Introducing Helios: The Most Accurate Quantum Computer in the World
We’re pleased to introduce Helios, a technological marvel redefining the possible.
Building on its predecessor H2, which has already breached quantum advantage, Helios nearly doubles the qubit count and surpasses H2’s industry-leading fidelity, pushing further into the quantum advantage regime than any system before it. With unprecedented capability across its full stack, Helios is the most powerful quantum computer in the world.
“Helios is a true marvel—a seamless fusion of hardware and software, creating a platform for discovery unlike any other.”- Dr. Rajeeb Hazra, CEO
Helios’ groundbreaking design and advanced software stack bring quantum programming closer than ever to the ease and flexibility of classical computing—positioning Helios to accelerate commercial adoption. Even before its public debut, Helios had already demonstrated its capabilities as the world’s first enterprise-grade quantum computer. During a two-month early access program, select partners including SoftBank Corp. and JPMorgan Chase conducted commercially relevant research. We also leveraged Helios to perform large-scale simulations in high-temperature superconductivity and quantum magnetism—both with clear pathways to real-world industry applications.
Helios is now available to all customers through our cloud service and on-premise offering, including an option to integrate with NVIDIA GB200 for applications targeting specific end markets.
A Stellar Quantum Computer
“You would need to harvest every star in the universe to power a classical machine that could do the same calculations we did with Helios."
- Dr. Anthony Ransford, Helios Lead Architect
As we detailed in a benchmarking paper, Helios sets a new standard for quantum computing performance with the highest fidelity ever released to the market. It features 98 fully connected physical qubits with single-qubit gate fidelity of 99.9975% and two-qubit gate fidelity of 99.921% across all qubit pairs—making it the most accurate commercial quantum computer in the world.
Our fidelity shines in system-level benchmarks, such as Random Circuit Sampling (RCS), famously used by Google to demonstrate quantum supremacy when it performed an RCS task that would take a classical computer “10 septillion years” to replicate. Now, RCS serves as both a benchmark and the minimum standard for serious competitors in the market. Frequently missed in this conversation, however, is the importance of fidelity, or accuracy. That's why, when benchmarking Helios using RCS, we report the fidelity achieved by Helios on circuits of varying complexity (with complexity quantified by power requirements for classical simulation).
Our results show a classical supercomputer would require more power than the Sun—or, in fact, the combined power of all stars in the visible universe—to complete the same task in the same amount of time. In contrast, Helios achieved it using roughly the power of a single data center rack.
Like its predecessors, H1 and H2, Helios is designed to improve fidelity and overall system performance over time while sustaining competitive leadership through the launch of its successor.
Qubits at a Crossroads
"When I first saw the rotatable ion storage ring with a junction and gating legs sketched on a napkin, I loved the idea for its simplicity and efficiency. Seeing it finally realized after all of the team’s hard work has been truly incredible."
- Dr. John Gaebler, Fellow and Chief Scientist, Quantinuum
The Helios ion trap uses tiny currents to generate electromagnetic fields that hold single atomic ions (qubits) hovering above the trap for computation. We introduced a first-of-its-kind “junction”, which acts like a traffic intersection for qubits, enabling efficient routing and improved reliability. This is not only the first commercial implementation of this engineering triumph but it also allows our QCCD (Quantum Charged Coupled Device) architecture to scale, with future systems featuring hundreds of junctions arranged like a city street grid.
Whereas predecessor systems routed qubits using “physical swaps,” requiring sequential sorting, cooling, and gating that prevented parallel operations, the Helios QPU instead resembles a classical architecture with dedicated memory, cache, and computational zones. Like a spinning hard drive, the Helios QPU rotates qubits through ring storage (memory), passes them through the junction into the cache, moves them to logic zones for gating, and moves them to the leg storage while the next batch is processed. Sorting can now be done in parallel with cooling operations, resulting in a processor that is faster and less error prone. This parallelism will become a hallmark of Quantinuum’s future generations, enabling faster operating speeds.
Animation: This triumph of engineering demonstrates exquisite control over some of nature’s smallest particles in a way the world has never seen; one colleague likened the ions to a “little marching band.”
