Welcome to issue #18 of This Week in Quantum — a roundup of the most important developments in quantum computing from July 1-12, 2026.
The first two weeks of July were dominated by policy and security: the White House formally detailed the fallout from its earlier post-quantum cryptography executive orders, and Microsoft accelerated its own migration timeline. On the hardware front there was still plenty to report — from silicon qubits fabricated on standard CMOS lines to magnons that could shrink a quantum computer down to the size of a coin.
Industry News
Diraq and imec demonstrate an eight-qubit array on a standard CMOS line
On July 9, Diraq and imec announced the fabrication and demonstration of an eight-qubit linear silicon array on a 300mm CMOS production line. This is a meaningful step toward manufacturing qubits on the same fabs that produce classical processors today — potentially a major cost reduction for scaling.
QuTech launches the Tuna-17 processor on the Quantum Inspire cloud
QuTech, working with TU Delft and TNO, made its 17-qubit superconducting processor Tuna-17 globally available through the Quantum Inspire cloud platform. The open-architecture system is free for researchers and educators and integrates with Qiskit and PennyLane — a step toward European technological sovereignty in quantum computing.
Xanadu opens a new Albany hub, Quantum Rings joins qBraid
Xanadu Quantum Technologies expanded its U.S. presence with a new office in Albany, New York, right in the heart of the semiconductor research and packaging corridor. Separately, Quantum Rings partnered with qBraid, integrating its Open Quantum platform into qBraid Lab and offering developers subsidized access to a range of QPU architectures.
LogicBit opens a Chinese cloud platform
On July 9, Chinese company LogicBit (Logical Qubit), which grew out of a Zhejiang University lab, launched a superconducting quantum computing cloud platform built on its Tianmu chip line. The company says its team has set the world record for globally entangled qubits in a superconducting system three times over.
Research Highlights
Magnons could shrink a quantum computer to the size of a coin
On July 2, researchers announced a breakthrough in using magnons — tiny magnetic waves once considered too short-lived for practical use. The team extended their lifetime by nearly a hundredfold, making them a promising carrier of quantum information. The potential payoff: much smaller and cheaper quantum devices than today’s systems, which require extensive cooling infrastructure.
Security Watch
White House details the fallout from its post-quantum cryptography executive orders
On July 1, an official breakdown was published of the two executive orders President Trump signed on June 22. Executive Order 14412 (“Securing the Nation Against Advanced Cryptographic Attacks”) requires federal agencies and their contractors to implement NIST-approved post-quantum cryptography standards on a defined timeline. Executive Order 14413 aims to accelerate U.S. innovation in quantum computing, sensing, and networking, including supply chains and workforce development.
Microsoft moves its PQC timeline up to 2029
On July 1, Microsoft announced it is accelerating its Quantum Safe program, committing to migrate key products to post-quantum cryptography by 2029 — sooner than originally planned. The company emphasized that crypto-agility is essential: removing hard-coded algorithm assumptions and building systems capable of routine algorithm swaps rather than emergency rewrites.
Policy and Regulation
The fallout from June’s executive orders dominated regulatory discussion in early July. Law firms tracking the sector (including Jenner & Block and Sidley) note that federal contractors, cloud providers, and critical infrastructure operators should already be preparing for an accelerated timeline to implement the ML-KEM and ML-DSA standards.
On the European side, work continues on the Quantum Act — a binding regulation meant to unify the EU quantum strategy announced in July 2025. The legislative proposal is still being drafted, with adoption expected in the second half of 2026.
The Bigger Picture
A commentary published on July 6 captured the moment well: quantum computing has stopped being a conference-room curiosity and become a sector with real federal capital behind it, a string of hard technical milestones on the board, and a parallel race to rebuild the world’s cryptography before a quantum machine can break it. That picture — policy, hardware, and security moving together rather than separately — best captures the character of the first two weeks of July.
Upcoming Events
- July 21-23 — Global Quantum Forum (GQF26), Chicago, Illinois
- July 27 — Workshop on Broadly Accessible Quantum Computing at PEARC'26, Minneapolis