The Governmentthrough the Spanish Society for Technological Transformation (SETT) has invested 9.75 million euros in the British company Nu Quantuman amount that will be used for this company to open a headquarters in Spain. The Minister for Digital Transformation and the Public Service, Óscar López, announced the investment during his speech at the Science for Industry forum, which is being held in Madrid, and in which the CEO and founder of Nu Quantum, the Spanish Carmen Palacios-Berraquero.
The two have confirmed that the company’s future subsidiary in Spain aims to become a reference center in quantum network infrastructure, with an expected significant impact on employment. The investment is part of a financing round in which Nu Quantum has raised a total of $60 million.
This company emerged at the University of Cambridge (United Kingdom) in 2018. Specifically, it was born in the Cavendish Laboratory, specialized in physics research. Nu Quantum was created after more than a decade of work, and is the first company in the world specialized in quantum networks. Its founder has a PhD in Physics from the University of Cambridge, and is part of the Technical Advisory Board of the National Center for Quantum Computing in the United Kingdom, in addition to having co-founded and directed the British quantum industry group, UK Quantum.
The company’s project aims to develop an advanced quantum network architecture that is capable of connecting multiple quantum processors in real time. In this way, your joint processing capacity will significantly increase. This approach seeks to overcome one of the main challenges facing the sector: scalability. It is currently one of the main obstacles for quantum computing to be adopted at an industrial level.
Thanks to these networks, quantum computers with the computing power necessary to address complex problems in different areas can be developed. Such as the discovery of new drugs, energy optimization, modeling of advanced materials or communications security.
He main mission of the future subsidiary of Nu Quantum in Spain will be the industrialization of the Quantum Networking Unit (QNU)as well as the development of photonic integrated circuits (PIC). These are essential for the creation of ultra-fast, low-loss sensing and switching modules, enabling enterprise-level quantum computing to scale. The SETT will ensure that the project is integrated into the national quantum and photonic ecosystem, aligning it with Spain’s strategic priorities in this field.
The Government’s initiative responds to its interest in consolidating European digital sovereignty in an area of importance for future competitiveness, and places Spain at the forefront of one of the most important aspects of quantum computing.
According to Minister Óscar López, «The race for quantum will not be easy, but Spain can and should specialize in sectors such as quantum communications. That is why the Government of Spain will invest almost 10 million euros in the launch of a subsidiary of Nu Quantum in our country, through the SETT, and placing us at the forefront of the interconnection of quantum computers. 10 years ago, Spain exported talent and imported technological services. Now it’s just the other way around. Nu Quantum will play a key role because it will enable quantum to have commercial applications and because it will generate high-value talent: we are talking about more than 30 qualified jobs«.
López has also highlighted, in relation to the national interest in contributing to the advancement of Europe’s digital sovereigntywhich «There will come a day when quantum will be on everyone’s lips. And Spain is anticipating it, we are deploying the necessary infrastructure for its development and scalability. Our goal is to finance, promote and govern quantum technologies to make our country a key node in Europe and the world. Quantum technology opens the doors to a new world because it can reduce mathematical calculations that would take years to minutes. If Spanish quantum technology manages to prevent a cyber attack, discover a new medicine or save a life, all the effort will have been worth it.«.
