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On May 4, QUTAC welcomed Russell Stutz, Senior Director of Product Technologies at Quantinuum, for an Expert Talk on the company’s newly unveiled Helios platform.

Russell shared exclusive insights into the 98-qubit system, including its barium-ion architecture, the ion-junction design with a rotatable storage ring enabling all-to-all connectivity, and the new Guppy programming language. With record-breaking gate fidelities and GPU-accelerated real-time control, Helios marks a tangible step towards enterprise-grade quantum computing and signals a clear direction for the future of trapped-ion hardware.

For QUTAC’s industrial end-user community, these insights offer a valuable exchange with the pioneers shaping the next phase of quantum computing. 

QUTAC would like to thank Russell Stutz and all attendees for their participation.

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this news post are solely those of QUTAC and are not affiliated with Quantinuum.

QUTAC recently had the privilege of hosting an in-depth Q&A session with Prof. Scott Aaronson from the University of Texas at Austin. One of the most influential and famously plainspoken voices in the quantum computing community. 

Prof. Aaronson shared his perspectives on the latest research advancements, reflected on QUTAC’s own research results, and discussed how the industrial end-user community is currently approaching quantum computing, along with the potential implications for QUTAC’s work. His commitment to scientific outreach is also reflected in his widely read blog. 

We would like to congratulate Prof. Aaronson on two recent milestones: receiving the prestigious Luca Trevisan Award for Expository Work in Theoretical Computer Science, and being elected as a member of the National Academy of Sciences. 

QUTAC would like to thank Prof. Aaronson for the clarity and candor of his contribution, as well as the entire QUTAC community for the questions and enthusiasm.  

On May 12, 2026, over a hundred high-level representatives from German and French industry, policy, start-up and investment sectors will gathered for a reception hosted by the German Ambassador to France, His Excellency Mr Stefan Steinlein, with the support of the French Embassy in Germany. This event reflected the growing importance of quantum technologies for Europe’s technological and industrial sovereignty, building on the German-French agenda agreed in August 2025. Germany and France are home to some of the world’s leading players in this field.

Photo Copyright: Simon Cassanas

How can businesses strategically build their quantum readiness? The OECD provides key insights in a new paper.

The latest OECD – OCDE Digital Economy Paper, “Building Business Readiness for Quantum Computing”, systematically examines how companies can prepare for the commercial use of quantum computing, highlighting common barriers that stand in the way. The study is based on interviews with 16 public and private organizations across 10 countries, including QUTAC.

As of January 1, 2026, TRUMPF will take over the leadership of the Quantum Technology and Application Consortium (QUTAC) – a regular change that offers new perspectives and further strengthens the interdisciplinary nature of the consortium’s collaboration.

As a technology-driven company with strong ties to mechanical engineering, networked manufacturing and laser technology, TRUMPF will contribute specific fields of application to the consortium’s work. In addition to the overarching QUTAC topics addressed by the working groups, we aim to place a focus on post-quantum cryptography to secure data in the quantum era and on photonic computing for the efficient use of AI. 

The new leadership team consists of Berthold Schmidt (Chairperson of the Executive Committee) and Florian Dommert (Chairperson of the Steering Committee).

QUTAC would like to express our sincere thanks to Abdu Mudesir, Oliver Holschke and Andreas Fier from Deutsche Telekom for actively leading the consortium in the second half of 2025. Their commitment has strengthened QUTAC’s visibility in German and European politics – for example through the DE-FR Quantum Dialogue and a side event at the EU summit on digital sovereignty. They also expanded internal knowledge exchange – an important step toward a shared positioning. 

With the EU Quantum Act, the European Commission is sending a clear signal for the industrial application of quantum technologies. As the Quantum Technology and Application Consortium (QUTAC) – a consortium of 14 leading companies from Germany and Europe – we strongly welcome this political initiative. We see it as our responsibility to contribute our industry-driven expertise to the implementation and to specifically strengthen Europe’s innovative capacity in the field of quantum technologies.

In our position paper on the EU Quantum Act, we provide specific recommendations for action to effectively advance the industrial use of quantum technologies.