Pasqal

PASQAL is a French quantum computing company that develops and deploys neutral-atom quantum processors, placing it among a small group of hardware-focused firms competing to build practical quantum systems at scale.

The company's technology uses arrays of individual neutral atoms — held in place and manipulated by precisely tuned laser light — as qubits. This architecture allows qubit layouts to be arranged in two and three dimensions and reconfigured between runs, a flexibility that distinguishes it from superconducting and trapped-ion approaches and is seen as an advantage for certain optimization and simulation workloads.

PASQAL has pursued a strategy of partnering with national supercomputing centers to embed quantum hardware inside existing high-performance computing infrastructure. Its installation of Italy's first neutral-atom quantum computer — named SOL and housed at CINECA, a leading supercomputing center in Bologna — is a recent example of this approach and reflects the broader European push to develop sovereign quantum computing capacity.