The Pulse
RIKEN’s Reimei moves to Quantinuum H2 as partners plan a Japan-made fault-tolerant machine
Quantinuum and RIKEN completed an upgrade of the Reimei quantum computer to System Model H2 and expanded their partnership. They will pursue research, plan development of a Japan-made fault-tolerant computer and explore connecting quantum c
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Reimei upgraded
Quantinuum and RIKEN have completed an upgrade of the Reimei quantum computer at RIKEN and announced an expanded partnership on quantum-AI hybrid supercomputing in Japan. The system now runs Quantinuum’s System Model H2, and the companies said the upgraded platform will let researchers investigate more complex quantum systems that are increasingly difficult to simulate using classical computing alone.
RIKEN operates Reimei as part of the JHPC-quantum project, which is funded by Japan’s New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization, or NEDO. The release describes RIKEN’s hybrid quantum-supercomputing platform as the most capable of its kind in the world.
Research on materials and biomolecules
The partners plan to use the platform to combine quantum computing, supercomputing and AI for research across electronics, energy and life sciences. One materials project uses RIKEN’s ROQUO GPU supercomputer to train an AI model on quantum data generated by Reimei for magnetism simulations.
Preliminary results suggest the model can make more accurate predictions than AI models trained on classical simulations alone, and more precise predictions than the quantum computer itself, the companies said. The partners said understanding magnetism at the atomic level could inform materials for technologies including ultra-high-field MRI and smart power grids.
A separate project combines Reimei, RIKEN’s Fugaku supercomputer and NVIDIA’s evolutionary AI agent, running on ROQUO, to simulate a complex photoactive biomolecule. The work targets greater scale and detail; the partners said better understanding of how biomolecules respond to light could inform the design of more efficient solar cells.
Plans for a Japan-made system
Joint research and development is planned toward a fault-tolerant quantum computer made with Japanese universities and domestic components suppliers. The companies said the effort will combine Quantinuum’s quantum technology with domestic research and manufacturing expertise, drawing on experience integrating and operating Reimei.
With the upgraded machine, RIKEN will be able to tackle more complex and larger-scale scientific problems that were difficult to address with the previous H1 system, said Mitsuhisa Sato of the RIKEN Center for Computational Science. The research also supports RIKEN’s AI for Science initiative, according to the release.
SoftBank collaboration
Under a separate agreement, Quantinuum, RIKEN and SoftBank will explore connecting quantum computers directly with AI data centers in Japan. They plan to assess infrastructure readiness and examine whether connected systems could support commercial quantum-AI hybrid computing services beyond the research community.
The partners aim to advance a Quantum AI Datacenter connecting quantum computing with AI and high-performance computing, with the goal of making the capabilities accessible to businesses in Japan, SoftBank said. Quantinuum’s release cautioned that the research results are preliminary and were achieved in experimental settings; it said they may not be confirmed or replicated at larger scale or in commercial use.