Quantum computing has long been declared "near", but now several companies are determined to use it as a commercial reality and hopefully address complex problems outside the scope of classical computers.
From medicine and cybersecurity to materials science and chemistry, the issues discussed are broad. But first, there are very practical problems to be solved, such as developing chips that can reliably accommodate a large number of qubits - the abbreviation of qubits, qubits, basic information units in quantum computing.
As usual, tech giants like Google and Microsoft are at the forefront in a high-risk tech competition in an uncertain time frame. However, startups will also play an important role, especially addressing bottlenecks such as connectivity and error correction, which are crucial for scaling quantum systems.
But some startups and smaller tech companies are embracing Chip Challenge challenges head-on and worth mentioning in the more compelling work of industry giants. Although large-scale technical projects often have the highest quantum counts, rethinking design from first principles and using different approaches may yield equally promising results.
Here are some of the companies behind the major quantum chip projects worth tracking:
Akhetonics is a German photonics startup that works in all-optical, general-purpose chips, a counter-trend bet in areas where narrower applications are the most concerned. This bold version and its first principle approach helped the company raise €6 million in seed financing in November 2024 by Matterwave Ventures.
Alice & Bob is a French startup that raised $104 million in Series B financing in January 2025 to continue working to build a “tolerant” quantum computer.
Unlike companies that focus only on chips, Alice & Bob is developing a complete quantum computing system. To do this, it relies on Cat Pier, a superconducting terminal designed to reduce errors and simplify error correction.
Atom Computing is an American company that builds a quantum computer with an array of neutral atoms that are optically captured.
At the Microsoft Ignite 2024 conference, Microsoft and Atom Computing announced plans to launch commercial quantum computers in 2025.
Amazon officially joined the quantum chip competition in early 2025, when AWS introduced Ocelot, developed in partnership with California Institute of Technology. Although this is the company's first quantum chip, AWS has previously partnered with D-Wave, Ionq, Rigetti and others to launch Braket, a quantum computing service.
D-Wave is a quantum computing company whose latest flagship system (Advantage2 prototype) relies on a process called quantum annealing that uses quantum physics to find the most stable, lowest arrangement of energy elements to find the best mixture for a given problem.
Founded in 1999, D-Wave is a derivative product from the University of British Columbia in Canada and is now a listed company listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
Illinois-based EeroQ is a helium bet ride on quantum chip designs. The company made a $1.1 million commitment in September 2024 to expand its headquarters in Humboldt Park, Chicago after raising $7.25 million in seed financing in 2022 and gaining regional public support.
In April 2025, Fujitsu and Japanese research firm Riken announced that it had developed 256 Quit superconducting quantum computers at the Riken RQC-Fujitsu Cooperation Center, up from 64 Qubit iterations in 2023.
In December 2024, Google announced its latest quantum computing chip Willow.
Google hasn't stopped saying Willow is better than its predecessor Sycamore, or described it as a "major breakthrough in quantum error correction." In a statement that made headlines, Google Quantum AI founder Hartmut Neven wrote that Willow's performance makes the concept of "quantum computing happens in many parallel universes."
IBM's quantum efforts include Condor, its landmark superconducting chip for scaling up to 1,121 QUATs, while Heron (Heron) is a 156 Qubit processor focused on improving performance and lower error rates.
Intel is developing quantum computers based on silicon spin size. In June 2023, it unveiled the tunnel waterfall of 12 Qubit’s research chips and said the next-generation quantum chip based on the tunnel waterfall is expected to be released in 2024, but that has not happened.
IONQ is a publicly listed U.S. company that develops included ionic quantum computers, including IONQ FORTE. After it was made public through SPAC in late 2021, it acquired a network entangled by Canadian network experts.
IQM, a Finnish startup that built superconducting quantum computers and a rotation of Aalto University and VTT Technology Research Centre, received funding from commercial Finnish government agencies before receiving additional support from the EIC Accelerator program.
In 2022, IQM raised €128 million in the A2 Series funding led by the World Fund, adding €39 million led by Mig Fonds, which was raised in 2020 as part of the AS Series A at the time. This second batch includes a portion of a previously announced €35 million European investment loan.
In February 2025, Microsoft launched Majoraana, a quantum chip that uses topological core architecture. Microsoft previously announced that it is expected to build a quantum supercomputer within 10 years.