Quantinuum’s QCCD provides full all-to-all connectivity, giving the Helios QPU significant advantages over “fixed qubit” architectures, such as those used in superconducting systems. Its ability to physically move qubits around and entangle any qubit with any other qubit enables algorithms and error-correcting codes that are functionally impossible for fixed qubit architectures.
We made another “tiny” but significant change: we switched our qubits from ytterbium to barium. Whereas ytterbium largely relied on ultraviolet lasers that are expensive and hard on other components, barium can be manipulated with lasers in the visible part of the spectrum, where mature industrial technology exists, providing a more affordable, reliable and scalable commercial solution.
Barium also naturally allows the quantum computer to detect and remove a certain type of error, known as leakage, at the atomic level. By addressing this error directly, programmers can enhance the performance of their computation.
Delivered on Time – in Real Time
As announced earlier this year, Helios launched with a completely new stack equipped with a new software environment that makes quantum programming feel as intuitive as classical development.
Our new stack also features a real-time engine that massively improves our capability. With a real-time control system, we are evolving from static, pre-planned circuits to dynamic quantum programs that respond to results on the fly. We can now, for the first time on a quantum computer, interleave GPU-accelerated classical and quantum computations in a single program.
Our real-time engine also means we have dynamic transport – routing qubits as the moment demands reduces time to solution and diminishes the impact of memory errors.
Programmers can now use our new quantum programming language, Guppy, to write dynamic circuits that were previously impossible. By combining Guppy with our real-time engine, developers can leverage arbitrary control flow driven by quantum measurements, as well as full classical computation—including loops, higher-order functions, early exits, and dynamic qubit allocation. Far from being mere conveniences, these capabilities are essential stepping stones toward achieving fault-tolerant quantum computing at scale—putting us decisively ahead of the competition.
Fully compatible with industry standards like QIR and tools such as NVIDIA CUDA-Q, Helios bridges classical and quantum computing more seamlessly than ever, making hybrid quantum-classical development simple, natural, and accessible, and establishing Helios as the most programmable, general-purpose quantum computer ever built.
The Most Logical Path to Fault Tolerance
While everyone else is promising fault-tolerance, we’re delivering it. We are the only company to demonstrate a fully universal fault-tolerant gate set, we’ve demonstrated more codes than anyone else, and our logical fidelities are the best in class.
Now, with 98 physical qubits, we’ve been able to make 94 logical qubits, fully entangled in one of the largest GHZ states ever recorded. We did this with better than break-even fidelity, meaning they outperform physical qubits running the same algorithm. Built on our Iceberg code, published last year in Nature Physics, these logical qubits achieve the industry’s highest encoding efficiency, needing only two ancilla qubits per code block, or roughly a 1:1 physical-to-logical qubit ratio.
With 50 error-detected logical qubits, Helios achieved better than break-even performance, running the largest encoded simulation of quantum magnetism to date—an exceptional example of how users can leverage efficient encodings. This range and flexibility let users tailor the encoding rate to their application: fewer logical qubits deliver higher fidelity for less complex tasks, while larger sets enable more complex simulations.
Helios also produced 48 fully error-corrected logical qubits at a remarkable 2:1 encoding rate, a ratio thought impossible just a few years ago. This super high encoding rate stands in stark contrast to other notable demonstrations from industry peers. For example, the demonstration linked in the previous sentence would need a whopping 4800 qubits to make 48 logical qubits. Our 2:1 encoding rate was achieved through a clever technique called code concatenation, a breakthrough that supports single-shot error correction, transversal logic, and full parallelization—all at 99.99% state preparation and measurement fidelity.
To extend this performance at scale, all future Quantinuum systems—starting with Helios—will integrate real-time decoding using NVIDIA Grace Hopper GPUs, treating decoding as a dynamic computational process rather than a static lookup. Errors can be corrected as computations run without slowing the logical clock rate. Combined with Guppy, NVIDIA CUDA-Q, and NVQLink, this infrastructure forms the foundation for fault-tolerant, real-time quantum computation, delivering immediate quantum advantage in the near term and a clear path to scalable error-corrected computing.
We remain the only company to perform a fully universal fault-tolerant gate set, with more error-correcting codes and higher logical fidelities than any other company.
