Australian quantum computing company Diraq has deployed what it says is Australia’s first quantum computer installed inside a commercial data centre, with the system now live at Equinix in Sydney.
The installation is running with eight qubits, with Diraq saying it is targeting a scale-up to 256 qubits in the same deployed system within the next year. The company said the system occupies 16m2 of floor space and draws less than 20kW of power, positioning the deployment as a step towards operating quantum hardware within existing data centre infrastructure.
“We are now at a point where quantum computing can start to reach industries and the people they serve,” said Andrew Dzurak, CEO and Founder of Diraq.
“That shift matters more than any single milestone, because it changes what’s possible for every field quantum touches, from medicine to materials to logistics. Our silicon spin approach is what puts that within reach in five years, not decades. It gives us a manufacturing path already proven at industrial scale, a cost curve that improves as we add qubits, and a system designed to run inside today’s existing computing infrastructure.”
The companies said the deployment is intended to demonstrate a pathway from laboratory systems into operational environments used by enterprise customers. Diraq said its silicon spin architecture uses the same semiconductor manufacturing processes used to produce conventional computer chips, and is designed so data centres can increase quantum computing capacity by upgrading the quantum processor with minimal changes to surrounding infrastructure.
Diraq also provided comparisons on power and footprint as systems scale. It said a future “utility-scale” system could draw around 300kW, which it described as less than a third of the power demanded by a single next-generation AI rack, and could be as small as 5m2 in floor space.
“Diraq’s deployment at Equinix represents an important milestone for Australia’s quantum industry,” said Jarrod Nink, Managing Director, Australia at Equinix.
“By hosting Australia’s first quantum computer in a commercial data centre, we are helping bridge the gap between research and deployment, while creating the foundation for quantum systems to connect seamlessly with the cloud, AI and high-performance computing ecosystems that enterprises rely on today.”
Alongside the deployment, Diraq released a report titled Quantum at Work, which examines potential future applications across areas including medicine, energy, materials, climate and transport. The company said its modelling suggests that increasing clinical trial success rates by 10 percentage points could result in around 50% more potentially lifesaving medicines reaching patients each year, equating to up to 25 additional medicines annually in a market the size of the US.
The report also includes economic assumptions tied to those outcomes. Diraq said the same 10 percentage point lift could save $600 million per medicine by ruling out failed candidates earlier, provided the quantum computer runs for under $65 million a year to deliver that value.
In the release, Diraq referenced earlier funding and program milestones, including a strategic investment from the National Reconstruction Fund Corporation, participation in Stage C of DARPA’s Quantum Benchmarking Initiative with potential funding of up to US$300 million, and a signed US$38 million letter of intent with the US Department of Commerce under the CHIPS and Science Act.
