About QuEra and Acceleration
QuEra published a new roadmap on June 25, 2026. You can read about it on their site.
Key takeaway — QuEra is accelerating.
Acceleration is an important trait of the quantum sector. It is driven by the forces of commercialization, engineering, AI, and competition. These factors have allowed companies to build NISQ era computers (ie building a quantum computer in order to learn how to build a quantum computer), and position them for the fault tolerant era on the horizon.
QuEra has a major backer in Google, who has funded its venture rounds. Google has also decided to invest in neutral atoms, in addition to superconducting, via a partnership with University of Colorado at Boulder, NIST, and QuEra.
Their roadmap features two important milestones. First, in 2028 they intend to deliver a 256 logical qubit system with 99.9999% logical error rate. Second, in 2029, they intend to deliver a 1000+ logical qubit system with 99.999999% logical error rate. These are both big numbers.
There are some experts who believe that useful quantum computers are 10 years away. 1000+ logical qubits is very compelling, and is enough to achieve Commercial Q-Day, but not quite enough to achieve Cryptographic Q-Day. While 2029 is about 3 years away, keep in mind that additional acceleration is likely to occur.
As a side note, the US government’s Genesis mission to build a scientifically meaningful fault tolerant quantum computer by 2028 with 100s of logical qubits is being funded. 2028 is only two years away. My sense is that the government and industry have a high degree of confidence that this date can be achieved.
Here’s our current roadmap tracker:
LQ = Logical Qubits. PQ = Physical Qubits.
| Vendor | Technology | 2026 | 2027 | 2028 | 2029 | 2030 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| IonQ | Trapped Ion | 100 PQ | 800 LQ | 1600 LQ | 8000 LQ | 80000 LQ |
| QuEra | Neutral Atoms | 100 LQ | 100 LQ | 256 LQ | 1000 LQ | — |
| IQM | Superconducting | — | 36 LQ | 180 LQ | — | 720 LQ |
| PsiQuantum | Photonic | — | — | 100 LQ | 1000 LQ | — |
| Quantinuum | Trapped Ion | 50 LQ | 100 LQ | 100 LQ | “100s of LQ” | 1000s of LQ |
| Infleqtion | Neutral Atoms | 30 LQ | — | 100 LQ | — | 1000 LQ |
| Superconducting | 1 LQ | 10 LQ | 20 LQ | “Dozens of LQ” | 100+ LQ | |
| Xanadu | Photonic | — | — | — | 500 LQ | 500 LQ |
| IBM | Superconducting | 120 PQ | — | — | 200 LQ | — |
| Pasqal | Neutral Atoms | 2 LQ | 20 LQ | — | 200 LQ | — |
| Rigetti | Superconducting | 150 PQ | 1000 PQ | — | — | — |
| D-Wave | Superconducting | — | — | — | — | 10 LQ |
| Neutral Atoms | — | — | — | — | — | |
| Microsoft | Topological | — | — | — | — | — |
| Photonic | Photonic | — | — | — | — | — |