IonQ and Kipu Quantum Break New Performance Records For Protein Folding And Optimization Problems

Karlsruhe, Germany & College Park, Md. — June 19, 2025 — Kipu Quantum, a leader in application and hardware-specific quantum computing solutions, and IonQ (NYSE: IONQ), a leading commercial quantum computing and networking company, proudly announced a record achievement: the successful solution of the most complex protein folding problem ever executed on a quantum computer.

This joint effort is the largest quantum computation of its kind to-date and demonstrates the synergy between Kipu’s innovative algorithmic framework and IonQ’s state-of-the-art hardware.

In their latest study, the teams solved:

• The largest protein folding problem solved and executed on quantum hardware, comprising a 3D use case of up to 12 amino acids–– an industry record on its own and a promising path towards commercial use of quantum computing for drug discovery.
• All-to-all connected spin-glass problems (QUBO) and MAX-4-SAT problems (HUBO) using up to 36 qubits, obtaining optimal solutions in all instances — an industry record for dense digital quantum computing problems executed on quantum hardware.

All instances were executed on IonQ’s Forte generation systems using Kipu Quantum’s flagship algorithm- BF-DCQO (Bias-Field Digitized Counterdiabatic Quantum Optimization). The results advance the frontier of near-term quantum computing and have the potential to make a large impact on biology and drug development.

The full press release can be found under the link below.