our correspondent in Cernobbio (Co)
The most powerful quantum hub in the world will be born in Lombardy. The Como Lake event, the Digital Innovation Forum 2025 which began yesterday at Villa d’Este in Cernobbio, was the venue for the signing of a memorandum of understanding by two companies, the Canadian D Wave Quantum and the American IonQ, aimed at creating a center of excellence in Italy which will not only have data centers and a quantum computer inside it, but will allow it to be an opportunity concrete for one hundred mostly Italian researchers to be involved also through scholarships, internships and training programs.
The two companies, among the founders of the Q-Alliance which was born from the Italian strategy for digital and quantum technologies, have chosen Italy to give life to something never seen before. “This agreement shows that Italy is very well considered”, said the undersecretary to the Presidency of the Council Alessio Butti (in the photo) in his speech in the plenary hall of Como Lake, “today a MoU was signed between two world-leading quantum computing companies working on two types of different technologies. For the first time these two technologies are added together, as a government we have given our contribution to propitiate this meeting and we are very happy that foreign investors come to focus on Italy”. A hub will be created that will serve to create technology to develop artificial intelligence and the security of strategic data while remaining available to Italian companies and its research institutions. Construction of the plant is expected to begin in the next few months.
During the event, which will last until Friday, the Nobel Prize winner for Physics Gerardus ‘t Hooft as well as the Minister of Business and Made in Italy Adolfo Urso, among others, spoke at the end of the proceedings. The first day at Como Lake was also an opportunity for many big names in the technology sector to present important initiatives.
For example, Elio Schiavo, Tim’s chief enterprise & innovative solutions officer, announced “a substantial investment plan of 1 billion euros over three years” to strengthen the data center infrastructure.