NTT has invested in Japenese optical quantum computing startup OptQC, expanding a research collaboration launched last year into a broader commercial partnership targeting a fault-tolerant 1-million-qubit optical quantum computer by fiscal 2030.

The alliance brings together NTT's expertise in optical networking, communications, and data center infrastructure with OptQC's photonic quantum computing technology. Neither company disclosed the value of the investment.

The agreement includes joint research and covers commercialization, supply chain development, customer engagement, and industry partnerships.

OptQC is a University of Tokyo spinout developing photonic quantum computers. Unlike superconducting systems, which require cryogenic cooling, photonic quantum computers encode information in particles of light and can potentially operate at room temperature, allowing them to leverage technologies developed for optical communications and integrated photonics.

The companies have set out a commercialization roadmap targeting a 10,000-qubit optical quantum computer by fiscal 2027, proof-of-concept deployments in 2028, expanded application development in 2029, and a fault-tolerant 1-million-qubit system by fiscal 2030.

Their immediate research program, running through fiscal 2027, will focus on three key objectives: scaling qubits using wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) techniques, designing a fault-tolerant optical quantum computer architecture, and completing the system architecture for a million-qubit platform. WDM, widely used in optical networking, enables multiple wavelengths of light to travel over a single optical fiber and is seen as one possible route to scaling photonic quantum systems.

Target applications include financial modeling, manufacturing optimization, drug discovery, advanced materials, energy optimization, and AI.

The partnership also reflects NTT's strategy of applying expertise developed for optical networking and the Innovative Optical and Wireless Network (IOWN) initiative to quantum computing infrastructure. The companies also plan to collaborate on software that integrates optical quantum and classical computing, supply chains, customer deployments, and industry partnerships needed to commercialize large-scale quantum systems.

“Building on the expertise NTT has cultivated in optical communications technologies, networks, data centers, and IOWN, we will work with OptQC through this capital and business alliance and joint research to advance optical quantum computers in an integrated manner, from research and development to commercialization and further to real-world implementation,” NTT president and CEO Akira Shimada noted.

Superconducting and trapped-ion quantum computers currently dominate commercial deployments, but NTT is betting that advances in photonics, optical networking, and quantum error correction could provide a more scalable route to fault-tolerant quantum computing.