#quantinuumhelios

Quantinuum and NVIDIA Create Hybrid Supercomputing Architecture for Quantum AI and Error Correction Breakthroughs

Quantum NVIDIA

Quantinuum, the largest integrated quantum business, and NVIDIA announced a comprehensive, full-stack cooperation to revolutionise high-performance computing. This partnership aims to provide the foundation for hybrid quantum-classical supercomputing.

Recognising that many critical real-world applications require a smooth interaction between quantum processing units (QPUs) and classical GPUs' massive parallel processing capability, the partnership is a crucial step towards quantum advantage. The alliance prioritises this hybrid approach to build robust architectures that can solve humanity's biggest problems in advanced AI research, materials science, financial modelling, and pharmaceutical development.

Hardware Integration: Helios Meets Grace Blackwell This project relies on the powerful NVIDIA Grace Blackwell platform and Quantinuum's cutting-edge Helios (Powered by Honeywell) trapped-ion quantum computer. Quantinuum Helios, which uses a racetrack design to handle up to 98 atomic ions, is famous for its accuracy and integrity. The companies are launching a new device using quantum technology and NVIDIA's high-performance accelerated computing. This collaboration capacity can be used immediately in on-premise or cloud-based commercial systems for drug development and financing.

This hybrid system's technological feasibility depends on NVIDIA NVQLink. Quantinuum uses this open system design as a baseline for hybrid quantum-classical supercomputing. NVQLink is designed to connect quantum and conventional processing components quickly. The most complex quantum algorithms, which often require thousands of fast feedback loops between the QPU and classical control systems, require coherent interleaving of compute stages, which this technology's low latency allows.

New technology improves quantum fidelity An industry first on quantum error correction (QEC) demonstrated this tight integration. Since quantum systems are noisy and decoherent, scaling to fault-tolerant processing requires error correction. Quantinuum and NVIDIA integrated a GPU-based decoder into the Helios control engine for real-time error correction methods.

With immediate effect, this technical integration increased quantum process logical integrity by over 3%. Helios's already low mistake rate makes a 3% increase notable. The NVIDIA CUDA-Q platform, Quantinuum's Guppy programming language, and NVIDIA GPUs' high-speed computing and parallelism enabled this huge improvement. This proves that classical acceleration enhances fundamental quantum computation precision and scalability, not only workflow management.

Its next-generation software development environment lets customers effortlessly integrate quantum and GPU-accelerated classical processes in a single, efficient workflow. The cooperation covers the whole Quantinuum technology stack. Developers can use NVIDIA CUDA-Q, CUDA-QX, and Quantinuum's native language tools like Guppy to take advantage of the Helios QPU's unique capabilities while simultaneously using well-known, optimised classical toolkits.

Driving Generative Quantum AI's Future Practical AI-quantum computing research is also prioritised by the cooperation. Corporations are increasing efforts through NVIDIA Accelerated Quantum Computing Research Centre (NVAQC). The NVAQC is using Quantinuum Helios and an NVIDIA GB200 NVL72 supercomputer to enable groundbreaking quantum-enhanced AI applications.

The ADAPT-GQE framework is new and groundbreaking. GenQAI, or transformer-based Generative Quantum AI (ADAPT-GQE), synthesises quantum circuits for quantum computers to prepare the ground state of a chemical system. Together with a top pharmaceutical partner, the researchers employed GPU-accelerated methods and NVIDIA CUDA-Q to generate training data for complex chemicals at 234x speedup.

Pharmaceuticals require imipramine, which was successfully studied using this method. Training the transformer on imipramine conformers produced ground state circuits orders of magnitude faster than ADAPT-VQE. The circuits were conducted on Helios after Quantinuum's computational chemistry platform InQuanto created the ground state. This remarkable result accelerates drug discovery, bringing pharmaceutical and materials science research closer to quantum technology.

Quantum Attacks Superconductivity

In addition to the primary collaborative announcements, Quantinuum's Helios can replicate materials science processes that traditional supercomputers couldn't. Helios was used to study the non-equilibrium Fermi-Hubbard model, a promising model for high-temperature superconductors. One of the scientific "holy grails" is creating a material that superconducts at room temperature. Electrical resistance suddenly evaporated at low temperatures in 1911, revealing it.

The Fermi-Hubbard model describes crystal electron flow and interaction. Before Helios, Earth's most powerful supercomputers could only process a few permutations of this model. Helios successfully modelled a 6x6 lattice using 90 qubits (72 system and 18 ancilla) with a unique fermionic encoding. This massive system occupies more than two dimensions in its quantum state. The qubit-based laboratory can perform unlimited state preparation, lengthy dynamical simulation to see entanglement spread, and flexible measurements, which classical computers cannot.

