[Photo: Quantum Machines founders. Credit: Ilya Melnikov]

Quantum Machines (QM) announced that it successfully operated Rigetti Computing’s Novera quantum processor using its own control and calibration platform, achieving a median two-qubit gate fidelity of 99.5% — one of the key benchmarks for quantum computer performance.

According to the company, this marks the highest full-system performance achieved to date on a Novera processor using an external control system. While Quantum Machines’ platform already interfaces with a broad range of quantum systems across the industry, the significance of this project lies in the fact that QM was able to bring Rigetti’s processor to the manufacturer’s own target performance levels using a fully external control stack.

Rather than building qubits themselves, Quantum Machines focuses on the orchestration, control, and calibration layers of quantum computers. Its OPX1000 platform provides real-time control hardware capable of generating highly precise pulses, synchronizing quantum operations, and optimizing system behavior to reduce error rates. The company also developed QUAlibrate, an automated quantum calibration framework designed to dramatically reduce the time and complexity involved in tuning quantum systems.

Rigetti, one of the better-known public quantum computing companies in the U.S., develops superconducting quantum processors and full-stack quantum computing systems that combine hardware, software, and cloud infrastructure. Its Novera platform is a commercial 9-qubit quantum processor designed for on-premise deployment in research and development environments.

As part of the project, a Quantum Machines team working onsite at Rigetti operated the processor using OPX1000 hardware and QUAlibrate software, achieving 99.93% median single-qubit gate fidelity and 99.5% median two-qubit gate fidelity across all available qubit connections.

Beyond the technical milestone, the announcement highlights a broader shift taking place in the quantum computing industry: a gradual move away from tightly integrated proprietary systems toward more modular architectures where processors, control systems, and software stacks from different vendors can interoperate. In practice, this could eventually enable organizations to combine quantum hardware and orchestration technologies from multiple suppliers without sacrificing performance.

Founded in 2018, Quantum Machines has raised approximately $280 million to date and says its technology is now used by more than half of the companies developing quantum computers worldwide. The company also collaborates with NVIDIA on hybrid quantum-classical computing systems.