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Nord Quantique CEO Julien Camirand Lemire described the company’s approach to quantum error correction using microwave photons stored in superconducting cavities, including its GKP and Tesseract code demonstrations. He also discussed a four-qubit system expected to enter operation in 2026 and a company roadmap targeting error rates of 10^-7 to 10^-9 by 2032; those are stated plans and targets, not reported outcomes.
Nord Quantique CEO Julien Camirand Lemire has described the company’s effort to perform quantum error correction using microwave photons held in superconducting cavities, an approach intended to reduce reliance on large numbers of extra physical qubits. In an interview published by The Quantum Insider on Oct. 31, 2026, he discussed the company’s GKP and Tesseract code demonstrations, a four-qubit system expected to begin operating this year, and a roadmap targeting lower error rates by 2032.
Nord Quantique, founded in 2020 and based in Sherbrooke, Quebec, is developing hardware that uses bosonic codes. In the approach Lemire described, microwave photons are stored in superconducting resonators, or cavities. Multiple photons in a cavity can provide redundancy for encoding and correcting quantum information, the company’s proposed alternative to obtaining that redundancy mainly by adding more physical qubits.
Lemire said the company demonstrated a GKP qubit in 2024, describing it as a grid-state code that can correct both X- and Z-type errors. He also pointed to a Tesseract code demonstration released in 2025, which he characterized as a multimode code using photons at different frequencies. The interview provides a company account of those demonstrations; it does not supply enough technical data to independently assess their performance.
The discussion also covered Nord Quantique’s development schedule. Lemire said a four-qubit system is expected to enter operation in 2026 and outlined a goal of reaching error rates between 10^-7 and 10^-9 by 2032. He said the company’s quantum error-correction gain had more than doubled since 2024, but the interview summary does not specify the metric, measurement conditions or comparison data behind that statement.
Reducing the Cost of Error Correction
Quantum computers are vulnerable to noise, and error correction is a key challenge in making computations reliable as systems grow. Many approaches rely on encoding information across multiple physical qubits, which can create substantial hardware overhead. Nord Quantique’s proposal is to use the photon states within a cavity as part of that redundancy, potentially reducing how many separate qubits are needed for error correction.
If the approach can achieve reliable correction and scale beyond demonstrations, it could affect the hardware resources and engineering required to build useful quantum machines. The interview does not establish that the company has achieved a practical advantage over other architectures. Its importance at this stage is as a description of a distinct technical strategy and the milestones the company says it is pursuing.
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From Grid States to Four Qubits
Nord Quantique was incorporated in 2020 as a spin-off from the Sherbrooke quantum ecosystem, Lemire said. The company also has offices in Montreal. He presented its focus on error correction as a response to a broader hardware problem: increasing the number of physical qubits does not by itself remove errors, and correcting them generally requires additional resources.
The interview places the company’s work within the wider field of bosonic coding. Lemire contrasted Nord Quantique’s grid-state approach with cat-qubit work by Alice & Bob, saying the latter focuses on suppressing one error channel while Nord Quantique’s GKP demonstration addresses both X and Z errors. These descriptions are his account of the approaches; the interview is not a comparative technical evaluation.
“What we’re building is a technology that is called bosonic codes.”
— Julien Camirand Lemire, Nord Quantique co-founder and CEO, in The Quantum Insider interview
Performance Claims Need More Detail
The interview does not give the experimental conditions, error-rate measurements or independent validation needed to assess how the demonstrations compare with other systems. It also does not define the reported quantum error-correction gain that Lemire said had more than doubled since 2024, including its baseline and measurement window.
The four-qubit system’s precise operating date and capabilities are not specified. Nor does the interview show that the 2032 error-rate targets have been reached; they remain company roadmap goals. Further technical results will be needed to show whether the cavity-based approach can scale while maintaining the stated correction performance.
Milestones Through 2032
The next stated milestone is the four-qubit system entering operation in 2026. The interview does not give a specific launch date or detail what benchmarks will be reported. Results from that system could clarify how the company’s codes perform as it moves beyond earlier demonstrations.
Nord Quantique’s longer-term roadmap targets error rates of 10^-7 to 10^-9 by 2032. The company’s progress toward that range, and evidence supporting its claimed error-correction gain, are the developments to watch. The interview does not provide a schedule for intermediate milestones or say when further results will be published.
Key Questions
What is Nord Quantique developing?
It is developing quantum hardware based on bosonic codes, which store microwave photons in superconducting cavities and use their states to encode and correct quantum information.
What does “one cavity, one error-corrected qubit” mean?
It refers to the company’s aim to use multiple photons within a single cavity to provide redundancy for error correction, rather than relying only on additional physical qubits. The interview describes the approach but does not establish that it removes all hardware overhead.
What demonstrations did Lemire discuss?
He cited a GKP grid-state demonstration in 2024 and a Tesseract multimode-code demonstration released in 2025. The interview does not include enough data to independently evaluate their results.
When is the four-qubit system expected to operate?
Lemire said it is expected to enter operation in 2026. No exact date or detailed performance specifications were provided in the interview.
Has Nord Quantique reached its 2032 error-rate goal?
No such achievement was reported. Error rates between 10^-7 and 10^-9 by 2032 were presented as a company roadmap target, not a demonstrated result.
Source: thequantuminsider.com
