DARPA Advances 11 Companies to Next Stage of Quantum Benchmarking Initiative
WASHINGTON, D.C., Nov. 11, 2025 — DARPA has selected 11 companies to enter the second stage of the agency’s Quantum Benchmarking Initiative (QBI), which aims to determine whether any quantum computing approach can achieve utility-scale operation — meaning that its computational value exceeds its cost — by the year 2033.
The selected Stage B companies have described compelling technical concepts and the QBI team will scour their R&D plans to determine whether they are on track to meet not only near-term milestones, but also the ultimate objective: a useful quantum computer by 2033.
During the six-month Stage A, companies laid out their plans for creating a useful, fault-tolerant quantum computer. Now, in the year-long Stage B, they will develop and detail their R&D plans, including identifying and mitigating the associated risks, and specifying the necessary risk-reduction prototypes. Companies successful in Stage B will be invited to progress to the final stage, where a government verification and validation team will determine if their concept can be constructed as designed and operated as intended.
According to DARPA, QBI isn't a competition to narrow the field to a few “winners.” Instead, the aim is to evaluate each company’s approach on its own merits. An industrially useful quantum computer could be demonstrated by a single participant, multiple participants, or perhaps no participants. Thorough evaluation, the agency said, is crucial to understanding the true potential of the technology.
The following companies (with their qubit technology approach) have been selected for Stage B:
Atom Computing: Boulder, Colo. (scalable arrays of neutral atoms)
Diraq: Sydney, with operations in Palo Alto, Calif., and Boston (silicon CMOS spin qubits)
IBM: Yorktown Heights, N.Y. (quantum computing with modular superconducting processors)
IonQ: College Park, Md. (trapped-ion quantum computing)
Nord Quantique: Sherbrooke, Quebec (superconducting qubits with bosonic error correction)
Photonic Inc.: Vancouver, British Columbia (optically-linked silicon spin qubits)
Quantinuum: Broomfield, Colo. (trapped-ion quantum charged coupled device (QCCD) architecture)
Quantum Motion: London (MOS-based silicon spin qubits)
QuEra Computing: Boston (neutral atom qubits)
Silicon Quantum Computing Pty. Ltd.: Sydney (precision atom qubits in silicon)
Xanadu: Toronto, Ontario (photonic quantum computing)
According to DARPA, it is likely but not guaranteed that additional teams will enter Stage B in the future. Any additional promotion decisions will be announced once the agency finalizes contracting with the relevant participants.
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