum-HPC Hybrid Platform Division at the RIKEN Center for Computational Science (R-CCS)
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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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