The Quantum Data Centre of the Future
An ORCA-led consortium that designed and demonstrated how a quantum computer could sit inside a data centre alongside classical systems.
Project data last updated 11 October 2026
About this project
The project ran from March 2022 to March 2025. ORCA Computing led a group of companies and universities, with BT and KETS leading the architecture and communications work.
The partners showed a hybrid quantum and classical data centre design at BT's Adastral Park in early 2024. The work covered photonic quantum computing, quantum-secure networking and post-quantum cryptography.
Who leads it
Lead organisation
ORCA Computing
Company · London
London maker of room-temperature photonic quantum computers, with a testbed at the NQCC and a 2026 enterprise deployment in Japan with Toyota Tsusho.
Partners (12)
BP
Company · London
BT Group
Company · London
Digital Catapult
Research organisation · London
Imperial College London
University · London
KETS Quantum Security
Company · Bristol
NCC Group
Company · Manchester
PQShield
Company · Oxford
Riverlane
Company · Cambridge
University College London
University · London
University of Bath
University · Bath
University of Bristol
University · Bristol
University of Southampton
University · Southampton
Funders
Innovate UK
Funder · Swindon
UK Research and Innovation
Funder · Swindon
In the news
Quantum Zeitgeist articles naming the lead organisation or partners. They may not be about this project.
Can Riverlane’s Deltaflow unlock useful quantum computing?, read on Quantum Zeitgeist
Is Riverlane’s Deltaflow the key to useful quantum computing?
Image © Quantum Zeitgeist
Vlatko Vedral, The Oxford Physicist Who Put a Number on Entanglement, read on Quantum Zeitgeist
Vlatko Vedral is Professor of Quantum Information Science at the University of Oxford, a Serbian-born physicist who has spent three decades asking what entanglement is and what it can do. Entanglement is the link that lets two particles share one quantum state. As a PhD student in London he helped f
Image © Quantum Zeitgeist
Infleqtion and Riverlane team up on error correction for UK quantum computers, read on Quantum Zeitgeist
Infleqtion and Riverlane are collaborating to advance quantum error correction in the UK, integrating Riverlane’s real-time tech with Infleqtion’s neutral atom platform.
Image © Quantum Zeitgeist
Researchers Simulate Molecules Using Ten Thousand Qubits, read on Quantum Zeitgeist
Achieving complete quantum simulations once required resources beyond current capabilities; now, calculations previously intractable are possible using approximately ten thousand physical qubits. This new compilation framework estimates end-to-end runtimes, from 102 milliseconds on photonic or super
Image © Quantum Zeitgeist
Sources
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