PsiQuantum breaks ground in Australia on what it says will be the world’s first utility-scale quantum computer

TL;DR

PsiQuantum has broken ground on a facility in Queensland, Australia, where it plans to build what it calls the world’s first utility-scale quantum computer. The project is backed by nearly $1 billion in government subsidies from Australia and the US, plus a $7 billion private valuation.

PsiQuantum has broken ground on a facility in Moreton Bay, Queensland, where it plans to build and deploy what it calls the world’s first utility-scale, fault-tolerant quantum computer. The site will eventually hold tens of thousands of photonic quantum chips cooled by one of the largest cryogenic systems ever constructed for quantum computing.

Victor Peng, PsiQuantum’s chief executive and a former president of AMD, said Australia is “beginning to turn that promise into reality.” Co-founder and executive chair Prof. Jeremy O’Brien, who did much of his foundational photonic research in the region, called the facility “critical infrastructure” for the country’s sovereign computing capability.

What is being built

The Moreton Bay site will be developed in phases. During the initial construction stage, PsiQuantum is preparing for the arrival of a large cryoplant manufactured by Linde Engineering, ordered in late 2024 and scheduled for delivery in the second half of 2027.

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Once commissioned, the facility will begin accepting cryogenic cabinets filled with photonic quantum chips, networked together using standard optical fibre. PsiQuantum’s photonic approach differs from the superconducting designs used by IBM and Google, relying instead on particles of light routed through silicon chips manufactured in conventional semiconductor foundries.

The company opened a Test and Validation Lab at nearby Griffith University in May 2026 to refine the chips and subsystems that will eventually go into the Moreton Bay machine. No timeline has been given for when the full system will be operational, and no company anywhere has yet demonstrated a fault-tolerant quantum computer at commercial scale.

Who is paying for it

PsiQuantum has assembled a substantial war chest from public and private sources. The Australian Commonwealth and Queensland governments committed A$940 million (roughly US$620 million) in equity, grants, and loans, though the deal drew criticism for bypassing a public tender process and requiring prospective applicants to sign non-disclosure agreements.

In May 2026, the company signed a $100 million letter of intent with the US Department of Commerce under the CHIPS and Science Act, part of a broader $2 billion federal push to support nine quantum companies. It also closed a $1 billion Series E round in September 2025 led by BlackRock and Temasek, with participation from Nvidia’s venture arm, valuing the company at $7 billion.

Australia has been courting large technology investments aggressively, with Microsoft committing A$25 billion to the country’s digital infrastructure by 2029. PsiQuantum’s project adds quantum computing to a portfolio of bets that has until now been dominated by AI and cloud infrastructure.

The photonic bet

PsiQuantum’s technology uses photons, particles of light, as qubits. The company argues this approach is more scalable than the superconducting circuits used by rivals, because photonic chips can be manufactured using existing semiconductor fabrication processes rather than requiring entirely new production lines.

The board appointment of Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan in April 2026 underscored that semiconductor connection. PsiQuantum’s CHIPS Act funding will go toward improving barium titanate optical switches, high-temperature single-photon detectors, and advanced packaging, all components that bridge quantum and classical chip manufacturing.

Whether the photonic approach can deliver a machine that solves real-world problems before competitors remains an open question. Google has been using AI to accelerate its own quantum roadmap, while IBM opened its first European quantum data centre earlier this year.

PsiQuantum has $7 billion in backing and two governments behind it, but no working commercial system. That makes this one of the most expensive engineering bets in the history of computing.