Huayi Quantum Raises Over 100 Million Yuan in Angel Round, Focused on Ion-Trap Quantum Computing

Recently, Huayi Borui (Beijing) Quantum Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Huayi Quantum") announced the completion of an angel funding round exceeding RMB 100 million. The round was led by Gaorong Ventures, with follow-on investments from AURITE Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., Sequoia Capital China, MiraclePlus, and Turing Venture Capital. The proceeds will be primarily used for the R&D and manufacturing of 100- to 200-qubit trapped-ion quantum computers and the development of a corresponding quantum computing cloud platform.

Led by Internationally Renowned Quantum Information Expert, Building Advanced Trapped-Ion Quantum Computer Systems

Founded in January 2022, Huayi Quantum is the first domestic high-tech enterprise focused on the trapped-ion quantum computing technology route. Its founding team hails from the Tsinghua University Quantum Information Center, with founder and chief scientist Professor Luming Duan serving as executive director of the center.

Professor Duan is an internationally renowned quantum information expert and formerly held the Fermi Chair Professorship at the University of Michigan. At the invitation of Turing Award laureate Andrew Chi-Chih Yao, he returned to China full-time in 2018 as a basic science chair professor and Yao-class chair professor at Tsinghua University. He proposed pioneering directions including the DLCZ quantum repeater scheme and a quantum computing scalability scheme, laying groundwork for research into long-distance quantum communication and large-scale trapped-ion quantum computing. The architecture of IONQ, the first publicly listed quantum computing company in the US, was based on Professor Duan's trapped-ion quantum computing scalability proposal. At Tsinghua, the research team he leads has repeatedly set world records in quantum information, achieving for the first time the stable trapping of 202 ion qubits and completing multiple related technical breakthroughs, establishing the technical foundation for realizing large-scale trapped-ion quantum computers.

Huayi Quantum is led by CEO Dr. Lin Yao, formerly an associate researcher at the Institute for Interdisciplinary Information Sciences, Tsinghua University. He worked for many years at Brookhaven National Laboratory and related commercial companies in the US, and participated in multiple large-scale scientific engineering projects.

Dr. Yao noted that building stable, reliable quantum computers is a highly challenging scientific and engineering problem with formidable technical barriers. The core members of Huayi Quantum's technical team are PhDs and postdocs from Tsinghua University's relevant research directions, giving them a solid technical foundation.

The company's main challenge is translating its advanced technical reserves into modular, standardized, and scalable quantum computers, and continuously upgrading them to consistently provide state-of-the-art trapped-ion quantum computing systems to meet commercial and research needs. Beyond complete quantum computer systems, Huayi Quantum will also provide access to a quantum cloud platform, enabling users to conveniently obtain quantum computing power.

Accelerating the Deployment of Quantum Computing in More Application Scenarios

Currently, the expansion of quantum computing applications is primarily constrained by quantum computer hardware capabilities. Once quantum computers achieving more than 100 qubits with both high fidelity and strong connectivity are realized, they are expected to significantly accelerate heuristic algorithm research in fields such as new energy materials, chemicals, nuclear energy, biopharmaceuticals, operations and logistics optimization, and financial engineering — producing notable application speedups.

In terms of specific technology route selection, compared to other qubit implementation methods, the trapped-ion approach offers advantages including large quantum volume, strong scalability, convenient parallel operations, and relatively low costs for scaling up. It is considered one of the most promising routes for achieving large-scale quantum computing at present.

Relying on its existing technical reserves, Huayi Quantum's technical team will in the near term achieve commercial quantum computer hardware at the scale of more than 100 qubits. Leveraging the team's strengths in advanced architecture design, it will continue iterating over the coming years, gradually increasing qubit counts to the thousands and tens of thousands.

Following the completion of its first funding round, the company will gather more outstanding scientists and engineers to accelerate product manufacturing and iteration, helping quantum computing achieve deployment in more application scenarios and empowering fields including new drug R&D, scientific research, industrial production, big data, and finance.