Quantum Computing: On the road visiting Oxford Quantum Circuits' operational quantum computers

Research evidence excerpt

Quantum Computing: On the road visiting Oxford Quantum Circuits' operational quantum computers

Equity Research

Thematic Investing

20 May 2026

Quantum Computing: On the road

visiting Oxford Quantum Circuits'

operational quantum computers Thematic Investing

Laia Marin i Sola, CFA

The tour provided unique insight into OQC's technological + 44 (0)20 3134 2531

progress and scaling plans. System’s speed, 2:1 physical to laia.marin@barclays.com

Barclays, UK

logical qubit ratio, and their data center-centric business

model were key qualities management highlighted during

our visit. We highlight 7 takeaways from the day.

The following company is privately held and is not under coverage by Barclays Research: Oxford

Quantum Circuits. Information about this company is being provided for information purposes only

and is not an investment recommendation by Barclays Research.

To support our Quantum Computing investment theme, we spent the day on Friday 15th

May together with +20 investors, visiting Oxford Quantum Circuits's (OQC, private, not

covered) operational superconducting quantum computers (Figure 1, Figure 2) in a data

center, together with OCQ's management team - Gerald Mullally (CEO), Simon Phillips

(CTO), Dr Peter Leek (Founder) and Robert Coutts (CFO).

•• We were shown three quantum computers and the wider infrastructure, including

cryogenic cooling systems, control electronics and supporting classical computing needed to

operate the systems.

•• The visit reinforced our view that hardware scaling and progress at the software level

(algorithms & error correction) remain critical to reach fault-tolerant quantum computing.

Speed, fidelity (accuracy) and physical-to-logical efficiency remain key differentiating points

between different quantum modalities.