SK Telecom, a South Korea-based telecom operator, said it had secured Horizon Europe funding for a three-year project to develop a quantum key distribution (QKD) system using photonic integrated circuits (PICs) and AI.

The project involves institutions in Greece, Austria, Germany, and South Korea.

The partners named by SK Telecom are Greece’s National Centre of Scientific Research “Demokritos,” the Austrian Institute of Technology, Germany-based semiconductor startup Synogate UG, and South Korea’s Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI).

Demokritos will coordinate the project, while SK Telecom will develop the PIC-based QKD system and build and validate the testbed.

SK Telecom said it was the first Asian private company to receive Horizon Europe research funding for a quantum cryptography project.

South Korea became associated with the program’s Pillar II on 17 July 2025, a status that lets Korean organizations receive funding and lead consortia on similar terms as European Union entities.

SK Telecom said the project aimed to shrink QKD hardware and improve system stability through AI-based, real-time calibration.

🔗 Source: SK Telecom

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