TII Puts Its Homegrown Quantum Computers in the Cloud — and Opens Access to the World
When most organisations want to experiment with quantum computing, they turn to IBM, Google, or one of a handful of US-based startups that have spent billions building the hardware. As of this week, they have a new option — one built not in Silicon Valley, but in the desert of Abu Dhabi.
The Technology Innovation Institute (TII), the applied research arm of Abu Dhabi's Advanced Technology Research Council, announced on Monday the launch of Q-Cloud: a service that lets external partners run workloads on physical quantum processors the institute has designed, fabricated, and operated entirely in-house. It is a notable step for a lab that only opened its doors four years ago.
What the hardware can actually do
TII's Quantum Computing Hardware Lab currently operates several Quantum Processing Units (QPUs) ranging from 5 to 25 qubits, built on superconducting technology — the same foundational approach used by IBM and Google. More telling than qubit count alone are the coherence times: the duration a qubit can hold a quantum state before it collapses into noise. TII says its latest in-house chips sustain coherence up to ten times longer than its own first-generation prototypes, a sign of maturing engineering expertise across design, fabrication, and system integration.
At 25 qubits, the hardware sits well below the scale that would be needed for the kinds of industry-disrupting calculations that make quantum computing so tantalising. But for research, benchmarking, and developing the algorithms that will eventually run on larger machines, it is a meaningful platform.
From internal tool to public-facing service
Until now, the QPU systems have been used exclusively within TII — specifically by its own Quantum Algorithms team, which has been using the hardware to test and benchmark quantum workflows. The decision to open that access to partners marks a deliberate pivot from quiet capability-building to active collaboration.
Dr. Leandro Aolita, Chief Researcher of TII's Quantum Research Centre, framed the moment in terms of both speed and intent. “Launching a cloud-accessible QPU service only four years after establishing the lab demonstrates both the pace and ambition of our quantum program,” he said. “With today’s launch, we are extending that same cloud-based access model to our partners, providing a practical platform to accelerate experimentation and hybrid quantum-classical development on locally developed infrastructure.”
The software layer connecting users to the hardware is Qibo, TII's own open-source quantum framework. It allows researchers to build quantum circuits and hybrid quantum-classical workflows, then run them seamlessly across both simulators and physical QPUs through a single interface — a detail that matters practically, since most real-world quantum applications today blend classical and quantum computation rather than relying on quantum hardware alone.
Why it matters beyond Abu Dhabi
The ability to offer cloud access to self-built quantum hardware remains the preserve of a very small group globally. For the UAE, Q-Cloud adds a concrete proof point to what has largely been a story told in investment announcements and research centre openings. It also signals something about the direction of the country’s technology ambitions: rather than simply buying access to frontier technology, Abu Dhabi is investing in building it.
TII says the service will expand over time, with additional system upgrades, new capabilities, and broader partner access planned as the quantum ecosystem develops. For researchers and developers looking to get hands-on time with real quantum hardware outside the dominant US platforms, the invitation is now open.