Quantum computing

IBM unveils Digital Asset Haven for secure institutional blockchain management

IBM has introduced Digital Asset Haven, a unified platform designed for banks, corporations, and governments to securely manage and scale their digital asset operations. The platform manages the full asset lifecycle from custody to settlement while maintaining compliance.

Built with Dfns, the platform combines IBM’s security framework with Dfns’ custody technology. The Dfns platform supports 15 million wallets for 250 clients, providing multi-party authorisation, policy governance, and access to over 40 blockchains.

IBM Digital Asset Haven includes tools for identity verification, crime prevention, yield generation, and developer-friendly APIs for extra services. Security features include Multi-Party Computation, HSM-based signing, and quantum-safe cryptography to ensure compliance and resilience.

According to IBM’s Tom McPherson, the platform gives clients ‘the opportunity to enter and expand into the digital asset space backed by IBM’s level of security and reliability.’ Dfns CEO Clarisse Hagège said the partnership builds infrastructure to scale digital assets from pilots to global use.

IBM plans to roll out Digital Asset Haven via SaaS and hybrid models in late 2025, with on-premises deployment expected in 2026.

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Google Research applies AI across cancer, quantum computing and Earth science

Google Research has outlined how it tackles three major domains where foundational AI and science research are applied for tangible global effect, under a framework the team calls the ‘magic cycle’.

The three focus areas highlighted are fighting cancer with AI, quantum computing for medicines and materials, and understanding Earth at scale with Earth AI.

One of the flagship tools is DeepSomatic, an AI system developed to detect genetic variants in cancer cells that previous techniques missed. The tool partnered with a children’s hospital to identify ten new variants in childhood leukaemia samples. Significantly, DeepSomatic was applied to a brain cancer type it had never encountered before and still flagged likely causal variants.

Google Research is exploring the frontiers with its service chip (Willow) and algorithms like Quantum Echoes to simulate molecular behaviours with precision that classical computers struggle to reach. These efforts target improved medicines, better batteries and advanced materials by capturing quantum-scale phenomena.

Aiming to model complex interconnected systems, from weather and infrastructure to population vulnerability, the Earth AI initiative seeks to bring disparate geospatial data into unified systems. For example, predicting which communities are most at risk in a storm requires combining meteorological, infrastructure and socioeconomic data.

Google Research states that across these domains, research and applied work feed each other: foundational research leads to tools, which, when deployed, reveal new challenges that drive fresh research, the ‘magic cycle’.

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Japan’s G-QuAT and Fujitsu sign pact to boost quantum competitiveness

Fujitsu and AIST’s G-QuAT have signed a collaboration to lift Japan’s quantum competitiveness, aligning roadmaps, labs, and funding toward commercialisation. The pact focuses on practical outcomes: industry-ready prototypes, interoperable tooling, and clear pathways from research to deployment.

The partners will pool superconducting know-how, shared fabs and test sites, and structured talent exchanges. Common testbeds will reduce duplication, lift throughput, and speed benchmarks. Joint governance will release reference designs, track milestones, and align on global standards.

Scaling quantum requires integrated systems, not just faster qubits. Priorities include full-stack validation across cryogenics and packaging, controls, and error mitigation. Demonstrations target reproducible, large-scale superconducting processors, with results for peer review and industry pilots.

G-QuAT will act as an international hub, convening suppliers, universities, and overseas labs for co-development. Fujitsu brings product engineering, supply chain, and quality systems to translate research into deployable hardware. External partners will be invited to run comparative trials.

AIST anchors the effort with the national research capacity of Japan and a mission to bridge lab and market. Fujitsu aligns commercialization and service models to emerging standards. Near-term work packages include joint pilots and verification suites, followed by prototypes aimed at industrial adoption.

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NVIDIA AI Day Sydney showcases Australia’s growing role in global AI innovation

Australia took centre stage in the global AI landscape last week as NVIDIA AI Day Sydney gathered over a thousand participants to explore the nation’s path toward sovereign AI.

