A Brave New World

In September last year, Oxford Quantum Computing (OQC), Europe’s first quantum-computing-as-a-service provider, Digital Realty and Nvidia unveiled the first Quantum-AI data centre in New York. This followed several other significant announcements from the company over the past few years, demonstrating a growing appetite for access to quantum-computing-as-a-service (QCAAS). In fact, before September 2025, OQC made its services available in Japan, Spain and the UK through its partnership with Equinix, heralding the early stages of quantum computing (superconducting qubits) at scale.

With quantum computing technologies evolving rapidly, access to quantum computing within a data centre environment provides companies with an opportunity to start their quantum journey by developing their understanding and capabilities. Rather than investing in their own system, QCAAS eliminates geographical and infrastructure barriers, empowering businesses to harness the power of quantum computing without the significant capital investment required for in-house systems. It also allows them to use the data centre model that they are already familiar with.

OQC were the first company to put a dilution refrigerator housing superconducting qubits into a data centre. Here at Quantum Design Oxford, we have been working with OQC and its partners from day one. This collaborative effort has provided us with a clear understanding of what the challenges are and what it will mean to house quantum computers within a hybrid quantum-classical computing environment. These are very much early days, but a number of key themes in terms of technology and engineering have emerged. 

Design & Engineering Considerations

Current data centres traditionally determine space costs based on the physical footprint - often billed ‘by the tile’ - while layering on additional costs for the power and cooling infrastructure required to support computing equipment. For QCAAS, these cost models still apply, but the challenge lies in integrating systems with unfamiliar form factors and operational profiles. Factors such as equipment weight, seismic bolt-downs, heat loads and power requirements need careful consideration. These are not new concepts for data centre engineers, but they manifest differently in a quantum environment. That is where the real opportunity lies: creating common ground and collaboration between engineering disciplines to ensure seamless integration.

Other operational challenges associated with hosting a quantum system in a data centre include the impact on facility design, management, and compliance. While modern data centres are optimised for liquid or air cooling, quantum systems rely on closed-loop cryogenic environments. These achieve near-absolute zero temperatures using self-contained helium cycles. While data centres already work with pressurised systems through halide fire suppression and similar setups, quantum environments introduce different gases and operational parameters, requiring updated safety protocols that will form part of future project plans. 

Technology advancements

Solving these technological challenges requires the industry to work together to understand both current and future quantum systems. What a deployed quantum computer looks like changes significantly depending on the hardware modality and number of qubits. In the future, as the industry moves from today’s brute force scaling toward sophisticated error correction, and from wiring for control and readout to integrated solutions, the fundamental architecture of the cryogenic hardware may change and with it the integration and design needs of a quantum data centre.

Multiplexing will help significantly with reducing the wiring footprint problem, for instance, as it allows us to combine multiple quantum signals (multiple qubits of information) onto a shared physical channel. While classical optical multiplexing uses different wavelengths (colours) on a fibre, multiplexing for quantum allows us to streamline signal delivery through integration technologies such as Cryo-CMOS, which replaces the need for large external control racks and 1000s of lines of high-frequency, low-temperature coaxial wiring. This reduction in wiring volume and ancillary components aims to improve efficiency and enable scalability in quantum computers. 

While future quantum systems may demand higher cooling density per qubit – a challenge likely to be addressed through innovations such as bulk cooling – the overall trend points towards reduced physical footprint and more efficient infrastructure integration. Importantly, however, quantum data centres will always be hybrid environments, combining quantum processors with classical compute and storage systems. As we look ahead, the engineering focus will not simply be on scaling today’s development systems, but on rethinking system requirements to support large-scale, reliable deployment. The good news is that the industry already has a strong foundation to build on: data centres and the semiconductor sector have long solved complex facility, power, and environmental challenges at scale. By borrowing proven approaches and applying them with a fresh perspective, we can accelerate the development of the next generation of quantum-ready data centres.

Quantum education 

Quantum expertise is scarce, but we need to develop the right capabilities and skill-sets to develop the industry and prepare for the deployment of large-scale systems into data centre environments in the near term, and design, build and staff future quantum computer deployments. International collaborations (via joint research calls, visiting researcher programs, and shared-access facilities) help accelerate the training of a global quantum workforce and upskill the workforce to ensure that scientific breakthroughs diffuse quickly across the ecosystem. But while these collaborations are important and we need to continue to support quantum research, there is a lot of work to be done still to support the broader set of people who will need to be involved.

This includes supporting developers who work across the stack to learn more and be able to talk confidently about quantum. As well as engineers who work within data centres but who aren’t quantum experts and technicians, who will run the systems on a day-to-day basis.

We also need active support from governments to enable countries to collaborate in order to accelerate quantum advancements and strengthen national resilience. As the industry evolves, support will be required to facilitate cross-country collaboration as well as supply chain optimisation. Though engineering challenges remain, as commercial demand for quantum computing increases, the established IT framework and operational reliability of data centres will make them a natural home for these systems. By embracing collaboration and taking learnings from other industries, we can quickly scale the deployment of quantum technologies and make them more accessible.