Executive Summary
The summer break is definitely over.
France’s quantum sector focused on the manufacturing, software and commercial relationships needed to put quantum computers into wider use in September 2026. Quobly reported progress on chips made through an industrial semiconductor process, while Alice & Bob and Quandela outlined efforts to connect quantum processors with conventional computing infrastructure.
Quobly reported qubit readout and single- and two-qubit operations on devices fabricated at STMicroelectronics’ commercial 300 mm facilities in Crolles, France. The results provided an initial validation of its approach to manufacturing silicon quantum processors. The company also expanded its collaboration with CEA-Leti through access to the FAMES Pilot Line, where it can evaluate manufacturing processes for later processor generations.
Supporting infrastructure featured in two other Quobly agreements. The company signed a memorandum of understanding with Orange Quantum Systems to collaborate on testing silicon spin-qubit devices at scale. A separate industrial partnership with Absolut System will support the cooling systems needed for successive generations of Quobly’s computers, following an initial milestone in their cryogenic platform program.
Software integration emerged as another major theme. CEA and Alice & Bob said they would develop software connecting quantum processors with traditional supercomputers, citing the importance of avoiding dependence on a single software ecosystem. Quandela published a white paper describing an architecture for integrating photonic quantum processors with NVIDIA infrastructure, with quantum hardware acting as a specialized accelerator alongside CPUs and GPUs.
Pasqal’s financial results illustrated both commercial growth and the cost of developing quantum tech. Separately, Pasqal said it would end its participation in the French defense program LSQUARE, also known as PROQCIMA, and focus its public-sector collaboration on commercial applications.
Defense-related work continued elsewhere. Thales, Bull and CEA will spend five years developing Aliquante, a software platform intended to program future French quantum computers in classified environments. C12 and Thales also announced QuantumTrack, a hybrid quantum-classical approach to tracking multiple radar targets.
International activity included Quandela’s agreement with Quanova to support quantum capabilities in Vietnam and a memorandum of understanding with CMC Microsystems to provide cloud-based services through Canada’s Quantum Computing Sandbox.
This is a non-exhaustive list of some of the news that affected France’s quantum community in September 2026.
Policy
The global race for quantum supremacy, billions invested, Sino-American rivalry… recent months have firmly established quantum technologies within the global economic, technological and geopolitical landscape. EDHEC, with its dedicated institute, intends to play a leading role in this quantum revolution: we meet Lionel Martellini, its founder, and Camille Georges, its new deputy director.
The French army is preparing the software for its future quantum computers
With the Aliquante project, the Ministry of the Armed Forces wants to have the necessary tools to program the quantum machines developed in France when they are operational. Thales, Bull and the CEA will work for five years on this sovereign software platform, designed to operate in a classified environment.
South Korea and France Partner for Quantum Computing Leadership
On the 8th (local time), leaders of flagship companies from South Korea and France gathered at a summit between President Lee Jae Myung and French President Emmanuel Macron at the Élysée Palace in Paris. From South Korea, representatives from Samsung Electronics, LG Electronics, Hyundai Motor, and Naver attended, while France was represented by BNP Paribas, cosmetics giant L’Oréal, and AI companies Mistral AI.
Business
Quobly and Orange Quantum Systems Partner on Silicon Spin Qubit Testing
Quobly, a French quantum computing company developing silicon spin qubit processors for industrial-scale deployment, and Orange Quantum Systems (OrangeQS), a company based in Delft specializing in automated diagnostics and high-throughput test systems for solid-state quantum chips, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to collaborate on the characterization and testing of silicon spin qubit devices at scale.
Quobly and Absolut System Partner on Cryogenic Infrastructure for Spin-Qubit Quantum Computers
Quobly and Absolut System today announce the signing of an Industrial Partnership Declaration to support the development and scaling of Quobly’s spin-qubit quantum computers. The signing comes as the two companies reach a first major milestone in the QCube® 100-Class 3 program, a high-cooling-power cryogenic platform developed by Absolut System to meet the requirements of Quobly’s quantum processors. This first project lays the foundation for a cooperation designed to evolve alongside the different generations of Alloy, Quobly’s quantum computer product family.
Quandela Publishes White Paper on Photonic QPU Integration With NVIDIA Infrastructure
Building on our June announcement of a low-latency integration between a Quandela photonic QPU and NVIDIA AI infrastructure, the companies are publishing a technical white paper today. This paper outlines a vision and architectural framework for gradually integrating quantum computing into current AI and HPC environments. This approach is based on the complementarity of CPUs, GPUs and QPUs. The CPU orchestrates workflows, while the GPU remains at the center of AI processing, notably handling intensive computation and simulation. The QPU acts as a specialized accelerator for workloads for which quantum computing could bring significant value.
France’s CEA, Alice & Bob partner on quantum-supercomputing software
France’s Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) and quantum startup Alice & Bob said on Thursday they would develop software linking quantum processors with traditional supercomputers, arguing the industry should avoid the kind of dependence on a single software ecosystem that helped cement Nvidia‘s dominance in artificial intelligence.
C12 and Thales Develop QuantumTrack for Real-Time Radar Tracking
C12, the French quantum computing company building carbon nanotube spin-qubit processors, and Thales, the global technology leader in Aerospace, Defence, and Cyber & Digital, today announced QuantumTrack, a hybrid quantum-classical solution for real-time multi-target radar tracking. The project has won the 2026 Quantum Effects Award in the Quantum Computing Hardware category, and the two partners are presenting it at the Quantum Effects trade fair in Stuttgart, Germany, on October 6.