Pasqal is a French startup that uses a full-stack method to quantum computing and bet on neutral atoms. In 2019, its co-founders include 2022 Nobel Prize-winning Professors in Physics and Alain Fexport.
In February 2023, Pascal raised €100 million in B financing led by Singapore’s Temasek and participated from existing investors, the Defense Innovation Fund, Daphni and Eni, as well as the European Innovation Council (EIC) Fund (WA'ED VENTURES and BPIFRANCE (through its large venture capital fund).
Psiquantum is a quantum computing startup that uses Photonics technology to build "a million quantum-scale machines." In February 2025, it announced Omega, a quantum photonic chipset made by Globalfoundries in New York.
In 2021, Psiquantum landed a $450 million Series D investment led by BlackRock, which is now said to lead the $750 million, at a pre-finished valuation of $6 billion. It was founded by Australian scholars and also supported by the Australian and Queensland governments.
Qilimanjaro is a Spanish startup focusing on analog quantum application-specific integrated circuits (QASICS) and adopts a full stack approach including hardware, software and applications.
Based in Barcelona, it won a four-year entrepreneurship competition in 2024 at Mobile World Congress and received €1.5 million from Catalonia later that year.
Quandela is a French startup founded in 2017 to develop photonic quantum computers.
In November 2023, Quandela raised 50 million euros of B and received support from the French government through the French 2030 program.
Quantinuum is a quantum computing company established in 2021 by the merger of Cambridge Quantum and Honeywell Quantum Solutions. Its flagship product is the H series of trapped ionic quantum computers. In April 2024, it joined Microsoft in announcing a breakthrough in error correction.
Quantware is a Dutch startup that proposes proprietary 3D chip architecture VIO, which highlights bottlenecks in quantum processing units (QPUs). It began accepting reservations for Controlto-A in February 2025, the first QPU for quantum error correction.
Founded in 2020, it is a rotation of Tu Delft and its affiliated institute Qutech. In March 2025, a €6 million seed round was conducted in 2023, announcing the €20 million A (approximately US$19.27 million) that included €5 million of shares previously received from the European Innovation Commission (the rest is grant).
Boston-based Quera bets on neutral atoms is “the best way to achieve large-scale, tolerant quantum computers.” Its products include Aquila, a 256 Qubit simulated neutral atomic quantum computer that was launched in 2022 and accessible via Amazon Braket.
Quera is especially backed by Google, which led the $230 debt round, which raised $230 in debt at a proposed quantum startup in February 2025, and has been backed by SoftBank, Valor and existing investors.
Founded by Chad Rigetti in 2013, Rigetti Computing is a quantum company focusing on superconducting technology. Its product range includes the Ankaa-3 and the upcoming 336 Qubit Lyra system.
Like competitors D-Wave and Ionq, Rigetti Computing is also a listed company. It raised less than $200 million in venture capital and then made public in 2021 via a SPAC.
In February 2025, it signed a strategic partnership with Taiwan-based Quanta Computer, which will invest $35 million and buy Rigetti's shares, while the two companies have invested more than $100 million each over the next five years to accelerate the development and commercialization of superconducting quantum computing for superconducting quantum computing.
Quantum Startup SeeQC (the acronym for “scalable, energy-saving subcomputing”) in the United States – is a rotation of Chip Company Hypres, which itself was founded by former employees of IBM’s superconducting electronics division.
In 2023, SEEQC announced the establishment of "full digital, ultra-low-latency chip links between quantum computers and GPUs" with NVIDIA.
In January 2025, Seeqc raised $30 million in funding jointly led by Booz Allen Ventures and Japanese European venture capital firm Nordicninja.
Other supporters include Merck's corporate venture capital arm M. SeeQC leads the UK-backed Qupharma project to explore how quantum computing can work with BASF and Merck to accelerate drug discovery.
Spinq is a Chinese startup founded in 2018 that develops quantum computers. It claims some of them are portable and utilizes nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR).
Xanadu is a Canadian startup that aims to build quantum computers through photonic methods. In January 2025, it introduced Aurora, a 12-Q-quantity system that includes 35 photonic chips.
Founded in 2016, Xanadu has raised about $275 million in fundraising so far, including the $100 million Series C in November 2022, with a valuation of $1 billion.