Importantly, Helios can detect “off-diagonal” observables, which analogue quantum simulators cannot measure because they carry the signature of Cooper pairs, the paired electrons that signify superconductivity. Quantinuum measured non-zero superconducting pairing correlations in three model regimes for the first time in quantum computing history.

Helios gives researchers new control and knowledge of light-induced superconductivity by modifying simulation parameters like pulse shape, field intensity, and lattice geometry.

To conclude

Quantinuum launches Helios, the most accurate quantum computer, demonstrating superconducting simulation breakthrough.

Overview and Importance of Quantinuum Helios Quantum Computer

Quantinuum introduced Helios, their next-generation quantum computing technology, on November 5, 2025. It is touted as the world's most powerful and accurate general-purpose commercial quantum computer.

Helios improves on H2, which has quantum advantage. Quantum Helios enhances quantum advantage by more than doubling qubits and surpassing H2's industry-leading fidelity.

Commercial Access: Quantinuum's on-premises and cloud services make Helios available to all clients. As the world's first enterprise-grade quantum computer, it demonstrated its commitment to commercial adoption during a two-month early access program with SoftBank Corp. and JPMorgan Chase.

Quantinuum tests system performance via Random Circuit Sampling (RCS). The same computation took Helios about the power of a data centre rack, but a classical supercomputer would need the power of all the stars in the cosmos to execute it in the same time, according to RCS results. Classical simulation's difficulty emphasises the machine's power.

Architectural and Technical Details

Trapped ion technology, which uses single atomic ions (qubits) frozen to a fraction of a degree above absolute zero, is the cornerstone of Helios.

Fidelity and Hardware

Quantum Helios features 98 fully connected physical qubits (PQ). Because of the QCCD (Quantum Charged Coupled Device) design's all-to-all connectivity, any qubit can get entangled with any other qubit, allowing computations that are not possible with “fixed qubit” designs like superconducting systems.

Most Reliable: Quantinuum Quantinuum emphasises Helios's unmatched computational fidelity. Its key features:

Single-qubit gates have 99.9975% fidelity.

Two-qubit gates provide 99.921% fidelity for every pair of qubits. Qubit Material Change: Qubits were shifted from ytterbium to barium by Quantinuum. This transition is crucial because visible spectrum lasers can handle barium and are cheaper, more reliable, and more scalable than ultraviolet lasers for ytterbium. Barium also naturally detects and eliminates atomic leakage, improving processing performance.

Architectural Innovations: Small currents in the Quantinuum Helios ion trap create electromagnetic fields that hold atomic ions. The development of a unique qubit “junction” (like a traffic intersection) improves routing, dependability, and QCCD design scalability for future systems. The QPU has specialised memory (ring storage), cache, and computational zones like a classical architecture. This allows sorting while cooling, speeding up the CPU and reducing errors.

Software and Programmability

Real-Time Engine: A new software stack featuring a real-time engine was launched by Quantinuum Helios. Thus, dynamic quantum programming can grow from static, pre-planned circuits and react quickly to measurement data. First quantum computer to combine classical and quantum processes accelerated by GPUs in one program.

Guppy Language is a Python-based quantum programming language that enables the creation of hitherto unimaginable dynamic circuits. Guppy's real-time engine allows quantum measurements to drive arbitrary control flow. Loops and dynamic qubit allocation are essential to fault-tolerant computing.

Integration: Quantinuum Helios seamlessly integrates classical and quantum computing with NVIDIA CUDA-Q and QIR.

Logical Qubits and Fault Tolerance

Quantinuum claims to be the only company to demonstrate a worldwide fault-tolerant gate set with the finest logical fidelities and most codes.

Logical Qubits (LQ) displayed: Quantinuum Helios' 98 physical qubits enabled several logical qubit achievements:

94 Logical Qubits (error detected): totally entangled in one of the greatest GHZ states, performing better than physically.

50 logical qubits (error detected): Outperformed encoded quantum magnetism simulations. Just a few years ago, achieving a 2:1 physical-to-logical ratio with 48 Logical Qubits (error corrected) was unthinkable. Code concatenation achieved this high encoding rate.

NVIDIA Grace Hopper GPUs will enable real-time decoding in Quantinuum systems starting with Helios. Dynamic error correction during calculations is possible without lowering logical clock rate.

Quantum Advantage Experiment: Superconductivity Simulation

Quantinuum Helios advanced room-temperature superconductivity by running the largest simulation on a real-world quantum computer.

The Superconductivity Challenge

Historical Discovery: A student of Heike Kamerlingh Onnes discovered superconductivity in 1911 by cooling a mercury wire to 3.6 degrees above absolute zero, which eliminated its electrical resistivity. Holy Grail: Extreme cold or high pressure are still required for all known superconductors. A material that superconducts at ambient temperature might revolutionise the world with low-cost MRI machines and almost lossless power networks.

