| Modality | The qubit | Operating environment | Key hardware | Examples of listed makers |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Superconducting circuits | A circuit made nonlinear by Josephson junctions, such as a transmon | Millikelvin temperatures, about 10 mK, in a dilution refrigerator | Qubit chips, dilution refrigerators, coaxial wiring, microwave control and readout | IBM, Alphabet, Rigetti, IQM, Fujitsu, Amazon, D-Wave |
| Trapped ions | A charged atom held by electromagnetic fields a few microns above a chip | A vacuum chamber; IonQ says the qubits can run at room temperature | Ion-trap chips, ultra-low-noise lasers or on-chip electronic control, vacuum systems | IonQ, Quantinuum |
| Neutral atoms | An uncharged atom held in a laser optical tweezer | A vacuum chamber at room temperature, with no cryogenic cooling of the qubits (Pasqal) | Lasers that cool, trap and control arrays of atoms | Infleqtion, Pasqal |
| Photons | Light; Xanadu uses multi-photon GKP qubits | At or near room temperature, though detectors may need cooling (Xanadu) | Photonic chips, optical fiber and detectors | Xanadu, Quantum Computing Inc., NTT (with private OptQC) |
| Silicon spins | A spin in a silicon quantum dot, a transistor-like device | Millikelvin temperatures in a dilution refrigerator | Chips made on 300 mm CMOS lines, isotopically purified silicon-28 | Intel, Hitachi |
Why the modality changes the supply chain
Every quantum computer needs qubits that stay coherent and a way to control and read them, but the hardware differs sharply by modality. Superconducting and silicon-spin machines need millikelvin dilution refrigerators, cryogenic wiring and microwave readout like those in the interactive 3D model; trapped ions and neutral atoms rely on vacuum systems and lasers, and photonic machines on optical chips and fiber.
Speed and scale trade off, by the makers’ own accounts. Google says each gate-and-measurement cycle on its superconducting chips takes about a microsecond and that they scale more easily in circuit depth, while neutral atoms have reached arrays of about ten thousand qubits with cycle times measured in milliseconds. The table above compares the main approaches, drawing on the sources in the sections below.
Reference: Google: building superconducting and neutral atom quantum computers (Mar 24, 2026).
Superconducting circuits
Superconducting qubits are circuits on a chip, made nonlinear by Josephson junctions and run at millikelvin temperatures in dilution refrigerators; ETH Zurich designed its 50-qubit setup to run at 14 mK. IBM’s Nighthawk has 120 qubits and 218 tunable couplers, Google’s Willow 105 qubits and Rigetti’s chiplet-based Cepheus-1-108Q about 99.1% median two-qubit fidelity; IQM and Fujitsu, with RIKEN, build their own, and AWS’s Ocelot prototype uses cat qubits.
D-Wave also uses superconducting circuits, for annealing, a method aimed at optimization problems rather than gate-model computing. Its cloud annealers have more than 4,400 qubits, and it says its systems draw 12.5 kW, most of it for the refrigerators’ cryocoolers. The illustrated machine belongs to this family.
Reference: IBM: new quantum processors, software and algorithm breakthroughs (Nov 12, 2025).
Trapped ions
Quantinuum’s QCCD architecture uses electromagnetic fields to suspend ions a few microns above a chip, moves them between zones and controls their quantum state with ultra-low-noise lasers. Its 98-qubit Helios reached 99.921% two-qubit gate fidelity, and it expects Sol in 2027. IonQ describes trapped-ion qubits as ions suspended in vacuum and manipulated with lasers, and its Oxford Ionics unit uses electronic qubit control on microfabricated chips instead of lasers.
IonQ says trapped-ion systems can run at room temperature because the ions are confined in free space inside a vacuum chamber, although modest cryogenics can improve the vacuum. The supply chain therefore leans on lasers, trap chips and vacuum systems: in 2022 Edwards, part of Atlas Copco, took responsibility for the extreme-high-vacuum system of a trapped-ion computer in a UK consortium.
Reference: Quantinuum: IPO prospectus (Form 424B4, June 2026).
Neutral atoms
Pasqal’s merger prospectus describes the approach: uncharged atoms are laser-cooled and trapped in arrays of laser-generated optical tweezers inside a vacuum chamber, and further lasers entangle them. It says the technology runs at room temperature without cryogenic refrigeration of the qubits, and Pasqal had seven QPUs deployed and three more in production when it listed in August 2026.
Infleqtion, listed on the NYSE since February 2026, builds Sqale neutral-atom computers and targets 30 logical qubits in 2026, and Google added a neutral-atom hardware team in Boulder in March 2026 beside its superconducting program. QuEra and Atom Computing are private. For suppliers, the relevant parts are lasers, optics and vacuum cells, which stock3d treats as context rather than parts of the illustrated machine.
Reference: Bleichroeder Acquisition Corp. II and Pasqal: proxy statement and prospectus (Aug 5, 2026).
Photons
Xanadu’s Aurora, announced in January 2025, links four interconnected racks holding 35 photonic chips with 13 kilometers of optical fiber, operating at room temperature. Xanadu builds its architecture on multi-photon GKP qubits and names silicon nitride and thin-film lithium niobate among its materials, but its 20-F cautions that detectors and some other subsystems may need temperature control or other cooling.
Quantum Computing Inc. sells Dirac-3, a room-temperature photonic machine for optimization rather than a gate-model computer, and NTT plans to invest in OptQC, a Tokyo start-up whose first optical machine runs at AIST, toward a million-qubit-class system by fiscal 2030. PsiQuantum is private and in the final phase of DARPA’s US2QC program.
Reference: Xanadu Quantum Technologies: 2025 Form 20-F.
Silicon spins and topological qubits
Silicon spin qubits are transistor-like devices, and like superconducting chips they need millikelvin temperatures in dilution refrigerators. Intel made its 12-qubit Tunnel Falls on 300 mm wafers with EUV lithography on a CMOS logic line, and Hitachi will design 100-qubit chips with Intel on Intel 18A-based processes under a NEDO project running to 2029. Private Quobly’s chips come from STMicroelectronics’ 300 mm fab on Soitec silicon-28 wafers.
Microsoft’s Majorana 1, unveiled in February 2025, carries eight topological qubits on an indium arsenide and aluminum materials stack that Microsoft designed and fabricated; it is a research device, and Microsoft sells no quantum computer. Both approaches remain at the research or prototype stage in our sources.
Reference: Intel: quantum computing chip to advance research (June 15, 2023).
What it means for company research
A supplier’s exposure depends on the modality. Makers of dilution refrigerators, coaxial wiring and cryogenic amplifiers serve superconducting and spin machines; laser, optics and vacuum makers serve ions and atoms; and photonic foundries serve photonic designs. Makers can also widen their programs: Google now runs superconducting and neutral-atom hardware teams, and D-Wave expanded its superconducting gate-model work by acquiring Quantum Circuits.
The makers group lists companies in every modality, while the interactive 3D model illustrates a superconducting machine only. Check which modality a company’s evidence describes before connecting it to a part.