Why the VGE deal looks strategic:

Look at the structure rather than simply the US$1.1 million transfer.

QNC didn't just buy shares in VGE or hand it an unsecured loan. It negotiated:

• 12% interest
• security over all of VGE's assets
• automatic conversion into 9.99% of VGE if specified milestones occur
• a relatively short original maturity.

QNC itself categorizes its VGE, Greybox and Krown holdings as investments it intends to hold for long-term strategic purposes.

That looks to me much more like:

>“We'll finance you while you're building something we want access to, collect 12% if it works as debt, but become an owner if you reach the milestones we're interested in.”

That's a classic strategic-capital concept.

And QNC's behaviour elsewhere reinforces that interpretation. Its AIF explicitly says it intends to be opportunistic in pursuing collaboration partners and M&A opportunities. It invested in Krown to strengthen that commercial relationship, owns an investment in Greybox, and this year acquired SKV/SecureKey using a heavily milestone-based structure designed to limit QNC's downside if commercial targets aren't achieved.

So VGE fits an emerging pattern: QNC isn't merely developing QRNG technology anymore; it's buying or financing pieces of the ecosystem through which that technology could be commercialized.

And here's where Hoansoo Lee becomes interesting

Hoansoo Lee isn't merely some financier attached to VGE. He is CEO of Exascale Labs, which is trying to build a very substantial AI-compute infrastructure business. Exascale's SEC-filed investor presentation describes GPU infrastructure, modular data centres, cooling, power systems and roughly $300 million of qualified pipeline opportunities as of April 2026. Exascale is pursuing a public-market combination at an approximately $500-million pre-transaction equity valuation.

And in November 2025, QNC and Exascale announced a multi-year initiative intended to embed QNC's security technology directly into Exascale's AI-compute infrastructure. Phase 1 covers secure-compute pilots; Phase 2 contemplates integration of QNC's QRNG hybrid semiconductor designs into Exascale's cluster architecture. Exascale is also supposed to pursue technology agreements with data-centre operators and AI-compute customers incorporating QNC's security stack.

That is very strategically valuable to QNC if it actually happens.

Think of what QNC's biggest problem has been for years: it has interesting technology, but needs real-world applications and distribution.

Exascale potentially gives QNC exactly that:

QRNG / SecureKey / eShield-Q
→ embedded in
GPU clusters / AI data centres
→ sold to
enterprise / sovereign / defence / government customers

That's much more valuable than selling individual QRNG chips.

Then Vertical Data appears

QNC subsequently signed an MOU with Vertical Data in June 2026. The contemplated model is strikingly similar: QNC's eShield-Q, eFlux-Q and SecureKey would be incorporated into Vertical Data GPU clusters and edge data centres and potentially packaged into managed services offered to enterprise and sovereign customers. An initial reference deployment is targeted for 2026.

So we now have a recognizable strategy:

QNC technology

↓

AI-compute / data-centre infrastructure

↓

security bundled directly into the infrastructure

↓

enterprise, financial, defence, healthcare and government customers

That isn't random deal-making. It lines up remarkably well with the markets Bellido has been saying QNC intends to address.

Where VGE might fit

Here's my working hypothesis—and I emphasize hypothesis, because QNC has not disclosed VGE's underlying assets.

VGE may be a financing/investment vehicle that gives QNC indirect exposure to companies and assets in this emerging AI/data-centre ecosystem without QNC itself having to become a data-centre operator.

That would make a lot of sense.

QNC is a cybersecurity/IP company. You don't want Francis Bellido suddenly trying to finance GPU farms, negotiate power contracts, buy NVIDIA hardware and develop data centres.

Instead:

QNC
→ provides US$1.1M secured capital to
Vertical Growth Equity
→ people within VGE have access to AI/infrastructure/finance opportunities
→ if specified milestones occur
QNC gets 9.99% of the vehicle

Meanwhile QNC technology potentially gets pulled into the companies and projects that network develops.

That's potentially quite clever.

Yes this was done with AI, regardless any thoughts on this?

QNC mention...

The exposure is good, its interesting how much of the coverage of the company actually misunderstands the value thesis, they need to read the reddit!

Timestamp

19:08 - 24:50 ish

Credit to dlov95

Welcome to the Weekly Discussion Thread! This is your space to chat about anything r/QNC

Q2 MD&A dropped Aug 14. Everyone’s looking at the SecureKey IUT listing, which is fair. But I went through the R&D project breakdown line by line and there’s one number I haven’t seen discussed here.