Light-Induced Superconductivity: A possible room-temperature superconductor search method. Max Planck Institute researchers used light to superconduct a material for a few picoseconds at room temperature. Understanding the microscopic mechanics behind this effect is crucial.

The non-equilibrium Fermi-Hubbard model, which describes electron interaction and flow in a crystal, is used by physicists to study this phenomenon. Researchers measure “pairing correlations” to detect “cooper pairs”—electrons pairing up—a key sign of superconductivity in these simulations.

Helios' Revolutionary Simulation

Before Helios, light-induced superconductivity was difficult to analyse since typical supercomputers could only process small Fermi-Hubbard models. Analogue quantum systems could only observe “average” numbers, hiding tiny details.

Simulation Scale: Helios is one of the first systems to process the non-equilibrium Fermi-Hubbard model to previously unreachable levels. Quantinuum Helios successfully modelled the dynamics of a 6x6 lattice, a massive system with 272 dimensions, using up to 90 qubits (72 system and 18 ancilla).

“Qubit-Based Laboratory”: Helios' lab can handle complex quantum mechanical events better than computers. It offers substantial simulation benefits:

Arbitrarily state preparation prepares states far from equilibrium.

A very long dynamical simulation that shows how entanglement spreads. Flexibly measure any observable, including key “off-diagonal” observables that suggest Cooper pair production but are hard for analogue simulators to detect. Finding: The researchers quantified non-zero superconducting pairing correlations, or “eta” pairing correlations, across three Fermi-Hubbard model regimes for the first time on any quantum computing platform.

Impact: By altering all simulation parameters (pulse shape, field strength, and lattice geometry), Quantinuum Helios lets researchers study conditions that analogue simulators and actual materials cannot. This capacity aims to replace trial-and-error with automated design and testing to solve the room-temperature superconductor challenge. Collaboration, Applications, and Commercialisation Quantinuum Helios can boost commercial quantum applications in several domains.

Important Business Use Cases and Collaborations

Launch clients and partners include Amgen (biologicals using hybrid quantum-machine learning), BMW Group (fuel cell catalyst materials research), JPMorgan Chase (advanced financial analytics), and SoftBank Corp. AI image recognition is another BlueQubit capability. Strategic Alliance with Singapore: Quantinuum partnered with Singapore's NQO and NQCH. Singapore will host Quantinuum Helios, the first non-US nation to do so. Researchers can access the cloud immediately, but installation is expected in 2026.

Quantinuum is opening an R&D and Operations Centre in Singapore to develop classical-quantum applications.

Advanced materials and chemistry, combinatorial optimisation, financial modelling and optimisation, drug discovery, bioinformatics, and computational biology are the collaboration's focus.

The Quantum-Integrated Discovery Orchestrator (QIDO Platform) was launched in August 2025 by QSimulate and Mitsui & Co., Ltd.

QIDO uses high-precision chemical reaction modelling to speed up and lower the cost of drug and material development.

Hybrid quantum-classical processes are simplified by integrating Quantinuum's quantum chemistry software (“InQuanto”), which links with hardware and gives up to 10 times higher precision than open-source software, with QSimulate's classical software (“QSP Reaction”).

Industry testers included JSR, Panasonic, and Chugai Pharmaceutical. Helios is intended to augment GenAI models with quantum-generated data, extending AI's potential in quantum chemistry and material design. Quantinuum and NVIDIA are combining the GB200 with Helios to speed up GenQAI applications.

Idea Structure: Uncomfortable Examples

Quantum researchers developed “queasy instances” to rigorously map quantum advantage.

Changing Focus: Worst-case analysis traditionally classifies problem severity. Instead of categorising issue classes like SAT, this new technique emphasises on “pockets” of challenging cases where quantum computers excel—“queasy instances”—instead.

Definition: Kolmogorov complexity is used to build the idea based on the length of the smallest program that makes a bitstring to determine its “regularity”. This led to instance complexity.

Simple Definition: The team defined polynomial-time quantum instance complexity. The instance is called “queasy” if the smallest quantum program description needed to solve it efficiently is much shorter than the shortest efficient classical program description. These conditions “make classical computers ‘queasy,’ while quantum ones solve them efficiently”.

Important Results:

The researchers showed that uncomfortable SAT situations are infinite. This shows that quantum advantage is thought to exist in certain “islands of queasiness” rather than across SAT.

Algorithmic Utility: A compact quantum program can answer an exponentially large number of situations, not just one. The size of this group exponentially increases “queasiness”.