Please note, highlights are listed from Most to Least recent (i.e. new updates are at the top) and contain at a minimum 1 reference.
- Cleveland Clinic, RIKEN, and IBM are announced as finalists for the 2026 Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Gordon Bell prize. The prize recognises outstanding performance in high-performance computing, and the research team across the 3 organisations demonstrated a 12,635-atom protein simulation which is the largest known quantum-enabled simulation of biologically relevant molecules. Two 156-qubit processors using up to 94 qubits were used. (September, 2026)
- The G7 Cybersecurity Working Group publishes Preparing for the Post-Quantum Era: A Call to Action for highlighting the high-level security threats from a cryptographically-relevant quantum computers and to reaffirm their planned initiatives (September, 2026)
- Diraq announces plans to install a modular 8-qubit silicon spin quantum qubit in a Sydney-based Equinix data centre, representing the first quantum computer in a shared commercial data centre. (September, 2026)
- ISO standardises 3 PQC algorithms in the ISO/IEC 18033-2 standard for asymmetric ciphers - ML-KEM, FrodoKEM, and Classic McEliece. (July, 2026)
- Microsoft accelerates their PQC transition timeline from end of 2033 to transitioning prodcuts and services to PQC by 2029. (June, 2026)
- Google and Cloudflare push their post-quantum cryptography transition deadlines forward to 2029 (March & April, 2026)
- Google opens applications for their Willow quantum processor Early Access Program, for researchers who propose compelling experiments to run on the quantum hardware which is not yet accessible to the public (March, 2026)
- The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) awards the 2025 Turing Award to Charles H. Bennett and Gilles Brassard, recognising them for their essential role in establishing foundations of quantum information science and transforming secure communication an computing. Bennett and Brassard introduced the first practical protocol for quantum cryptography - BB84 - in 1984. (March, 2026)
- Dutch quantum connectivity company Q*Bird and Spain's Universidad Politecnica de Madrid (UPM) launch Spain's first multi-node Measurement-Device-Independent Quantum Key Distributiom (MDI-QKD) network (January, 2026)
- Silicon Quantum Computing (SQC) achieves high-fidelity 11-qubit atom processor in silicon, a breakthrough for the modality. (December, 2025)
- Quantum Brilliance opens world's first commercial quantum diamond foundry in Australia, to supply quantum-grade synthetic diamonds to customers globally, enabling compact, lightweight, room-temperature quantum computing and sensing (November, 2025)
- Q-CTRL integrates Fire Opal with RIKEN's IBM Quantum System Tow to build a quantum-HPC integrated platform and explore quantum-HPC hybrid applications to run on the platform and expand computational domains (November 2025)
- UNSW and USyd partnership Emergence Quantum deliver breakthrough technology reducing the size of circuits required to run a silicon-based quantum computer (June, 2025)
- Microsoft advances quantum error correction with introduction of novel 4-Dimensional geometric codes. (June, 2025)
- IBM reveals its path to build world's first Large Scale, Fault-Tolerant Quantum Computer "Starling" by 2029 at new Quantum Data Centre (June, 2025)
- The Post-Quantum Cryptography Coalition (PQCC) releases their Migration Roadmap, associated with the MITRE corporation (May, 2025)
- Post-Quantum Cryptographic capabilities made available to Microsoft's Windows Insiders and Linux (May, 2025)
- Diraq demonstrates violation of Bell's inequality in gate-defined quantum dots, a key performance indicator for qubit fidelity and quantum entanglement (April, 2025)
- Standards Australia releases research report "Quantum Technologies and Standardisation Globally and in Australia" (April, 2025)
- The US Department of Defense's DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) selects two Australian startups Diraq and Silicon Quantum Computing (SQC) to participate in Stage A of the Quantum Benchmarking Initiative (QBI) program (April 2025)
