While Bitcoin Devs Debate Next Moves, IonQ Unveils Superion 256 Quantum Computer

In brief

• IonQ is taking orders for Superion 256, with customer deliveries scheduled for 2027.
• The company says electronics built into its chips will help it manufacture more systems at lower costs.
• Its first chips and prototypes mark progress, but IonQ has not disclosed results demonstrating a complete 256-qubit computer’s performance.

Publicly traded tech company IonQ unveiled its Superion 256 quantum computer Tuesday, opening orders for a system it expects to deliver in 2027 as it works to expand production.

The Maryland-based company builds quantum computers and offers access through cloud services. It also develops quantum networking, sensing, and security technology.

“Superion is the result of two strategic acquisitions coming together to deliver this historic milestone,” IonQ Chairman and CEO Niccolo de Masi said in a statement. “Oxford Ionics enabled IonQ to control natural, trapped-ion qubits using standard electronics, and SkyWater unlocked the ability to manufacture at semiconductor costs and scale.”

IonQ says its chipmaking subsidiary, SkyWater, has fabricated the first 256-qubit processors, and teams have trapped the first ions in prototypes at several U.S. facilities. A qubit is a quantum computer’s basic unit of information.