Silicon Quantum Computing and Schneider Electric have progressed to Stage 2 of the Australian Government's Critical Technologies Challenge Program, with A$3.6 million (US$2.5 million) in funding for work carried out with UNSW Sydney, according to the announcement.
In the first stage, the joint team examined whether Watermelon, SQC's atomically engineered, quantum-enhanced AI chip, could make Schneider Electric's forecasting models more accurate. The chip produces quantum features that are used alongside classical features to give models stronger predictive capability. Launched in 2025, Watermelon is deployed with customers in telecommunications, banking and high-frequency trading, and is offered through cloud access and hardware sales, including turnkey data centre deployment.
Applied to next-day forecasting data over a 12-month period, the chip delivered an average 20% improvement in forecasting accuracy against the classical benchmark, with gains of up to 41%. The companies said more accurate forecasting can improve management of distributed energy resources, raise renewable energy utilisation and contribute to lower energy costs for consumers, and that even modest accuracy gains can produce those benefits.
Stage 2 funding will widen the modelling to hundreds of homes across Australia and integrate it directly into Schneider Electric's AI workflows. The companies describe the work as a pathway for today's quantum computing systems to be used in production environments.
Michelle Simmons, founder and CEO of Silicon Quantum Computing, said quantum processors were expected to work alongside CPUs and GPUs to deliver real-world performance gains, and that the results with Schneider Electric showed quantum-enhanced AI could address practical problems in the energy sector and in time-series datasets more broadly. Colette Munro, Pacific Zone President at Schneider Electric, said the energy system was becoming more dynamic as rooftop solar, electric vehicles and home batteries add complexity.
