The European Quantum Industry Consortium (QuIC) asked on September 17, 2026, for quantum chip manufacturing to be added to the priority areas for strategic projects in the European Commission’s Chips Act 2.0 proposal. In a paper published that day, QuIC, a nonprofit industry association, wrote that the proposal “provides the language of industrialisation for quantum without an instrument capable of delivering it.” It posted the paper on its website and submitted it through the Commission’s public feedback portal.
The Commission kept support for six quantum chip pilot lines in its draft and listed no quantum area among its six priorities for strategic projects. A pilot line is a facility for developing and testing manufacturing processes before volume production.
Under Article 16 of the proposal, the Commission would recognize semiconductor projects that meet a set of criteria as strategic projects. Under Article 19, it would give the highest priority to a strategic project for an EU-based open foundry for advanced semiconductor manufacturing.
Quantum in the Commission’s draft
The Commission adopted the proposal, COM(2026) 504, on June 3 to repeal and replace the 2023 Chips Act. In the proposal’s first annex, it listed six quantum chip pilot lines, one per hardware platform, with coordinators that include Finland’s VTT and France’s Pasqal. It also provided for design libraries, testing facilities, and enabling technologies such as cryogenics and packaging.
The Commission also planned support for “first industrialisation efforts of the most mature developments” in the same annex. In the recitals, it wrote that instruments including the quantum chip pilots “are fit for purpose and should continue being supported.” A recital is one of the explanatory paragraphs at the start of an EU regulation.
In the explanatory memorandum, the Commission wrote that the impact of the quantum chip pilots and the design platform “will only become apparent at a later stage.”
In Annex II, the proposal’s list of six priority areas for strategic projects, the Commission wrote under the first area, European advanced semiconductor manufacturing, that advanced chips are “critical inputs for emerging and high-value areas such as photonics and quantum chips.” It mentioned quantum nowhere else in the annex. For that area, it estimated public and private investment of €20–40 billion, depending on the option chosen.
“Annex II is the sole gateway to strategic-project status,” QuIC wrote. In the recitals, the Commission called for a list of “indicative technological areas for strategic projects” in the regulation.
In Article 17(1), the Commission described the annex’s areas as “indicative” and gave itself the power to amend Annex II by delegated act. It did not refer to the annex in the six criteria for strategic projects in Article 16(1). A delegated act is an amendment the Commission adopts under powers granted in the regulation, subject to objection by Parliament or the Council.
What QuIC asked for
QuIC wrote that it is not asking Europe to build a quantum foundry this year. It wrote that many processes remain short of production readiness and that volumes are low.
QuIC recommended adding “quantum chip manufacturing as a priority area in Annex II” of the regulation. As a fallback, it asked for a recital with a commitment to use “the power in Article 17(1) to amend Annex II by delegated act,” so quantum could be added later.
QuIC also asked for a European multi-project wafer and shuttle program with reserved capacity, plus support for cryogenic characterization, packaging, and metrology. In a multi-project wafer run, several designers share one wafer to split the cost of fabrication.
QuIC counted nine of the recommendations in its December 2025 position paper as not reflected in the proposal, four as partly reflected, and one as discontinued. QuIC also drafted 10 quantum indicators for Annex III, the proposal’s list of monitoring indicators, in which the Commission included none.
The U.S. deals QuIC cited
QuIC cited three U.S. transactions made within two months. IBM committed more than $10 billion to quantum computing over five years on June 2. QuIC counted within that commitment Anderon, a quantum wafer foundry that IBM announced on May 21 as a new IBM company. On July 23, IBM agreed to acquire HRL Laboratories, a research company then owned by Boeing and General Motors that works on silicon spin qubits. IBM completed the purchase on August 26.
On July 31, IonQ completed its purchase of the U.S. contract chipmaker SkyWater Technology. QuIC wrote that through the deals, companies that sell quantum computers gained fabrication capacity under “commitments that are voluntary, revocable and framed around another jurisdiction’s security of supply.” IonQ said when it closed the deal that SkyWater would keep serving all of its foundry customers as a subsidiary under its own name.
The Quantum Act and next steps
QuIC wrote that the Chips Act should keep what depends on semiconductor infrastructure, such as fabrication and pilot lines, and that the Quantum Act should cover systems, applications, procurement, and standards. The Commission had not proposed the Quantum Act by September 18. In the explanatory memorandum, the Commission described consistency between the two acts as an opportunity to build a comprehensive European quantum policy framework.
Parliament and the Council will negotiate the text under the ordinary legislative procedure, in which both must agree on the final wording. Parliament announced on September 14 that it had referred the proposal to its Industry, Research and Energy Committee. Oliver Schenk of the European People’s Party is the rapporteur, the member who leads the committee’s work on the proposal.
Parliament and the Council would both have to agree to add a quantum priority area to Annex II before adoption.
Eight people from Tyndall National Institute, Bull, Equal1 Labs, Peak Quantum, Qilimanjaro Quantum Tech, and QuIC contributed to the paper, among them QuIC’s executive director, Cécile M. Perrault. QuIC acknowledged support from the EU’s Horizon Europe program through the QOMPASS grant.
Update, November 14, 2026: The European Commission’s indicative agenda dated November 10 lists the Quantum Act for November 24, subject to change. An earlier agenda, dated October 5, had listed it for November 18.
