The engineering arm of industrial gas major Linde will design and deliver one of the world’s largest cryogenic cooling plants to support a utility-scale quantum computer in Brisbane, Australia, operated by computing company PsiQuantum.
In this context, utility-scale refers to a quantum computer whose computational value outweighs its cost, making it viable for real-world use.
The plant will cool tens of thousands of photonic chips to near absolute zero, or -269°C, enabling PsiQuantum’s system to maintain the quantum states needed for scalable quantum computation.
Photonic chips are microchips that use photons to process and transmit information, rather than electrons like traditional silicon chips. This means that data can be shared at the speed of light and at a much lower energy cost.
“This technology will help design solutions to address some of the most pressing challenges faced by society today,” said John van der Velden, Senior Vice-President Global Sales & Technology at Linde Engineering.
The technology will enable quantum computing systems that could strengthen fields such as drug discovery, climate modelling, AI optimisation, materials science, and cryptography. It is also used in scientific applications such as particle accelerators, which require extreme cooling to counteract the intense heat generated during operation.
Linde Engineering’s cryoplant technology ©Linde Engineering
“Photons don’t feel the heat the way matter-based qubits do,” said Jeremy O’Brien, CEO and co-founder of PsiQuantum, referring to the special bits of information used by quantum computers.
Qubits can solve problems much faster than ‘classical’ bits but are much more vulnerable to heat or electromagnetic radiation and cannot function reliably without appropriate cooling.
“[With cooling tech] our systems can run 100 times warmer … This is a fundamental scaling advantage and a key reason we [are moving] rapidly toward utility-scale quantum computing,” said O’Brien.
Maintaining cryogenic temperatures is essential in quantum computing to preserve the fragile quantum states of qubits. Without proper cooling, thermal energy can cause decoherence – where qubits lose their superposition or entanglement – leading to errors or even system failure.
While PsiQuantum’s photonic approach is less sensitive to heat than matter-based qubits, the supporting hardware still requires ultra-low temperatures to minimise signal noise and ensure stability.
Similar cooling challenges have been addressed in past systems by IBM and Google, where even minor thermal fluctuations demanded recalibration or risked computational breakdown.
The global quantum computing market was valued at approximately $1.3bn in 2024 and is projected to exceed $5bn by 2029, according to the latest market forecasts.