Not thousand. One thousand five hundred and eighty-four dollars. Last quarter it was $1,750. Cumulative since the project started: $133,203.

For comparison, here’s what the other projects got in Q2:

QBUCS (JMEM): $161,288
FIPS: $136,700
SecureKey: $89,581
SDK: $86,651
EaaS: $48,992
CMOS: $1,584

CMOS got 0.3% of the R&D budget this quarter.

The language didn’t move either. I pulled up Q1 and compared it side by side. The CMOS section reads word for word the same. “Current focus is on stabilizing the amplifier.” “Additional design iterations ongoing.” “Full chip integration, fabrication and system validation expected within next 6-12 months.” That last one matters. In Q1 (filed as of March 31) “6-12 months” meant roughly Sept 2026 to March 2027. In Q2 (as of June 30) the same sentence now means Dec 2026 to June 2027. The target slid a full quarter without a dollar spent.

Before anyone says they’re broke they’re not. Cash and marketable securities: $33.5M. They spent $136,700 on FIPS in a single quarter, a 6x increase from Q1. The money exists. It went somewhere else.

Now the part where I might be wrong, and I want pushback on this specifically.

The MD&A says CMOS work is being done “with l’ÉTS.” If ÉTS is carrying the design work grad students, professors, CMC Microsystems subsidised EDA tools then design costs genuinely wouldn’t show up on QNC’s books. That’s a real explanation and I’m not dismissing it.

But here’s my issue with it: a tape-out costs actual money regardless of who does the design. A wafer doesn’t get fabricated on academic goodwill. Even a shared MPW shuttle run at 65nm runs into the tens of thousands. A full mask set is six figures. If a fabrication event had happened in Q2, something would have hit the line. $1,584 doesn’t cover it.

So the cumulative number tells us something too. $133K total, for the entire life of the project. That’s not consistent with multiple commercial respins. If anything it suggests we’re at or before the first full-chip fabrication, not several iterations deep. Which brings up the thing I can’t reconcile. The May 2025 PR said the “65-nm finalized design has been submitted for fabrication to TSMC.” But the Q2 MD&A still lists milestone, 3 full chip integration, as ongoing. Also worth noting: milestone 2 (ADC/DAC) is described as “completed, fabricated and tested.” Milestone 1 (the amplifier) is only “completed and tested.” No “fabricated.”

Respins are normal. First-silicon-perfect is maybe a 30% outcome in complex analog. Anyone treating “they had to iterate” as a scandal doesn’t know how chips get built. And honestly, spending money on a respin would be a good sign, not a bad one. Nobody pays for a wafer run on a design they don’t believe in. Spending is a commitment signal. What worries me is the opposite: not spending. That means either the design still isn’t converging in simulation, or the work sits entirely on the academic side, or CMOS dropped down the priority list. None of those are as good as “they paid for a run.”

Same line. If it’s still $1-3K, that’s three straight quarters and I’d stop calling it a pause. If it jumps to $20-80K, that reads like an MPW shuttle run and I’d take it as a positive. $200K+ would be a real commercial tape-out and that’s a strong signal.

The pattern that would actually concern me is a spike followed by two quarters of silence. That’s the shape of a fab run that came back disappointing. Not selling, not telling anyone else what to do. The FIPS line moving from $22K to $136K is real and it lines up with the IUT listing, so the SecureKey side is genuinely being funded. That part is working. But the CMOS chip is the thing most of us bought this story for, and right now it’s getting 0.3% of the R&D budget. That’s worth saying out loud.

If someone has better information on the ÉTS arrangement whether there’s a separate CMC or grant budget covering fabrication outside QNC’s books I’d genuinely like to see it. That would change how I read this.

Numbers are all from the Q2 MD&A on SEDAR+, section 1.4, filed Aug 14 2026.

https://www.sedarplus.ca/csa-party/records/document.html?id=09170533c1e0a7c5b070ac5e886e26e42d38e85fe084701cefde1a27184358d0

https://www.sedarplus.ca/csa-party/records/document.html?id=f0a9e1954e15dffec6978f7ddb79a6e6c9e3ebdecaa6eae7c6581b108c1cf650

Earning call on August 13th.

Any insights to what people are thinking?

Its something...

Welcome to the Weekly Discussion Thread! This is your space to chat about anything r/QNC