France’s Pasqal has made its neutral-atom quantum computing technology available via the Microsoft Azure Quantum cloud service.

According to the company, it is the first neutral-atom quantum computer to be offered via Microsoft.

Businesses and researchers will now be able to access Pasqal’s technology for quantum-based research via the cloud, making it a more accessible option versus the high infrastructure costs of purchasing a quantum computer.

“The continued collaboration between Pasqal and Microsoft is driven by a shared mission to pioneer a new kind of computing by democratizing access to quantum technologies,” said Loïc Henriet, co-CEO of Pasqal.

“Pasqal is the first neutral-atom quantum computer on Microsoft Azure’s cloud service, a recognition of the robust technology we have built and are continuously improving according to an ambitious roadmap for quantum advantage.”

Pasqal’s quantum computer uses neutral-atom technology and offers a range of analog quantum computational capabilities.

Each qubit is realized with a single neutral atom whose electronic energy levels represent the 0 and 1 states of the qubit. The atoms are trapped into an “atomic registry” using optical tweezers, and computations can then be achieved by shining fine-tuned laser pulses onto the atoms.

The quantum computer can operate at room temperature, which differs from many quantum technologies that require supercooling. It has not been stated how many qubits the cloud-based quantum offering will have access to.

Pasqal was founded in 2019. Its co-founder, Professor Alain Aspect, was awarded a Nobel Prize in 2022 for his work on entangled photons. In January 2023, the company raised $108 million in funding, and has since gone on to install quantum computers in Saudi Arabia and Germany.

Microsoft launched its Azure Quantum offering in 2021. It supports a variety of quantum hardware architectures from partners, including Quantinuum, IonQ, and Atom Computing.

Earlier this year, Microsoft unveiled a new quantum processing unit, the first to be built on a topological core. Majorana 1 is named after the previously hypothesized Majorana particle, which Microsoft now believes it has proved. The Majorana 1 chip is cooled close to absolute zero and tuned with magnetic fields, and has topological superconducting nanowires with Majorana Zero Modes (MZMs) at the wire’s ends.