Andhra Pradesh switches on a quantum future with two test facilities

On a morning that coincided with World Quantum Day, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Tuesday (April 14) inaugurated a fully indigenous, open-access quantum computing facility at SRM University in Amaravati, built with components sourced and assembled almost entirely within India.

The Amaravati Quantum Reference Facility (AQRF) houses two systems: Amaravati 1S and Amaravati 1Q. A simultaneous virtual launch took place at Medha Towers in Gannavaram, near Vijayawada.

India’s quantum push

Developed under the Amaravati Quantum Valley initiative, the systems are India’s "first indigenously built" open-access quantum computers, designed, assembled, and tested domestically with a supply chain spanning multiple institutions.

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The AQRF is India’s national quantum hardware testing ground, enabling validation, benchmarking, and certification of quantum components under real operating conditions, according to a press release.

Access to quantum hardware has long been the privilege of a handful of nations and corporations. Researchers elsewhere must queue for remote access to machines they cannot see, touch, or fully understand. The components inside — dilution refrigerators, cryogenic amplifiers, precision control electronics — are dominated by a small circle of Western and East Asian manufacturers. AQRF is seen as a direct challenge to that arrangement.

85 per cent indigenous components

Unlike imported systems that operate as closed black boxes, the new facility is said to offer full visibility and hands-on access. Students, startups, and researchers can observe and test individual components under actual operating conditions, at temperatures near minus 273 degrees Celsius, the theoretical minimum required to activate qubits and ensure reliable performance. That kind of physical, direct access has rarely been available to Indian researchers before, said the press release.

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Roughly 85 per cent of the components were manufactured within India, marking what its builders describe as the first time a full-stack quantum system has been assembled indigenously. The supply chain spans a consortium of institutions, including the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIF), the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), and the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).

The launch sits within the broader Amaravati Quantum Valley initiative, and the facility is envisioned as the anchor node of a future national network of quantum testing infrastructure. Whether that network materialises will depend on sustained investment and whether the domestic supply chain deepens.