Q-CTRL powering the path to quantum advantage

The era of quantum advantage - when quantum technologies are delivering real value beyond the capabilities of existing alternatives - is no longer theoretical, it’s unfolding now. And Q-CTRL is at the forefront of this shift. 

IBM’s recent blog, which highlights the view that the industry is entering the “Quantum Advantage Era” marks a pivotal moment for the field. It’s a recognition that real value is emerging from quantum computing today, not in the distant future. For Q-CTRL, this isn’t a new direction. It’s the result of years of focused work building the AI-powered infrastructure software that makes quantum technology useful. This year alone, we’ve made tangible contributions to the global progress toward quantum advantage, demonstrating true commercial quantum advantage in navigation, achieving new quantum computing performance records, partnering with industry to solve real-world computational problems, and setting milestones in quantum-system fidelity and scale – all through software. 

The Boston Consulting Group says 90% of value capture will go to early adopters of quantum computing. Our efforts empower businesses to realize value today through software-led innovation, so they can be ideally positioned ahead of the achievement of practical quantum advantage and the rollout of large-scale systems. Q-CTRL is the key to accelerating commercial impact by unlocking new industry applications and boosting the quality of results derived from today’s machines, turning early technical demonstrations into real business insight.

Unlocking quantum computing’s potential for optimization

Optimization problems are some of the most promising near-term applications for quantum computing. From logistics and finance to biochemistry, these problems underpin real operational challenges that can benefit from quantum-enhanced solutions. 

Last year, we utilized IBM Quantum hardware to successfully (ie, correctly - not “almost”) solve optimization problems that were 4x larger than those previously attempted on quantum devices. This capability is now available to all IBM Premium customers through our Optimization Solver Qiskit function. By integrating our world-leading AI-driven error suppression with easy-to-use orchestration of classical and quantum resources, we achieved computational results that outperformed both leading dedicated classical solvers and, for the first time, quantum annealers.

Partnering with industry for real-world impact

In our partnership with Network Rail in the UK, we attacked a new class of problems, directly leveraging our Performance Management Qiskit Function to calculate train schedules and routes using real-world data, one of the most complex logistical problems in the transportation sector. Together, we modelled real network congestion and capacity constraints, running quantum optimization algorithms to improve the timetabling of routes through some of Britain’s busiest stations.

What’s unique about this work is its scale and real-world impact. This collaborative demonstration was the largest constrained optimization problem ever successfully run on quantum hardware. And it showed that quantum computing could be directly relevant to today’s operational challenges, not just future aspirations.

Similarly, last year, we also tackled a constrained supply-chain optimization challenge –minimizing transportation costs and carbon emissions – across Airbus and BMW’s manufacturing network using IBM and IonQ hardware. Again, we focused on solving key components of real problems, not simplifications designed to make the problems easier for quantum computers, marking a significant step toward practical quantum-enhanced logistics solutions. 

These recent collaborations with Network Rail, the Department for Transport UK, and Airbus/BMW demonstrate how quantum computing can support strategic logistics planning, increasing efficiency and reducing downstream delays, using today’s machines. And in these efforts, we extrapolated to identify the opportunity to achieve quantum advantage with machines being built over just the next few years.

Most importantly, we showed how working to apply our enabling software directly in collaboration with domain experts could reveal surprising opportunities to deliver quantum advantage without the need to access future fault-tolerant systems.

Pushing the boundaries of entanglement for QEC and applications

Beyond optimization, we’ve also set records in quantum hardware performance through innovations in efficient error reduction technologies. 

Specifically, we realized the world’s largest verifiable, maximally entangled state at 75 qubits. Why does this matter? Entanglement is a foundational resource in the operation of quantum computers. The ability to create large, high-fidelity entangled states is essential for unlocking more powerful quantum algorithms and advancing toward error-corrected fault-tolerant quantum systems. 

In this case, we achieved two record-setting demonstrations combining our existing performance-management tools with low-overhead error detection to enhance both entangled-state preparation and quantum logic operations over large distances (gate teleportation). 

Our lightweight error-detection protocol showed that we could actually make a quantum device more powerful using components of QEC without waiting for full fault-tolerant encoding. This is in contrast to nearly every other demonstration, where a machine’s utility decreases when using full QEC because it requires so many resources to operate. It’s a great demonstration of threading the needle between practical enhancement of real hardware and validation of techniques with theoretical relevance to future fault tolerance.

These achievements showcase how deep quantum-control expertise, broadly deployed through our software, could enable real system gains even on today’s noisy devices.

Accelerating the path toward practical quantum advantage

What unites these demonstrations is their impact right now: They move quantum from the domain of scientific exploration to useful deployment of a new computational tool for critical problems. 

From dramatically scaling optimization problems to achieving record-breaking entanglement, our work is built on rigorous benchmarking, deep industry collaboration, and an unwavering focus on delivering tangible customer outcomes. 

Achieving quantum advantage isn’t realized by hitting a single milestone. It’s a process of hypothesis, innovation, validation, and delivery. And that’s exactly where our AI-powered infrastructure software excels, propelling quantum systems emerging over just the next few years to outperform classical alternatives in speed, scale, and accuracy. 

We are proud to be recognized by IBM as a key contributor to this new era. Through our software, partnerships, and research, we'll continue to build the essential infrastructure that ensures quantum systems achieve dependable, high-performance results now and into the future.

Ready to achieve more with IBM Quantum? Get started with Fire Opal's Qiskit Functions today!