\n<\/p>\n
Quantum computing has long been announced as \u201cjust around the corner,\u201d but several companies are now determined to make this a commercial reality, with the promise of solving complex problems beyond classical computers\u2019 reach.<\/p>\n
The problems in question are wide-ranging, from medicine and cybersecurity to materials science and chemistry. But first, there are very practical problems to be solved, such as developing chips that can reliably host large numbers of qubits \u2014 short for quantum bits, the fundamental unit of information in quantum computing.<\/p>\n
As usual in a high-stakes tech race with an uncertain time horizon, tech giants such as Google and Microsoft are at the forefront. Yet startups are also set to play an important role, especially tackling bottlenecks like connectivity and error correction that are critical for scaling quantum systems.<\/p>\n
But some startups and smaller tech companies are taking on the chip challenge head-on, and deserve mention alongside the more attention-grabbing efforts from industry giants. While Big Tech projects typically boast the highest qubit counts, rethinking designs from first principles and using different approaches could yield equally promising results.<\/p>\n
Here are some of the companies behind the main quantum chip projects that are worth tracking:<\/p>\n
Akhetonics<\/a> is a German photonics startup working on an all-optical, general purpose chip<\/a> \u2014 a contrarian bet in a field where most focus on narrower applications. This bold version and its first-principles approach helped the company raise a \u20ac6 million seed funding round<\/a> led by Matterwave Ventures in November 2024.\u00a0<\/p>\n Alice & Bob<\/a> is a French startup that raised a $104 million Series B round of funding<\/a> in January 2025 to continue working toward building a \u201cfault tolerant\u201d quantum computer.\u00a0<\/p>\n Unlike companies focusing only on chips, Alice & Bob is developing a full quantum computing system. To do so, it relies on cat qubits<\/a>, a type of superconducting qubits designed to reduce errors and simplify error correction.<\/p>\n Atom Computing<\/a> is a U.S. company building quantum computers with arrays of optically trapped neutral atoms.<\/p>\n At the Microsoft Ignite 2024 conference, Microsoft and Atom Computing announced plans to launch a commercial quantum computer<\/a> in 2025.<\/p>\n Amazon officially joined the quantum chip race in early 2025 when AWS introduced Ocelot<\/a>, developed in partnership with the California Institute of Technology. While this is the company\u2019s first quantum chip, AWS had previously launched Braket<\/a>, a quantum computing service, in partnership with D-Wave, IonQ, Rigetti, and others.<\/p>\n D-Wave<\/a> is a quantum computing company whose latest flagship system, the Advantage2 prototype<\/a>, relies on a process called quantum annealing<\/a>, which uses quantum physics to find the most stable, lowest-energy arrangements of elements to figure out the best mix for a given problem.<\/p>\n Founded in 1999 as a spinoff from the University of British Columbia in Canada, D-Wave is now a public company listed on the NYSE.<\/p>\n Illinois-based EeroQ<\/a> is a startup betting on helium<\/a> for its quantum chip design. Having raised a $7.25 million seed funding round in 2022 and received regional public support, the company made a $1.1 million commitment in September 2024 toward expanding its HQ<\/a> in Chicago\u2019s Humboldt Park.<\/p>\n In April 2025, Fujitsu and Japanese research institution RIKEN announced having developed a 256-qubit superconducting quantum computer<\/a> at the RIKEN RQC-FUJITSU Collaboration Center, up from a 64-qubit iteration in 2023.<\/p>\n In December 2024, Google announced Willow<\/a>, its latest quantum computing chip.\u00a0<\/p>\n Google didn\u2019t stop at saying Willow was better than its predecessor, Sycamore, or at describing it as \u201ca major breakthrough in quantum error correction.