NEC halted development of physical quantum computers at the end of March 2026. This was reported by Nikkei and Diamond Online in quick succession in September 2026 â it was not an announcement made by NEC itself. The company holds a unique place in this field: in 1999, Yasunobu Nakamura and colleagues at NEC's Fundamental Research Laboratories reported in Nature the first operational demonstration of a superconducting qubit in a solid-state device, laying the groundwork for what is now the dominant approach worldwide. The two news outlets attribute the decision, 27 years later, to the difficulty of recovering investment and to researchers leaving the company. But NEC itself, in a document submitted to a Cabinet Office meeting in December 2022, laid out in concrete numbers just how far it intended to go. Laid alongside what it actually achieved, the outline of this withdrawal becomes sharper than the summary in the news reports suggests. The end-of-March halt revealed by reporting, and the only explanation NEC has offered On September 5, 2026, Nikkei reported that NEC had halted development of physical quantum computers, and that the decision appeared to reflect a judgment that commercialization would take too long and that returns commensurate with the investment would be hard to achieve. This rationale is Nikkei's own inference, not something NEC stated itself. The day before, on September 4, Diamond Online reported â as an exclusive â both the end-of-March withdrawal and the fact that researchers who had worked on the development had moved to Fujitsu. When Diamond's editorial team asked NEC's public relations department to comment, the company declined to address the withdrawal directly â "we will refrain from commenting" â but added: "Regarding the use of quantum computers, we are advancing technical assessment toward practical application as well as efforts toward industrialization.