China releases the first quantum computer OS for free
China’s Origin Quantum has made Origin Pilot available for free public download. The strategy mirrors DeepSeek’s open-source AI playbook, applied to the quantum software layer.
Origin Quantum released Origin Pilot for free download on February 26, a first for any quantum OS globally.
The system supports superconducting, ion trap, and neutral atom processors on China’s 72-qubit Wukong computer.
IBM’s Qiskit and Google’s Cirq are programming frameworks, not full operating systems for local deployment.
Origin Pilot ships as a free Community Edition and an Enterprise Edition with post-quantum cryptography tools.
China’s 15th Five-Year Plan names quantum as the top “future industry,” with RMB 121.8B ($17.5B) in regional funds.
On February 26, Hefei-based Origin Quantum Computing Technology Co. released its quantum computer operating system, Origin Pilot, for public download. The announcement was reported by Xinhua and Global Times.
No other company has made a full quantum operating system available for local installation. The UK-based Riverlane released Deltaflow.OS in 2020 under more restrictive terms. Origin Pilot is the first quantum OS freely downloadable for local deployment.
A quantum operating system manages the relationship between software and quantum hardware. It schedules tasks, calibrates qubits, and provides the driver layer that lets developers interact with physical quantum chips.
In classical computing terms, it is the equivalent of Windows or Linux. In quantum computing, the challenge is greater. The processor’s basic units of computation are unstable, noisy, and require constant recalibration.
IBM, Google, and Microsoft all operate sophisticated internal quantum operating systems to power their cloud-accessible quantum hardware. None offers that underlying OS as a downloadable package. Origin Pilot occupies a space the Western quantum industry has left empty.
What Origin Pilot gives you
The strategic value of Origin Pilot is that it is hardware-agnostic, locally deployable, and free. It supports three major qubit types: superconducting, trapped ion, and neutral atom.
It integrates quantum processors with classical CPUs, GPUs, and AI acceleration in a unified workflow. And it ships in two tiers: a free Community Edition focused on noise mitigation and hybrid compilation, and an Enterprise Edition with post-quantum cryptography tools for industrial use, according to Quantum Computing Report.
The OS is now in its 4th major version.
First described in a 2021 research paper, it has undergone multiple upgrade cycles. According to Origin Quantum, it handles resource scheduling, parallel quantum task processing, automatic qubit calibration, and software-hardware coordination. The company calls it a “quantum-classical-intelligent” operating system.
For anyone building a quantum computer from components, this is the layer that makes the parts work together.No Western company currently offers that layer as a download.
Origin Wukong: the proof point
Origin Pilot is not theoretical software. It manages a live quantum computer that has processed real workloads from users across the globe.
The system powers Origin Wukong, China’s third-generation superconducting quantum computer. The Wukong chip contains 198 physical qubits: 72 working qubits and 126 coupler qubits that manage interactions between them. This tunable-coupler design is similar to approaches used by Google on its Sycamore and Willow processors.
The company reports that the Wukong cloud platform has attracted over 30M visits from users in more than 120 countries since January 2024, with over 339,000 quantum computing jobs executed across finance, biomedicine, and materials science. These are company-reported figures, according to Origin Quantum. Its 4th-generation control system, Tianji 4.0, deployed in 2025, supports over 500 qubits.
The company behind these systems is Origin Quantum, founded in 2017 as a spinout from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC). Professor Guo Guoping and Academician Guo Guangcan lead the company.
According to PostQuantum, it is the only quantum computing company that builds the entire stack in-house: quantum processor chips, dilution refrigerators, control electronics, an operating system, a programming framework, and a cloud platform.
The company has raised approximately $150-165M in funding, entirely from domestic Chinese investors, according to PitchBook. Key backers include the China Internet Investment Fund (under the Cyberspace Administration of China), Guoxin Fund (State Council), Shenzhen Capital Group, and CITIC Securities. The deliberate exclusion of foreign capital reflects its positioning as a national security asset.
Why this is not just a framework update
The distinction between a quantum SDK and a quantum OS matters. IBM’s Qiskit and Google’s Cirq are powerful programming frameworks. They let developers write quantum circuits in Python and submit them to cloud-hosted hardware. They are not downloadable operating systems that manage the full hardware stack locally.
According to PostQuantum, the release connects directly to the Quantum Open Architecture movement. Institutions and governments worldwide are seeking to build sovereign quantum computing capabilities from modular, multi-vendor components. That effort requires an integration layer. It requires an OS.
The Western landscape offers few alternatives. A university or national lab assembling a quantum computer from parts has three choices: build an OS from scratch, contract with an emerging quantum systems integrator, or download Origin Pilot for free from China.
The strategic parallel to DeepSeek is direct. DeepSeek demonstrated that open-sourcing a capable AI model forces competitors into a response. It attracts a global developer community. It establishes conventions before others can.
But the quantum version of this play is more potent. In AI, DeepSeek entered a market crowded with open-source alternatives. In quantum operating systems, Origin Pilot enters a market with none.
Whoever provides the OS defines the driver standards, API conventions, and hardware abstraction patterns that others build against. Guo Guoping told Global Times that making Origin Pilot globally available marks a deliberate shift from “closed-door tech innovation” toward open-source ecosystem development. The goal is not just adoption. It is standard-setting.
The 15th Five-Year Plan puts quantum at the center
Origin Pilot’s release arrives at a moment of elevated policy support. China’s 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-2030), unveiled on March 5, identifies quantum technology as the first among seven “future industries” positioned to become new economic growth engines, according to China Briefing.
