Hyperscale datacentre specialist AirTrunk announced today a partnership and MOU with deep tech company Emergence Quantum (EQ) to bring cryogenic cooling and quantum computing to next-generation data centres.
Cryo-cooling can significantly improve the speed and energy-efficiency of today’s silicon computer chips, enabling faster computation with less power. The same cryotechnology is also foundational to many futuristic computing systems including quantum.
Beyond the increased performance of hardware, the two companies will work closely together on cryogenic technologies that can also reduce the cooling water needs of data centres while simultaneously enabling giga-Watt power storage for leveraging intermittent supplies of renewable energy. Cryo-cooling offers further promise in the context of carbon capture.
The partnership reflects two of AirTrunk’s core commitments to the communities where it operates: safely delivering the critical infrastructure that underpins everyday life, and being a responsible user of energy and water. By exploring technologies that could deliver more computing capability while using resources more efficiently, AirTrunk is looking at how the next generation of digital infrastructure can support growing digital demand responsibly.
AirTrunk Vice President for Innovation and Intelligence, Jose Castaneda, says the partnership is part of a commitment to continuously explore new approaches and technologies that drive the future of data centres and foster Australia’s technological leadership.
“We are continuously redefining data centres with cutting-edge technologies that improve performance, efficiency and sustainability. As digital demand grows, our responsibility is not only to provide the secure and resilient infrastructure our customers and communities rely on, but to find new ways to deliver that infrastructure more efficiently. This partnership with EQ challenges the status quo and is a great example of how data centres can act as broader enablers of innovation in our communities.”
Emergence Quantum Co-founder and CEO Professor David Reilly says, “It’s been understood for decades that computers run significantly faster and more efficiently in the cold, but there are challenges and costs to cooling that have so-far limited this approach to niche applications. The scale of data centres and tiny size of transistors today changes all that — the cryo-computing epoch has arrived.”
Dr Arman Siahvashi, Emergence Quantum Head of Cryogenics noted, “In addition to our abundant renewable energy opportunities, Australia also has existing deep expertise in industrial scale cryogenics that underpin natural gas mining and hydrogen fuel cell technology. To think that this cryo-infrastructure and know-how could now be deployed to enable next-generation data centres is a tantalising opportunity for Australia.”
The partnership brings together deep expertise in cryogenic computing, thermal engineering, and quantum technologies, data centre architecture, and real-world techno-economic models that can prove out the performance opportunities for cryo-data centres. The collaboration is part of AirTrunk’s broader goal to build data centre infrastructure that is quantum ready and able to embed cryogenic cooling into overall data centre campus setup.
Professor Thomas Ohki, Co-founder and CTO of Emergence Quantum, has been working on various cryogenic computing platforms for decades: “For us, cryogenic data centres are an inevitable reality — this cooling technology is needed for high-speed efficient silicon chips, superconducting logic, and ultimately quantum computing. All flavours of qubits need cryogenics one way or another.”
The collaboration puts AirTrunk’s community commitments into practice: exploring new ways to safely deliver the critical digital infrastructure people and businesses increasingly rely on, while being a responsible user of energy and water. Cryogenic technologies have the potential to improve computing efficiency, reduce cooling water requirements and support large-scale energy storage, helping future data centres meet growing digital demand while making more efficient use of shared resources.
AirTrunk Innovation Strategy Manager Harshit Sharma noted “We recognise that quantum computing in a data centre is much more than plugging-in a physics experiment in the data hall. At scale, these systems will require extensive cryo-cooling infrastructure. This partnership is looking to deploy that cryo-infrastructure in a way that improves the performance of today’s silicon chips, all-the-while paving the road to quantum.”
Beyond the technology itself, the partnership has the potential to strengthen capability in next-generation digital infrastructure by bringing together local expertise in cryogenics, quantum technologies and hyperscale data centres. It reflects AirTrunk’s broader ambition to create shared value through the infrastructure it delivers — supporting innovation, capability and opportunities that can contribute to more resilient economies and communities.
University of Sydney Vice-Chancellor and President Professor Mark Scott said the partnership demonstrated the strength of local expertise in cryogenics, quantum technologies and hyperscale data centres.
“This ambitious partnership between AirTrunk and Emergence Quantum promises to bring about a new phase in data centre technology, one that is focused on hitting environmental milestones,” he said.
“Here we have two organisations with a strong connection to the University of Sydney turning research into commercially significant technology.”