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    Quantinuum

    Quantinuum is a quantum computing company in Broomfield, Colorado, that builds trapped-ion machines; its 98-qubit Helios, launched in November 2025, reports 99.921% two-qubit gate fidelity.[1][2][3] In 2026 its researchers reported 48 error-corrected logical qubits on its 98-qubit Helios, though not yet full fault tolerance.[4][5]

    Editor reviewedUpdated Quantum computingComputingPhysics
    Key facts

    Overview

    Quantinuum builds trapped-ion quantum computers using what DARPA describes as a quantum charge-coupled device (QCCD) architecture, and is based in Broomfield, Colorado.[1] Its systems trap charged atoms with electromagnetic fields and control them with microwaves and lasers, an approach the company says gives high fidelity and long coherence.[6][7] In November 2025 it reported more than 630 employees, over 370 of them scientists and engineers, across the US, UK, Germany and Japan.[8]

    Helios

    Quantinuum launched Helios commercially on 5 November 2025, calling it the most accurate general-purpose commercial quantum computer; it uses 98 barium-ion qubits.[2] The company reports 99.921% two-qubit and 99.9975% single-qubit gate fidelity, with all qubits fully connected.[3] Its ion trap was manufactured by Honeywell, and it adds a real-time control engine and a Python-based language, Guppy, for programs that mix quantum and classical steps.[9][10] It is available through Quantinuum’s cloud service and on premises, and the company named Amgen, BMW Group, JPMorganChase and SoftBank Corp. among its first enterprise customers.[11] At launch Quantinuum also said it would connect NVIDIA GB200 systems to Helios through NVIDIA’s NVQLink and use the NVIDIA CUDA-Q platform, with its own Guppy programming language, for real-time error correction.[12] Early users named at launch include Amgen, exploring hybrid quantum machine learning for biologics, BMW Group, researching fuel-cell catalysts, JPMorganChase, studying financial analytics, and SoftBank Corp., exploring organic materials for batteries and solar cells.[13] Quantinuum also signed a partnership with Singapore’s national quantum agencies that includes in-country access to Helios.[14] See nvidia for that company’s role in AI computing.

    Logical qubits

    At launch Quantinuum reported 94 error-detected and 48 error-corrected logical qubits on Helios.[15] In a preprint posted on 25 February 2026 and a company blog post on 4 March, its researchers reported computations using up to 94 error-detected logical qubits and up to 48 logical qubits protected by concatenated error-correcting codes, built on “iceberg” codes in which many logical qubits share a small error-checking layer.[4] The preprint reports beyond-break-even performance across fault-tolerant and partially fault-tolerant benchmarks with between 48 and 94 logical qubits.[16] Quantinuum said it used 64 logical qubits to simulate quantum magnetism at a scale that is hard for classical computers.[17] Logical gate errors were around one in ten thousand, better than the physical gates.[4] The work was described as partially rather than fully fault-tolerant.[5] These codes depend on full connectivity, which is less available on chip-based superconducting machines that use the surface-code.[3][18]

    Position in the field

    Quantinuum’s reported 99.921% two-qubit fidelity, like IonQ’s reported 99.99%, is higher than the 99.62% reported for China’s superconducting Zuchongzhi 3.0.[3][19][20] It entered DARPA’s Quantum Benchmarking Initiative Stage B in November 2025.[21] On 7 October 2026 DARPA moved Atom Computing, Diraq, IBM and IonQ to Stage C; Quantinuum was not named in that group.[22] ContentLora found no primary source explaining why. DARPA says QBI is not a competition and does not pick winners, that Stage B examined each team’s plans and risks, and that it expects more companies to move to Stage C.[23][24][25]

    Questions readers ask

    What is Quantinuum's Helios?

    A 98-qubit trapped-ion quantum computer that Quantinuum launched commercially on 5 November 2025, using barium ions.[2]

    How accurate is Helios?

    Quantinuum reports 99.921% two-qubit and 99.9975% single-qubit gate fidelity, with all 98 qubits fully connected.[3]

    Is Quantinuum's machine fault-tolerant?

    Not fully. Its March 2026 results with up to 48 error-corrected logical qubits were described as partially fault-tolerant.[4][5]

    Is Quantinuum in DARPA's final evaluation stage?

    Quantinuum entered QBI Stage B in November 2025. It was not among the four teams moved to Stage C on 7 October 2026.[21][22]

    Sources

    Each numbered claim is a statement we checked against the sources listed with it. Status shows how well established it is.