\u201d In a statement that made headlines<\/a>, Google Quantum AI founder Hartmut Neven wrote that Willow\u2019s performance lent \u201ccredence to the notion that quantum computation occurs in many parallel universes.\u201d<\/p>\n IBM\u2019s quantum efforts include Condor<\/a>, its milestone superconducting chip for scaling up to 1,121 qubits, and Heron<\/a>, a 156-qubit processor focused on improved performance and lower error rates.<\/p>\n Intel is developing quantum computers based on silicon spin qubits<\/a>. In June 2023, it unveiled Tunnel Falls, a 12-qubit research chip, and said a next-generation quantum chip based on Tunnel Falls was expected to be released in 2024, but this hasn\u2019t happened.\u00a0<\/p>\n IonQ<\/a> is a publicly listed U.S. company developing trapped-ion quantum computers, including the IonQ Forte<\/a>. After going public via a SPAC<\/a> in late 2021, it acquired Canadian networking specialist Entangled Networks<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n IQM<\/a> is a Finnish startup building superconducting quantum computers, and a spinout of the Aalto University and VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland that received funding in its early days from the Business Finland government agency, followed by additional support from the EIC Accelerator program<\/a>.<\/p>\n In 2022, IQM raised \u20ac128 million in Series A2 funding led by World Fund, adding to the \u20ac39 million led by MIG Fonds<\/a> it had raised in 2020 as part of what was then its Series A. This second tranche included part of a previously announced \u20ac35 million venture loan from the European Investment Bank, as well as participation from the EIC Fund and others.<\/p>\n In February 2025, Microsoft introduced Majorana<\/a>, a quantum chip using a topological core architecture<\/a>. Microsoft previously declared that it expected to build a quantum supercomputer within 10 years<\/a>.<\/p>\n Pasqal<\/a> is a French startup taking a full-stack approach to quantum computing and betting on neutral atoms. Having emerged out of the Institut d\u2019Optique in 2019, its co-founders include 2022 Nobel Prize Laureate Physics and professor Alain Aspect.<\/p>\n In February 2023, Pascal raised a \u20ac100 million Series B funding round<\/a> led by Singapore\u2019s Temasek, with participation from existing investors Quantonation, the Defense Innovation Fund, Daphni and Eni Next, as well as new investors European Innovation Council (EIC) Fund, Wa\u2019ed Ventures, and Bpifrance (through its Large Venture Fund).<\/p>\n PsiQuantum<\/a> is a quantum computing startup using photonics technology and aiming<\/a> to build \u201ca 1 million-quantum-bit machine.\u201d In February 2025, it announced Omega<\/a>, a quantum photonic chipset manufactured at GlobalFoundries in New York.<\/p>\n In 2021, PsiQuantum landed a $450 million Series D investment led by BlackRock, which is now said to be leading a potential $750 million round<\/a> into the company at a $6 billion pre-money valuation. Founded by Australian academics, it is also backed<\/a> by the Australian and Queensland governments.<\/p>\n Qilimanjaro<\/a> is a Spanish startup focusing on analog quantum app-specific integrated circuits (QASICs) and taking a full-stack approach including hardware, software, and applications.<\/p>\n Based in Barcelona, it won the Four Years From Now startup competition<\/a> at Mobile World Congress in 2024, going on to receive \u20ac1.5 million in funding from Catalonia<\/a> later that year.<\/p>\n Quandela<\/a> is a French startup founded in 2017 to develop photonic quantum computers.<\/p>\n In November 2023, Quandela raised a \u20ac50 million Series B<\/a> and also received support from\u00a0 the French government through the France 2030 Plan.