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John Martinis’s quantum-computing company, Qolab, is one of eight founding members of the Quantum Scaling Alliance (QSA), announced by HPE on November 10, 2025. The consortium aims to develop a practical quantum supercomputer by combining quantum hardware, semiconductor manufacturing and high-performance computing. It is an announced development effort—not a completed or demonstrated million-qubit computer.
What is the Quantum Scaling Alliance?
QSA is an industry-and-academic consortium formed to work on the systems needed to scale quantum computing and integrate it with classical high-performance computing (HPC). HPE’s November 10, 2025 launch announcement described the goal as designing and developing a practical, cost-effective quantum supercomputer using capabilities from quantum computing, semiconductor design and manufacturing, and HPC.
The alliance brings together eight founding members: 1QBit, Applied Materials, HPE, Qolab, Quantum Machines, Riverlane, Synopsys, and the University of Wisconsin. Its membership spans hardware design, fabrication, control, error correction, simulation, software, and algorithms rather than focusing on a single component.
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What are Martinis and HPE doing in the alliance?
John Martinis, Qolab co-founder and chief technology officer, co-leads QSA. HPE’s Masoud Mohseni oversees the initiative and serves as quantum system architect. Those are distinct roles: Martinis represents Qolab and co-leads the alliance, while Mohseni leads its coordination for HPE and has the system-architect role.
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Martinis said in HPE’s launch release, “Quantum computers hold the key to transforming industries through their unique ability to tackle intrinsically quantum problems.” Mohseni described the integration challenge: “For quantum to succeed as a viable long-term computing paradigm, it must scale by integrating with classical supercomputing systems.”
Which organizations are members, and what do they contribute?
The roles below are those described in HPE’s launch announcement; they are stated areas of expertise and intended contributions, not proof that a finished system has been delivered.
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| Founding member | Stated area of contribution |
|---|---|
| 1QBit | Fault-tolerant error-correction design and simulation, algorithm compilation, and automated resource estimates. |
| Applied Materials | Materials engineering and semiconductor fabrication. |
| HPE | Quantum-HPC integration and software. |
| Qolab | Qubit and circuit design. |
| Quantum Machines | Hybrid quantum-classical control. |
| Riverlane | Quantum error correction. |
| Synopsys | Simulation and analysis technology, electronic-design-automation tools, and semiconductor intellectual property. |
| University of Wisconsin | Algorithms and benchmarks. |
How could silicon wafers help scale superconducting qubits?
EE Times reported on December 8, 2025, that superconducting qubits were the main technology under development in QSA at that time. One reported approach, associated with Martinis and Qolab’s work with Applied Materials, uses fine metal traces on silicon wafers to connect devices across different temperature stages. The idea addresses a practical scaling problem: superconducting systems need many connections, and routing more wiring becomes difficult as the number of qubits grows.
Martinis told EE Times, “If we want to make a million-qubit device, there’s a scaling and wiring issue with superconducting qubits.” The wafer-based wiring approach is a development proposal reported in that context, not evidence of a production-ready interconnect or a proven solution to the scaling problem.
What are the alliance’s qubit targets—and what do they mean?
EE Times reported a QSA vision with a 2033 milestone of up to five million physical qubits. That is a future target, not a result achieved by the alliance. The same report said Martinis expected QSA to pursue devices exceeding one million qubits; that is an expectation expressed in an interview, not an independently verified forecast.
Physical qubits are the hardware units. Error correction uses multiple physical qubits to create more reliable logical qubits, so the two counts are not interchangeable. EE Times quoted Synopsys Distinguished Architect Igor Markov as estimating that the logical-qubit count could be up to one hundred times lower than the physical-qubit count. That comparison is not a universal conversion ratio: the number of physical qubits needed depends on the system and its error-correction approach.
Markov also described the alliance’s ecosystem rationale: “The idea is to develop an ecosystem where different members, small companies, large companies, and even academics, contribute to different aspects of quantum computing, which we view as a very vertical enterprise, spanning topics from atomic simulation to supercomputing systems.”
Has QSA built a million-qubit quantum computer?
No completed or demonstrated QSA computer, million-qubit or otherwise, is established by the launch announcement or the December 2025 EE Times report. The public claims described here concern the alliance’s purpose, member roles, a reported technical approach, and future scale ambitions. A target for physical qubits does not establish that hardware has been built, that it can perform error-corrected computation at that scale, or that it delivers useful logical-qubit performance.
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