- https://www.techrepublic.com/article/news-darpa-quantum-benchmarking-initiative-australian-startups/
- https://diraq.com/newsdesk/diraq-leading-australian-uk-us-consortium-for-darpa-quantum-benchmarking-initiative
- https://sqc.com.au/2025/04/04/silicon-quantum-computing-awarded-darpa-qbi-contract/
- https://www.darpa.mil/research/programs/quantum-benchmarking-initiative
- Quantinuum's software quantum random number generator (QRNG) "Quantum Origin" receives NIST validation and becomes the first software QRNG to achieve this approval. (April, 2025)
- https://www.quantinuum.com/press-releases/quantinuums-quantum-origin-becomes-first-software-quantum-random-number-generator-to-achieve-nist-validation
- https://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/SpecialPublications/NIST.SP.800-90B.pdf (details on the NIST validation 800-90B Recommendation for the Entropy Sources Used for Random Bit Generation)
- Canberra-based quantum cyber firm QuintessenceLabs scores $15M AUD investment to accelerate key initiatives (April, 2025)
- NIST anounces HQC "Hamming Quasi-Cyclic" as the next PQC algorithm, offering a backup solution to previously selected and standardised ML-KEM. (March, 2025)
- Google anounces that their Cloud Key Management Service (KMS) now offers quantum-safe digital signatures for software-based keys, available in preview (February, 2025)
- Australian company Silicon Quantum Computing demonstrates a 3-qubit Grover's search algorithm without error correction with approximately 95% accuracy (February, 2025)
- Microsoft announces their Majorana 1 processor, claiming the title of world's first quantum chip powered by a topological core architecture (February, 2025)
- World Economic Forum (WEF) releases their "Global Cybersecurity Outlook" Insight Report, naming quantum technologies - specifically quantum computing and encryption - as one of the top cybersecurity vulnerabilities which will significantly affect cybersecurity in the next 12 months
- Google unveils their latest quantum chip, "Willow", reducing errors when scaling up to use more qubits, and performing a standard benchmark computation in <5 minutes which would take today's fastest classical supercomputers 10 septillion years (10^25). (December, 2024)
- $13 million AUD investment made into Quantum Brilliance, to create Australia's first quantum diamond foundry (December, 2024)
- https://www.nrf.gov.au/news-and-media-releases/nrfc-announces-13-million-investment-quantum-brilliance-build-australias-first-quantum-diamond-foundry
- https://ia.acs.org.au/article/2024/govt-invests--13m-in-australian-firm-quantum-brilliance.html
- https://www.innovationaus.com/nrf-backs-quantum-brilliance-with-13m-investment/
- IBM wins "Global Post-Quantum Cryptography Company of the Year Award" within the 2024 Best Practices Award scheme by consulting firm Frost & Sullivan
- https://www.ibm.com/downloads/documents/us-en/107a02e95348fea0
- https://www.ibm.com/services/quantum-safe
- https://www.frost.com/news/press-releases/frost-sullivan-applauds-ibm-for-its-market-leading-contributions-to-cryptography-and-standards/
- https://www.linkedin.com/posts/ibm-quantum_frost-sullivan-applauds-ibm-for-its-market-leading-activity-7260667490626605056-4aee (November, 2024)
- AWS (Amazon Web Services) releases a security blog "Customer compliance and security during the post-quantum cryptographic migration"
- Chinese researchers demonstrate efficient factorisation of a 22-bit RSA integer with a D-Wave Advantage quantum computer, showing potential to break RSA encryption. NB. Current RSA key length standards specify 2048 bits for security. (May, 2024)
- https://www.csoonline.com/article/3562701/chinese-researchers-break-rsa-encryption-with-a-quantum-computer.html (October, 2024)
- http://cjc.ict.ac.cn/online/onlinepaper/wc-202458160402.pdf (May, 2024)
- https://www.cyber.gov.au/resources-business-and-government/essential-cyber-security/ism/cyber-security-guidelines/guidelines-cryptography (September, 2024)
