Quantum World Congress Announces 2026 Platinum Sponsors
As quantum accelerates across markets, national policy, cybersecurity, and commercialization, QWC 2026 will convene the global ecosystem September 23–25 at The Hotel at the University of Maryland with Atom Computing, Classiq, D-Wave, IBM, Infleqtion, IonQ, Microsoft, and Quantinuum taking center stage
Quantum World Congress today announced Atom Computing, Classiq, D-Wave, IBM, Infleqtion, IonQ, Microsoft, and Quantinuum as Platinum Sponsors for Quantum World Congress 2026, taking place September 23–25 at The Hotel at the University of Maryland in College Park.
The announcement lands at a defining moment for the global quantum industry. In recent weeks alone, quantum has moved from technical milestone to market signal to national strategy: Quantinuum entered the public markets, new federal executive actions placed quantum computing and post-quantum cybersecurity squarely at the center of U.S. competitiveness, and major public- and private-sector investments have reinforced what the field already knows:
Quantum is no longer waiting for permission to matter. It matters now.
That is the stage Quantum World Congress was built for.
“Quantum World Congress was created because this region understood something early: quantum would not be built by one company, one university, one agency, or one country alone. It will take the full ecosystem—researchers, founders, investors, policymakers, national labs, global partners, and the companies willing to build at the edge of what is possible. This year's Platinum Sponsors represent the remarkable diversity of the quantum industry itself—from software to hardware, optimization to neutral atoms, networking, sensing, cloud, and commercialization. That's exactly the kind of ecosystem Quantum World Congress was built to convene,” said George Thomas, President & CEO, Connected DMV.
“This year’s Platinum Sponsors represent the remarkable diversity of the quantum industry itself—from software to hardware, optimization to neutral atoms, networking, sensing, cloud, and commercialization. That’s exactly the kind of ecosystem Quantum World Congress was built to convene.”
Operated by Connected DMV as part of its Potomac Quantum Innovation Center initiative, Quantum World Congress has become one of the world's premier convenings for the quantum ecosystem—bringing together leaders across science, industry, government, finance, academia, and workforce development to accelerate the move from breakthrough research to real-world impact.
The 2026 Platinum Sponsor lineup reflects the breadth of the quantum economy now taking shape. Atom Computing, Classiq, D-Wave, IBM, Infleqtion, IonQ, Microsoft, and Quantinuum span quantum hardware, software, cloud infrastructure, neutral atoms, optimization, sensing, networking, applications, security, and commercialization—the layers required to move quantum from laboratory promise to deployed capability.
Five of the eight Platinum Sponsors return after helping define the QWC 2025 main stage
At QWC 2025, alongside Maryland Governor Wes Moore, Microsoft announced a new Quantum Research Center in Maryland’s Discovery District, strengthening the region’s position as a national hub for quantum research, commercialization, and public-private collaboration.
IBM’s Jay Gambetta made the case that the field has crossed a critical threshold from quantum devices to quantum computers, with the next race focused on verifiable advantage, reliable systems, and fault tolerance.
IonQ President and CEO Niccolo de Masi laid out a future spanning quantum computing, networking, and sensing — anchored by one of College Park’s defining quantum companies.
Quantinuum CEO Dr. Rajeeb Hazra shared major progress on the path to fault-tolerant quantum computing and previewed the company’s next-generation Helios system.
Infleqtion CEO Matthew Kinsella and CTO Pranav Gokhale showed how neutral atoms are moving from promise to product across computing, sensing, clocks, security, and real-world mission applications.
Atom Computing, Classiq, and D-Wave join the lineup for 2026, reflecting three important dimensions of the industry's evolution
Atom Computing brings one of the field's most closely watched approaches to fault-tolerant quantum computing, using large-scale arrays of optically trapped neutral atoms to advance logical qubit systems and commercial quantum deployment. Classiq brings one of the world's leading software platforms for designing and scaling quantum applications across hardware architectures. D-Wave contributes decades of leadership in quantum optimization and annealing, alongside its expanding gate-model roadmap. Together, they underscore the industry's growing focus on practical applications, architectural diversity, logical qubits, and deploying quantum technologies against real-world challenges.
