Chip maker SEALSQ and its Swiss parent WISeKey say a dedicated hardware payload, designed to generate and store quantum resistant keys from low Earth orbit, will launch in Q4 2026 as the first of a stated 100 satellite constellation by 2033.
The classical public-key cryptography that protects bank logins, encrypted messaging, and most of the secure web was designed for a computing world that no longer exists. Once a cryptographically relevant quantum computer arrives, the mathematical problems underpinning RSA and elliptic-curve cryptography become solvable, and the keys guarding today's traffic could be retroactively broken. Standards bodies have spent the last decade preparing for that moment by standardizing quantum-resistant, or post-quantum, algorithms, with the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology having published its first finalized post-quantum standards. The migration is no longer theoretical. It is scheduled.
Most of that transition is being designed to happen on the ground, in hardware security modules in data centers and in cloud key management services that issue and rotate keys. A small group of companies is asking whether the safest place to generate, store, and serve the new keys is somewhere that cannot be raided, subpoenaed through a single terrestrial jurisdiction, or quietly compromised by an adversary with physical access to a building. SEALSQ, a NASDAQ-listed Swiss chip maker focused on post-quantum semiconductors, and its parent WISeKey, say the answer is low Earth orbit.
In an announcement summarized by trade publication Quantum Computing Report, the two companies described engineering milestones for what they call a Quantum Spatial Orbital Cloud, or QSOC, configured as a constellation of satellites acting as tamper-resistant post-quantum cryptography nodes, sources of certified quantum randomness, and edge-processing endpoints for connected devices. The SEALSQ investor relations page confirms the announcement under a release titled "SEALSQ and WISeSat Announce their Commercial Quantum Spatial Orbital Cloud (QSOC)."
The first concrete milestone is a launch. The companies say a dedicated QSOC hardware payload has finished development and is on schedule to fly on a SpaceX mission in the fourth quarter of 2026, embedded in the satellite's core processor and combining a lattice-based post-quantum algorithm stack with orbital quantum randomness drawn from on-board sources. The longer-horizon plan is harder to verify at a glance: a stated 100-satellite constellation by 2033, built out alongside WISeSat, the group's existing low-Earth-orbit subsidiary.
What the orbital model is actually selling is the physical separation of key material from any single terrestrial location. Classical key infrastructure, even when wrapped in tamper-resistant hardware, lives in buildings on the ground, in countries with their own laws and adversaries. A satellite that generates key pairs on orbit and only ever exposes public components to ground stations offers a different threat model. The cryptography itself is not improved by being in space; the algorithms are the same lattice-based schemes standardized for use on Earth. The argument is that the trust anchor, the root of trust that devices and servers reach for when they need to know they are talking to the right system, becomes harder to compromise physically.
That distinction matters for the customer base the vendors are pitching. Regulated industries with strict data-residency requirements, defense suppliers, and operators of industrial machine-to-machine networks have reasons to pay a premium for cryptographic roots of trust that are not co-located with any terrestrial adversary. SEALSQ and WISeKey have built their existing business around exactly those verticals, supplying secure elements for connected devices, identity systems, and blockchain timestamping. Extending that footprint into orbit is a logical, if capital-intensive, next step.
The open question is whether the market is large enough to underwrite the buildout. Quantum Computing Report, the trade publication that surfaced the announcement, is a specialist aggregator rather than a primary investigative source, and its restatement of the roadmap does not constitute independent validation of the launch slot, the constellation economics, or the underlying demand. None of the schedule claims, neither the Q4 2026 launch nor the 100-satellite target, has been independently confirmed in the materials available, and the SEALSQ investor page body, beyond its title, is rendered through client-side JavaScript and could not be fully inspected. The announcement is, on the public record so far, a vendor milestone update from the companies involved.
There are also engineering variables the press materials do not address in detail. Lattice-based cryptography running on radiation-exposed microcontrollers is a real engineering problem, not a solved one. Quantum random number generation on orbit is physically novel but unproven at commercial scale. Whether the resulting keys serve as a meaningful improvement over well-run terrestrial hardware security modules depends on the threat model of the buyer and on whether regulators accept an orbital trust anchor for compliance purposes. None of those questions are settled by the announcement itself.
The broader category is bigger than any one vendor. Several other efforts are pursuing the "keys in space" idea, including satellite-based quantum key distribution demonstrations that use quantum physics, rather than additional physical isolation, to protect key exchange. SEALSQ and WISeKey are staking a different bet: that the problem is fundamentally about where the root of trust lives, and that orbit is the cleanest answer for a meaningful slice of critical infrastructure. The Q4 2026 launch, if it flies, will be the first real data point on whether that bet is engineering or marketing.