The event, held at ICC Sydney Theatre, featured discussions on agentic and physical AI, robotics and AI factories, highlighting how the next generation of computing is driving transformation across sectors.

Industry leaders, including Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Canva and emerging startups, joined NVIDIA executives to discuss how advanced computing and AI are shaping innovation.

Brendan Hopper of the Commonwealth Bank praised NVIDIA’s role in expanding Australia’s AI ecosystem through infrastructure, partnerships and education.

Speakers such as Giuseppe Barca of QDX Technologies emphasised how AI, high-performance computing and quantum research are redefining scientific progress.

With over 600 NVIDIA Inception startups and more than 20 universities using NVIDIA technologies, Australia’s AI ecosystem is expanding rapidly. Partners like Firmus Technologies, ResetData and SHARON AI underscored how AI Day Sydney demonstrated the nation’s readiness to become a regional AI hub.

The event also hosted Australia’s first ‘Startup, VC and Partner Connect’, linking entrepreneurs, investors and government officials to accelerate collaboration.

Presentations from quantum and healthcare innovators, alongside hands-on NVIDIA Deep Learning Institute sessions, showcased real-world AI applications from generative design to medical transcription.

NVIDIA’s Sudarshan Ramachandran said Australia’s combination of high-performance computing heritage, visual effects expertise and emerging robotics sector positions it to lead in the AI era.

Through collaboration and infrastructure investment, he said, the country is building a thriving ecosystem that supports discovery, sustainability and economic growth.

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Oxford scientists achieve quantum teleportation milestone

Scientists at the University of Oxford have achieved quantum teleportation between two quantum computers, marking a major step toward distributed quantum computing. The experiment successfully transmitted a quantum algorithm wirelessly between processors using quantum entanglement.

Rather than moving physical matter, the process transferred data instantaneously by linking qubits, the basic units of quantum information. The two computers, though separated by two metres, shared data as if operating as one, greatly enhancing their combined computing power.

The British breakthrough demonstrates how multiple quantum systems could one day work together as a single global supercomputer. Researchers say the approach could enable quantum networks and lay the groundwork for a future quantum internet capable of unprecedented speeds and security.

Quantum teleportation works by using pairs of entangled particles that remain connected across any distance. While humans and objects cannot yet teleport, the technology could soon allow scientists to connect remote machines into unified, ultra-powerful computing systems.

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Tariffs and AI top the agenda for US CEOs over the next three years

US CEOs prioritise cost reduction and AI integration amid global economic uncertainty. According to KPMG’s 2025 CEO Outlook, leaders are reshaping supply chains while preparing for rapid AI transformation over the next three years.

Tariffs are a key factor influencing business strategies, with 89% of US CEOs expecting significant operational impacts. Many are adjusting sourcing models, while 86% say they will increase prices where needed. Supply chain resilience remains the top short-term pressure for decision-making.

AI agents are seen as major game-changers. 84% of CEOs expect a native AI company to become a leading industry player within 3 years, displacing incumbents. Companies are accelerating investment returns, with most expecting payoffs within one to three years.

Cybersecurity is a significant concern alongside AI integration. Forty-six percent have increased spending on digital risk resilience, focusing on fraud prevention and data privacy. CEOs recognise that AI and quantum computing introduce both opportunities and new vulnerabilities.

Workforce transformation is a clear priority. Eighty-six percent plan to embed AI agents into teams next year, while 73% focus on retaining and retraining high-potential talent. Upskilling, governance, and organisational redesign are emerging as essential strategies.

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Quantum innovations promise faster, cleaner, more efficient technologies

The Nobel Prize in Physics has spotlighted quantum mechanics’ growing role in shaping a smarter, more sustainable future. Such advances are reshaping technology across communications and energy.

Researchers are finding new ways to use quantum effects to boost efficiency. Quantum computing could ease AI’s power demands, while novel production methods may transform energy systems.

