Q.ANT GmbH is a Stuttgart-based photonic deep-tech scale-up that develops processors computing natively with light rather than electrons, offering an alternative to transistor-based systems for AI and high-performance computing. It was founded in 2018 by Michael Förtsch as a spin-off from the research and development labs of TRUMPF. Its Light Empowered Native Arithmetics (LENA) architecture delivers analog co-processing optimised for complex computation.

The company's first commercial product is the Native Processing Server (NPS), a plug-in co-processor built on Thin-Film Lithium Niobate (TFLN) chips, which is claimed to offer up to 30 times the energy efficiency of conventional CMOS technology. Q.ANT operates its own TFLN pilot line in collaboration with the Institute for Microelectronics Stuttgart (IMS CHIPS). A second-generation processor (NPU Gen 2) was unveiled in November 2025 and demonstrated generative AI workloads at ISC High Performance 2026. It also released an open-source SDK with C/C++ and Python APIs and a CPU-based simulation backend.

Q.ANT's systems are deployed at the Leibniz Supercomputing Centre (LRZ) and collaborates with Forschungszentrum Jülich. In May 2026 it announced IONOS as the first commercial cloud customer for the NPS. The company has also worked on quantum magnetic field sensors for medical technology, in partnership with Fraunhofer IPA, and participates in BMFTR-funded projects including LichtBriQ and PhoQuant. In 2026 it opened a U.S. headquarters in Austin, Texas.

Q.ANT raised a €62 million Series A in July 2025, co-led by Cherry Ventures, UVC Partners and imec.xpand, and a second Series A closing in October 2025 brought total funding to about US$80 million with participation from Duquesne Family Office.