Europe's award for entrepreneurial excellence recognizes planqc's work toward a quantum computing industry built in Europe.
planqc has been honored at the Made in Europe Award 2026 in the Commercialising category, presented last night in Berlin by Thomas Jarzombek, Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Ministry for Digital Affairs and State Modernisation. The award recognizes planqc's work for Europe: turning fundamental research into products and technological excellence, ushering in the next era of computing, and keeping that capability sovereign on European ground.
Europe doesn't need to import the next era of computing. It can build it. We turn fundamental research into quantum computers and put them to use for European industry and science. This award shows that a sovereign European path in quantum technology is not just possible, it is already underway.
planqc's first machines are taking shape. For the German Aerospace Center (DLR), planqc is building a 100-qubit neutral-atom quantum computer; for the Leibniz Supercomputing Centre (LRZ), a 1,000-qubit system that runs as a co-processor within its HPC infrastructure. Both are due to come online next year, and the first hardware for the LRZ system arrived earlier this month.
Just as important is the path into real use: through partnerships with companies such as Airbus, ESA, BMW and Fraunhofer, planqc is already developing the applications these systems will run. Industry and science are the ones who will ultimately put quantum computing to work, and building those partnerships now is how the technology moves from research into commercial use.
That progress is what makes this a Made in Europe story, and what the jury singled out. planqc grew out of decades of research at the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics (MPQ) and Ludwigs-Maximilian-University Munich (LMU) and began in 2022 as the first spin-off of the Munich Quantum Valley. Behind its machines stand Europe's hidden champions in laser, photonics and vacuum technology, whose components make these quantum computers possible. Research, engineering and supply chain all sit in Europe: a quantum computing industry the continent can call its own, and exactly what the Made in Europe Award was created to recognize.
The Made in Europe Award for Excellence was launched by DUP UNTERNEHMER in 2025. It honors companies and individuals who advance Europe's economic future with innovation, entrepreneurial courage and technological excellence. Each year, its editorial team nominates only 50 companies after an in-depth market analysis. Now in its second edition, the 2026 award was presented in Berlin on the eve of the BIG BANG KI Festival. planqc was honored alongside companies from mobility, energy, health and communication, among them TK Elevator, Siemens Energy, Opel, Doctolib and Zum goldenen Hirschen Valley, with a lifetime achievement award for entrepreneur Karlheinz Kögel.
