JPMorgan Chase, Argonne National Laboratory and Quantinuum Show Theoretical Quantum Speedup with the Quantum Approximate Optimization Algorithm
New York, New York, Broomfield, Colorado, Lemont, Illinois, May 29th, 2024 — In a new paper in Science Advances on May 29, researchers at JPMorgan Chase, the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory and Quantinuum have demonstrated clear evidence of a quantum algorithmic speedup for the quantum approximate optimization algorithm (QAOA).
This algorithm has been studied extensively and has been implemented on many quantum computers. It has potential applications in fields such as logistics, telecommunications, financial modeling, and materials science.
“This work is a significant step towards reaching quantum advantage, laying the foundation for future impact in production,” says Marco Pistoia, Head of Global Technology Applied Research at JPMorgan Chase.
The team examined whether a quantum algorithm with low implementation costs could provide a quantum speedup over the best-known classical methods. QAOA was applied to the Low Autocorrelation Binary Sequences (LABS) problem, which has significance in understanding the behavior of physical systems, signal processing and cryptography. The study showed that if the algorithm was asked to tackle increasingly larger problems, the time it would take to solve them would grow at a slower rate than that of a classical solver.
To explore the quantum algorithm’s performance in an ideal noiseless setting, JPMorgan Chase and Argonne jointly developed a simulator to evaluate the algorithm’s performance at scale. It was built on the Polaris supercomputer, accessed through the Argonne Leadership Computing Facility (ALCF), a DOE Office of Science user facility. The ALCF is supported by DOE’s Advanced Scientific Computing Research program.
“The large-scale quantum circuit simulations efficiently utilized the DOE petascale supercomputer Polaris located at the ALCF. These results show how high-performance computing can complement and advance the field of quantum information science,” says Yuri Alexeev, a computational scientist at Argonne.
To take the first step toward practical realization of the speedup in the algorithm, the researchers demonstrated a small-scale implementation on Quantinuum’s System Model H1 and H2 trapped-ion quantum computers. Using algorithm-specific error detection, the team reduced the impact of errors on algorithmic performance by up to 65%.
“Our long-standing partnership with JPMorgan Chase led to this meaningful and noteworthy three-way research experiment that also brought in Argonne National Lab. The results could not have been achieved without the unprecedented and world leading quality of our H-Series Quantum Computer, which provides a flexible device for executing error-correcting and error-detecting experiments on top of gate fidelities that are years ahead of other quantum computers,” says Ilyas Khan, Founder and Chief Product Officer of Quantinuum.
About JPMorgan Chase
JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) is a leading financial services firm based in the United States of America (“U.S.”), with operations worldwide. JPMorgan Chase had $4.1 trillion in assets and $337 billion in stockholders’ equity as of March 31, 2024. With over 63,000 technologists globally and an annual tech spend of $17 billion, JPMorgan Chase is dedicated to improving the design, analytics, development, coding, testing and application programming that goes into creating high quality software and new products. Under the J.P. Morgan and Chase brands, the Firm serves millions of customers in the U.S., and many of the world’s most prominent corporate, institutional and government clients globally. Visit http://www.jpmorganchase.com/tech for more information.
About Argonne National Laboratory
Argonne National Laboratory seeks solutions to pressing national problems in science and technology by conducting leading-edge basic and applied research in virtually every scientific discipline. Argonne is managed by UChicago Argonne, LLC for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science.
About Quantinuum
Quantinuum, the world’s largest integrated quantum company, pioneers powerful quantum computers and advanced software solutions. Quantinuum’s technology drives breakthroughs in materials discovery, cybersecurity, and next-gen quantum AI. With almost 500 employees, including 370+ scientists and engineers, Quantinuum leads the quantum computing revolution across continents.
Quantinuum recently closed an equity fundraise anchored by JPMorgan Chase with additional participation from Mitsui & CO., Amgen and Honeywell, which remains the company’s majority shareholder, bringing the total capital raised by Quantinuum since inception to approximately $625 million.
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About Quantinuum
Quantinuum, the world’s largest integrated quantum company, pioneers powerful quantum computers and advanced software solutions. Quantinuum’s technology drives breakthroughs in materials discovery, cybersecurity, and next-gen quantum AI. With over 500 employees, including 370+ scientists and engineers, Quantinuum leads the quantum computing revolution across continents.
