July 5, 2023 | Boston & New York

In a significant development for the Swiss quantum ecosystem, IonQ, a leading manufacturer of quantum computers based in the United States, and QuantumBasel, a company within the uptownBasel group, have announced a groundbreaking partnership. Their collaboration aims to jointly establish a European quantum data center at the uptownBasel campus in Arlsheim, Switzerland.

As part of the partnership, IonQ plans to open a quantum innovation center at uptownBasel to facilitate research and development of next-generation systems across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA). The Maryland-based company will also deploy two quantum computers on the campus. The first, with 35 algorithmic qubits (#AQ 35), will be installed next year. This machine will be replaced at a future date with a more advanced computer with 64 algorithmic qubits (#AQ 64). The #AQ 64 system, when delivered, will give the uptownBasel ecosystem, including companies, startups, research institutes, and universities, access to computing power that may exceed that of even the largest conventional supercomputers.

The partnership between IonQ and QuantumBasel marks a major step in the closer entanglement of the Swiss and US quantum ecosystems and illustrates the broader efforts of many Swiss stakeholders in facilitating international collaboration in quantum research and innovation.

Representatives from IonQ and QuantumBasel first met at Swissnex’s Swiss-US Quantum Days conference in Chicago in October 2022 and IonQ participated in the follow-up US-Switzerland Quantum Symposium at uptownBasel in March 2023. Meanwhile, the Embassy of Switzerland in the USA, the Swiss Business Hub USA, and Swissnex in Boston and New York – which launched Project Quantum – maintained close contact with IonQ, including through a collective visit to IonQ’s headquarters in College Park (MD) led by Ambassador Jacques Pitteloud last January.