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Off the Wire Press Releases Joint project will combine superconducting quantum hardware and AI-native digital twins to accelerate catalyst discovery LOS ANGELES, Oct. 28, 2026 — Quantum Elements and Qarakal Quantum today announced they have been selected by the Israel-U.S. Binational Industrial Research and Development (BIRD) Foundation to jointly develop a quantum simulation platform for understanding and designing the chemical reactions that occur on material surfaces. The project, one of seven approved by the BIRD Foundation, has a budget of $2.4 million. The project will combine Qarakal Quantum’s modular superconducting quantum hardware and hardware-software co-design approach with Quantum Elements’ software for advancing fault-tolerant quantum computing, using AI-driven co-design, error suppression, error correction and decoders. Together, the companies will work toward a validated prototype capable of taking industrially relevant catalyst problems and turning them into quantum-ready computational workflows. Heterogeneous catalysis is essential to industries ranging from energy and chemicals to advanced materials, with catalytic processes involved in the manufacture of an estimated 80–90% of chemical products. The scale of these industries is significant — according to a MarketLine study, the global chemical processing industry generates between $5 and $6 trillion annually. Reactions occurring on the surface of catalysts play a central role in processes such as clean hydrogen production, CO₂ conversion, nitrogen-fixation chemistry, hydrocarbon processing, and the performance and degradation of advanced coatings. Today, these systems are studied extensively using high-performance computing and methods such as density functional theory. These techniques are powerful, but problems involving strong electronic correlation, surface defects, transition-metal active sites, and complex bond-breaking pathways can necessitate significant computational approximation. The Qarakal–Quantum Elements project will investigate how quantum computing can complement existing tools. “Our architecture is modular by design and tailorable for real-world workloads — that’s what makes this collaboration work,” said Dr. Nissan Maskil, CEO and co-founder of Qarakal Quantum. “Quantum Elements’ digital twins can model each module in detail, so we can make smart design decisions before we optimize the hardware. As our systems scale, their tools scale with them. Catalyst chemistry gives us meaningful problems to solve, and an opportunity to help industry with advanced reactions that are very hard to simulate today.” Rather than treating quantum chemistry as an algorithm that runs independently of the underlying machine, the project will jointly optimize multiple layers of the computing stack. Quantum Elements’ digital-twin technology will model the behavior and noise environment of Qarakal’s superconducting system, supporting decisions around compilation, calibration, pulse-level execution, error suppression, and algorithm design before limited quantum hardware time is used. “Useful quantum applications cannot be developed in isolation from the hardware that has to run them,” said Izhar Medalsy, Co-Founder and CEO of Quantum Elements. “Catalyst discovery gives us an opportunity to apply our quantum digital-twins and physics AI capabilities across the full path from physical device behavior to an industrial chemistry workflow.” The collaboration is designed to produce benchmark chemistry models and quantum algorithms with demonstrations and API outputs intended for chemists and materials engineers. The companies ultimately envision the work supporting a broader quantum-enabled simulation platform for industrial catalyst and materials development. Potential future users include catalyst manufacturers, specialty-materials companies, chemical suppliers and industrial R&D organizations that already rely on computational screening, HPC and laboratory experimentation. About Qarakal Quantum Qarakal Quantum is redefining superconducting quantum computing with an architecture-first approach built for quantum computing’s next inflection point as the field shifts from laboratory progress to practical industry-scale use. While much of the industry remains focused on adding more qubits, Qarakal Quantum is focused on what comes next: quantum computers that scale as integrated systems and perform on real-world workloads. Its modular, full-stack platform combines proprietary superconducting qubit design, quantum software and application-level adaptation with an architecture that assigns dedicated physical resources to distinct computational roles – the same principle that enabled classical computing to scale. Qarakal Quantum’s modular three-dimensional Pangaea architecture connects specialized quantum modules through an IP-protected quantum bus and routing motherboard, enabling hardware specialization at system scale. The result is fewer qubits for fewer operations and less noise, faster quantum algorithm execution and a deployable platform built for scientific, industrial and dual-use applications. For more information, follow Qarakal Quantum on LinkedIn or visit qarakal.ai. About Quantum Elements Quantum Elements develops AI-native software and hardware-faithful digital twins for quantum computing. Its technology models the behavior of real quantum systems to support quantum hardware development, co-design, error suppression, quantum error correction and application optimization. About the BIRD Foundation The BIRD Foundation was established by the U.S. and Israeli governments in 1977 to generate mutually beneficial cooperation between U.S. and Israeli companies, including start-ups and established organizations. BIRD provides both matchmaking support between U.S. and Israeli companies, as well as funding covering up to 50 percent of project development costs, up to $1.5M per project. BIRD takes no equity in the companies. Source: Quantum Elements
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