Horizon Quantum Builds Software Stack for the Race to Practical Quantum Computing

Key Points

• Horizon Quantum is building a hardware-agnostic software stack—including programming languages, compilers and runtime tools—to make quantum computers more accessible and support hybrid quantum-classical applications.
• The company is integrating with multiple quantum platforms and developing testbeds in Singapore and Dublin, while pursuing embedded calibration to reduce system downtime and improve reliability.
• Horizon remains deliberately pre-revenue, prioritizing hardware partnerships and targeted applications until quantum systems demonstrate measurable advantages and deliver real value in production environments.

Horizon Quantum Computing Pte. NASDAQ: HQ is focusing on software intended to make quantum computers more usable for broader classes of applications, while maintaining a pre-revenue strategy until quantum systems can deliver measurable value in production environments, Chief Executive Officer and Founder Joe Fitzsimons said during a technology discussion.

Fitzsimons, who founded the company in 2018 after working in quantum-computing research, said Horizon was created to address what he described as a fundamental software gap in the industry. While hardware companies are developing quantum processors, he said the industry also needs programming languages, compilers, runtime environments and system software capable of harnessing those machines for practical work.

“We need to reinvent essentially 80 years of computer science, 80 years of computer software, for the quantum era,” Fitzsimons said.

Software Built for Ideal Quantum Systems

Horizon’s software strategy begins with programming for an idealized quantum computer, rather than designing software exclusively around the limitations of current machines, Fitzsimons said. The company then develops compiler and execution capabilities designed to translate that code for available hardware.

He said many current quantum systems remain constrained in areas such as control flow, including the ability to take a measurement during a calculation and use the result to determine what happens next. Horizon’s execution environment is intended to support concurrent classical processing and quantum operations, capabilities that Fitzsimons said can enable programs not expressible in many existing quantum programming frameworks.

The company has developed programming languages at multiple abstraction levels, including Hydrogen, Helium and Beryllium. Fitzsimons described Beryllium as Horizon’s first object-oriented quantum programming language.

According to Fitzsimons, Beryllium is intended to let quantum-computing specialists create reusable classes and algorithms involving quantum and classical data, which can then be used by developers with less quantum expertise. The longer-term objective is to enable developers to write more conventional code that can be automatically accelerated by quantum computing resources.

Testbeds and Hardware Integration

Horizon is pursuing a hardware-agnostic approach while also operating its own testbed systems. Fitzsimons said the company currently uses cloud access to compile and run programs across a broad range of quantum hardware platforms, including systems that do not natively support functions such as loops and recursion.

Its Ember One testbed, located at Horizon’s Singapore headquarters, combines a Rigetti quantum processing unit with Quantum Machines control systems. Fitzsimons said on-premises access allows Horizon to integrate more directly with control systems and avoid layers of software that can limit access to hardware capabilities.

Physical proximity is particularly important for workloads requiring rapid feedback between quantum measurements and classical computations, he said. In superconducting quantum systems, latency can become a constraint because the classical processing needed to determine subsequent quantum operations must occur quickly.

Horizon also expects to install a second testbed in Dublin, Ireland, next year. The planned system is a 256-qubit trapped-ion machine from IonQ. Fitzsimons said that, if the system performs to specifications, it could be near the threshold where an advantage may be possible for certain chemistry problems. He cautioned that the company will not know whether it can demonstrate a real advantage until it has access to the system.

Fitzsimons said different quantum hardware modalities present distinct tradeoffs. Trapped-ion systems have historically offered lower error rates and longer coherence times, while superconducting systems can operate faster and may be more cost-effective for workloads requiring large numbers of shots. He also cited neutral-atom technology as an emerging and “super interesting” platform because of its reconfigurability.

Calibration Collaboration and Production Goals

The company recently announced a collaboration with Quantum Machines focused on embedded calibration. Fitzsimons said calibration is an important operational issue because quantum systems require frequent adjustments, often resulting in downtime while operators measure hardware drift and optimize performance.

He said Horizon’s goal is to use results generated during ongoing operation to maintain calibration continuously, reducing sustained downtime and helping systems operate more reliably. Rather than treating calibration as a separate product line, he said Horizon views such capabilities as part of the infrastructure needed to code, compile and deploy quantum applications through its Triple Alpha platform.

Despite the broader interest in quantum computing across optimization, simulation, machine learning and cryptography, Fitzsimons said potential applications could extend beyond those categories. He cited large inverse problems in the oil and gas industry as an example of inbound interest outside the commonly identified use cases.

However, he said the industry has not yet reached the point at which companies are routinely using quantum computers in production to solve difficult problems affecting their financial results.

Pre-Revenue Strategy

Fitzsimons said Horizon has deliberately remained pre-revenue. He argued that revenue generated before a demonstrable quantum advantage would likely come from professional services and system access, rather than representing the larger commercial opportunity the company expects if quantum systems begin providing meaningful value to users.

For now, Horizon is prioritizing close work with hardware providers and has established an internal applications team focused on three high-value problems across three industries. The company plans to broaden access to its systems over time, but Fitzsimons said it does not intend to aggressively pursue enterprise adoption before quantum applications can move beyond proofs of concept and into production deployments.

“Until there is a real advantage to running software on the quantum computer, until running software on the quantum computer is generating real value for the end user of that software, it is kind of premature to really start trying to drive enterprise adoption,” Fitzsimons said.

About Horizon Quantum Computing Pte. (NASDAQ:HQ)

Horizon Quantum Holdings Ltd. is a quantum software infrastructure company focused on tools and systems that help developers build and deploy quantum applications. The company emphasizes software, algorithms, and workflow infrastructure intended to support practical quantum and hybrid quantum-classical use cases.

Horizon Quantum became a public company through its business combination with dMY Squared Technology Group, Inc (DMYY), which was formed to take a private company public through a business combination.

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