<\/p>\n Quantinuum<\/a> is a quantum computing company formed in 2021<\/a> by the merger of Cambridge Quantum and Honeywell Quantum Solutions. Its flagship product is the H-Series of trapped-ion quantum computers. In April 2024, together with Microsoft, it announced a breakthrough in error correction<\/a>.<\/p>\n QuantWare<\/a> is a Dutch startup that came up with a proprietary 3D chip architecture, VIO, which focuses on scaling bottlenecks in quantum processing units (QPUs). It started accepting preorders for Contralto-A, its first QPU for quantum error correction, in February 2025.<\/p>\n Founded in 2020, it is a spinout of TU Delft and its affiliated research institute, QuTech. In March 2025, and following a \u20ac6 million seed round<\/a> in 2023, it announced having raised a \u20ac20 million Series A<\/a> (approximately $19.27 million) \u2014 including \u20ac5 million in equity out of the \u20ac7.5 million it previously secured<\/a> from the European Innovation Council (the remainder is a grant).\u00a0<\/p>\n Boston-based QuEra<\/a> is betting on neutral atoms as the \u201cbest approach to achieve large-scale, fault-tolerant quantum computers.\u201d Its products include Aquila, a 256-qubit analog neutral-atom quantum computer launched in 2022 and accessible via Amazon Braket.<\/p>\n QuEra is notably backed by Google<\/a>, which led the $230 debt round that the quantum startup raised in February 2025 \u2014 with a convertible note also backed by SoftBank, Valor, and existing investors.\u00a0<\/p>\n Founded in 2013 by Chad Rigetti,<\/a> Rigetti Computing is a quantum company focusing on superconducting technology. Its range of products include Ankaa-3<\/a> and the upcoming 336-qubit Lyra system<\/a>.<\/p>\n Just like rivals D-Wave and IonQ, Rigetti Computing is a listed company<\/a>; it raised just under $200 million in VC capital before going public via a SPAC in 2021<\/a>.<\/p>\n In February 2025, it signed a strategic partnership<\/a> with Taiwan-based Quanta Computer, which is set to invest $35 million and purchase shares of Rigetti, while both companies invest more than $100 million each over the next five years to accelerate the development and commercialization of superconducting quantum computing.<\/p>\n U.S. quantum startup SEEQC<\/a> \u2014 an acronym for \u201cscalable, energy efficient quantum computing\u201d \u2014 is a spinout of chip company Hypres<\/a>, which was itself established by former employees of IBM\u2019s superconducting electronics division.\u00a0<\/p>\n In 2023, SEEQC announced a partnership with Nvidia<\/a> to build an \u201call-digital, ultra-low-latency chip-to-chip link between quantum computers and GPUs.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n In January 2025, SEEQC raised a $30 million round of funding<\/a> co-led by Booz Allen Ventures and Japanese-European VC firm NordicNinja. <\/p>\n Other backers include Merck\u2019s corporate venture capital arm, M Ventures. SEEQC is leading the U.K.-supported QuPharma project to explore how quantum computing can accelerate drug discovery, in partnership with BASF and Merck.<\/p>\n SpinQ<\/a> is a Chinese startup founded in 2018 that develops quantum computers. It claims that some of them are portable<\/a> and making use of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR).<\/p>\n Xanadu<\/a> is a Canadian startup<\/a> aiming to build quantum computers through a photonic approach. In January 2025, it introduced Aurora<\/a>, a 12-qubit system including 35 photonic chips.<\/p>\n Founded in 2016, Xanadu raised some $275 million to date, including a $100 million Series C in November 2022<\/a> at a $1 billion valuation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\nAlice & Bob<\/h2>\n
Atom Computing<\/h2>\n
Amazon<\/h2>\n
D-Wave<\/h2>\n
EeroQ<\/h2>\n
Fujitsu & RIKEN<\/h2>\n
Google<\/h2>\n
IBM<\/h2>\n
Intel<\/h2>\n
IonQ<\/h2>\n
IQM<\/h2>\n
Microsoft<\/h2>\n
Pasqal<\/h2>\n
PsiQuantum<\/h2>\n
Qilimanjaro<\/h2>\n
Quandela<\/h2>\n
Quantinuum<\/h2>\n
QuantWare<\/h2>\n
QuEra\u00a0<\/h2>\n
Rigetti Computing<\/h2>\n
SEEQC<\/h2>\n
SpinQ<\/h2>\n
Xanadu<\/h2>\n