Finnish tech partnership reaches ambitious heights

Valtion Teknillinen Tutkimuskeskus (VTT), Finland’s largest state-run technical research centre, has rolled out analogous programmes to test the potential advantages to be had from the efficient fusion of quantum computing and artificial intelligence (AI). 

The organisation’s scaled-up investments in AI and quantum computing were significantly boosted in March, when it partnered with IQM Quantum Computers (IQM) to launch Europe’s first 50-qubit quantum computer. IQM, a Helsinki-headquartered startup, develops quantum computers based on superconducting technologies. 

VTT’s business and technology relationship with IQM is primed to grow deeper roots. IQM has secured, through an open tender competition, a contract to deliver a mega-scale superconducting 300-qubit quantum computer (QC) to VTT, a deal that will consolidate Finland’s position on the frontline of world QC-sphere capabilities.

The contract, financed through a Finnish government grant of €70m to VTT, proposes the delivery of the Q300 QC in the fourth quarter of 2027.

“We are in the global business of delivering and deploying full-stack QCs, and this 300-qubit contract is our highest-performing QC to date,” said Mikko Välimäki, IQM co-chief executive. “Our end goal is to achieve fault-tolerant quantum computing.”

IQM’s 300-qubit package will include a cloud platform to enable local businesses and university researchers to access the QC’s computing power.

The VTT-IQM 50-qubit QC is currently available as a free-to-use tool to a select number of Finnish research and business organisations, with access through the VTT QX quantum computing platform.

Finding new applications

Finding new applications to render AI more efficient for both hardware and software is revealing itself to be a key focus for users. In particular, users are monitoring developments as QCs scale up to larger qubit counts. This emerging inevitable outcome will require faster and more efficient data transfer speeds between them and supercomputers. For actors in the quantum computing domain, removing bottlenecks remains a precondition to allow for hybrid computing to reach the dimensions required by AI.

VTT’s intensifying work has identified important new “breakthrough areas” that have the capacity to overcome major obstacles to AI and help reveal the values of QCs in AI applications, said Pekka Pursula, the director of microelectronics and quantum research at VTT.

“Quantum computing is already benefiting from AI in many ways,” said Pursula, who expects further gains to be achieved once the technology sufficiently matures.

Among the programmes run by VTT are projects with the specific mission to investigate how best to optimise the software stack of QCs to bolster quantum AI’s efficiency. Project teams are searching to find improved solutions on how to share the computing burden between high-performance computing and the quantum system.

VTT’s deepening engagement has seen it expand its partnership horizons outside Finland. Space moth, the multi-player online game released at the Gamescom 2025 event in Cologne in August, utilised VTT’s superconducting 50-qubit QC in its design and implementation.

Moth Quantum, the London-based media and entertainment company behind Space moth, developed the game in cooperation with VTT, IQM, Onward Studios and IBM Quantum.

“Projects like this interest VTT,” said Jorden Senior, a research team leader at VTT. “We got to demonstrate our Q50 and showcased how quantum computing could shape interactive media in the future. We will closely track the gaming industry and look for opportunities to become involved in the development of future quantum games.”

Tasks and challenges

The momentum driving the “free-to-use” offer in the wake of VTT-IQM’s joint Q50 launch in March gained real traction in July and August, when “selected” organisations were provided a “limited amount” of time to test a range of tasks and challenges on the VTT QX, the cloud platform that enables users access to VTT’s QCs.  

The “users” designated in VTT’s first application round were allocated set times to run their tasks and challenges up to 19 September. These users included technology companies and public research projects, said Matti Palomäki, the lead in quantum computing applications at VTT. 

“What we look for when evaluating applications in the selection process is the scientific level of the project plan, the publicity around the results and how the project supports the Finnish quantum ecosystem,” he said.  

The missions and programmes being run in support of the VTT-IQM collaboration are calibrated to bolster capacities to meet project deadlines. The first-stage construction of the 150-qubit superconducting QC commenced in September, with delivery set for mid-2026. 

The March launch of the 50-qubit QC, which represented the culmination of a four-year joint development project by VTT-IQM, served to strengthen Finland’s global reputation as a country capable and well-positioned to invest in, and advance, quantum computing.

The 50-qubit QC project had a total budget, entirely funded by the Finnish government, amounting to €20.7m. “The 50-qubit QC we developed and built demonstrated Finland to be among the global leaders in the field,” said Erja Turunen, VTT’s executive vice-president. “Utilising this QC, we can develop applications and new algorithms for material modelling and simulation, optimisation problems and artificial intelligence.”

VTT completed development work on the 5-qubit QC in 2021, the forerunner to the 50-qubit QC project. The 5-qubit QC was connected to the internet via the CSC-operated Large Unified Modern Infrastructure (Lumi) supercomputer during the second quarter of 2022. The 5-qubit was followed by the VTT 20-qubit QC, which was completed in 2023 and upgraded to 50 qubits in a third-stage development. 

A digital and computing services firm, CSC made the supercomputer free to use and accessible to Finnish researchers and business users. CSC is owned by the Finnish state in partnership with higher education institutions. 

Lumi’s petascale supercomputer is located at the CSC datacentre in Kajaani, in north-west Finland.

With a total budget of €144.5m, Lumi is co-funded by the European High-Performance Computing Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC-JU) and the Lumi Consortium, which is composed of 11 European member countries, including Finland, Belgium, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Iceland, Norway, the Netherlands, Poland, Sweden and Switzerland.  

In comparison with the Lumi project’s funding, EuroHPC-JU has a budget of €7bn that covers the period of 2021–27. The project’s chief undertaking is to develop a pan-European supercomputing infrastructure, tasked with the purchase and deployment, in the European Union (EU), of two or more supercomputers with a top-five world ranking.

Additionally, EuroHPC-JU is assigned to purchase and deploy two other supercomputers with a designated top-25 world ranking. These supercomputers are intended for use by private, public, scientific and industrial users across EU states.