Universal Quantum is a UK-based quantum hardware company building utility-scale, error-corrected quantum computers using a modular trapped-ion architecture designed to tackle the challenge of scaling to millions of qubits. Founded in 2018 by Prof. Sebastian Weidt and Prof. Winfried Hensinger, the company spun out of the University of Sussex on the back of its founders' 2017 blueprint for a large-scale trapped-ion quantum computer, and grew out of the UK's National Quantum Technology Programme.

Universal Quantum's distinguishing capability is a modular design that tiles together many trapped-ion microchips, manufactured using standard silicon technology, and connects them with a patented, record-breaking electronic interconnect rather than the lasers and photonic links used in conventional ion-trap systems. Its machines use global microwave control in place of individual laser beams and can operate at room temperature, sidestepping the cryogenic refrigeration that superconducting approaches require. Working with the University of Sussex, the team has demonstrated qubit transfer between chips at world-record speed and accuracy, an early proof point for the interconnect at the heart of its scaling roadmap.

Headquartered in Haywards Heath, Sussex, with a German hub in Hamburg, Universal Quantum was awarded a $US77 million contract by the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in 2022, one of the largest single-company government quantum contracts ever awarded, to build single-chip and multi-chip trapped-ion computers. In October 2026 the company raised the UK's largest quantum Series A, over US$100 million (€89 million), which Firgun Ventures co-led with DCVC, to accelerate its global expansion and the commercialisation of its modular technology.