Aegiq has announced the successful commissioning of its flagship photonic quantum computer at the UK’s National Quantum Computing Centre (NQCC) – based at Oxfordshire's Harwell Campus – completing all technical and integration milestones for the system, marking the first time a company‑owned, on‑premises system has been deployed in a national facility.
Aegiq’s on-premises system at NQCC enables exploration and validation of photonic quantum computing use cases through co-development with UK partners, de-risking key technical milestones, and reducing time to commercial impact.
From Lab to National Facility: De‑risking and Accelerating Deployment:
The NQCC’s partnership with Aegiq is guided by the Quantum Missions Pilot Programme, which prioritises projects that deliver near‑term solutions to industry challenges. Co‑developing use cases with aerospace, defence, energy, and telecommunications stakeholders, the team can validate the platform against real‑world workloads.
These collaborations de‑risk the technology by exposing it to diverse operating conditions and identifying bottlenecks early.
Scott Dufferwiel, CEO of Aegiq, said: “Commissioning at NQCC is a pivotal step in proving our fibre-interconnected photonic architecture. It shows we can bring a modular, developer-ready platform into a national facility and sustain the performance needed for meaningful workloads.
"We’re already advancing our second-generation platform, supported by the UK’s Quantum Missions Pilot Programme. Next-generation on-demand telecom-band sources are designed to remove remaining bottlenecks and open the route to universal, scalable systems with clear commercial utility.”
Michael Cuthbert, Director, National Quantum Computing Centre, said: “This deployment is a key milestone in our mission to solve the engineering challenges of scalable quantum computing. Aegiq’s modular, high-performance platform supports near-term solution exploration and our broader objective of positioning the UK to tackle complex challenges with quantum.”
Collaboration and supply chain:
The system, developed through funding by Innovate UK for the NQCC (as part of the SBRI competition), was delivered in collaboration with QuiX Quantum (custom QPU), LioniX International (low-loss near-infrared silicon-nitride photonics), Razor, and Fraunhofer CAP, with support from the NQCC team.