Zapata Quantum (OTC: ZPTA) has announced the grant of its patent for Quantum Intermediate Representation (QIR) in Canada, Europe, Israel, and Australia. These approvals follow an earlier grant in the United States, establishing global intellectual property protection for the company’s hardware-agnostic translation layer. The patent secures Zapata’s exclusive rights to a “universal translator” that enables quantum applications to interoperate across disparate hardware backends and programming frameworks without custom integrations.
QIR functions as a mid-layer representation analogous to LLVM in classical computing. By translating quantum algorithms into this standardized format, developers can execute a single program across any connected hardware—including superconducting, trapped-ion, or neutral-atom systems—while hardware providers can support multiple software tools through a single QIR connection. This architecture is designed to reduce fragmentation in the quantum ecosystem and accelerate the transition from one-off research demonstrations to repeatable enterprise deployments.
The technical development of QIR has been a central focus of the QIR Alliance, a joint effort involving Microsoft, NVIDIA, Quantinuum, Rigetti Computing, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Zapata’s patent positioning in this space reflects a long-term IP strategy initiated eight years ago at Harvard’s quantum computing lab. The company’s portfolio now includes over 60 granted and pending patents focused on the foundational layers of the hybrid quantum-classical computing stack.
This patent milestone follows a series of strategic moves by Zapata in early 2026, including a research collaboration with the University of Maryland focused on formal verification and the company’s participation in DARPA’s Quantum Benchmarking program. According to CEO Sumit Kapur, the industry’s shift toward scalable, interoperable applications validates Zapata’s focus on the software and infrastructure layers necessary to link advancing hardware capabilities to real-world deployment.
Read the official announcement from Zapata Quantum here.
February 3, 2026
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