Broomfield, CO, April 3rd, 2025 — Quantinuum, the industry leader in quantum computing with the world’s most powerful quantum computer, has been selected by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), a research and development agency of the United States Department of Defense, to participate in the first stage of the agency’s Quantum Benchmarking Initiative (QBI).
QBI aims to assess the feasibility of building an industrially useful quantum computer by 2033. Successful QBI performers will advance through stages A, B, and C; Stage A requires performers to describe their utility-scale quantum computer with a path to near-term realization, where utility-scale means the computational value exceeds costs.
As validated in a recent independent benchmarking study by a group of institutions at the forefront of quantum computing research, Quantinuum’s quantum systems are the highest performing in the industry. Last year, Quantinuum published its development roadmap, outlining a path to a universal, fully-fault tolerant quantum computer by 2029. Beyond this public roadmap, Quantinuum plans to scale to even larger machines in the early part of the 2030s, aligning with the objectives of QBI.
“We are honored to collaborate with DARPA and look forward to working closely with their test and evaluation team as they assess our roadmap and technological approach,” said Dr. Rajeeb Hazra, President and CEO of Quantinuum. “With our roadmap firmly on track, we are confident in our ability to deliver on DARPA’s objectives for QBI.”
Microsoft and NVIDIA will take part in Quantinuum’s Stage A effort, building on their long-standing collaborations with Quantinuum in advancing commercially scalable quantum computing.
About Quantinuum
Quantinuum is the world leader in quantum computing. The company’s quantum systems deliver the highest performance across all industry benchmarks. Quantinuum’s over 550 employees, including 370+ scientists and engineers, across the US, UK, Germany, and Japan, are driving the quantum computing revolution.
Broomfield, CO, April 2nd, 2025 — Quantinuum, the industry leader in quantum computing with the world’s highest performing quantum computer, today announced that Quantum Origin, the company’s software Quantum Random Number Generator (QRNG), has received National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) validation. Quantum Origin is the first software QRNG to achieve this validation, establishing it as a crucial tool for federal agencies and agency partners in their mandated migration to post-quantum cryptography (PQC) under National Security Memorandum 10. This achievement will help strengthen cybersecurity in the age of PQC.
Quantum Origin generates mathematically proven randomness — a capability unmatched by hardware-based QRNGs or traditional pseudo-random number generators. Unlike hardware solutions that require specialized equipment and can be affected by environmental factors, Quantum Origin delivers consistent, proven randomness through flexible software deployment. Proven quantum randomness is an essential foundation for comprehensive quantum security strategy alongside PQC.
"The evolving threat landscape demands a new era of cybersecurity solutions for governments, enterprises, and critical infrastructure," said Dr. Rajeeb Hazra, President and CEO of Quantinuum. "Quantinuum is at the forefront of this transformation, driving innovation in quantum cybersecurity. Our recent certified randomness demonstration with JPMorganChase, and our NIST-validated Quantum Origin platform are just two examples of how we are deepening our portfolio to meet this critical need."
Quantum Origin is delivered entirely as self-contained software, making it adaptable to diverse environments from cloud solutions to highly sensitive systems. It can be deployed with zero network connectivity, enabling protection for air-gapped networks and confidential environments where traditional hardware-based QRNGs cannot operate effectively. It provides quantum-enhanced security without impacting the size, weight, and power (SWaP) requirements of existing systems, a critical consideration for resource-constrained deployments.
U.S. Made using Quantinuum's quantum computers based in Colorado, Quantum Origin helps mitigate supply chain risks associated with foreign-sourced hardware components. It is designed to integrate seamlessly with existing NIST-approved cryptographic systems without requiring recertification. With this NIST validation, organizations can now accelerate their adoption of quantum-enhanced security within existing compliance frameworks.
Visit https://www.quantinuum.com/quantum-origin to learn how Quantum Origin can strengthen federal and enterprise cryptographic systems today.
About Quantinuum
Quantinuum is the world leader in quantum computing. The company’s quantum systems deliver the highest performance across all industry benchmarks. Quantinuum’s over 550 employees, including 370+ scientists and engineers, across the US, UK, Germany, and Japan, are driving the quantum computing revolution.