QuEra's Quantum 101: Room-Temperature Neutral Atoms and a 2028 Fault-Tolerant Machine
Key points
Key takeaways from theCUBE + NYSE Wired interview with QuEra Computing CCO Yuval Boger (September 2026):
Neutral atoms, no cryogenics. QuEra builds its quantum computers from neutral rubidium-87 atoms, individual atoms trapped and controlled with miniature laser beams. The systems run at room temperature — no cryogenic cooling and no megawatt power bills —and each machine is roughly the size of two ping-pong tables.
Aquila on AWS for nearly four years. QuEra’s cloud quantum system Aquila has been generally available on Amazon Web Services, running at about 99% uptime and meeting AWS service-level agreements. Customers include BMW, JP Morgan, research universities and national labs, and dozens of papers have been published in optimisation, machine learning and new scientific results.
Libra: fault-tolerant computing by 2028. QuEra plans to bring its first fully fault-tolerant quantum computer, Libra, online on AWS in 2028, initially restricted to a select group of handpicked customers rather than made generally available.
Today’s machines are “beautiful toys”. Boger argues current quantum computers are beautiful, expensive, sophisticated toys — scientific instruments that prepare us for real quantum work: virtually nothing can be done on them that a classical supercomputer cannot do. First commercially valuable workloads will be quantum-native: molecular simulation for better EV batteries, corrosion-resistant coatings, new solar cells, drugs, and compound behaviour as training input for AI.
Two routes to market: cloud and on-premise. QuEra offers metered, credit-card-accessible cloud access via AWS,and sells installed on-premise systems, including a $42 million system sold to Japan’s National Institute of Standards. It just announced a strategic HPE partnership to intertwine quantum with classical HPC systems in US national labs.
Well capitalised, but raising again soon. With over $300 million raised from Nvidia, Google, SoftBank Vision Fund, Valor and others, plus DARPA Quantum Benchmarking Initiative (phases A and B, hoping for phase C)and UK and Japanese government support, QuEra says it is likely to raise additional capital in the not too distant future, because quantum hardware is expensive, lasers are expensive,and half of its around 200 employees hold PhDs.
Roadmap to launch. Headquartered in Boston,with teams in New Mexico, Maryland, Japan,the UK,and a newly opened Zurich office, QuEra is building half a dozen systems and working closely with Nvidia, HPE, AWS and Anthropic heading into the 2028 Libra launch.
Read more: theCUBE + NYSE Wired
