Quantum networks as digital infrastructure: from qubits and entanglement to scalable systems

Quantum networks form a new layer of digital infrastructure offering a fundamentally new primitive: the ability to distribute beyond-classical correlations across a network. Powered by qubits and entanglement, we present quantum networks as infrastructure that enables new capabilities in coordination, sensing, and scale out quantum processing, with direct relevance to distributed systems, data networks, and defence environments. This field is now transitioning from proof of principle demonstrations—including operation over deployed telecom fiber—to systems engineering, driven by the convergence of network relevant qubits, photonic integration, and semiconductor manufacturing. In particular, photonic integration combined with color center qubit chiplets offers a compelling path toward manufacturable, highly multiplexed entanglement nodes: the fundamental building blocks of quantum network infrastructure.