Chinese tech company QuantumCTek Co. has unveiled a quantum measurement and control system capable of supporting quantum computers with over 1,000 qubits. Called the ez-Q Engine 2.0, the product lifts this small quantum vendor into the ranks of top quantum vendors led by IBM’s Condor processor.

The ez-Q Engine 2.0—a system that is the core controller of quantum computers—is more efficient than the company’s first version by a factor of ten, if early reports can be verified. It was built with Chinese-made hardware and, like DeepSeek in the world of AI, has operational costs that are less than U.S.-based quantum systems.

Historically, the technology to control even a single superconducting qubit with a control system has been quite expensive, but by comparison the ez-Q Engine 2.0 is very efficient in resource use. “The ez-Q Engine 2.0 maintains international advanced technical standards while being less than half the price of similar products developed by foreign competitors,” said Tang Shibiao, director of the Anhui Quantum Computing Engineering Research Center.

To review the system, QuantumCTek Co. has sent it to the China Telecom Quantum Group and the University of Science and Technology of China, where it is expected to offer more than 5,000 qubits of control actions in early testing. Quantum computing is notoriously error prone—it’s one of the chief factors holding it back—and so this heavy-duty control testing will help determine if the system is geared for commercial viability. The company claims the ez-Q Engine 2.0 has already been tested on China’s 504-qubit quantum computer and performed well in tests of system integration and stability.

Looking ahead, QuantumCTek Co. has an ambitious goal: It’s developing a more advanced control system to manage error correction for 10,000 qubits. Depending on how long that takes, a controller at this level could vault the company past U.S. leaders in the quantum section. Widely considered to be the quantum sector leader is IBM, which in 2023 unveiled the Condor processor with 1,123 superconducting qubits.

IBM’s roadmap calls for the release of the Kookaburra processor this year, with 1,386 qubits in a multi-chip configuration. IBM plans to interconnect three such systems to assemble a 4,158-qubit quantum system. The company has announced plans for a quantum supercomputer with 100,000 qubits by 2033, at which point quantum will have reached true commercial viability, if not before.

QuantumCTek Co., to be competing with IBM, is punching above its weight. Incorporated in 2009 and based in Hefei, China—the home of China’s quantum development—the company has 459 employees and is listed on the Shanghai stock exchange. It produces a full range of quantum computing solutions, from superconducting quantum computing cable components to quantum precision measurement instruments.

QuantumCTek Co. was the first ever quantum computing company to go public in China, and its IPO in 2020 saw the largest surge in price of any Chinese IPO, at 924%. The company has not been profitable since its IPO, as it invests heavily in research and development. In 2024 it recorded a loss of 32 CNY (about $4.5 million dollars) on revenue of 253 CNY (about $36 million dollars).