Emergence Quantum recently announced a partnership with hyperscale data center specialist AirTrunk to bring cryogenic cooling and quantum computing to next-generation data centers.
Cryo-cooling can significantly improve the speed and energy-efficiency of today’s silicon computer chips, enabling faster computation with less power. The same cryo-technology is also foundational to many futuristic computing systems including quantum.
Beyond the increased performance of hardware, the two companies will work closely together on cryogenic technologies that can also reduce the cooling water needs of data centers while simultaneously enabling giga-Watt power storage for leveraging intermittent supplies of renewable energy. Cryo-cooling offers further promise in the context of carbon capture.
AirTrunk Founder and Chief Executive Officer Robin Khuda says, “Fantastic to see an Australian company like Emergence Quantum pushing the boundaries of next-generation computing. Quantum will play an important role in the future of technology, and AirTrunk is proud to partner with an Australian innovator helping lead the way.”
EQ Co-founder and CEO Professor David Reilly says, “It’s been understood for decades that computers run significantly faster and more efficiently in the cold, but there are challenges and costs to cooling that have so-far limited this approach to niche applications. The scale of data centers and tiny size of transistors today changes all that — the cryo-computing epoch has arrived.”
Dr Arman Siahvashi, Emergence Quantum Head of Cryogenics, noted: “Australia has a unique opportunity to leverage its world-leading energy export expertise, built through large-scale cryogenic LNG, alongside emerging liquid hydrogen capabilities, abundant renewables, and deep experience in clean energy and decarbonisation. Quantum at scale will require cryogenics at scale.
“By bridging expertise across the energy and quantum sectors, we can enable next-generation quantum data centers and future-proof Australia’s leading position in AI, quantum and clean technology.”
The partnership brings together deep expertise in cryogenic computing, thermal engineering, and quantum technologies, data center architecture, and real-world techno-economic models that can prove out the performance opportunities for cryo-data centers. The collaboration is part of AirTrunk’s broader goal to build data center infrastructure that is quantum ready and able to embed cryogenic cooling into overall data center campus setup.
Professor Thomas Ohki, EQ Co-founder and CTO, has been working on various cryogenic computing platforms for decades: “For us, cryogenic data centers are an inevitable reality — this cooling technology is needed for high-speed efficient silicon chips, superconducting logic, and ultimately quantum computing. All flavours of qubits need cryogenics one way or another.”
Cryogenic technologies have the potential to improve computing efficiency, reduce cooling water requirements and support large-scale energy storage, helping future data centers meet growing digital demand while making more efficient use of shared resources.
AirTrunk Vice President for Innovation and Intelligence, Jose Castaneda, says the partnership is part of a commitment to continuously explore new approaches and technologies that drive the future of data centers and foster Australia’s technological leadership.
“We are continuously redefining data centers with cutting-edge technologies that improve performance, efficiency and sustainability. As digital demand grows, our responsibility is not only to provide the secure and resilient infrastructure our customers and communities rely on, but to find new ways to deliver that infrastructure more efficiently.
“This partnership with EQ challenges the status quo and is a great example of how data centres can act as broader enablers of innovation in our communities.”
Emergence Quantum was spun out of the University of Sydney in 2025 while the university is also the recipient of a $100 million donation from the Khuda Family Foundation established by AirTrunk Founder and CEO Robin Khuda.
University of Sydney Vice-Chancellor and President Professor Mark Scott said the partnership demonstrated the strength of local expertise in cryogenics, quantum technologies and hyperscale data centers.
“This ambitious partnership between AirTrunk and Emergence Quantum promises to bring about a new phase in data center technology, one that is focused on hitting environmental milestones,” he said. “Here we have two organisations with a strong connection to the University of Sydney turning research into commercially significant technology.”
AirTrunk Innovation Strategy Manager Harshit Sharma noted: “We recognise that quantum computing in a data center is much more than plugging-in a physics experiment in the data hall. At scale, these systems will require extensive cryo-cooling infrastructure. This partnership is looking to deploy that cryo-infrastructure in a way that improves the performance of today’s silicon chips, all-the-while paving the road to quantum.”
Beyond the technology itself, the partnership has the potential to strengthen capability in next-generation digital infrastructure by bringing together local expertise in cryogenics, quantum technologies and hyperscale data centers.
[Credit: Mohib Ur Rehman The Quantum Insider]
