Quantinuum

Quantinuum is a full-stack quantum computing company formed in November 2021, via a merger, to leverage the hardware capabilities of Honeywell Quantum Solutions (HQS)—the quantum unit of Honeywell International—and the software expertise of Cambridge Quantum Computing (CQC).

It offers quantum solutions in areas including cyber security and encryption, drug discovery and delivery, finance, and material science. All of Quantinuum’s products will be compatible with many quantum technologies including trapped ions (H1 computers) and superconducting qubits (IBM). 

CQC brings to the table its quantum software expertise with industry breakthroughs such as the implementation of quantum algorithms to calculate the excited states of molecules and the successful testing of natural language processing on a quantum computer for the first time (April 2020). Quantinuum also offers CQC’s open-source hardware-agnostic software development kit (SDK) TKET. 

Quantinuum’s H1 generation of trapped-ion quantum computers—H1-1 and H1-2—that are powered by Honeywell, are commercially available on the cloud. The 12-qubit H1-2 system is reportedly the first quantum computer to reach a quantum volume benchmark of 2,048.  

The company, in December 2021, introduced “Quantum Origin,” a quantum-enhanced cryptographic key generation platform. It is reportedly the world’s first commercial product to be built by a quantum computer.

Key customers and partnerships

The company’s Quantum Origin platform was to be initially offered to financial services companies and cybersecurity product vendors before being rolled out to high-priority sectors like telecommunication, defense, and government. The product was integrated into the Strangeworks ecosystem in January 2022, providing access to Strangeworks and its customers. Quantinuum also plans to launch a quantum chemistry product in 2022. In December 2013, Quantinuum partnered with both EAGLYS and Mitsui to develop a platform that shields data and AI models from quantum-based cyber 

In January 2024, the company partnered with Thales to launch a PQC Starter Kit that helps business enterprises prepare for Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) and with RIKEN to develop a hybrid quantum high-performance computing (quantum HPC) platform. 

Funding and financials

In January 2024, Quantinuum secured USD 300 million in an equity funding round led by JPMorgan Chase at a pre-money valuation of USD 5 billion. The funds were earmarked to advance the development of the world's first universal fault-tolerant quantum computer and to further develop Quantinuum's software to improve commercial applicability. It also received an investment (amount undisclosed) from IBM in February 2022 to expand the IBM Quantum Hub.