- Silicon Quantum Computing (SQC)'s Michelle Simmons speaks at SXSW Sydney, announcing that SQC is ramping up their ability to manufacture their chips, and can have a turnaround of 2 weeks within Australia, after 5 months of silence following the PsiQuantum investment by Aus Government.(October, 2024)
- UNSW (Australia) quantum engineers demonstrate world-first quantum entanglement of two electrons inside a silicon quantum computer chip (October, 2024)
- IBM Quantum Data Center opens in Europe (Germany), the first outside of the US and the second in the world (October, 2024)
- European Union signs contract to acquire LUMI-Q consortium quantum computer to be established in the Czech Republic (September, 2024)
- Australian-German firm Quantum Brilliance to build world's first mobile quantum computer for German government (September, 2024)
- Google Chrome swaps out Kyber to support standardised Module Lattice Key Encapsulation Mechanism (ML-KEM) in Chrome 131 (September 2024)
- Microsoft begins to update SymCrypt, its core cryptographic library, with quantum-resistant cryptographic algorithms (September 2024)
- https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/security-compliance-and-identity/microsoft-s-quantum-resistant-cryptography-is-here/ba-p/4238780
- https://arstechnica.com/security/2024/09/microsoft-adds-quantum-resistant-algorithms-to-its-core-crypto-library/
- https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2024/09/microsoft-is-adding-new-cryptography-algorithms.html
- Researchers propose a way to make a smaller and more noise-tolerant quantum factoring circuit for cryptography, building on Shor's algorithm (August, 2024)
- https://news.mit.edu/2024/toward-code-breaking-quantum-computer-0823 MIT News (2024) Toward a code-breaking quantum computer
- https://www.redhotcyber.com/en/post/cryptography-at-risk-mit-develops-a-quantum-algorithm-to-crack-rsa/
- https://arxiv.org/pdf/2308.06572 Supporting paper 1: Regev, O. (January 2024) An efficient quantum factoring algorithm
- https://eprint.iacr.org/2023/1501.pdf Supporting paper 2: Ragavan, S. & Vaikuntanathan, V. (June 2024) Space-Efficient and Noise-Robust Quantum Factoring
- CISA releases their "Strategy for Migrating to Automated Post-Quantum Cryptography Discovery and Inventory Tools" (August, 2024)
- NIST releases first 3 finalised post-quantum encryption standards (August, 2024)
- Quantum computing firm PsiQuantum is partnering with the state of Illinois to build the largest US-based quantum computing facility (2024)
- New book and STEM clubs for girls across Australia herald quantum leap (2024)
- United Nations (UN) declares that 2025 will be the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology (2024)
- Post-Quantum Cryptography focussed on as a key topic of RSA 2024 (2024)
- Delinea announces quantum-safe encryption to secure privileged accounts (2024)
- Apple adds quantum-resistant cryptographic protocol to iMessage (2024)
- IBM releases 4th edition of "The Quantum Decade: A playbook for achieving awareness, readiness and advantage" (2023)
- Signal Messenger adds quantum-resistant key encapsulation mechanism to their messaging application (2023)
- Google Enhances TLS Security: Google Adds Quantum-Resistant Encryption in Chrome 116 (2023)
- First quantum machine learning applications on an on-site room-temperature quantum computer (2023)
- Pawsey and Xanadu form global partnership to creatae opportunities for Australian quantum scientists (2023)
- Pawsey Supercomputing Centre Installs First Room-Temperature On-Premises Quantum Computer in a Supercomputing Centre (2022) https://pawsey.org.au/pawsey-installs-first-room-temperature-on-premises-quantum-computer-in-a-supercomputing-centre/
- World Economic Forum (WEF) releases Quantum Computing Governance Principles Insight Report (2022)
- Amazon Web Services (AWS) Key Management Service (KMS) and Certificate Manager (ACM) move to hybrid post-quantum TLS configurations using Key Encapsulation Mechanisms (KEMs) from the third round of the NIST PQC competition