In the Canadian city of Sherbrooke, located 150 kilometers east of Montreal, quantum physics can be found everywhere, even in the local beer. Concocted in the mid-2010s by two former doctoral students at the local university’s Quantum Institute (IQ), and still brewed just a few kilometers away, the city’s “India Quantum Ale” could claim the title of the official drink of Sherbrooke, once the bastion of Quebec’s textile industry, now one of the global capitals of cutting-edge quantum technology. This technology will enable computers that use it (with particles having to be replaced by chips) to perform calculations at speeds that are exponentially faster than those of conventional computers.

“There are few ecosystems in the world that are as concentrated and coordinated as here,” said Julien Camirand Lemyre. In addition to having had the good taste to invent India Quantum Ale, this PhD in micromagnet engineering founded Nord Quantique in 2020, a Canadian start-up that embodies the effervescence that prevails in Sherbrooke.

Initiated by Quebec’s government in early 2022, the DistriQ Quantum Innovation Zone aims to bring together research and entrepreneurship to make the promise of quantum technology in computing, cryptography, sensors and materials into a reality. To this end, a 4,600-square-meter space is being made ready in the former headquarters of La Tribune, the Eastern Townships region’s daily newspaper. Start-ups can rent offices, meeting rooms and, above all, the state-of-the-art equipment needed for their experiments, which they can otherwise rarely afford – such as dilution refrigerators, which cost millions of euros each.

To find the best talent, all they have to do is walk back up the hill to the Quantum Institute. Founded 45 years ago, the university has served as a global model, setting itself apart from the big Montreal universities, like McGill, which had overshadowed it. It hosts 300 students and 39 professors, including Alexandre Blais, Canada’s star in the field. The presence of IBM’s only Canadian plant in Bromont, an hour’s drive from Sherbrooke, has also contributed to the area’s reputation: The American computer giant has installed one of the only four quantum computers it operates worldwide here.

It was this “fertile ground” that attracted Valérian Giesz, co-founder and chief operating officer of Quandela, a French start-up specializing in quantum computing, to come to Sherbrooke. Le Monde spoke to him on Friday, September 13, at Sherbrooke, during a tour to which it had been invited.

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