India builds domestic quantum chip manufacturing capacity
Built WorldQpiAI opens a Bengaluru foundry that fabricates superconducting quantum processors from start to finish
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Overview
Updated 2 hours agoFewer than ten countries can both design and build a quantum processor. On August 17, 2026, an Indian startup added its country to that list, opening a Bengaluru factory that makes superconducting quantum chips from bare wafer to packaged device.
QpiAI's foundry can fabricate chips with up to 128 qubits today, the basic units that let a quantum computer run calculations a normal computer cannot. The company wants to reach 10,000 physical qubits by 2027. If it holds, India stops importing this hardware and starts making its own.
Why it matters
Only a handful of countries can make quantum chips. India just built a factory that could turn it from a buyer into a supplier.
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A Bengaluru startup that designs and now fabricates superconducting quantum processors.
India's eight-year, roughly $726 million program to build a domestic quantum industry.
Timeline
April 2023 August 2026
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QpiAI opens Bengaluru quantum foundry
Today InfrastructureThe eight-inch plant fabricates superconducting chips of up to 128 qubits and runs the full process from lithography to packaging.
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QpiAI launches 64-qubit Kaveri chip
ProductThe flip-chip superconducting processor is set for commercial availability by the third quarter of 2026.
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QpiAI raises about $32 million
FundingA Series A round led by Avataar Ventures and the National Quantum Mission funds the hardware push.
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QpiAI ships 25-qubit Indus system
ProductThe company unveils Indus, described as India's first full-stack quantum computer, selected under the National Quantum Mission.
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India approves National Quantum Mission
PolicyThe cabinet backs an eight-year program worth about $726 million to build a domestic quantum industry.
Historical Context
3 moments from history that rhyme with this story — and how they unfolded.
TSMC founded as a pure-play foundry (1987)
Morris Chang founded Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company to make chips designed by others, rather than sell its own. The dedicated-foundry model let a mid-size economy enter advanced chipmaking.
TSMC gave fabless design firms a place to build, seeding a new layer of the chip industry.
It became the world's largest contract chipmaker and made Taiwan central to global electronics.
QpiAI is betting the same logic works for quantum: own the fabrication line and you can supply chips to a field that mostly lacks factories.
India's low-cost Mars mission (2014)
India's Mangalyaan probe reached Mars orbit on the country's first try, built for about $74 million, a fraction of comparable Western missions. It showed India could hit advanced-tech targets cheaply.
The mission became a point of national pride and proof of frugal engineering.
It reinforced India's strategy of indigenizing high technology at low cost rather than importing it.
QpiAI's roughly $35 million foundry follows the same playbook: reach a capability held by a few rich nations, but for far less money.
IBM unveils 1,121-qubit Condor (2023)
IBM revealed Condor, the first superconducting quantum chip to pass 1,000 qubits. Its performance, measured by coherence time and gate fidelity, stayed roughly level with IBM's 433-qubit predecessor.
The milestone drew headlines, but IBM soon shifted its public roadmap toward smaller, error-corrected chips rather than raw qubit counts.
The field learned that adding qubits is easier than keeping them accurate, and quality became the harder benchmark.
It tempers QpiAI's 10,000-qubit goal. Raw count is a start; a machine that computes reliably at that scale is a much harder thing.
