On April 3, 2025, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) announced the selection of 18 quantum computing companies for Stage A of its Quantum Benchmarking Initiative (QBI). The program, launched in July 2024, aims to determine whether any quantum computing approach can achieve utility-scale operation, defined as a system whose computational value exceeds its cost, by 2033.
The 15 newly named Stage A participants were Alice & Bob, Atom Computing, Atlantic Quantum, Diraq, HP Enterprise, IBM, IonQ, Nord Quantique, Oxford Ionics, Photonic Inc., Quantinuum, Quantum Motion, Rigetti Computing, Silicon Quantum Computing, and Xanadu. Three additional companies remained in contract negotiations at the time of the announcement; QuEra Computing was publicly added to the list on April 29. These companies joined Microsoft and PsiQuantum, which had previously been selected under the Underexplored Systems for Utility-Scale Quantum Computing (US2QC) pilot phase.
The selected companies included seven foreign-based firms: two Australian, three Canadian, and two British. Stage A contracts were described as six-month engagements in which each company must provide detailed technical descriptions of their utility-scale quantum computer concepts. Companies that successfully complete Stage A will advance to a yearlong Stage B for rigorous review of their research and development plans, followed by a final Stage C involving independent hardware testing.
DARPA QBI program manager Joe Altepeter stated that the companies were selected following reviews of written abstracts and daylong oral presentations before a team of U.S. quantum experts. Altepeter described QBI’s independent verification and validation team as working to “separate hype from reality in quantum computing.” DARPA said QBI is not structured as a competition between performers but as an evaluation of all viable approaches for which funding is available.