Helios is ready to drive practical, commercial quantum applications across industries. Its unprecedented fidelity, scalability, and programmability give users the tools to tackle problems that were previously out of reach. This is just the beginning, and we look forward to seeing what users and companies will achieve with it.
About Quantinuum
Quantinuum, the world’s largest integrated quantum company, pioneers powerful quantum computers and advanced software solutions. Quantinuum’s technology drives breakthroughs in materials discovery, cybersecurity, and next-gen quantum AI. With over 500 employees, including 370+ scientists and engineers, Quantinuum leads the quantum computing revolution across continents.
- Mitsui & Co. and Mitsubishi Electric demonstrated one of the world’s largest approximate Quantum Fourier Transforms (QFT) on Quantinuum Helios, scaling from prior records to 98 physical qubits.
- The collaboration also implemented a logical QFT using a QEC (Quantum Error Correction) code with up to 12 logical qubits.
- The work highlights Quantinuum’s accuracy and flexible architecture.
While there is ongoing debate around the pace of quantum computing’s development, a more grounded way to assess progress is through concrete demonstrations of foundational algorithms at meaningful scale. In this context, Mitsui & Co. and Mitsubishi Electric are taking a pragmatic view of quantum progress—focusing on how close the field is to executing core algorithmic primitives that underpin many potential industrial applications, rather than relying on abstract milestones or timelines.
In a new white paper, the industrial giants teamed up with Quantinuum to measure how close we are to running the Quantum Fourier Transform (QFT), a widely-used algorithmic primitive, at scales necessary for industrial applications. In the process, the team successfully ran one of the largest instances of the approximate QFT ever demonstrated. This achievement matters because the QFT is an essential primitive that underpins many of the quantum algorithms expected to deliver practical advantages.
You may have heard of the (classical) Fourier transform (FT), due to its ubiquity throughout modern computing. The FT is essential in everything from image analysis to data compression, with almost limitless applications in between. The quantum Fourier transform (QFT) is similar; it’s used in everything from chemistry to finance.
Because the QFT is a foundational primitive underpinning many quantum algorithms, demonstrating it at larger scales and higher fidelity is a practical way to measure quantum computing readiness. This is exactly the type of benchmarking that organizations should consider to understand where today’s systems are useful, and to see how fault-tolerant approaches are progressing. Ultimately, algorithm-level benchmarking like this is one of the most useful ways to understand not just where we are, but where we are going.
A Transformative Approach
Primitives like Fourier Transform are so widespread because they simplify problems by transforming them into something that is easier to deal with. At Quantinuum, we are very interested in transforms: not only are they crucial for industrial applications but they can also simplify algorithms, making them possible to run now instead of later. This ‘transformational’ approach extends beyond the QFT - other transforms exist, and we have even invented our own quantum-native transforms.
Using our Helios quantum computer and Guppy language, the joint team explored running the QFT on both physical qubits and on logical qubits, showing that fault tolerance is progressing quickly. Running the QFT on 98 physical qubits; the paper shows a clear progression from previous results.
Then, using the Steane code, one of the best-studied quantum error correcting codes, the team used Helios’ 98 physical qubits to form 12 logical qubits, successfully running the QFT with the mechanisms of quantum error correction interwoven into the algorithm. This marks a crucial step forward for the field.
Foundational Progress
Taken together, these results provide a more concrete lens through which to view progress in quantum computing: not as abstract projections, but as measurable advances in the execution of foundational algorithms at increasing scale. By benchmarking the Quantum Fourier Transform on both physical and logical qubits, Mitsui & Co. and Mitsubishi Electric are helping to clarify what today’s hardware can already achieve, and where fault-tolerant approaches begin to extend those limits.
More broadly, the organizations best positioned to benefit from quantum computing will be those that focus on these foundational capabilities early, and use them to build a clear, evidence-based understanding of how the technology fits into their business goals.
It is believed that unlocking answers to some of the most complex scientific and industrial problems will require the seamless integration of high-performance computing (HPC), generative AI (GenAI), and quantum computing. Toward this goal, Quantinuum, NVIDIA, and a major pharmaceutical company have successfully demonstrated the first step in a proof-of-principle framework designed to connect these three distinct computing paradigms for industrially relevant computational chemistry.
