SAN SEBASTIAN, Spain--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb 5, 2026--
Quantum Motion today announced the opening of its offices in Spain, establishing a permanent base for quantum system development, integration and deployment in the European Union. The new site, which is located in the newly inaugurated nanoGUNE Quantum Tower, supports Quantum Motion’s scale-up of silicon-based quantum computing systems and strengthens the collaboration across Europe’s semiconductor, academic and industrial ecosystems.
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The nanoGUNE Quantum Tower was officially inaugurated on February 4 th, 2026. The opening ceremony was attended by the president of the Basque Government, Imanol Pradales; the head of the regional government of Gipuzkoa, Eider Mendoza; the mayor of San Sebastian, Jon Insausti; the president and director-general of nanoGUNE, Javier Martínez-Ojinaga and Jose M. Pitarke respectively; the Basque minister of Science, Universities and Innovation; and other representatives from principal institutions, research centers and the European quantum industry.
“Our expansion in Europe demonstrates our continued commitment to global collaborations and partnerships,” said James Palles-Dimmock, CEO of Quantum Motion. “The state-of-the-art technology infrastructure available in the new Quantum Tower and our collaboration with the Basque government, academia and experts at CIC nanoGUNE provide a huge advantage as we advance our ability to deliver commercially useful, silicon-spin quantum systems at scale.”
“The scale and ambition of this project are such that we decided to expand our facilities with the construction of the new Quantum Tower to provide dedicated space to our Quantum Hardware research group and laboratories and to Quantum Motion,” said Jose M. Pitarke, nanoGUNE’s director-general. “We look forward to advancing the future of quantum computing in collaboration with Quantum Motion.”
Quantum Motion and CIC nanoGUNE are jointly collaborating on initiatives focused on delivering fault-tolerant, utility-scale quantum systems in Europe, including:
“The Basque Country has one of the strongest ecosystems globally when it comes to the development of quantum technologies,” said Fernando Gonzalez-Zalba, principal engineer at Quantum Motion and Ikerbasque research professor at CIC nanoGUNE. “We look forward to building the next generation of quantum processing units based on silicon manufactured in industrial 300 mm wafer lines, as well as deploying and servicing systems throughout Europe.”
About CIC nanoGUNE
The Nanoscience Cooperative Research Center (CIC) nanoGUNE, located in the Basque city of San Sebastian, was established with the mission of conducting world-class nanoscience research for the competitive growth of the Basque Country. nanoGUNE is recognized by the Spanish Research Agency as a Maria-de-Maeztu center of excellence.
www.nanogune.eu
About Quantum Motion
Quantum Motion develops and deploys full-stack quantum computers manufactured using industry standard 300mm CMOS wafer technology with the goal of delivering commercially viable, utility scale, fault tolerant systems. A key part of this approach is the development of cryoelectronics, integrating qubits with classical control circuits capable of operating at deep cryogenic temperatures, which enables extreme scaling of quantum processors. Fault-tolerant quantum computing will enable the most powerful quantum algorithms, targeting solutions to currently intractable problems in fields as diverse as chemistry, materials science, medicine and artificial intelligence. The company employs over 100 people across the UK, US, Australia and Europe and comprises specialists in quantum theory, hardware and system engineering and software. Learn more at www.quantummotion.com.
Quantum Motion's offices in the newly inaugurated nanoGUNE Quantum Tower in San Sebastian, Spain
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A new Tennessee law has eased up on two longstanding financial hurdles for people with felony sentences who want their voting rights back, including a unique requirement among states that they must have fully paid their child support costs.
The Republican-supermajority Legislature approved the Democratic-sponsored change, which now lets people prove they have complied for the last year with child support orders, such as payment plans. The legislation also unties the payment of all court costs from voting rights restoration.
Advocates for years have sought various changes to Tennessee’s voting rights restoration system at the statehouse and in court. They say loosening these two rules marks the biggest rollback of restrictions to voting rights restoration in decades.
