Q.ANT GmbH
Q.ANT GmbH is a Stuttgart-based company developing photonic processors and software for AI and high-performance computing, while also participating in photonic quantum-computing projects.
- Technology
- photonic processors computing natively with light; also involved in photon-based quantum-computing projects
- Headquarters
- Stuttgart, Germany
- Founded
- 2018
- Ownership
- Private company
- Funding
- The company says it closed one of the largest Series A funding rounds for photonic computing in Europe.
- Products and platforms
- Q.ANT Native Processing Server (NPS), Q.ANT Software Development Kit, NPU Gen 2
- Key people
- Dr. Michael Förtsch, CEO
Andreas Unseld, Partner, UVC Partners; advisory board member
Christian Meermann, Founding Partner, Cherry Ventures; advisory board member
Jochen Herdrich, Senior Investment Professional, L-Bank; advisory board member - Website
- qant.com
Q.ANT GmbH develops photonic processing systems that compute with light for AI and high-performance computing workloads. Its website describes the company as a deep-tech scale-up headquartered in Stuttgart, Germany, founded by Michael Förtsch in 2018. Q.ANT says its analog co-processors are designed as a scalable alternative to transistor-based systems, and it operates a pilot line for photonic chips with IMS CHIPS based on thin-film lithium niobate.
The company’s named products include the Q.ANT Native Processing Server (NPS), which it calls the first commercial photonic processor, and an open-source software development kit with C/C++ and Python APIs plus a simulation backend. Beyond commercial AI and HPC hardware, Q.ANT also states that it leads or participates in German government-backed projects including PhoQuant and QPIC-1, which target photonic quantum computing using photons as qubits.
Sources
Facts on this page come from the sources below, retrieved by DesignQuantum.
Last verified: October 28, 2026