NEC officially ceased the development of quantum computer hardware at the end of March 2026. The company decided to stop investing in this area due to the long timeline for achieving commercial viability and uncertain return on investment, especially when compared to the scale and spending of US competitors like Google and IBM.
The Japanese tech giant has a significant history in the field, having demonstrated the world's first superconducting solid-state qubit in 1999. This breakthrough provided the foundation for the architectures later used by US firms to create multi-hundred-qubit processors.
NEC is not leaving the quantum sector entirely but is shifting its focus toward software development, industrialization, and proof-of-concept work. The company will now concentrate on quantum annealing for optimization problems and quantum-inspired computing that operates on conventional hardware.
Following the hardware project's closure, many of NEC's quantum researchers have reportedly moved to Fujitsu. Fujitsu, which partnered with Japan's largest research institute, Riken, in 2025, continues to aggressively pursue its own quantum hardware development program.
