AirTrunk is partnering to explore deploying cryogenic cooling in data centers.

The company this week announced a partnership and MoU with deep tech company Emergence Quantum (EQ) to bring cryogenic cooling and quantum computing to data centers.

The companies noted that cryo-cooling can “significantly improve” the speed and energy efficiency of today’s silicon computer chips, and is foundational to other future computing systems, including quantum.

The partnership aims to bring together deep expertise in cryogenic computing, thermal engineering, and quantum technologies, data center architecture, and real-world techno-economic models that can prove out the performance opportunities for cryo-data centers.

The collaboration is part of AirTrunk’s broader goal to build data center infrastructure that is quantum-ready and able to embed cryogenic cooling into overall data center campus setup.

AirTrunk VP for innovation and intelligence, Jose Castaneda, said: “We are continuously redefining data centers with cutting-edge technologies that improve performance, efficiency, and sustainability. This partnership with EQ challenges the status quo and is a great example of how data centers can act as broader enablers of innovation in our communities.”

Founded in 2018, AirTrunk has data center campuses in operation and development in Sydney and Melbourne in Australia, as well as Singapore; Hong Kong; Johor, Malaysia; Tokyo, and Osaka, Japan.

Emergence Quantum Co-founder and CEO Professor David Reilly added: “It’s been understood for decades that computers run significantly faster and more efficiently in the cold, but there are challenges and costs to cooling that have so far limited this approach to niche applications. The scale of data centers and the tiny size of transistors today change all that — the cryo-computing epoch has arrived.”

Emergence Quantum was founded last year as a research and development company by University of Sydney academics. It is focused on integrated cryogenic electronics and quantum computing.

Professor Thomas Ohki, co-founder and CTO of Emergence Quantum, added: “For us, cryogenic data centers are an inevitable reality — this cooling technology is needed for high-speed efficient silicon chips, superconducting logic, and ultimately quantum computing. All flavors of qubits need cryogenics one way or another.”

To date, most quantum computers have been hosted in labs and computing centers, enterprise sites, or in facilities operated by quantum companies. However, a growing number are starting to be deployed in colocation spaces.

UK quantum computing company Oxford Quantum Circuits has previously installed a quantum computer at an Equinix facility in Tokyo, Japan, and in Centersquare’s LHR3 facility in Reading, UK.

Orca, another UK quantum firm, has deployed its hardware in Digital Realty's new liquid cooling lab in London. Australian quantum startup Diraq has partnered with Equinix to deploy a quantum computer at a data center in Sydney, Australia.

There is also research being done into using cryogenic cooling for non-quantum computing hardware. Research running CMOS chips at very low temperatures using liquid nitrogen cooling can lead to increased performance and power efficiency.