Basque Minister Mikel Jauregi visits Quantum Motion following their decision to establish in Euskadi

During a business trip to the United Kingdom to present the industrial, technological, and innovative capabilities of Euskadi, the Basque Government’s Minister of Industry, Energy Transition, and Sustainability, Mikel Jauregi, visited the Quantum Motion facilities in London. He praised their future establishment in Euskadi through an agreement with CIC nanoGUNE as “a good example of how the image of Euskadi has been consolidated internationally as a solid and highly innovative partner.”

During his visit to Quantum Motion, a pioneering scale-up company in quantum hardware dedicated to designing the first silicon chip developed with quantum technology, the minister was received by CEO James Palles-Dimmock, CTO John Morton, and the director of Quantum Motion Euskadi and Ikerbasque researcher at CIC nanoGUNE, Fernando González-Zalba. Together, they toured the various laboratories and the refrigerated area, as well as the different systems for manufacturing quantum chips.

The company informed the minister that it has decided to open its first headquarters in the European Union in Donostia. Last June, Quantum Motion signed an industrial collaboration agreement with the new Quantum Hardware research group at nanoGUNE to collaborate on developing quantum chips based on semiconductor technology. Thus, the quantum tower that nanoGUNE will build to expand its headquarters will house both the new research group’s laboratories and the offices of Quantum Motion’s Basque subsidiary.

In the first phase, two floors will be enabled within the new tower, including offices and testing laboratories. In the second phase, another two floors will be enabled with new laboratories, with the expectation that the Quantum Hardware group at nanoGUNE will incorporate a team of at least 50 highly qualified people under the agreement signed with Quantum Motion.

Minister Mikel Jauregi valued Quantum Motion’s establishment in Euskadi as “very good news,” representing “a step forward in consolidating the international prestige and industrial, technological, and innovative capabilities of our country. The efforts made since 2017 with the establishment of the Basque Government’s commercial office in the United Kingdom have borne fruit in presenting the image of Euskadi in the British market as a solid and highly innovative partner.”

“The materialization of Quantum Motion’s new headquarters in Donostia is the result of the good work carried out by various actors, led by the Basque Government, over the past few years. This work includes multiple factors and milestones, from the European Commission’s consideration of our country as a ‘high innovation’ territory, strategic collaboration with CIC nanoGUNE, the growing quantum technology capabilities being developed in Euskadi (from the talent available at universities to IBM’s new quantum supercomputer, through the Basque Quantum strategy), the strength of the BRTA - Basque Research and Technology Alliance, the presence of other agents of the Basque Network of Science, Technology, and Innovation, and of course, the support of the Department of Industry’s programs in investment financing, R&D, or entrepreneurship.”

“The Quantum Motion project for Euskadi aims to generate wealth, both in terms of knowledge and the creation and promotion of industries in Euskadi. Once again, the public-private collaboration strategy that we promote from the Basque Government continues to generate new opportunities for the benefit of our industry and society as a whole,” concluded Jauregi.