UK quantum computing company Oxford Quantum Circuits (OQC) is installing a quantum computer at an Equinix data center in Tokyo, Japan.

The company this week announced it would be offering "Quantum Computing as a Service" from a system in Equinix's TY11 Tokyo International Business Exchange (IBX), delivered by Equinix’s Fabric service, in late 2023.

The specifications of the quantum computer were not disclosed. Opened in 2019 and located in Koutou-ku, the five-story TY11 currently offers 3,700 sqm (38,345 sq ft) of space.

Most quantum computers today are accessible “as a service” via the public cloud, or private cloud services out of facilities owned by the quantum companies. For instance, IonQ shares its quantum, based in its data center in Maryland through Azure and Google Cloud.

IBM operates a number of Quantum machines out of a data center in New York that it has made available through a portal, but has also signed agreements to install a number of on-premise facilities in Europe, Asia, and North America. It is also installing more machines at IBM facilities in various markets including Japan and Canada.

This is the second such deal OQC has made to place a quantum computer in a colocation facility. Last year the company announced it would be placing one of its computers in Cyxtera’s LHR3 data center in the UK. The two companies recently told DCD installation is still in progress, and promised to share more details in the future.

OQC spun out of the University of Oxford, and uses its own "Coaxmon" three-dimensional architecture, rather than 2D circuits, to simplify fabrication and improve the coherence of quantum systems. It operates the 4 qubit Sophia system, hosted at its lab in Thames Valley Science Park, Reading, which is shared via its own private cloud, while its 8-qubit Lucy quantum computer is shared via AWS. The company raised £38 million ($40.5m) via a Series A funding round last year.

Dr. Ilana Wisby, CEO at OQC, said that installing quantum computing in TY11 "brings us a step closer" to mature quantum computing which can change our lives.

Arun Dev, global head of digital interconnection at Equinix, said quantum computing "has the potential to transform the way businesses solve problems".

In other quantum news:

• Dutch startup QuantWare has raised €6 million in seed funding to support the production and development of its new 64 qubit processor ‘Tenor’. The company is developing ‘3D’ technology that routes the connections vertically, theoretically making it easier to scale.
  The funding round for the TU Delft/QuTech spin-out was led by Forward.One, with QDNL Participations and Graduate Entrepreneur also participating.
  
• China is making its own domestic quantum computers. The South China Morning Post reports that Chinese startup Origin Quantum quietly delivered a 24-qubit system known as Wuyua to an unnamed customer in 2021.
  Founded in 2017 by researchers from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), Origin Quantum has reportedly ‘developed several computers’ since delivering the Wuyuan in 2021. A more powerful quantum computer, named Wukong after the legendary Monkey King, will be available “soon”, according to co-founder Guo Guoping.
  
• The Qilimanjaro Quantum Tech and GMV-led consortium has selected IQM Quantum Computers to deliver some of the quantum processing units for the first Spanish quantum computer to be installed at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC) in Spain.
  IQM will deliver a first quantum processing unit by the second quarter of 2023, which will be integrated into the MareNostrum 5 supercomputer.
  Last year the European High-Performance Computing Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC JU) selected six sites across the European Union to host and operate the first EuroHPC quantum computers. Czechia, Germany, Spain, France, Italy, and Poland were chosen, with one set to be connected to the upcoming MareNostrum 5. A 5-qubit quantum computer has also been connected to the Lumi supercomputer in Finland.
  
• A new quantum computing data center is coming to India. The Uttar Pradesh government has signed a deal with advisory firm Innogress to set up the Indraprastha Quantum Data Center (IQDC) in a proposed joint venture with GAN Tech UK. Any further details weren’t shared.