Diraq opened its first United States research and measurement laboratory on August 19, 2026. The facility sits inside the Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park On-Ramp program at mHUB in Chicago. Diraq's headquarters and device fabrication remain in Sydney. The Chicago lab gives the company a United States presence close to national laboratories, universities, and potential defense customers.
What the lab contains
The Chicago facility has two dilution refrigerators for cryogenic testing of silicon spin-qubit chips and integrated cryo-CMOS control electronics. Diraq says the Sydney-Chicago time-zone split supports continuous 24-hour experimental cycles. A device fabricated in Sydney is able to reach Chicago for measurement without losing a full day.
Why silicon spin qubits matter here
Diraq builds electron-spin qubits in quantum dots using standard silicon CMOS semiconductor processes. Existing foundries already know how to make silicon chips at scale, so the pitch is manufacturing leverage. Diraq's roadmap targets rack-scale quantum systems with thousands of physical qubits by 2029 and eventually millions of qubits per chip.
The ecosystem bet
The On-Ramp program offers immediate lab space while the permanent 128-acre IQMP campus is under construction on Chicago's South Side. Diraq joins a growing Illinois quantum cluster alongside national laboratories and academic centers. The state-backed Illinois Economic Development Corporation supports the On-Ramp program.
What is still unproven
Opening a lab is a real estate and equipment decision, not a hardware result. Diraq has not yet shipped a commercial quantum processor, and the claim of millions of qubits per chip remains a long-term target. The value of the Chicago lab depends on whether the devices tested there reach competitive fidelity and error-correction overhead.
For a comparison of silicon spin-qubit approaches, see our HRL self-operating silicon processor post. For a broader hardware comparison, see our hardware overview.