French quantum computing company Pasqal has inaugurated SOL, Italy's first neutral-atom quantum computer, at the CINECA supercomputing centre in Bologna. The system, built around Pasqal's 140-qubit Orion quantum processing unit (QPU), is co-funded by the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking and Italy's Ministry of University and Research through the ICSC national centre.
Hybrid HPC + quantum, on Leonardo
SOL has been engineered for tight integration with CINECA's Leonardo, Italy's pre-exascale EuroHPC supercomputer that ranks near the top of the Top500 list. The hybrid architecture is designed to let researchers offload specialised workloads — complex optimisation, advanced materials simulation, machine-learning inference and training assist tasks — to the QPU, while relying on Leonardo for classical computation and bulk data handling.
'By coupling our neutral atom quantum technology with Leonardo, CINECA is enabling researchers to explore computational frontiers that were previously out of reach,' Pasqal CEO Loïc Henriet said in the company's statement marking the inauguration. CINECA expects the system to be open to academic and industrial users in the coming months once integration with Leonardo becomes fully operational.
Pasqal's third EuroHPC system
With SOL, Pasqal now powers three of the eight quantum computers procured under the EuroHPC JU programme, alongside earlier deployments at CEA/GENCI in France and Forschungszentrum Jülich in Germany. The Italian system was assembled at the DAMA Emilia-Romagna Technopole and reinforces Europe's push for a sovereign hybrid HPC + quantum infrastructure as Brussels expanded the EuroHPC JU's mandate to cover AI gigafactories and quantum technologies earlier this year.
A busy quarter for European quantum
The inauguration lands during a particularly active period for European quantum funding and listings. French silicon-spin specialist Quobly recently raised €115 million from Bpifrance and STMicroelectronics, while Quantinuum priced its $1.68 billion Nasdaq IPO earlier this month. Pasqal itself is preparing to go public via a business combination with Bleichroeder Acquisition Corp II, at a stated valuation of roughly $2 billion.
For Italy, SOL is meant to anchor a domestic quantum ecosystem that has lagged France and Germany. ICSC president Antonio Zoccoli credited Minister Anna Maria Bernini and a multi-year ministerial commitment for letting CINECA stand 'at the forefront of advanced computing capabilities at global level' once the QPU goes live.
Reporting based on coverage from HPCwire, The Quantum Insider and the Pasqal newsroom.