    1. [1]

      DARPA lists Quantinuum, based in Broomfield, Colorado, as pursuing a trapped-ion quantum charge-coupled device (QCCD) architecture. confirmedas of 2025-11-06

    2. [2]

      Quantinuum launched its Helios trapped-ion computer commercially on 5 November 2025; it uses 98 barium-ion qubits. confirmedas of 2025-11-05

    3. [3]

      Quantinuum reports Helios two-qubit gate fidelity of 99.921% and single-qubit gate fidelity of 99.9975%, with all 98 qubits fully connected. confirmedas of 2026-10-10

    4. [4]

      In March 2026 Quantinuum researchers reported computations with up to 94 error-detected and 48 error-corrected logical qubits on Helios, using iceberg and concatenated codes, with logical gate errors around one in ten thousand - better than the physical gates. confirmedas of 2026-03-10

    5. [5]

      The March 2026 Quantinuum results were described as partially rather than fully fault-tolerant computation. confirmedas of 2026-03-10

    6. [6]

      Trapped-ion quantum computers hold charged atoms (ions) in electromagnetic fields and manipulate and encode information in them with microwave signals and lasers. confirmedas of 2026-10-10

    7. [7]

      Quantinuum says trapped-ion qubits offer high fidelities and longer coherence times than other technologies. confirmedas of 2026-10-10

    8. [8]

      As of November 2025 Quantinuum said it had more than 630 employees, including more than 370 scientists and engineers, across the US, UK, Germany and Japan. confirmedas of 2025-11-05

    9. [9]

      Quantinuum says the Helios ion trap was manufactured by Honeywell. confirmedas of 2025-11-05

    10. [10]

      Quantinuum says Helios has a real-time control engine and a Python-based programming language, Guppy, that lets developers combine quantum and classical computation in a single program. confirmedas of 2025-11-05

    11. [11]

      Helios is offered through Quantinuum's cloud service and on premises, and Quantinuum named Amgen, BMW Group, JPMorganChase and SoftBank Corp. among its initial enterprise customers. confirmedas of 2025-11-05

    12. [12]

      At the Helios launch Quantinuum said it would integrate NVIDIA GB200 systems with Helios through NVIDIA NVQLink and switch to NVIDIA accelerated computing, using its Guppy language with the NVIDIA CUDA-Q platform for real-time error correction. confirmedas of 2025-11-05

    13. [13]

      Quantinuum said its early Helios users include Amgen exploring hybrid quantum machine learning for biologics, BMW Group researching fuel-cell catalyst materials, JPMorganChase researching financial analytics and SoftBank Corp. exploring organic materials for batteries and solar cells. confirmedas of 2025-11-05

    14. [14]

      At the Helios launch Quantinuum signed a partnership with Singapore's National Quantum Office and National Quantum Computing Hub that includes in-country access to Helios, and said it would set up an R&D and operations centre in Singapore. confirmedas of 2025-11-05

    15. [15]

      At launch Quantinuum reported 94 error-detected logical qubits and 48 error-corrected logical qubits on Helios, the latter performing better than the physical qubits. confirmedas of 2025-11-05

    16. [16]

      The Quantinuum preprint reports beyond-break-even performance across both fault-tolerant and partially fault-tolerant benchmarks using between 48 and 94 logical qubits. confirmedas of 2026-02-25

    17. [17]

      Quantinuum said it used 64 of its logical qubits on Helios to simulate quantum magnetism at a scale that can be very difficult for classical computers, and that its logical qubits beat their physical counterparts. confirmedas of 2026-03-04

    18. [18]

      In the surface code, data qubits and measure qubits are interleaved on a square lattice; repeated measurements flag physical errors without disturbing the stored logical information. confirmedas of 2026-01-13

    19. [19]

      In October 2025 IonQ reported 99.99% two-qubit gate fidelity using its Electronic Qubit Control technology, which drives qubits with precision electronics instead of lasers. confirmedas of 2025-10-21

    20. [20]

      Zuchongzhi 3.0 reported 72-microsecond coherence, 99.90% single-qubit and 99.62% two-qubit gate fidelity. confirmedas of 2025-03-06

    21. [21]

      On 6 November 2025 DARPA moved 11 companies to QBI Stage B - Atom Computing, Diraq, IBM, IonQ, Nord Quantique, Photonic, Quantinuum, Quantum Motion, QuEra, Silicon Quantum Computing and Xanadu. confirmedas of 2025-11-06

    22. [22]

      On 7 October 2026 DARPA advanced Atom Computing, Diraq, IBM and IonQ to QBI Stage C, joining Microsoft and PsiQuantum, which entered from the US2QC pilot. confirmedas of 2026-10-07

    23. [23]

      DARPA says QBI is not a competition between companies and is not intended to pick winners and losers, but to assess whether different approaches offer credible paths to utility-scale operation. confirmedas of 2026-10-07

    24. [24]

      DARPA says that during the year-long Stage B it examined each organisation's research and development plans, technical risks, mitigation strategies and the prototypes needed to show progress. confirmedas of 2026-10-07

    25. [25]

      DARPA said QBI had evaluated more than 20 companies since its mid-2024 launch, that Quandela joined Stage A in May 2026, and that it expects more companies to advance to Stage C. confirmedas of 2026-10-07

    Revision history (2)
    1. Page created.
    2. Added Quantinuum's own blog and preprint as primary sources for its March 2026 logical-qubit results, the 64-qubit magnetism simulation, and its NVIDIA partnership.

    Created Oct 10, 2026. Last reviewed by an editor on Oct 10, 2026. Next scheduled review: Jan 10, 2027.

    Cite this page

    "Quantinuum." ContentLora, updated Oct 10, 2026. https://contentlora.com/wiki/quantinuum

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