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EDBI invests in Universal Quantum’s quantum computing plans

Avatar of Ivy Delaney
September 9, 2026 by Ivy Delaney
Image: ALI_TOLLERVEY · universalquantum.com

EDBI, the investment arm of SG Growth Capital, is making a SGD 30 million investment to support Universal Quantum’s establishment of its first research and development centre outside of Europe, located in Singapore. The new facility will launch with a team of 25 and anchor the company’s Asia-Pacific research, using Singapore’s strengths in chip development and quantum algorithms.

“Singapore brings together world-class research infrastructure, advanced manufacturing expertise and a highly collaborative Government,” said Dr Sebastian Weidt, CEO and co-founder of Universal Quantum. This expansion marks Singapore’s growing role as a key hub within the quantum computing landscape.

Singapore Anchors Universal Quantum’s Asia-Pacific R&D Expansion

Universal Quantum’s decision to locate its Asia-Pacific R&D hub in Singapore underscores the nation’s growing prominence in quantum innovation and advanced manufacturing, according to officials. The British High Commissioner to Singapore, Nik Mehta, affirmed that “Universal Quantum’s decision to establish its first R&D Competency Centre outside Europe in Singapore is a powerful example of the innovation partnership between the UK and Singapore.” This move builds upon existing collaboration with the National Quantum Office and utilizes Singapore’s established ecosystem for emerging technologies.

The company anticipates long-term growth within Singapore, citing the strength of the local ecosystem, the government’s quantum strategy, and the quality of both industrial and research partners as key factors in their decision. EDBI expects the investment to both deepen Singapore’s quantum research and development capabilities and create highly skilled jobs within the sector.

Universal Quantum’s move reflects confidence in Singapore as a trusted base for developing and scaling frontier technologies like quantum.

Ling Keok Tong, Executive Director of the National Quantum Office

Ion Trap Chip Development Advances Fault-Tolerant Quantum Computing

Universal Quantum’s expansion into Singapore centers on a focused program of ion trap chip development, a critical component in building stable qubits necessary for scalable quantum computers. The company intends to integrate its chip design expertise with Singapore’s established fabrication and packaging infrastructure, aiming to create a microchip development facility.

This advance directly addresses the need for stable qubits at the scale required for reliable quantum computing applications in fields ranging from medicine to climate modeling. The new research and development competency centre will not only advance hardware but also anchor partnerships within Singapore’s growing quantum ecosystem of researchers and industry collaborators, according to the company.

Universal Quantum’s decision to establish its Asia-Pacific R&D hub locally underscores Singapore’s strengths in quantum innovation and advanced manufacturing.

Soo Haw Yun, Vice President, Global Enterprises, EDB

EDBI Investment Fuels Universal Quantum’s Singapore Competency Centre

EDBI’s role extends beyond financial backing; the investment platform, jointly managed by EDB and Enterprise Singapore, is now a strategic investor in Universal Quantum, signaling a commitment to fostering long-term growth within the nation’s quantum ecosystem. This move establishes a firm financial foundation for Universal Quantum’s expansion, with an initial investment exceeding SGD 30 million allocated to personnel, facilities, and services in Singapore.

The establishment of this centre marks Universal Quantum’s first dedicated research and development presence outside of Europe, a strategic decision underscored by the company’s confidence in Singapore’s infrastructure. The company stated that it believes in the nation’s ability to support the development and scaling of frontier technologies like quantum computing.

Universal Quantum’s decision to establish its first R&D Competency Centre outside Europe in Singapore is a powerful example of the innovation partnership between the UK and Singapore in action.

Nik Mehta, British High Commissioner to Singapore
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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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