Atom Computing's role at QWC 2026 comes as the company accelerates commercial deployment of neutral-atom quantum systems. Its AC1000 platform is designed around more than 1,200 physical qubits, all-to-all connectivity, mid-circuit measurement, qubit reset and reuse, real-time conditional branching, and other capabilities important to quantum error correction and logical-qubit operation. The company has also announced a major collaboration with Microsoft focused on building fault-tolerant quantum supercomputers and advancing commercial systems capable of supporting scientific and enterprise applications.
Quantum will not scale on hardware alone. As systems advance, enterprises, researchers, and developers need higher-level tools to design, optimize, analyze, and execute quantum algorithms across architectures without being trapped in low-level circuit design. Classiq’s platform brings that software layer into focus, helping teams move from ideas and use cases to hardware-ready quantum programs more quickly—and positioning software as a critical bridge between today’s quantum experimentation and tomorrow’s deployed applications.
D-Wave's expanded role at Quantum World Congress builds on its participation in the 2026 Global Industry Challenge, where the company joins Aqora and qBraid as a platform partner. Through the Challenge, innovators from around the world will have access to D-Wave's quantum technologies to tackle real industry problems spanning finance, infrastructure, logistics, manufacturing, life sciences, and more—reinforcing QWC's commitment to accelerating practical quantum deployment through collaboration and open innovation.
“Quantum World Congress is not just where people come to talk about the future,” Thomas added. “It is where the future gets organized. The breakthroughs, the partnerships, the policy conversations, the customers, the talent pipeline, the capital, and the commercialization pathways all have to meet somewhere. In 2026, they meet in College Park.”
The Move to College Park Is Intentional
College Park is not simply hosting Quantum World Congress 2026. It is one of the reasons QWC 2026 matters.
Anchored by the University of Maryland's world-class quantum research ecosystem and surrounded by the Discovery District, IonQ, Microsoft's new Quantum Research Center, DARPA's Capital Quantum Benchmarking Hub, the Quantum Startup Foundry, federal agencies, investors, and emerging companies—including recent expansions by IQM Quantum Computers, NanoQT, and Quantum Motion—College Park represents the full quantum pipeline: from theory to engineering, from lab to launch, from whiteboard to world.
It is a living quantum testbed. It is where breakthrough research meets market demand. Where federal priorities meet commercial ambition. Where startups, global technology leaders, academic institutions, and public-sector partners are building the next generation of quantum capability in real time.
Quantum World Congress 2025 demonstrated the scale of that momentum. Held during the International Year of Quantum, QWC 2025 brought together participants from more than 30 countries and 33 U.S. states, representing more than 500 organizations. The program featured more than 130 sessions, more than 300 speakers, 11 national quantum updates from around the world, the Quantum Startup Pitch Competition, the Global Industry Challenge, and the Quantum Leadership Awards.
The 2026 program will build on that foundation with three days of mainstage keynotes, industry announcements, international programming, investor and startup engagement, policy and security conversations, workforce development, and partnership-building across the global quantum ecosystem.
Early Bird Registration for Quantum World Congress 2026 is open now. Secure your seat at quantumworldcongress.com.
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ABOUT QUANTUM WORLD CONGRESS
Quantum World Congress is the premier global convening where leaders across science, industry, government, finance, and education come together to shape the future of quantum technology. Since 2022, QWC has served as an international platform for unveiling breakthroughs, accelerating commercialization, and forging the partnerships that move quantum from the lab into the real world. Anchored in the Greater Washington region, Quantum World Congress connects research with reality — bringing the global quantum ecosystem together at a moment when the stakes, and the opportunities, have never been higher. Learn more at quantumworldcongress.com.
ABOUT CONNECTED DMV
Connected DMV unites Greater Washington’s unmatched assets—talent, innovation, influence—to build the industries, infrastructure, and partnerships that will define the next economy. We work across D.C., Maryland, and Virginia because the future doesn’t stop at jurisdictional boundaries, and neither do we.We bring together government, business, academia, and community leaders to launch high-impact initiatives that cut through silos, accelerate innovation, and position Greater Washington as a global leader in the markets that matter most. We don’t just respond to change—we drive it. Learn more at connecteddmv.org.