NTT Demonstrates Quantum Computing Breakthroughs

NTT used its annual R&D Forum in Tokyo to set out advances in optical and quantum computing, Ai, digital security, mobility and infrastructure as global interest in quantum science intensifies.

The forum adopted the theme IOWN: Quantum Leap, reflecting the United Nations’ decision to name 2025 the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology. Japan has declared the same year as the first stage of quantum industrialisation.

The event, held from 19 to 21 November and 25 to 26 November, is invite-only and hosted by NTT Group businesses. The provider invests more than $3 billion a year in global R&D, or about thirty per cent of its total profit.

A spokesperson at the forum pointed to the scale of investment from the organisation. “We are building research that supports long-term infrastructure and commercial use cases rather than short-run product cycles,” the spokesperson said.

IOWN Takes A Quantum Leap Forward

The provider used the forum to highlight new work across its Innovative Optical and Wireless Network Initiative, aimed at delivering ultra-high capacity, ultra-low latency and low-power communications through optical photonics.

One of the headline announcements involved a collaboration with OptQC. Both companies have agreed to develop scalable and reliable optical quantum computers by combining NTT’s work under the IOWN Initiative with OptQC’s room-temperature optical quantum system. The goal is to reach a one-million-qubit machine by 2030. [Read the Full Release]

OptQC representatives welcomed the partnership. “Our work focuses on practical, room-temperature optical quantum computing. Connecting that with large-scale optical communications is a direct path to real-world adoption,” an OptQC spokesperson said.

NTT Demonstrates Ai Leadership

Ai models and applied research dominated a large portion of the exhibition floor.

The company’s next-generation LLM, tsuzumi 2, received attention following its October release. The lightweight model was developed to deal with electricity consumption and rising operating costs tied to competing LLMs. Demonstrations at the forum showed how tsuzumi 2 performs at a level that matches or exceeds larger models in business deployments while delivering stronger cost-performance metrics. [Read the Full Release]

An NTT researcher said the team aimed to rethink how enterprises balance performance and resource use. “We designed something that keeps pace with organisational workloads without the heavy energy draw,” they said.

NTT and NTT DOCOMO also introduced the Large Action Model, built to support highly personalised one-to-one marketing. The system pre-learns behavioural patterns from customer time-series data and predicts intent before selecting the content, method, timing and likely impact of outreach. [Read the Full Release]

An NTT DOCOMO engineer described it as an attempt to shift from broad targeting to moment-level personalisation. “We are trying to understand not just who a customer is but what they will do next,” the engineer said.

The Future Of Digital Privacy And Security

Quantum and Ai-based attacks are top of mind for the organisation’s research teams.

NTT Research used the forum to introduce a quantum-secure Zero Trust data security suite based on attribute-based encryption. The method, first proposed in 2005 by Dr Brent Waters and Dr Amit Sahai, allows fine-grain access control and complex enforcement policies to protect against emerging threats.

Waters emphasised the need to build systems that anticipate shifts in attacker capability. “Quantum computing changes the timeframe for breaking encryption. We are designing controls that stand up to that future,” he said.

Autonomous Mobility

NTT also used the forum to set out a path for commercial autonomous driving services through a new business, NTT Mobility.

The venture will use the provider’s networking expertise to support level 4 autonomous vehicles across Japan. It intends to offer autonomous driving services nationwide by fiscal 2027. Its work will span vehicle provision and management, implementation and operations support, and remote monitoring systems.

An NTT Mobility representative said the objective was to bridge transport, networking and safety. “We are focused on building a framework that lets communities adopt autonomous services with confidence,” the representative said.

The provider also highlighted a new parametric object-recognition-radio-estimation model built to assess the quality of remote monitoring video. The model evaluates whether footage transmitted from vehicles to control rooms is reliable enough to detect sudden obstacles. If quality drops, the system triggers an alert to ensure supervision remains safe.

An engineer involved in the project said the work solves a persistent challenge in autonomous mobility. “If operators cannot trust the feed, they cannot guarantee safety. We are automating that judgement,” they said.

Last Updated on December 5, 2025 by Nick Ross