Quantum computers capable of cracking today’s encryption don’t exist yet. But the race to defend against them just produced its first tangible product for your pocket.
STMicroelectronics, the Franco-Italian semiconductor giant traded on the NYSE under STM, has launched the ST54M, a mobile chip it calls the first in the world to include a dedicated hardware accelerator for post-quantum cryptography. Announced on June 24, the chip crams an NFC controller, an embedded secure element (eSE), eSIM capability, and that PQC accelerator onto a single piece of silicon.
What the chip actually does
The more immediate risk has a name: harvest now, decrypt later. Bad actors intercept and stockpile encrypted data today, betting that quantum computers will eventually let them crack it open. The ST54M is designed to shut that strategy down before it pays off.
The chip supports two NIST-standardized algorithms. ML-KEM handles key encapsulation, which is the process of securely exchanging cryptographic keys between parties. ML-DSA manages digital signatures, verifying that data hasn’t been tampered with.
