An ion chamber houses the qubit brains of Honeywell's quantum computers. [Image: Honeywell]
The quantum computing company Quantinuum, which has dual headquarters in Colorado, USA, and Cambridge, UK, announced on 21 January that it plans to open a new research and development center in New Mexico, USA, later this year. The facility’s purpose will be to advance photonics research essential to Quantinuum’s trapped-ion quantum computing technologies, which use light to manipulate qubits.
Company leaders did not provide a specific date or location within New Mexico for the expansion, but they anticipate that it will happen in 2025. New Mexico will be the ninth home for Quantinuum’s growing business, which has three existing sites in both the United States and United Kingdom, along with one location apiece in Japan and Germany.
Gaining full presence in regional hub
The move comes after the Biden administration in July 2024 jointly named New Mexico and Colorado as one of 12 Regional Technology and Innovation Hubs (Tech Hubs) in the country to receive federal funding to accelerate the growth of promising industries. Together, the two states received US$41 million as part of the US$504 million initiative, which is intended to stimulate the economy and create jobs. By broadening its presence into New Mexico, Quantinuum will now have locations within both states comprising the regional quantum hub.
In addition, the expansion will put the company in close proximity to experts at two national laboratories—Sandia and Los Alamos—with whom the it has long-standing collaborations, along with leading quantum researchers at the University of New Mexico and elsewhere.
“I am thrilled to welcome Quantinuum to New Mexico, launching a new industry for our state that builds on our proud foundation of innovation,” said New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham in a press release. “No state is better positioned to transform the momentum of the quantum computing industry into major economic and entrepreneurial growth, and Quantinuum will be a groundbreaking partner in that work.”
About the company
Quantinuum was founded in November 2021 as the result of a merger between Cambridge Quantum, UK, which focused on developing quantum software, operating systems, and cyber security, and US-based Honeywell Quantum Solutions, which built quantum hardware based on trapped-ion technologies. Other shareholders include IBM and JSR Corp from Japan.
Early in 2024, the company closed a US$300 million equity fundraising round anchored by JPMorgan Chase with additional participation from Mitsui & Co., Amgen and Honeywell, which remains the company’s majority shareholder. That brought the total capital raised by Quantinuum since its inception to approximately US$625 million.
Today, Quantinuum has over 550 employees, including more than 370 scientists and engineers. The company aims to harness its technology to break new ground in materials discovery, cyber security and next-generation quantum artificial intelligence. For example, its Systems Model H2 is a quantum computer with 52 trapped-ion qubits, that the fidelity of which is impossible for classical computers to fully simulate, according to the company.
In September 2024, Quantinuum reportedly achieved high-fidelity, fault-tolerant teleportation of a logically encoded quantum state, with real-time quantum error correction—a potentially important step on the road toward scaling up trapped-ion platforms into universal, fault-tolerant quantum computers.
Betting on quantum
“As the established leader in quantum computing, Quantinuum has found an ideal partner in New Mexico,” said Rajeeb Hazra, the company’s president and CEO. “The state’s dynamic technology ecosystem and highly skilled workforce align perfectly with our strategic goals.”
New Mexico is one of many US states racing for dominance in quantum science, just as the United States is among numerous countries in hot pursuit of quantum computing solutions to power next-generation artificial intelligence and information security. While no single US region has emerged as the undisputed industry epicenter, the significant investment in quantum technology at both the federal and state levels suggests a widespread consensus that the future is quantum.