The quantum computing world got a jolt when the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) announced, after market close yesterday, a list of companies selected to advance to Stage C of its Quantum Benchmarking Initiative (QBI), widely considered to be the most rigorous and objective vetting program for cutting-edge quantum hardware.
Last November, DARPA selected 11 companies to enter the second phase of the initiative, Stage B. Since then, they’ve had to show the agency that they have a viable R&D plan, identified key risks, and produced the necessary prototypes to put them in position to build a ‘utility-scale’ quantum computer by 2033—a computer, in other words, that generates more revenue than it costs to own and operate.
In Stage C, selected companies will build and test, working with the government to verify and validate that their “concept can be constructed as designed and operated as intended,” according to DARPA’s program description. Each Stage C company could get up to $300 million in funding from the U.S. government.
The QBI shortlist
Of the 11 companies on the Stage B list, only four appear on the new one: Atom Computing, Diraq. IBM, and IonQ. They join Microsoft and PsiQuantum, which advanced to Stage C in February 2025, via a parallel vetting process.
Even at this late stage in the process, a single dominant approach to building a quantum computer has yet to emerge. The four companies announced today represent essentially all the current “modalities,” or ways of constructing a qubit, the fundamental unit of quantum calculation. IBM uses superconducting circuits; Atom Computing employs neutral atoms; IonQ works with trapped ions; and Diraq builds silicon spin qubits on semiconductors.
Making it to Stage C is “an important validation of our designs and our plans to build to utility scale,” says Andrew Dzurak, CEO and founder of Diraq, which is headquartered in Sydney, Australia, with operations in Palo Alto and Boston. “The second round was all about providing DARPA with details of our roadmap to reach utility scale,” he notes. “This next stage C is very much moving from on paper to actually demonstrating a number of prototype systems to gradually build confidence in reaching the final goal.”
Dzurak says that Diraq’s technology, which leverages standard semiconductor manufacturing processes, gives it an edge when it comes to DARPA’s evaluation criteria: “Because silicon spin technology allows us to put many millions of qubits on a single chip, that reduces all of the supporting infrastructure costs. It makes it easier for us to clear that hurdle of having much more commercial benefit than cost.” The company expects to achieve utility scale by 2031—two years ahead of the QBI schedule.
“The question is no longer just whether individual pieces of the technology work; it’s whether we can put those pieces together and build the kind of quantum computer that can actually solve useful problems at scale,” says Dr. Ben Bloom, CEO & Founder of Boulder, Colorado-based Atom Computing. “We’re excited to prove what our neutral atom technology can do.”
“We’ve been working on this field for a lot longer than we’ve been working on QBI,” says Oliver Dial, IBM’s VP of Quantum System. The company already has a robust quantum business, with sales of on-premise machines to South Korea’s Yonsei University, the University of Tokyo, the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and the Riken Center for Computational Science in Kobe, Japan. In addition, more than 325 Fortune 500 companies, startups, universities, and government agencies access its quantum network. Even so, he notes, “getting to Stage C is great because it’s a confirmation from an outside impartial observer that they think that we have a shot.”
Dial affirms the company’s conviction that its superconducting approach to quantum technology “is going to get us there first.” While IBM’s recent acquisition of HRL Laboratories, an R&D institution that’s focused on semiconductor-based spin-qubit systems, speaks to the long-term potential of spin-qubit tech, he says, “it’s just still too far behind compared to superconducting qubits to be relevant” for DARPA’s 2033 timeline.
The quantum race continues
Multiple industry sources consulted for this article emphasize that companies are working with DARPA on varying timelines, and that the new list is not a final judgment. In its announcement, DARPA says that it expects additional companies to progress to Stage C in the “near future.”
Missing from the list is Stage B photonics specialist Xanadu, which earlier this week announced a multi-year partnership with GlobalFoundries to pursue high-volume production of advanced silicon photonics chips for quantum computing.
A spokesperson for Quantinuum, a Stage B company that didn’t advance, says the company “is actively discussing a Quantum Benchmarking Initiative Stage C scope of work with DARPA, and we continue to execute on our Stage B contract. We remain on track to deliver utility-scale quantum computing by the early 2030s, based on consistent execution against our technical roadmap and demonstrated leadership on real-world systems.”
With the growth of funding opportunities in quantum, DARPA’s QBI is not necessarily the make-or-break that it once was. Infleqtion, for example, has not entered the QBI process, which was reopened to new applicants earlier this year. “We are exploring what participation could look like,” says CTO and cofounder Pranav Gokhale. In the meantime, though, Infleqtion was one of several quantum companies to sign a letter of intent with the U.S. Department of Commerce, worth up to $100 million, to advance and commercialize its technology.
Yet another round of government largesse could arrive later this year, through the U.S. Department of Energy’s Quantum Genesis Q Competition, which will offer up to $215 million in funding to support development of fault-tolerant quantum computers with at least 100 logical qubits—a significant advance on current technologies.
It’s never been a better time to be a quantum company with a promising technology. But as the difficulty level ratchets up, it’s perhaps never been easier to get left behind.
