BTQ and ICTK Sign $15 Million Deal To Develop QCIM Chip
BTQ and ICTK sign a $15 million quantum-secure chip development deal.
BTQ, ICTK
BTQ Technologies Corp. and ICTK Co., Ltd. signed a $15 million development and cooperation investment agreement to develop the Quantum Compute in Memory (QCIM) chip. A next-generation quantum-secure secure-element semiconductor to defend vital industries from quantum threats is the goal of this alliance.
The strategic cooperation intends to accelerate the commercialisation of this crucial technology to secure defence, critical infrastructure, IoT devices, payments, mobile authentication, AI, and digital assets. The project also promotes Korea's Quantum Defence Strategy, which prioritises rapid quantum-secure technology integration into critical defence and infrastructure systems.
A participation arrangement covers BTQ's direct equity participation in ICTK, and a Development Agreement covers the QCIM chip's joint design, validation, tape-outs, and certification. In exchange, ICTK promises preferential production capacity and in-kind cost sharing. This collaboration shows a strong commitment to building a quantum ecosystem in Korea and worldwide.
Future Quantum Compute in Memory The new QCIM chip addresses quantum computing's shifting threat landscape, improving hardware-level security. Direct integration of post-quantum cryptography (PQC) and BTQ's CASH cryptographic acceleration into the silicon layer is the primary innovation.
By integrating PQC at this fundamental level, the QCIM chip provides end-to-end quantum-secure identity, signing, attestation, and secure storage for next-generation commercial and financial networks. Using crypto-agility, this unique architecture allows adaptable cryptographic upgrades without disrupting client workflows or systems. This makes the security solution future-proof and easy to add new PQC algorithms as they are developed and standardised.
BTQ CEO Olivier Roussy Newton says this places quantum-safe security at the centre of the global silicon ecosystem. He said the cooperation allows hardware makers to implement post-quantum protection at scale by integrating ICTK's secure-element expertise with BTQ's QCIM platform, driven by CASH acceleration.
Setting New Secure Hardware Performance Benchmarks Compared to secure hardware systems, the QCIM chip should perform better. Early performance goals include five times faster AES throughput than top secure hardware.
Real-time applications require the chip's ability to authenticate one million digital signatures per second. With this high output, the design uses less than 1 microjoule every cryptographic operation to conserve energy. QCIM is a resource-conscious security component for high-assurance use cases, according to these requirements.
QCIM applications include secure cold and hardware wallets for digital assets, mobile authentication, financial security, IoT endpoints, payment gateways, and defence systems. Cybersecurity threats to stablecoin and digital asset markets are the focus of the collaboration.
Partnership accelerates globalisation and commercialisation This alliance uses both companies' strengths to quickly penetrate the market. BTQ provides PQC technology and intellectual property, while ICTK provides secure element (SE) design and manufacturing expertise.
ICTK, Korea's top secure element chip maker and provider, will match its future secure element roadmap with QCIM development by providing resources, scalability, and third-party validation. ICTK has many financial and telecommunications partnerships, including LG U+.
In partnership with BTQ, ICTK CEO Jungwon Lee stated they can natively embed post-quantum security into their next-generation SE platform, ensuring clients gain supply-chain scalability, certification, and performance.
The initiative supports Korean national efforts, as shown by the Republic of Korea Air Force (ROKAF) and the Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT) partnership to deploy quantum technology in weapon systems and secure communications.
The firms seek to directly join the global market and achieve rapid market penetration and widespread adoption by leveraging ICTK's extensive sales channels and industry network. To accelerate adoption, the partners are aggressively seeking mass production, extensive testing, and coordination with international standards bodies like the ITU and ISO to quickly certify banking and telecommunications networks. Early collaborations include key clients evaluating PQC-enabled secure chips for future infrastructure and products.