On September 23, 2024, Rosatom General Director Alexei Likhachev announced the completion of a 50-qubit ion-based quantum computer, meeting the national quantum computing roadmap’s headline target ahead of its year-end deadline. The device was developed by the Russian Quantum Center and the Lebedev Physical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences under Rosatom’s coordination.
According to the VYZOV Prize Foundation, the scientific groups were led by Nikolai Kolachevsky and Ilya Semerikov. Semerikov had received the 2023 VYZOV Prize for Future Technologies for creating a 20-qubit quantum computer. The ion-based 50-qubit system was described as the most powerful quantum computer in Russia.
Rosatom reported that total funding for the quantum computing program from 2020 to 2024 reached 24 billion rubles (~$292 million), of which Rosatom provided 12 billion rubles. Director of Digitalization Ekaterina Solntseva stated that further work would continue within the federal project “Development of Promising Technologies” under the national program “Data Economics.” Russia described itself as one of three countries, alongside the United States and China, with quantum processors on four main platforms.