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Nord Quantique CEO Julien Camirand Lemire described the company’s bosonic-code approach, which stores microwave photons in superconducting cavities to perform quantum error correction with less reliance on adding physical qubits. The interview cited demonstrations of GKP and Tesseract codes, 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; the roadmap is a goal, not a demonstrated result.
Nord Quantique CEO and co-founder Julien Camirand Lemire said the Sherbrooke, Quebec, company is developing quantum-computing hardware that uses microwave photons held in superconducting cavities to build error-corrected qubits. In an interview published October 31, 2026, he discussed the company’s reported GKP and Tesseract code demonstrations, a four-qubit system expected to begin operating this year, and a long-range target of error rates between 10^-7 and 10^-9 by 2032.
Lemire described Nord Quantique’s method as a form of bosonic quantum error correction. Rather than relying only on large numbers of separate physical qubits to supply the redundancy needed to detect and correct errors, the company encodes information in microwave photons stored in a superconducting resonator, also called a cavity. Multiple photons in a cavity can provide the redundancy used by the code, he said. This is the company’s approach; the interview does not establish that it has eliminated the need for additional hardware or demonstrated a full fault-tolerant computer.
Lemire said Nord Quantique demonstrated a GKP qubit in early 2024, with its work described in a paper that year. He said the demonstration addressed both X- and Z-type errors. He also referred to a Tesseract code demonstration released in 2025, describing it as a multimode code that uses multiple frequencies in a cavity. These descriptions and performance claims are attributable to Lemire; the supplied interview material does not include detailed experimental data or independent evaluation.
The CEO said the company’s measured “quantum error correction gain” has more than doubled since 2024. The interview summary does not specify the metric’s exact definition, the values compared, or the measurement conditions, so the claim cannot be translated into a particular error rate. Lemire also said a four-qubit system is entering operation in 2026. Nord Quantique’s longer-term roadmap aims for error rates of 10^-7 to 10^-9 by 2032, but those figures are targets, not reported current results.
Reducing the Qubit Overhead
Quantum error correction matters because quantum information is vulnerable to noise, and useful calculations may require errors to be detected and corrected during computation. Many error-correction schemes use redundancy spread across numerous physical qubits. Lemire said that overhead can often be on the order of 100 to 1,000 physical qubits for a logical qubit, a general estimate he gave in the interview rather than a universal figure for every code or system.
Nord Quantique’s proposal is to put some of that redundancy into the photonic states of a cavity, potentially reducing how many separate qubits a system needs for error correction. If the approach can scale while sustaining sufficiently low errors, it could change the hardware resources required to build useful quantum processors. The interview, however, does not show that the company has reached the error rates or system scale needed for practical fault-tolerant computing.
The four-qubit system is a nearer-term test of whether the company can integrate its components into a working platform. Its operation alone would not establish commercial advantage: the relevant evidence will include measured error rates, the reliability of encoded operations, and whether performance improves as the system grows.
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From Sherbrooke to Code Tests
Nord Quantique was incorporated in 2020 as a spin-off of the Sherbrooke quantum-technology ecosystem, Lemire said. The company is based in Sherbrooke and also has offices in Montreal. He credited the regional ecosystem with supporting what he described as a capital-efficient build, though the interview did not provide financial figures or comparisons with other companies.
The company’s bosonic-code work sits within a broader field of approaches to reducing the cost of quantum error correction. Lemire contrasted Nord Quantique’s grid-state codes, including GKP and Tesseract, with cat-qubit work by Alice & Bob, which he characterized as suppressing one error channel. These are different technical strategies, and the interview offers no comparative benchmark establishing which approach performs better.
Lemire also discussed high-rate codes and challenges involved in scaling transmon-based systems. The central distinction in his account is where a system obtains error-correction redundancy: across more physical qubits, within encoded states in a resonator, or through a combination of hardware and code design.
““What we’re building is a technology that is called bosonic codes.””
— Julien Camirand Lemire, Nord Quantique co-founder and CEO
Performance Claims Need Detail
The interview does not provide the underlying measurements for the reported more-than-doubled error-correction gain, including its baseline, precise definition, test conditions or uncertainty. It is therefore not possible from this material to determine how the gain translates to logical error rates or to compare it directly with other hardware approaches.
It is also unclear what milestones the company will use to demonstrate that the four-qubit system is operating, when results will be made public, or whether its schedule has changed. The 2032 error-rate range is a roadmap target; the interview does not establish that those rates have been achieved or independently verified. No head-to-head performance comparison with transmon or cat-qubit systems is provided.
Four-Qubit System in 2026
The next stated milestone is the four-qubit system entering operation during 2026. Nord Quantique’s account does not name a specific operating date or give a publication schedule for system results. Future technical reports will be needed to show how the platform performs, how its error-correction gain is measured, and whether the system can be expanded beyond four qubits.
The longer-term benchmark remains the company’s 2032 roadmap, targeting error rates of 10^-7 to 10^-9. Readers should treat that range as a company goal until supported by measurements. The next meaningful update would include the system’s demonstrated error rates and operating results, alongside enough methodology to assess progress against that target.
Key Questions
What is Nord Quantique building?
The company is developing quantum-computing hardware that uses microwave photons in superconducting cavities and bosonic codes to encode information and perform error correction.
What does “one cavity, one error-corrected qubit” mean?
It describes the company’s aim to use multiple photon states within a single cavity to supply redundancy for an encoded qubit, rather than relying only on many separate physical qubits. The phrase does not establish that all error correction can be performed without additional hardware.
Has Nord Quantique achieved its 2032 error-rate target?
No such achievement is confirmed in the interview. Error rates of 10^-7 to 10^-9 by 2032 are presented as a company roadmap target.
What are the GKP and Tesseract demonstrations?
Lemire said the company demonstrated a GKP grid-state qubit in 2024 and released a Tesseract-code demonstration in 2025. He described Tesseract as a multimode code using photons at different frequencies in a cavity.
What is the next milestone?
Lemire said Nord Quantique’s four-qubit system is entering operation in 2026. The interview does not specify an exact date or provide detailed performance results for that system.
Source: thequantuminsider.com
