Quandela has announced the launch of Belenos, a 12-qubit photonic quantum computer, now accessible via the cloud to research and industry users. The system, based at Quandela’s headquarters in Massy, France, is reported to offer 4,000 times the computing power of the company’s earlier 6-qubit model, which was introduced in 2022. The Belenos launch is part of Quandela’s 2030 roadmap and marks a step toward its target of developing a 40-qubit system over the next three years.
The current deployment allows more than 1,200 users across 30 countries to access the system remotely, with two-thirds of usage concentrated in Europe. The photonic architecture is designed to support workloads including quantum machine learning and high-performance computing (HPC) simulations. Quandela plans to deliver a fully integrated version of Belenos to EuroHPC/GENCI by the end of 2025 for operation at the Très Grand Centre de Calcul (TGCC) in France.
According to the company, a follow-up system named Canopus is expected within a year, which will double the number of qubits and increase computing power by several orders of magnitude. Targeted applications for quantum-HPC hybrid workloads include electromagnetic simulation, combustion modeling, and structural mechanics. Commercial usage currently accounts for 25% of cloud activity, with ongoing interest from sectors exploring AI and quantum intersections.
- Belenos provides 12 photonic qubits; 4,000× performance gain over 2022 platform
- Available via cloud to over 1,200 users in 30 countries, with 40% based in France
- Integrated system to be deployed at TGCC for EuroHPC/GENCI by year-end
- Next-generation Canopus system to double qubits and expand capacity
- Application areas include quantum machine learning and HPC-quantum coupling
“We are extremely proud of this new development. Cloud access to Belenos now offers to our partners the possibility to explore use cases where the speed of calculation and the number of computational operations per data point are essential,” said Niccolo Somaschi, co-founder and CEO of Quandela.
- Founded in 2017 in Massy, Île-de-France, Quandela is a French quantum computing company established by Pascale Senellart (research director at C2N, CNRS), Niccolo Somaschi, and Valérian Giesz, specializing in full-stack photonic quantum computing for energy, cybersecurity, and finance applications. Its core technology, the eDelight solid-state single-photon source, enables scalable, energy-efficient quantum systems, accessible via cloud or on-premises. Quandela launched its first cloud-accessible quantum computer in 2022, opened a manufacturing facility in Massy in June 2023, and secured over €50 million in November 2023 to expand internationally. Employing over 100 professionals from 20 nationalities, the company partners with EuroHPC/GENCI and Welinq to advance quantum networking.
