A diamond quantum sensor can pinpoint exactly where power gets wasted in a data center A room-temperature quantum sensor captures tiny electrical changes and turns them into real-time energy-saving recommendations. Read Next: Chinese semiconductor firm expands with $1.15 billion chip packaging plantWhile much of the quantum industry’s attention remains fixed on next-generation computers, a South Korean startup is taking a different approach. Instead of focusing on quantum computing, it is using quantum sensors to help factories, data centers, and large buildings identify exactly where electricity is being wasted. At Quantum Korea 2026, South Korea’s largest quantum science and technology event, held in Seoul, deep-tech company xDots demonstrated a system called xEnergy, built around a quantum sensor named xSee. Rather than simply telling operators how much electricity a facility consumes, the platform is designed to pinpoint when, where, and why energy is being wasted in real time. “xEnergy accurately pinpoints when factory equipment wastes the most power and how operation cycles should be adjusted to be efficient, ” Woodo Lee, founder and CEO of xDots, said If early industrial trials of this system continue to hold up, the approach could make quantum sensing one of the first quantum technologies to generate measurable savings in everyday industrial operations. Creating a quantum sensor out of a defect One of the biggest challenges in industrial energy management is visibility. Large manufacturing plants, refrigeration systems, HVAC equipment, and data centers contain thousands of electrical components. Conventional sensors measure current and power reasonably well, but they can struggle to detect extremely small changes that may reveal inefficient operating cycles, equipment beginning to fail, or unnecessary power consumption. More from Innovation See AllxDots’ solution relies on diamond nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers—tiny defects deliberately created inside a diamond crystal, where instead of every carbon atom being perfectly arranged, one