At Quantum Discovery Center Launch, ‘The World Has Descended Upon College Park’

University of Maryland and state officials on Tuesday opened a home for Microsoft's newest quantum research center, international quantum firms and UMD startups that is designed to anchor Maryland's emerging quantum industry.

The Discovery Center, a three-story building in Discovery District Maryland, includes space for cutting-edge labs and offices, with fiber connectivity through the Mid-Atlantic Crossroads, the high-bandwidth research network linking UMD to the region's quantum infrastructure.

The building additionally serves as headquarters for the Capital of Quantum, a landmark public-private initiative that aims to unlock $1 billion in investments and cement Maryland’s position as a leader in the increasingly vital field. The initiative seeks to connect industry, academia, government and investors to grow companies, expand testbeds and build a skilled quantum workforce.

Gov. Wes Moore announced at the ribbon-cutting that the initiative’s five-year investment goal had already reached the halfway mark of $500 million in less than two years.

Tuesday’s event came a year after Moore, UMD President Darryll J. Pines and Microsoft Executive Vice President for Discovery and Quantum Jason Zander announced during the 2025 Quantum World Congress in Tysons, Va. that the tech giant would open a major research center at UMD. 

The event also took place on the eve of the 2026 Quantum World Congress at the Hotel at the University of Maryland. UMD is the lead academic partner at the international conference bringing together scientists, industry leaders, investors and policymakers from around the world in College Park through Friday.  

“This building that you are in today is a realization of a dream, a vision, a promise that was made last year,” Pines said. “Microsoft decided to partner along with Quantum Motion, IQM and others in this very building to come and co-locate in Discovery District Maryland, right here in the Discovery Center, to grow the future of quantum. We are so proud that this is happening.” 

In addition to Microsoft, Moore pointed to a groundswell of other firms joining the Capital of Quantum ecosystem.

“The world has descended upon College Park,” he told about 200 assembled guests, including state and county officials, UMD researchers and local business leaders. “They came here because they believed. They came here because they saw the future being written in College Park and they wanted to be a part of it.”

U.K.-based Quantum Motion, which builds silicon-based quantum computers using standard semiconductor manufacturing processes, is using the building as its U.S. launchpad. Another British firm, Riverlane, which specializes in quantum error correction, announced in recent days it will house its U.S. headquarters there. Finland-based IQM, a maker of superconducting quantum hardware, is opening its first U.S. quantum technology center. QuEra Computing, whose neutral-atom Aquila system is available through UMD's National Quantum Laboratory (QLab), will have an office connecting it to university researchers.

UMD's Quantum Startup Foundry is also moving its labs and offices into the building, where it will run TraQtion, its market accelerator, and Pre-TraQtion, a program that helps earlier-stage startups pursue grant funding.

UMD is one of the nation's leading hubs of quantum science and innovation, with hundreds of researchers working across eight quantum centers and institutes spanning fundamental physics, computing, materials and engineering.