This milestone, enabled by three industry leaders and experts in their respective domains, serves as a foundational capability that could support the development of future hybrid quantum-AI workflows to help optimize industrial research and development (R&D).
The potential value is a path toward more automated, repeatable, and scalable workflows for translating chemistry problems into executable quantum programs—capabilities that could eventually make hybrid computing easier to deploy in industrial R&D.
The GenQAI Framework
The framework, termed Generative Quantum AI (GenQAI), involved a quantum computer simulating a pharmaceutical compound using programming instructions generated by an AI model, which itself was trained on quantum data that was simulated using HPC.
While the vision for GenQAI explores how future industrial simulation workflows might be optimized by training AI models using quantum data derived directly from a quantum computer, the framework currently consists of four main technical steps:
- Simulating quantum data: The process began by simulating quantum data with NVIDIA accelerated computing using NVIDIA CUDA-Q.
- Fine-tuning the AI: This simulated quantum data was used to fine-tune a pre-trained AI model from the open NVIDIA Nemotron family.
- Generating instructions: The AI model then generated quantum circuits, which are the programming instructions required for the quantum simulation.
- Validating accuracy: To validate the results, the circuits were run on Quantinuum’s Helios quantum computer using its InQuanto quantum chemistry platform.
The core novelty of this development lies within the process of the framework itself. In this proof-of-principle experiment, an AI model fine-tuned on simulated quantum data generated circuits that were successfully executed and validated on Quantinuum’s Helios system. Rather than delivering an immediate commercial advantage, this achievement establishes a credible, verifiable baseline for how HPC, AI, and quantum computing can function in tandem.
The Case Study
The validation of the framework represents an early step toward the goal of developing scalable architectures for the pharmaceutical industry.
With a shared view toward eventually scaling the framework for pharmaceutical R&D applications, the researchers simulated a pharmaceutical compound: imipramine. This anti-depressant was chosen because it serves as a model compound for drug degradation and shelf-life studies, which are standard components of the pharmaceutical R&D lifecycle.
Developing hybrid infrastructure that enterprises may adopt requires a deep, coordinated effort among domain experts. As such, this successful test highlights the value of combining the strengths of a quantum computing hardware and software leader (Quantinuum), with a hybrid-quantum classical platform (NVIDIA), and a leading enterprise end-user to build and test future computing capabilities for industrial chemistry.
Scaling the Framework
Although demonstrated on a pharmaceutical compound, the architecture could eventually inform similar molecular-simulation workflows in sectors such as energy, agriculture, advanced materials, and electronics. At this stage, it provides a reference for further testing and development.
Engage Further
Access the paper here to explore the full technical details of this demonstration and contact our team to learn more about joining Quantinuum’s enterprise partner network.
Quantinuum is pleased to announce that applications are now open for the Quantinuum SG Grand Challenge 2026, a global innovation challenge designed to bring together researchers, developers, scientists and innovators to explore practical applications of quantum computing.
Organized by Quantinuum and supported by Singapore's National Quantum Office and Aqora, the three-month program aims to foster collaboration across academia, industry and the quantum developer community while supporting the continued growth of Singapore's quantum ecosystem.
A Platform for Quantum Computing Innovation
Participants will work in teams to develop solutions across a range of challenge areas, including chemistry and molecular simulation, optimization, AI for quantum systems, quantum error correction, condensed matter and materials science, and open innovation. Throughout the program, participants will have access to mentoring, technical enablement and Quantinuum quantum computing resources.
Singapore Grand Finale
Selected finalist teams will be invited to present their work at the Grand Finale hosted in Singapore before representatives from academia, and industry. The event will celebrate innovative applications of quantum computing while providing an opportunity for participants to engage with Singapore's growing quantum community.
Join the Challenge
The Quantinuum SG Grand Challenge welcomes participants from around the world. Whether you are an experienced quantum researcher or beginning your quantum computing journey, the program offers an opportunity to collaborate, learn and contribute to the development of practical quantum applications.
Applications are now open. Spaces are limited and subject to review and approval.