Meet the companies racing to build quantum chips

Quantum computing has lengthy been introduced as “simply across the nook,” however a number of firms at the moment are decided to make this a business actuality, with the promise of fixing advanced issues past classical computer systems’ attain.

The issues in query are wide-ranging, from medication and cybersecurity to supplies science and chemistry. However first, there are very sensible issues to be solved, equivalent to creating chips that may reliably host giant numbers of qubits — brief for quantum bits, the basic unit of knowledge in quantum computing.

As normal in a high-stakes tech race with an unsure time horizon, tech giants equivalent to Google and Microsoft are on the forefront. But startups are additionally set to play an necessary function, particularly tackling bottlenecks like connectivity and error correction which can be essential for scaling quantum programs.

However some startups and smaller tech firms are taking over the chip problem head-on, and deserve point out alongside the extra attention-grabbing efforts from business giants. Whereas Massive Tech tasks sometimes boast the best qubit counts, rethinking designs from first ideas and utilizing completely different approaches may yield equally promising outcomes.

Listed here are a few of the firms behind the primary quantum chip tasks which can be value monitoring:

Akhetonics

Akhetonics is a German photonics startup engaged on an all-optical, general purpose chip — a contrarian guess in a discipline the place most deal with narrower purposes. This daring model and its first-principles strategy helped the corporate increase a €6 million seed funding round led by Matterwave Ventures in November 2024. 

Alice & Bob

Alice & Bob is a French startup that raised a $104 million Series B round of funding in January 2025 to proceed working towards constructing a “fault tolerant” quantum pc. 

In contrast to firms focusing solely on chips, Alice & Bob is creating a full quantum computing system. To take action, it depends on cat qubits, a kind of superconducting qubits designed to scale back errors and simplify error correction.

Atom Computing

Atom Computing is a U.S. firm constructing quantum computer systems with arrays of optically trapped impartial atoms.

On the Microsoft Ignite 2024 convention, Microsoft and Atom Computing introduced plans to launch a commercial quantum computer in 2025.

Amazon

Amazon formally joined the quantum chip race in early 2025 when AWS introduced Ocelot, developed in partnership with the California Institute of Know-how. Whereas that is the corporate’s first quantum chip, AWS had beforehand launched Braket, a quantum computing service, in partnership with D-Wave, IonQ, Rigetti, and others.

D-Wave

D-Wave is a quantum computing firm whose newest flagship system, the Advantage2 prototype, depends on a course of known as quantum annealing, which makes use of quantum physics to seek out essentially the most steady, lowest-energy preparations of parts to determine the very best combine for a given downside.

Based in 1999 as a by-product from the College of British Columbia in Canada, D-Wave is now a public firm listed on the NYSE.

EeroQ

Illinois-based EeroQ is a startup betting on helium for its quantum chip design. Having raised a $7.25 million seed funding spherical in 2022 and obtained regional public help, the corporate made a $1.1 million dedication in September 2024 towards expanding its HQ in Chicago’s Humboldt Park.

Fujitsu & RIKEN

In April 2025, Fujitsu and Japanese analysis establishment RIKEN introduced having developed a 256-qubit superconducting quantum computer on the RIKEN RQC-FUJITSU Collaboration Heart, up from a 64-qubit iteration in 2023.

Google

In December 2024, Google announced Willow, its newest quantum computing chip. 

Google didn’t cease at saying Willow was higher than its predecessor, Sycamore, or at describing it as “a serious breakthrough in quantum error correction.” In a press release that made headlines, Google Quantum AI founder Hartmut Neven wrote that Willow’s efficiency lent “credence to the notion that quantum computation happens in lots of parallel universes.”

IBM

IBM’s quantum efforts embrace Condor, its milestone superconducting chip for scaling as much as 1,121 qubits, and Heron, a 156-qubit processor targeted on improved efficiency and decrease error charges.

Intel

Intel is creating quantum computer systems primarily based on silicon spin qubits. In June 2023, it unveiled Tunnel Falls, a 12-qubit analysis chip, and mentioned a next-generation quantum chip primarily based on Tunnel Falls was anticipated to be launched in 2024, however this hasn’t occurred. 

IonQ

IonQ is a publicly listed U.S. firm creating trapped-ion quantum computer systems, together with the IonQ Forte. After going public via a SPAC in late 2021, it acquired Canadian networking specialist Entangled Networks. 

IQM

IQM is a Finnish startup constructing superconducting quantum computer systems, and a spinout of the Aalto College and VTT Technical Analysis Centre of Finland that obtained funding in its early days from the Enterprise Finland authorities company, adopted by further help from the EIC Accelerator program.

In 2022, IQM raised €128 million in Sequence A2 funding led by World Fund, including to the €39 million led by MIG Fonds it had raised in 2020 as a part of what was then its Sequence A. This second tranche included a part of a beforehand introduced €35 million enterprise mortgage from the European Funding Financial institution, in addition to participation from the EIC Fund and others.