“This is huge and this is history,” said Keeda Haynes, senior attorney for the advocacy group Free Hearts led by formerly incarcerated women like her.
Most Republicans voted for it and Democrats supported it unanimously. The law took effect immediately upon Republican Gov. Bill Lee's signature last week.
“I think people are at a point where they want to just remove the barriers out of the way and allow people to be fully functional members of society,” said Democratic House Minority Leader Karen Camper, a bill sponsor.
In 2023 and early 2024, the state decided that the system did require going to court or showing proof of a pardon, not just a paperwork process, and that gun rights were required to restore the right to vote. Election officials said a court ruling made the changes necessary, though voting rights advocates said officials misinterpreted the order.
Last year, lawmakers untangled voting and gun rights. But voting rights advocates opposed some of the bill's other provisions, such as keeping the process in the courts, where costs can rack up if someone isn't ruled indigent.
Easing up on the financial requirements uncommonly split legislative Republicans. For instance, Senate Speaker Randy McNally voted against it, while House Speaker Cameron Sexton supported it, noting that people aren't getting forgiveness on making their payments.
“They need to continue paying that, and as long as they do, then there’s a possibility (to restore their voting rights)," Sexton said. "I really think that’s harder for people to argue against than maybe what something else was.”
Republican Rep. Johnny Garrett, who voted no, said in committee his vote would hinge on whether “there still can be an (child support) arrearage owed beyond that 12 months.”
For some, backed-up child support payments could reach hundreds or thousands of dollars, and court costs could be hundreds or thousands more, said Gicola Lane, Campaign Legal Center's Restore Your Vote community partnership senior manager.
Advocates credited their narrowed focus, omitting goals such as automatic restoration of rights, no longer tying restitution payments to voting rights, or offering a path for certain people to restore their right who are permanently disenfranchised, including those convicted of voter fraud or most murder charges.
The bill passed the Senate last year and the House this year.
Lawmakers gave the child support requirement final passage in 2006 within an overhaul bill that also created a voting rights restoration process outside of court. Critics said the child support rule penalized impoverished parents.
Democrats were then narrowly hanging onto legislative leadership in both chambers. Republicans held a slim Senate majority but GOP defectors voted for a Democratic speaker.
Last year marked the dismissal of a nearly five-year-old federal lawsuit over Tennessee’s voting-rights restoration system. Free Hearts and the Campaign Legal Center represented plaintiffs in the long-delayed case, which saw some election policy changes along the way.
Roughly 184,000 people have completed supervision for felonies and their offenses don't preclude them from restoring their voting rights, according to a plaintiffs expert’s 2023 estimate in the lawsuit. About one in 10 were estimated to have outstanding child support payments, and more than six in 10 owed court courts, restitution or both, the expert said.
Both Republican and Democratic-led states have eased the voting rights restoration process in recent years. Some states have added complexities.
In Florida, after voters approved a constitutional amendment in 2018 restoring the right to vote for people with felony convictions, the Republican-controlled Legislature watered that down by requiring payment of fines, fees and court costs.
Voting rights are automatically restored upon release in nearly half of states. In 15 others, it occurs after parole, probation or a similar period and sometimes requires paying outstanding court costs, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. In Maine and Vermont, people with felonies keep their voting rights in prison, the NCSL says.
Ten other states including Tennessee require additional government action. Virginia ’s governor must intervene to restore voting rights of people convicted of felonies. In some states, including Tennessee, certain conviction types render someone ineligible.
However, Virginia lawmakers this year have passed a proposed state constitutional amendment to ask voters whether they want automatic voting rights restoration after someone is released from prison. Kentucky lawmakers have proposed a similar change for voters' consideration that would automatically restore voting rights after certain completed sentences, including probation.
FILE - The Tennessee Capitol is seen, Jan. 22, 2024, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV, File)
