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Xanadu builds photonic quantum computers, IonQ uses trapped ions, and Rigetti builds superconducting circuits. Those choices shape how each company controls its qubits, connects processors, and plans to scale. For investors and other readers comparing the businesses, the key distinction is not a simple qubit-count race: current systems, performance figures, cloud access, and roadmaps describe different kinds of evidence.
How the three approaches differ
A quantum computer encodes and manipulates information in qubits. The physical medium matters because it affects the hardware and operating conditions required to control those qubits. It does not, by itself, establish which company will deliver the most useful or commercially successful systems.
| Company | Qubit medium | Control and architecture | What the company describes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Xanadu | Photons, or particles of light | Photonic components and a modular, networked direction | Xanadu’s 2026 F-1 describes optical-fiber connections between photonic racks in Aurora and identifies Borealis as a photonic demonstration system. |
| IonQ | Trapped ions: individual atoms held in place | Lasers prepare and measure the atoms; the system also requires vacuum and optical-control infrastructure | IonQ promotes all-to-all connectivity and high fidelity as advantages of its approach. |
| Rigetti | Superconducting circuits | Superconducting processors, including a modular chiplet design | Rigetti’s 2026 filing describes its chiplet approach and reports results for its Cepheus systems. |
The descriptions in the table are company-reported. A design feature such as modularity or all-to-all connectivity is not a guarantee of an advantage on every workload.
What each company has demonstrated or announced
Xanadu: photonic systems and a software framework
Xanadu’s 2026 F-1 describes Borealis as a 216-qubit photonic system used in a 2022 computational-advantage demonstration. The filing says Xanadu estimated that Fugaku, a classical supercomputer, would have taken approximately seven million years to perform the computation Borealis completed in two minutes. That is the company’s estimate for that specific computation—not a general speed advantage for useful applications.
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The filing also identifies Aurora as a demonstration of real-time error detection and optical-fiber interconnection between photonic racks. Xanadu pairs its hardware strategy with PennyLane, which it describes as open-source, web-accessible quantum programming software that supports multiple hardware modalities and cloud platforms.
Xanadu’s filing includes long-term physical- and logical-qubit targets and places a target architecture in 2029–2030. Those are roadmap goals, not delivered capacity.
IonQ: trapped atoms and a planned product line
IonQ describes trapping individual atoms in three-dimensional space and using lasers to prepare and measure them. It presents all-to-all connectivity and fidelity as benefits of its technology. These are IonQ’s characterizations; a fair comparison would need the same workload and measurement method across systems.
Rank #2
In a September 2026 announcement, IonQ described its Superion product line and Electronic Qubit Control, including a planned Superion 256 system. The company expected customer deliveries in 2027 and explicitly treated future capability and delivery statements as forward-looking. They should not be read as evidence that the planned system is already available.
Rigetti: superconducting processors and modular chiplets
Rigetti’s 2026 filing describes superconducting processors built using a modular chiplet design. It reports that, in internal testing as of January 2026, the 36-qubit Cepheus-1-36Q had 99.6% median two-qubit gate fidelity and a 76-nanosecond median gate time.
Rigetti’s technical information lists Cepheus-1-108Q as deployed on April 7, 2026, with 108 qubits and a 99.1% two-qubit CZ fidelity figure. This is a different system from the 36-qubit processor, and its figure should stay attached to the specified system and gate type.
Rigetti also offers Novera, a 9-qubit research QPU based on Ankaa-class architecture. It is intended for research and development and requires compatible cryogenic infrastructure, so it is specialized lab equipment rather than a consumer quantum computer.
Why headline performance numbers are hard to compare
Qubit count, gate fidelity, and gate time measure different things. Even two figures labeled “fidelity” may refer to different gates, hardware generations, calibration conditions, or calculation methods. The vendor context matters too: Rigetti labels its 99.6% Cepheus-1-36Q result as internal testing, while IonQ and Xanadu describe their figures in their own company materials.
- Qubit count: The number alone does not show how reliably qubits can be controlled or whether a system can complete a useful computation.
- Gate fidelity: Check which gate is measured, the system and date, and whether the result is internal or independently validated.
- Gate time: A shorter gate time is not a complete measure of application speed; the number and reliability of operations required also matter.
- Benchmark context: A specific demonstration or classical-simulation estimate cannot be generalized to unrelated workloads.
For example, IonQ’s company-reported 99.99% two-qubit gate-fidelity figure is described in 2026 materials as a 2025 result tied to particular technology. It cannot be ranked directly against Rigetti’s system-specific figures without aligned hardware, gate definitions, test conditions, and validation methods.
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Separate available access from a roadmap
IonQ lists access through AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, and Nvidia. Rigetti describes its Quantum Cloud Services platform and public-cloud access. PennyLane gives Xanadu a software entry point across supported modalities and cloud platforms. Availability through a cloud service is different from owning hardware, and access routes do not establish equal system capability or pricing.
By contrast, Rigetti’s Novera is an on-premises research product that requires a lab setup. It is relevant to institutions evaluating quantum hardware, not a general-purpose purchase for an individual.
Distinguish physical scale from fault tolerance
Companies may report physical qubits, describe error-detection demonstrations, or publish plans for logical qubits and larger processors. These are different milestones. A roadmap target is not a delivered system, and a demonstrated error-detection capability is not, on its own, proof of a fault-tolerant computer capable of useful large-scale work.
Best Value
For a business or investor assessment, the useful question is whether a company can move from a stated architecture to reliable systems that customers can access and use. The evidence here does not establish a universal winner or settle which approach will scale best.
Which approach is best?
There is no established overall winner in the cited company materials. The answer depends on the workload, how performance is benchmarked, and what counts as practical access or scale. Photonic networking, trapped-ion connectivity, and superconducting chiplets are different engineering strategies—not interchangeable guarantees of commercial success.
A grounded comparison should therefore ask what has been deployed or demonstrated, which metrics apply to that exact system, how customers can access it, and which future claims remain plans. That framework is more informative than ranking the companies by a single qubit count or headline fidelity figure.
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