ZuriQ raises $25.5M to scale its 2D trapped-ion quantum chips
What's the deal? ZuriQDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, a Swiss quantum computing company spun out of ETH Zürich, has raised $25.5 million in seed funding to scale its trapped-ion quantum processors. QuantonationDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → led the round, with participation from Forward.oneDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, ExtantiaDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, Firgun VenturesDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, and all previous investors.
What's the endgame? The company is building processors that are natively two-dimensional, a break from the one-dimensional ion chains most trapped-ion machines rely on. Using Penning micro-traps and a static magnetic field, ZuriQ lets ions move freely in any direction without the junctions that constrain conventional designs.
The advantage is geometry. "Hold ions in a line and the count grows one at a time; hold them in two dimensions, and it grows with the area of the chip," said Professor Jonathan Home of ETH Zürich, a scientific adviser to ZuriQ. On a standard chip, he said, that is the difference between tens of ions and many thousands.
Why now? ZuriQ has proven its architecture with a working demonstrator built in 18 months: a 3×3 array of nine individually controlled ions, which it says is the largest two-dimensional array of its kind to date. The chips were fabricated with manufacturing partner InfineonDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, showing the design works with established industry processes.
The round builds on a $4.2 million pre-seed raised in 2025. New capital will fund hiring, research, and chip fabrication, with the goal of putting hundreds of qubits on a chip.
The team has grown from four people to 18 since its last raise, drawing talent from IonQ, Xanadu, and HamamatsuDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →.
The signal: The funding lands as investors weigh which quantum architectures can actually scale. "A common misconception is that the quantum race is already decided, but that is far from reality," said Christophe JurczakDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, founding partner at Quantonation, pointing to physics breakthroughs still to come.
Image credit: National Institute of Standards and Technology
