QpiAI opens Bengaluru quantum foundry, targets 10,000-qubit chips

Inside an eight-inch quantum chip facility in Jakkur, Bengaluru, QpiAI is taking on a task most conventional semiconductor foundries are not equipped to handle: making the specialised devices needed for quantum computers. The startup has completed the second phase of its foundry, which can fabricate flip-chip superconducting processors with up to 128 qubits.

The company’s next target is much larger, but not yet built. A third phase scheduled for completion in 2027 is expected, according to QpiAI, to give the facility capacity to fabricate a quantum processing unit containing as many as 10,000 physical qubits. QpiAI founder and chief executive Nagendra Nagaraja said the Bengaluru site will handle lithography, etching, patterning, assembly and packaging.

That control matters because quantum processors are not judged by qubit count alone. Qubits are the basic units of quantum information, but their error rates, quality, connectivity and ability to work together determine how useful a machine can be. QpiAI says it has fabricated four processors so far, including the 64-qubit Kaveri and the nine-qubit Yukti, which uses a variation of fluxonium technology and has shown promise in developing error-corrected logical qubits.

So what changes in practice? QpiAI can now develop processors, peripheral chips and sensors under one roof while researching photonic and semiconductor qubits. The immediate result is not a 10,000-qubit computer in service, but a domestic manufacturing base intended to support future processors and the company’s proposed “quantum AI factories,” which would pair error-corrected quantum systems with clusters of AI chips.

QpiAI has invested around $20–25 million in the facility and plans to add another $10–15 million. About 20% of its required inputs are currently imported, and the company says it wants to localise more of its supply chain as it grows. It plans to target exports to the Middle East, Southeast Asia and the United States, while the locations, investment needs and timelines for four proposed centres outside India remain undisclosed.