GoKawiil
Tech News
The US Commerce Department is distributing $300 million in CHIPS Act funding equally among D-Wave Quantum, Rigetti Computing, and Quantinuum, giving each $100 million while also acquiring minority ownership stakes in the companies. The money targets hardware manufacturing challenges like cryogenics, semiconductor fabrication, ion traps, and photonics rather than quantum software development.
Quantinuum has introduced Helios, a 98-qubit trapped-ion quantum computer that uses a four-way junction to shuttle ions between memory and processing zones, alongside new control software called Helios runtime that schedules ion movement and laser operations. It surpasses the company's earlier machines, which had 32 qubits in 2023 and 56 qubits in 2025, making it the largest trapped-ion system built so far.
Quantinuum has unveiled Helios, a trapped-ion quantum computer using 98 qubits, the largest such system built to date. The machine relies on a new four-way X junction hardware design paired with Helios runtime software, allowing it to move and process data across multiple paths simultaneously rather than in a single line, as earlier machines required.