Alice & Bob Reports Phase 1 Results of France’s PROQCIMA Quantum Program

Introduction

Alice & Bob, a fault‑tolerant quantum‑computing developer, has released a concise technical summary of its Phase 1 achievements under France’s PROQCIMA programme. The report outlines hardware demonstrations, error‑correction experiments, and automation tools that satisfy the first‑stage feasibility criteria of a €500 million, ten‑year national procurement effort managed by the Defence Innovation Agency (AID) and the Direction générale de l’Armement (DGA).

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Phase 1 hardware demonstrators

The company operated three independent quantum‑processor (QPUs) prototypes:

• Two 6‑qubit superconducting chips
• One 12‑qubit chip

All three were fully assembled, calibrated, and run through a suite of error‑correction validation tests. The architecture relies on bosonic cat qubits, which encode logical information in superpositions of coherent states and provide intrinsic protection against bit‑flip errors.

Key technical capabilities demonstrated

Noise‑biased logic

• Implemented CNOT gates between cat qubits while preserving the built‑in bit‑flip bias.
• Demonstrated that the bias can be leveraged to reduce the effective error rate of two‑qubit operations.

Syndrome extraction and reset

• Executed measure‑and‑reset sequences on auxiliary qubits, enabling rapid syndrome readout and qubit re‑initialisation within a QEC cycle.
• Integrated these sequences into a distance‑3 repetition code (three data qubits) and ran multiple correction cycles, measuring full‑register logical error rates.

Non‑Clifford gate implementation

• Performed a single‑qubit non‑Clifford gate on a cat qubit, establishing a baseline for future magic‑state injection—a prerequisite for universal fault‑tolerant computation.

Automation & control (MnR software)

• Deployed proprietary Monitoring & Recalibration (MnR) software that tracks over 50 performance indicators per qubit.
• The system automatically corrects drift during idle periods, improving stability without manual intervention.

Digital twin and roadmap implications

Alice & Bob also built a digital twin of its processor using telemetry from the demonstrators. This model captures coherence times, gate fidelities, and error‑bias parameters, providing a predictive framework for scaling to larger logical qubit counts. The data suggest that while logical error rates are not yet below the fault‑tolerance threshold, the demonstrated building blocks are on a clear trajectory toward that goal.

Context within PROQCIMA

• Phase 1 (2024‑2028) allocated €60 million to five French hardware contenders, including Alice & Bob, Pasqal, Quandela, Quobly, and C12.
• Phase 2 (2026‑2028) will increase funding to €150 million, narrowing the field to three finalists and ultimately selecting two industrialisation winners aimed at delivering 2,048 logical qubits after 2030.
• The French national quantum strategy, updated in May 2026, accelerated the programme’s target from 128 to 1,000 logical qubits by 2032 and doubled the annual budget.

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Practical takeaways

Alice & Bob’s Phase 1 results demonstrate that cat‑qubit hardware can meet the core requirements for fault‑tolerant quantum computing: biased noise, reliable syndrome extraction, and the ability to execute non‑Clifford operations. The MnR automation platform further reduces operational overhead, a critical factor for scaling to the larger qubit counts envisioned in PROQCIMA’s roadmap. Stakeholders should watch the upcoming Phase 2 competition, where performance metrics from these demonstrators will be benchmarked against the other French contenders.

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The information above is based on the company’s public summary and the publicly available PROQCIMA framework; no proprietary data or unpublished claims are included.