Pasqal Reports 14% Revenue Growth in First Half of 2026
Pasqal reported €4.9 million in first-half 2026 revenue, up 14% year over year, with QPU-related services revenue rising 34% to €3.9 million.
The company reported €70.4 million in booked and awarded business as of June 30, alongside an operating loss of €59.2 million and €110.8 million in cash and cash equivalents. Pasqal also reported technology and commercial milestones including 1,024-atom registers, logical-qubit work, NVIDIA CUDA-Q integration, deployments in Saudi Arabia and Italy, and partnerships across finance, energy and life sciences.
French Quantum Computing Firm Quandela Explores Quantum Chip Manufacturing Tie-Up with Samsung, SK
French quantum computing company Quandela is exploring quantum chip manufacturing collaboration with South Korean semiconductor firms including Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix. Quandela, spun off from a French national research institute in 2017, develops quantum computers using a matter-photon hybrid architecture that combines III-V compound semiconductors with photonic integrated circuits.
Quandela and Quanova sign strategic partnership to build quantum capabilities in Vietnam
Quandela, a European leader in photonic quantum computing, and Quanova, a Vietnamese quantum technology and ecosystem development company, announce the signing of a strategic partnership agreement aimed at supporting the long-term development of quantum computing capabilities in Vietnam. The agreement was formalized during the Vietnam–France Leaders Forum, held in the presence of French President Emmanuel Macron and General Secretary and President of Vietnam Tô Lâm as part of his official visit to France.
Quandela becomes the first photonic platform in Canada’s cloud-accessible Quantum Computing Sandbox
Quandela, a leading player in photonic quantum computing technologies, has signed a memorandum of understanding with CMC Microsystems to join the Quantum Computing Sandbox as a provider of cloud-based computing services. Quandela’s expertise, based within the country, now joins forces with other providers to offer a comprehensive suite of quantum options made available to small and medium-sized enterprises, organizations, and academic researchers, with the aim of developing and accelerating the solutions that will be applied to a wide range of fields and needs.
Quobly, a French company developing silicon-based quantum computers, and CEA-Leti, a leading research institute in microelectronics and information technologies, are strengthening their long-standing collaboration through access to the FAMES Pilot Line, which complements Quobly’s industrial collaboration with STMicroelectronics and supports its technology roadmap. At FAMES, a pioneering initiative promoting semiconductor technologies in Europe by supporting the emergence of higher-performance, more energy-efficient, and more sustainable chip designs, Quobly can access advanced semiconductor equipment and process modules to develop and evaluate new process flows and patterning approaches for later processor generations.
Pasqal Shifts French Public Collaboration Toward Commercial Quantum Computing
Pasqal (NASDAQ: PSQL) is announcing an evolution of the areas of its collaboration with the French public authorities to now focus on commercial applications, in line with the company’s growth strategy and innovation priorities. This evolution includes the termination of Pasqal’s participation in the defense program LSQUARE (otherwise known as PROQCIMA), to which Pasqal participated in its first phase and successfully completed all the technological objectives. Pasqal thanks the French Direction générale de l’armement (DGA) of the Ministry of the Armed Forces for having supported it during the first phase of the defense program LSQUARE.
Research
Quobly Demonstrates Key Quantum Operations on 300 mm Silicon Chip
Quobly, a French quantum computing company developing industrially scalable quantum computers based on silicon spin qubits, today announces new results showing qubit readout, single-qubit gates and two-qubit gates on a single quantum chip fabricated on its proprietary QSOI® technology. The results were obtained on QSOI® devices fabricated in STMicroelectronics’ commercial 300 mm manufacturing facilities in Crolles (Grenoble – France), using FD-SOI CMOS technology. • This demonstrates that key quantum operations can be performed on devices manufactured through an industrial semiconductor production process, providing an initial validation of the technology path toward repeatable and scalable quantum processor manufacturing.
Alice & Bob, a leader in fault-tolerant quantum computing, and Hyperion Research, the HPC industry’s leading analyst and market-intelligence firm, today released a new report on what it will take to enable HPC-Quantum-AI systems with insights from HPC practitioners.
Education and Events
Jacqueline Bloch, lecturer at École Polytechnique, receives the CNRS Gold Medal
A lecturer at École Polytechnique since 2015, physicist Jacqueline Bloch was awarded the 2026 CNRS Gold Medal for her work on polaritons and their applications in quantum physics. Each year, the CNRS Gold Medal honors a scientist whose work has made an exceptional contribution to the prestige of French research. Jacqueline Bloch is being honored for her pioneering research on polaritons, a phenomenon that can occur when light interacts with certain solid materials, such as semiconductors. The light provides energy to the electrons in the material, which begin to move and, in turn, emit light. These collective back-and-forth movements between light and matter are complex. They can be described mathematically as if they were caused by “quasiparticles” known as polaritons.
Join us in Paris for the 2026 European Quantum Summit, where aviation professionals from across Europe come together to connect, learn, and explore what’s next for the industry. Designed exclusively for Quantum users, industry leaders, and aviation professionals, this two-day event features expert-led sessions, product updates, customer success stories, interactive discussions, and valuable networking opportunities.
