Case study: How Quantum Brilliance Overcame the Infrastructure Wall

Building the infrastructure for quantum technology

Quantum Brilliance (QB) is a global leader in diamond-based quantum technology specializing in the design, fabrication and manufacturing of small, ruggedized diamond quantum devices that operate at room temperature.

QB’s quantum computing systems have been deployed at the Pawsey Supercomputing Research Centre in Perth, Fraunhofer IAF in Germany, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, the home to Frontier, the world’s most powerful supercomputer,

In quantum sensing, QB recently partnered with Honeywell Aerospace to deliver a quantum space magnetometer to the European Space Agency.

In November 2025, QB opened the Quantum Diamond Foundry in Melbourne, the world’s first commercial facility dedicated to producing quantum-grade diamond at scale. The Foundry supports QB’s computing and sensing technologies while also building Australian capability in diamond processing, metrology, fabrication, and manufacturing.

Melbourne’s infrastructure challenge

Years prior to the opening of the Foundry, Quantum Brilliance needed a Melbourne laboratory that could support its growing research and engineering activities. Lachlan Hyde, Chief of Staff for QB’s Engineering and Product Delivery division, was tasked with making it happen.

What he found was a challenge familiar to many deep tech companies: specialised lab space is hard to find, and harder to fit out quickly.

Specialist laboratory space proved difficult to secure. Several university options offered suitable locations, but the spaces themselves would have required significant capital investment to fit out, alongside lengthy technical, safety, and approval processes.

“Our lab spaces are quite unique,” Lachlan said. “We were educating the fit-out teams on what we needed and where to find the relevant regulations.”

An industrial alternative — an old site with an existing electronics workshop — looked promising until the numbers came in: converting it into usable lab space would have been a significant capital cost.

Lab space in months, not years

CoLabs offered a different model. Because the facility was already equipped for specialised technical work, QB could move in within months, rather than embark on a multi-year build.

Renting lab space also shifted the cost of laboratory space from a significant upfront capital expense to an operational one, an important consideration for a startup managing its balance sheet and capital.

Lachlan also shares how flexible their new space was: when QB needed to run gas lines — the kind of modification that can trigger months of institutional limbo at a university — CoLabs got it done.

“CoLabs gives us the space to get on with our work, but they’re there when we need to do substantial things fast. They’re so flexible in how we can work together.”