A Institute of Science Tokyo team has built a quantum energy harvester that captures waste heat and converts it into power, bypassing traditional thermodynamic limits.

MIT has observed frictionless electron movement, and new quantum batteries promise faster charging by storing energy in photons. The breakthroughs could enable cleaner and more efficient technologies.

Quantum advances offer huge opportunities but also risks, including threats to encryption. Responsible governance will be crucial to ensure these technologies serve the public good.

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Nobel Prize awarded for tunnelling in superconducting circuits

The 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics has been awarded to John Clarke, Michel Devoret and John Martinis for their experiments that brought quantum mechanical effects into macroscopic systems.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences cited their ‘discovery of macroscopic quantum mechanical tunnelling and energy quantisation in an electric circuit’.

In classic quantum mechanics, particles can sometimes cross through energy barriers via a process known as tunnelling, behaviour that typically occurs at atomic or subatomic scales.

The laureates’ work showed that such quantum phenomena can appear in larger electrical circuits using superconductors and Josephson junctions, systems that were thought to be firmly in the domain of classical physics.

Their experiments (conducted in the mid-1980s) involved circuits made of superconducting materials separated by a thin insulating barrier. By finely tuning currents and electromagnetic stimuli, they were able to force a system to switch between zero-voltage and finite voltage states, essentially demonstrating that the circuit could ‘tunnel’ from one state to another.

In addition, they demonstrated energy quantisation in these systems, that the circuits absorb and emit energy in discrete packets, consistent with quantum theory.

This work is widely viewed as a foundational bridge between theoretical quantum mechanics and practical quantum technology. Superconducting circuits (such as qubits in quantum computers) rely on precisely these kinds of effects, and the laureates’ results helped validate the notion that quantum engineering is possible in engineered devices.

As the Nobel announcement puts it, their experiments ‘revealed quantum physics in action’ in a device small enough to hold in hand.

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Harvard team builds quantum computer that runs continuously for over two hours

A team of Harvard physicists has built a quantum computing machine that can operate continuously without restarting, achieving a significant milestone in experimental quantum hardware.

Until now, quantum computing systems have typically run only for milliseconds or seconds before decoherence or atom loss forces a reset. But in a new setup, the team sustained operation for more than two hours, and they claim that, in theory, it could run indefinitely.

The breakthrough depends on a design that uses an optical lattice conveyor belt together with optical tweezers. These tools allow the system to replenish qubits (atoms) in real time, injecting new atoms at a rate of 300,000 per second into a 3,000-qubit array, to counteract atom loss and maintain quantum information.

Overcoming atom loss has been one of the biggest bottlenecks in scaling quantum computers. Without that fix, durability and error accumulation limit usability. With this experiment, the researchers demonstrate a path toward more robust, always-on quantum platforms.

Mikhail Lukin, who leads Harvard’s quantum research, said that while scaling remains challenging, the approach appears compatible with larger systems. Collaboration with MIT physicist Vladan Vuletić suggested that machines capable of indefinite operation could be within reach in as little as three years.

Applications in cryptography, materials simulation, finance, and medicine could benefit enormously if quantum machines can reliably operate over long durations. The new design resets a key assumption in quantum systems, shifting focus from short bursts of computation to sustained, fault-tolerant operation.

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Harvard physicists build first continuous quantum computer

Harvard physicists have developed the first continuously operating quantum computer, running for more than two hours without interruption and potentially indefinitely.

Until now, most quantum machines lasted milliseconds, with the longest recorded runtime about 13 seconds. The Harvard team overcame the problem of qubit loss by replenishing atoms in real time using an optical lattice conveyor belt and optical tweezers.

The system contains 3,000 qubits and can inject 300,000 atoms per second, allowing information to be preserved as older particles escape. The findings were produced with MIT collaborators and mark a turning point in quantum research.

Researchers say machines capable of running indefinitely could arrive within two to three years, accelerating progress in medicine, finance, and cryptography. Harvard has heavily invested in the field, launching one of the first PhD programmes in quantum science.

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