Tokyo-based optical quantum startup OptQC Corp. and telecommunications giant NTT, Inc. have signed a capital and business alliance agreement to accelerate the development and commercialization of a fault-tolerant, 1-million-qubit-class optical quantum computer. Under the agreement, NTT will make a strategic equity investment in OptQC to establish a medium- to long-term collaborative framework spanning hardware architecture design, supply chain development, and real-world enterprise implementation.
The alliance expands upon an initial research collaboration signed in November 2025. As part of the renewed agreement, the two organizations have launched a joint research project running through fiscal year 2027 to establish the architectural design and core component technologies required for a 1-million-qubit system. Research will focus on scaling physical qubit counts using wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM), designing fault-tolerant optical architectures, and integrating NTT’s optical communications, data center, and IOWN (Innovative Optical and Wireless Network) technologies with OptQC’s continuous-variable photonic quantum computing platform.
| [ OptQC & NTT Technology & Commercialization Roadmap ] | ||
|---|---|---|
| Phase & Timeline | Key Technological Milestones | Commercialization & Deployment Scope |
| FY2026–FY2027 | • System Architecture & WDM Design • Quantum Light Source & Amplification | • Supply Chain & Co-Creation Partnerships • Initial Enterprise User Engagement |
| FY2028 | • 10,000-Qubit Prototype Verification • Hardware Deployment at Data Center Hubs | • Customer Proof-of-Concept (PoC) Projects • Target Sectors: Finance, Energy, Manufacturing |
| FY2029–FY2030 | • Integrated Quantum-Classical Software • Fault-Tolerant 1M-Qubit Platform | • Commercial Use Case Rollouts • Production-Grade Enterprise Services |
Spun out of the University of Tokyo’s Furusawa Laboratory in 2024, OptQC operates its first commercial optical quantum processing unit, MoQuren, at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology’s (AIST) G-QuAT facility in Tsukuba. Deployed in July 2026 under Japan’s BRIDGE program, MoQuren serves as the foundational “SystemO” module for AIST’s ABCI-Q quantum-classical hybrid computing infrastructure.
OptQC is concurrently releasing a software development kit (SDK) with simulation capabilities to allow developers to build and test algorithms on-premises ahead of general hardware availability. By leveraging room-temperature optical entanglement, time-domain multiplexing, and NTT’s optical amplification and wave-guided light sources, the alliance aims to overcome cryogenic and scaling barriers inherent to solid-state modalities.
Review the official partnership announcement on OptQC News here, inspect technology details via the NTT Insights Hub here, read operational updates on OptQC MoQuren Commencement at AIST G-QuAT here, and examine our previous coverage of NTT and OptQC’s 1-Million-Qubit Optical Quantum Computer Collaboration here.
August 4, 2026