This Swiss Startup's Quantum Chip Breakthrough Could Rewrite the Rules of Computing

Jan de Vries · 2026-07-28

ZuriQ, a quantum computing startup based in Zurich, just announced a $25.5 million Seed round to scale its trapped-ion quantum processors. The company is building a utility-scale quantum computer with a native two-dimensional trap architecture, and this funding is a big bet that they're on the right track. The round was led by Quantonation, with participation from Forward.one, Extantia, Firgun Ventures, and all previous round investors. It follows the company's $4.2 million pre-Seed round in 2025. ### Why This Matters for Quantum Computing Most people think the quantum race is already decided, with big players like Google and IBM leading the pack. But Christophe Jurczak, Founding Partner at Quantonation, disagrees. "A common misconception is that the quantum race is already decided, but that is far from reality. ZuriQ is demonstrating that there remain significant and transformational physics breakthroughs still to be made in Quantum architectures." ZuriQ's approach is fundamentally different from what's come before. While most trapped-ion quantum computers are built on an architecture first proposed more than two decades ago, ZuriQ has taken a completely new route. ### The 2D Advantage: Geometry Over Gimmicks Here's the core insight: ZuriQ uses Penning micro-traps to apply a static magnetic field instead of the rapidly oscillating fields that most legacy architectures rely on. This allows ions to move freely in any direction without the complex junction structures that constrain reconfiguration in traditional designs. Professor Jonathan Home of ETH Zurich, a scientific adviser to ZuriQ, explains it simply: "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. On a standard chip, that's the difference between tens of ions and many thousands." ### From Lab to Reality in 18 Months ZuriQ has already built a working demonstrator, achieved in just 18 months. The demonstrator comprises a 3x3 array of nine individually controlled ions, which is the largest two-dimensional array of its kind demonstrated to date. The chips were fabricated with manufacturing partner Infineon. ### What's Next: Scaling Up With the architecture and manufacturing route established, ZuriQ is now focused on scale: rapidly increasing the number of ions on a chip to enable powerful, commercially useful machines. The founders -- Dr. Pavel Hrmo, Dr. Tobias Sägesser, and Dr. Shreyans Jain -- spun the company out of ETH Zurich in 2024. Dr. Pavel Hrmo, co-founder and CEO of ZuriQ, says: "The trapped-ion companies that started the race began with one-dimensional designs that were useful stepping-stones, but the real challenge is whether they can successfully pivot to two dimensions as they attempt to scale. We spent longer in the lab, and that time allowed us to build something fundamentally different." This is a company to watch. If they can deliver on their promise, they might just rewrite the rules of quantum computing.