Quantum Roundup: A 42-Qubit Molecule Simulation, a Chip That Holds Photons, and Oratomic’s $775 Million

Three items from 8 and 9 October 2026, each labelled for how well it is sourced.

Quantinuum and HQS simulate a molecule’s NMR spectrum

Reported (company blog and trade press, on a preprint). Caveat first: the authors write that “In the case of high-field liquid-state NMR, classical methods appear to cover a large portion of practically relevant use cases” [1]. NMR (nuclear magnetic resonance) identifies molecules by how their atomic nuclei respond to a magnetic field. Quantinuum, a trapped-ion company, and HQS Quantum Simulations ran 1,2-di-tert-butyl-diphosphane, 22 interacting nuclear spins, on its System Model H2-1 [1][2]. They cut the model to 21 spins and used 42 qubits: 21 for the molecule and 21 ancilla (helper) qubits that flag leakage errors, up to 70 Trotter steps (small slices of simulated time) and “a two-qubit gate depth of 1442” [1].

The abstract says the spectrum “agrees with classical reference calculations and reproduces key spectroscopic features that previous quantum hardware demonstrations did not capture” [1]. “Most accurate” is the authors’ own claim, “to our knowledge” [1]. The simulated spectrum lacks two sharp peaks and its resolution is about 0.07 ppm [1]. Quantinuum says HQS noted the resolution is “still insufficient for routine use by practicing spectroscopists” [2]. The paper is a preprint dated 15 September and is not peer-reviewed.

Illinois stores photons on a chip for over a microsecond

Peer-reviewed (Nano Letters). A quantum memory holds a photon, a particle of light carrying quantum information, while slower operations catch up. Elizabeth Goldschmidt’s group at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign built a waveguide in thin-film lithium niobate doped with erbium atoms, and a laser arranged the atoms into an “atomic frequency comb” that catches and holds light [3][4]. The abstract reports storing “single-photon-level telecom-band optical pulses for more than 1 μs” and “up to 20 temporal modes” [3]. The release says “storage times exceeding 1 microsecond and the ability to store multiple photons at once” [4].

The paper appeared on 31 August; the release followed on 8 October. In the authors’ preprint, retrieval efficiency was 0.7% at 1 microsecond [5], and the release says a practical device needs “better retrieval efficiency and longer storage times” [4].

Oratomic says it has raised $775 million since March

Company-reported (Oratomic, 8 October). The company says it “has raised a total of $775 million since its launch in March 2026”, building neutral-atom computers (qubits made from individual atoms held by lasers) with error correction, “focused exclusively on building a fault-tolerant quantum computer” [6]. ARCH Venture Partners, Spark Capital, Khosla Ventures, Index Ventures, General Catalyst and Bezos Expeditions “led the financing” [6]. The release does not give a valuation, a round name or a split between rounds. The Wall Street Journal separately reports a $5.4 billion valuation; TSN could read only its summary, and Oratomic’s release does not confirm it [7]. This is funding, not a technical result. For context, see TSN’s Universal Quantum section.

The Bottom Line

All three are early-stage. The NMR run is a benchmark, and its authors say classical methods appear to cover much routine NMR work. The memory is a laboratory device with low retrieval efficiency. Oratomic’s news is money.

Related on TSN: Quantum Hardware Check: DARPA’s Final Test Stage, Universal Quantum’s $100m Round and New Error-Correction Results

Sources

1. Pascal Stadler et al., “Large-scale NMR simulation on a trapped-ion quantum computer”, arXiv:2609.17102, 15 September 2026 (preprint, not peer-reviewed; abstract and paper text). https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.17102
2. Quantinuum, “Simulating NMR on a Quantum Computer: A Step Toward Practical Quantum Chemistry”, 8 October 2026 (company blog); reported by Quantum Computing Report, 9 October 2026 (trade press). https://www.quantinuum.com/blog/simulating-nmr-on-a-quantum-computer-a-step-toward-practical-quantum-chemistry ; https://quantumcomputingreport.com/quantinuum-and-hqs-simulate-21-spin-nmr-spectrum-on-42-qubits-with-1400-two-qubit-gate-circuits/
3. Priyash Barya et al., “Telecom Quantum Memory over 1 μs in Nanophotonic Lithium Niobate”, Nano Letters 26(36), 12056, published 31 August 2026 (peer-reviewed; abstract read via ACS page text). https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.nanolett.6c02567
4. University of Illinois Grainger College of Engineering, “Illinois researchers give quantum light a place to wait”, 8 October 2026 (university release; reposted by Phys.org, 9 October). https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1147082 ; https://phys.org/news/2026-10-quantum-chip-multiple-photons-path.html
5. Barya et al., “Telecom quantum memory over one microsecond in nanophotonic lithium niobate”, arXiv:2605.11588 v2, 15 May 2026 (authors’ preprint of the same work; source of the efficiency figures). https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.11588
6. Oratomic, “Oratomic Raises $775 Million in Total Funding to Build Utility-Scale Fault-Tolerant Quantum Computers”, 8 October 2026 (company press release; same text at QuantumWire). https://www.oratomic.com/news/fundraise ; http://quantumwire.com/index.php/article/17915940007748.html
7. Wall Street Journal, “Quantum Startup Oratomic Now Worth $5.4 Billion After Series-B Funding”, 8 October 2026 (paywalled; headline and summary only). https://www.wsj.com/cio-journal/quantum-startup-oratomic-now-worth-5-4-billion-after-series-b-funding-538a80fc