Xanadu is a Toronto-based photonic quantum computing company building cloud-accessible continuous-variable quantum processors based on squeezed states of light. Founded in 2016 by Christian Weedbrook and listed on TSX/Nasdaq (XNDU), Xanadu demonstrated a 50-million-fold Gaussian-boson-sampling speedup with Borealis in 2022 and published modular networked photonic quantum computing in Nature in 2025. Beyond hardware, Xanadu is one of the most prolific open-source contributors in quantum software — it maintains PennyLane (the de-facto cross-platform quantum ML framework), Strawberry Fields, MrMustard, The Walrus, Blackbird, Catalyst, Lightning, and FlamingPy, all under Apache-2.0. Xanadu's own Quantum Cloud was retired in January 2026; the company's developer surface is now centered entirely on its open-source stack and integrations with third-party QPUs.
URL: Visit APIs.json
Run: Capabilities Using Naftiko
- Quantum Computing, Photonic Quantum Computing, Quantum Machine Learning, Continuous Variable, Open Source, Python, PennyLane, Strawberry Fields, Toronto
- Created: 2026-05-24
- Modified: 2026-05-24
PennyLane is the cross-platform Python framework for quantum computing, quantum machine learning, and quantum chemistry maintained by Xanadu. Automatic differentiation of hybrid quantum-classical computations across PyTorch, JAX, TensorFlow, and NumPy with a device-agnostic plugin model. Apache-2.0, v0.45.0 (May 2026), 3.2k+ stars.
Human URL: https://pennylane.ai
JIT compiler for hybrid quantum-classical PennyLane programs. Built on MLIR, lowering circuits to native machine code with quantum control flow, dynamic shapes, and differentiable hybrid execution.
Human URL: https://docs.pennylane.ai/projects/catalyst/en/stable/
High-performance state-vector and tensor-network quantum simulators in C++. Backends: lightning.qubit (CPU), lightning.gpu (CUDA), lightning.kokkos, lightning.tensor.
Human URL: https://docs.pennylane.ai/projects/lightning/en/stable/
Full-stack Python library for designing, simulating, and optimizing continuous-variable photonic quantum circuits. Gaussian, Fock, TensorFlow, and Bosonic backends.
Human URL: https://strawberryfields.readthedocs.io/en/stable/
Differentiable quantum-optics simulator bridging phase space and Fock space with NumPy and JAX backends; fast exact Fock-amplitude computation for Gaussian components plus Riemannian optimization.
Human URL: https://mrmustard.readthedocs.io/
Python/C++ library for fast calculation of hafnians, loop hafnians, and multidimensional Hermite polynomials — the linear-algebra primitives behind Gaussian boson sampling.
Human URL: https://the-walrus.readthedocs.io/
Quantum assembly language and intermediate representation for continuous-variable photonic quantum computation. Targets Xanadu hardware (X-series, Borealis, Aurora) and Strawberry Fields.
Human URL: https://quantum-blackbird.readthedocs.io/
Integrates IBM Qiskit and IBM Q hardware as PennyLane devices for differentiable quantum programming.
Human URL: https://docs.pennylane.ai/projects/qiskit/
Cross-platform Python library for efficient simulation of error correction in fault-tolerant photonic quantum computers with pluggable decoder backends.
Human URL: https://flamingpy.readthedocs.io/
Python API and CLI historically used to access Xanadu's photonic quantum cloud (Borealis, X-series). Xanadu's Quantum Cloud was retired in January 2026 and the project is archived; useful as a reference for Blackbird job submission patterns.
Human URL: https://github.com/XanaduAI/xanadu-cloud-client
- Photonic Quantum Hardware — Continuous-variable photonic processors using squeezed light: Borealis (Gaussian boson sampling) and Aurora (modular, scaling toward fault tolerance).
- PennyLane Open-Source Framework — Hardware-agnostic differentiable quantum programming across PyTorch, JAX, TensorFlow, and NumPy.
- Plugin Ecosystem — IBM Qiskit, AWS Braket, Google Cirq, IonQ, Rigetti, Microsoft QDK, Quantinuum/Honeywell, Qulacs, Strawberry Fields.
- Lightning High-Performance Simulators — C++ state-vector and tensor-network simulators across CPU, CUDA GPU, Kokkos, and tensor backends.
- Catalyst JIT Compiler — MLIR-based compiler with quantum control flow and end-to-end differentiation.
- Photonic Software Stack — Strawberry Fields, MrMustard, The Walrus, Blackbird, and FlamingPy.
- Quantum Codebook and QML Hub — Xanadu Quantum Codebook plus pennylane.ai/qml hundreds of research demos.
- Quantum Machine Learning Research — Train hybrid quantum-classical models with autodiff against simulators and real QPUs from one API.
- Quantum Chemistry — VQE, ground/excited state, dynamics simulations via
pennylane.qchem. - Photonic Algorithm Research — Gaussian boson sampling, graph optimization, vibronic spectra in Strawberry Fields and MrMustard.
- Fault-Tolerant Architecture Studies — Photonic error-correction architectures and decoder benchmarking with FlamingPy.
- HPC-Scale Quantum Simulation — Multi-GPU and multi-node state-vector and tensor simulation with Lightning + Catalyst.
- Quantum Education — Xanadu Quantum Codebook, QHack, pennylane.ai demo library.
IBM Qiskit / IBM Quantum, AWS Braket, Google Cirq, IonQ, Rigetti, Quantinuum/Honeywell, Microsoft QDK, Qulacs, PyTorch, JAX, TensorFlow, NumPy, NVIDIA cuQuantum.
- Portal
- PennyLane Portal
- Blog
- PennyLane Blog
- XanaduAI GitHub
- PennyLaneAI GitHub
- YouTube
- Discussion Forum
- Quantum ML Hub
- Xanadu Quantum Codebook
- Demos
- PennyLane Plugins
- Release Notes
- License — Apache 2.0
FN: Kin Lane
Email: info@apievangelist.com