Since November 17, 2025, a quantum computer developed and built entirely in Germany has been running at the Jülich Research Centre. It has ten qubits. Google and IBM now operate systems with more than a thousand. That gap sounds sobering, but it misses what "Made in Germany" means in the global quantum race: not qubit records, but technological sovereignty.
Four years, 76 million euros, 25 institutes
The QSolid project began in January 2022 and runs until December 2026. Germany's Federal Ministry of Education and Research is financing nearly 90 percent of the project; the total budget is 76.3 million euros. More than 160 scientists and engineers from 25 German partner institutions are involved, from Jülich Research Centre through Fraunhofer institutes and the Free University of Berlin to companies such as ParTec, ParityQC and HQS Quantum Simulations. Coordination is led by Prof. Dr. Frank Wilhelm-Mauch, head of the theory of nanoelectronics at Jülich.
At the heart of the project is the JUNIQ infrastructure of the Jülich Supercomputing Centre, through which the quantum computer is accessible via the cloud. Since November 2025, external users have been able to connect to the system. Early industry partners have already received test access and run their own algorithms on it.
The target for the project's end in December 2026: a system that can control up to 30 qubits with maximum error correction. Not a thousand qubits. Thirty. That difference is the essence of what separates QSolid from American projects.
Why thirty qubits can outperform a thousand
Raw qubit count is the most misleading metric in quantum computing. Quantum bits are extremely sensitive: temperature fluctuations of fractions of a kelvin, electromagnetic fields or mechanical vibrations can destroy a quantum state. This is called decoherence. Systems with a thousand qubits and high error rates produce results corrupted by noise that cannot support any practical computation.
Google demonstrated a decisive step in late 2024 with its Willow chip: when qubits are connected in a specific error-correcting pattern, the error rate drops exponentially rather than rising. That proves scalable error correction is possible in principle. QSolid pursues the same approach, but with European hardware and European expertise.
The comparison with the United States therefore misses the point because it equates different strategies. Google's Willow chip and IBM's Heron processor have thousands of qubits but are not yet optimised for full error correction. QSolid has ten qubits with low error rates and an integrated software stack. Researchers at the Free University of Berlin published results in 2026 on gate fidelity, the precision of individual quantum operations. A quantum operation with 99.9 percent precision is more useful for real algorithms than one with 95 percent precision in a system with a hundred times as many qubits.
Why Europe needs its own quantum computer
The semiconductor industry has already shown what technological dependency means. Europe sources processors almost entirely from Taiwan and South Korea. When the pandemic disrupted supply chains and political tensions rose, Europe had little leverage. Quantum computing risks repeating that pattern.
There is also a security dimension. Quantum computers will in the foreseeable future be capable of breaking widely used encryption methods such as RSA. The G7 agreed in January 2026 on a joint roadmap for post-quantum cryptography: government IT systems are to be migrated to quantum-resistant standards by 2030. Those involved in developing quantum systems understand attack vectors and vulnerabilities better than those who simply rent cloud capacity.
For industry, the stakes are competitive. Early commercial applications of quantum computers are taking shape in logistics optimisation, pharmaceutical research and materials science. Companies developing algorithms depend on the systems they test on. Those without access to their own hardware will have to buy time from American or Chinese providers, at their prices and under their terms of use.
What the next eight months will decide
By December 2026, QSolid must demonstrate that 30 reliably operating qubits are possible in a German system. That is not a world record, but a proof of concept for European quantum hardware. Whether the Federal Ministry of Education and Research funds a follow-on project, and at what scale, depends on the outcome.
In parallel, the European Commission is negotiating a European quantum network that would link national systems. Germany, France and the Netherlands each have their own quantum programmes but no shared ecosystem yet. Building such a network is considered a prerequisite for Europe to remain technologically capable in the post-quantum era rather than permanently dependent on American or Chinese platforms. The real benchmark is not whether Germany beats Google. It is whether Europe can master quantum technology before it becomes critical infrastructure.