Week Ending 31 | 10 | 2026. Intel drops $2.3 billion on Classiq, NIST locks 2030–2035 PQC deadlines, Florida lights the first statewide quantum-safe link, Pasqal’s 256-qubit machine finds unexpected physics, and Alice & Bob puts RSA-2048 at 23,000 cat qubits. The industry just stopped talking and started shipping. Read the weekly round-up now!
The Qubit Report for October 28, 2026 lands with live hybrid QKD-PQC links spanning continents, annealing systems locking first-place drug design wins, and optical switches dropping insertion loss to 1.2 dB while K-12 classrooms prepare to host their own four-qubit systems. Get your hump day fill with the full report.
On October 22, 2026, QDNL hosted the Benelux-QCI event in Utrecht to advance cross-border quantum key distribution under EuroQCI. Partners from the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and Greece outlined four priorities focused on competencies, end-user engagement, demonstration and standards. The dialogue reinforced regional collaboration for European digital sovereignty in secure communications.
IonQ will acquire Elisity in an all-stock deal valued at up to $1.3 billion to integrate quantum security capabilities with enterprise Zero Trust microsegmentation. The combination supports US federal and critical infrastructure efforts to migrate to post-quantum cryptography under the June 22, 2026 Executive Order. Closing is targeted for the fourth quarter of 2026 subject to
QNu Labs, BISAG-N and IIT Gandhinagar generated secure keys over 5.56 km of open air on the night of September 27-28, 2026. MeitY reported a quantum bit error rate below 5% and a key rate of 230-260 bits per second, then used those keys on Vedic Kavach. The full account covers the hybrid stack and how the path compares with satellite and free-space QKD results abroad.
EuroHPC opened six Horizon Europe quantum calls on August 13, 2026, with €119 million ($135 million USD) still on offer through November 17. The package funds 1,000-plus-qubit trapped-ion, superconducting, and neutral-atom stacks plus next-generation QKD, Qu-Test labs, and Qu-Pilot lines. Call IDs, gate-time floors, key-rate targets, and the Funding and Tenders path are in the full article.
IonQ used September 8, 2026 Investor Day to launch Superion 256, open 2027 deliveries, and raise 2026 revenue guidance to $450 million to $460 million after the SkyWater close. The same package included an $8.18 million Congruity360 quantum-safe networking agreement and a fully compiled Walking Cat estimate putting secp256k1 at 19,397 physical qubits and 25.7 days per attempt. Error-correction parameters, the 20,000-versus-19,397 qubit accounting, and the standalone-to-raised guidance bridge are in the full article.
Researchers at the University of Padua and ThinkQuantum have demonstrated intermodal quantum key distribution over an 18 km free-space link in northeastern Italy. Adaptive optics at a 410 mm urban telescope coupled the telecom-wavelength signal into single-mode fiber and produced secret keys at about 200 bit/s with room-temperature detectors. Link parameters, detector comparison, and network-design implications are covered here.
The EuroHPC Joint Undertaking has opened six new Horizon Europe calls totaling €119 million ($139 million USD) for next-generation quantum platforms, QKD systems, testing infrastructure and experimental pilot lines. Targets include full-stack systems at the 1,000-physical-qubit scale across three modalities and hybrid QKD systems with key rates above 1 Mbps. Technical specifications, supply-chain requirements and commercial implications are detailed in the full announcement.
The Network research group at FAU’s Regional Computing Centre Erlangen is participating in the Infosim-coordinated QDD – Quantum Domain Dynamics project. The consortium has secured €3.26 million in BMFTR funding for a total volume of €3.84 million to develop automated hybrid quantum key distribution and post-quantum cryptography management across network domains through 2029. Intent-based networking exploring large language models forms a core technical component for orchestration.