Microsoft

In February 2025, Microsoft introduced Majorana, a quantum chip utilizing a topological core architecture. Microsoft beforehand declared that it anticipated to construct a quantum supercomputer within 10 years.

Pasqal

Pasqal is a French startup taking a full-stack strategy to quantum computing and betting on impartial atoms. Having emerged out of the Institut d’Optique in 2019, its co-founders embrace 2022 Nobel Prize Laureate Physics and professor Alain Facet.

In February 2023, Pascal raised a €100 million Series B funding round led by Singapore’s Temasek, with participation from current buyers Quantonation, the Protection Innovation Fund, Daphni and Eni Subsequent, in addition to new buyers European Innovation Council (EIC) Fund, Wa’ed Ventures, and Bpifrance (by its Massive Enterprise Fund).

PsiQuantum

PsiQuantum is a quantum computing startup utilizing photonics expertise and aiming to construct “a 1 million-quantum-bit machine.” In February 2025, it announced Omega, a quantum photonic chipset manufactured at GlobalFoundries in New York.

In 2021, PsiQuantum landed a $450 million Sequence D funding led by BlackRock, which is now mentioned to be main a potential $750 million round into the corporate at a $6 billion pre-money valuation. Based by Australian teachers, it’s also backed by the Australian and Queensland governments.

Qilimanjaro

Qilimanjaro is a Spanish startup specializing in analog quantum app-specific built-in circuits (QASICs) and taking a full-stack strategy together with {hardware}, software program, and purposes.

Primarily based in Barcelona, it won the Four Years From Now startup competition at Cellular World Congress in 2024, happening to obtain €1.5 million in funding from Catalonia later that yr.

Quandela

Quandela is a French startup based in 2017 to develop photonic quantum computer systems.

In November 2023, Quandela raised a €50 million Series B and likewise obtained help from  the French authorities by the France 2030 Plan.

Quantinuum

Quantinuum is a quantum computing firm formed in 2021 by the merger of Cambridge Quantum and Honeywell Quantum Options. Its flagship product is the H-Sequence of trapped-ion quantum computer systems. In April 2024, along with Microsoft, it introduced a breakthrough in error correction.

QuantWare

QuantWare is a Dutch startup that got here up with a proprietary 3D chip structure, VIO, which focuses on scaling bottlenecks in quantum processing models (QPUs). It began accepting preorders for Contralto-A, its first QPU for quantum error correction, in February 2025.

Based in 2020, it’s a spinout of TU Delft and its affiliated analysis institute, QuTech. In March 2025, and following a €6 million seed round in 2023, it introduced having raised a €20 million Series A (roughly $19.27 million) — together with €5 million in fairness out of the €7.5 million it previously secured from the European Innovation Council (the rest is a grant). 

QuEra 

Boston-based QuEra is betting on impartial atoms because the “greatest strategy to realize large-scale, fault-tolerant quantum computer systems.” Its merchandise embrace Aquila, a 256-qubit analog neutral-atom quantum pc launched in 2022 and accessible by way of Amazon Braket.

QuEra is notably backed by Google, which led the $230 debt spherical that the quantum startup raised in February 2025 — with a convertible observe additionally backed by SoftBank, Valor, and current buyers. 

Rigetti Computing

Based in 2013 by Chad Rigetti, Rigetti Computing is a quantum firm specializing in superconducting expertise. Its vary of merchandise embrace Ankaa-3 and the upcoming 336-qubit Lyra system.

Identical to rivals D-Wave and IonQ, Rigetti Computing is a listed company; it raised just below $200 million in VC capital earlier than going public via a SPAC in 2021.

In February 2025, it signed a strategic partnership with Taiwan-based Quanta Pc, which is ready to speculate $35 million and buy shares of Rigetti, whereas each firms make investments greater than $100 million every over the following 5 years to speed up the event and commercialization of superconducting quantum computing.

SEEQC

U.S. quantum startup SEEQC — an acronym for “scalable, vitality environment friendly quantum computing” — is a spinout of chip firm Hypres, which was itself established by former workers of IBM’s superconducting electronics division. 

In 2023, SEEQC introduced a partnership with Nvidia to construct an “all-digital, ultra-low-latency chip-to-chip hyperlink between quantum computer systems and GPUs.” 

In January 2025, SEEQC raised a $30 million round of funding co-led by Booz Allen Ventures and Japanese-European VC agency NordicNinja.

Different backers embrace Merck’s company enterprise capital arm, M Ventures. SEEQC is main the U.Ok.-supported QuPharma venture to discover how quantum computing can speed up drug discovery, in partnership with BASF and Merck.

SpinQ

SpinQ is a Chinese language startup based in 2018 that develops quantum computer systems. It claims that a few of them are portable and making use of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR).

Xanadu

Xanadu is a Canadian startup aiming to construct quantum computer systems by a photonic strategy. In January 2025, it introduced Aurora, a 12-qubit system together with 35 photonic chips.

Based in 2016, Xanadu raised some $275 million up to now, together with a $100 million Series C in November 2022 at a $1 billion valuation.