Quantum News Nexus

This week’s news from around the industry:

The US Department of Energy (DoE), which has committed more than $1 billion to quantum development in the past few years, launched a $215 million competition “to demonstrate the world’s first fault-tolerant scientifically relevant quantum computers (SRQCs),” according to a press release. The Quantum Genesis Q Competition is looking for proposals to deploy quantum computers “with at least 100 logical qubits that are capable of performing hundreds of millions fault-tolerant operations and scientific demonstration programs.”

By name, this competition appears tied to the Genesis Mission initiative announced last December by the Trump administration. It could also be viewed as more follow-up to the Trump administration Executive Order on “Ushering in the Next Frontier of Quantum Innovation” from this past June. 

As noted, the DoE has laid out a lot of funding over the years for different quantum projects. For example, it announced $625 million in funding for National Quantum Information Science Research Centers last November. By comparison, this competition is smaller, with the bigger funding amounts back-loaded. Per the press release, it’s a two-phase competition: “Phase I will provide fixed awards for early milestones, worth up to $1.5 million per awardee.  Phase II will consist of a $100 million general incentive pool to be split amongst awardees that can demonstrate a first-generation SRQC with at least 100 logical qubits, along with two bonus incentive pools, each worth $50 million, for awardees that can demonstrate 150 and 200 logical qubits.”

Many companies are of course progressing on their own fault-tolerant roadmaps, and it is unclear if this competition will lure the ones that are pretty far along–IBM, QuEra, IonQ, just to mention a few–or some that we have not yet heard much from and could really make use of the modest Phase 1 funding. 

I’m starting to get the feeling we are in for a crazy couple of years, with competitions like this “discovering” companies that claim the ability to demonstrate fault-tolerant quantum computing, and some of the larger firms gearing up for a marketing battle in which they will rush out their own claims of fault-tolerance, all of which could vary by small degrees. Some of these claims may not hold up to closer inspection.

In any case, applications for this competition are due Oct. 19, so get cracking. The DoE will hold a virtual informational webinar for potential Quantum Genesis Q Competition applicants news week on Sept. 25 at 1:00 p.m. ET.

EigenQ, Inc., an Austin, Texas, quantum company which last month announced an intention to go public via a merger with special purpose acquisition company Silicon Valley Acquisition Corp. (SVAQ) (Nasdaq: SVAQ), said it entered into a securities purchase agreement with “an institutional investor” that will translate to about $45 million in funding.

The financing is in the form of a convertible note, “of which approximately $22.5 million was funded upfront with the remaining expected to fund at completion of the previously announced Business Combination between EigenQ and SVAQ,” according to a press release. 

EigenQ said the net proceeds of the financing will accelerate commercialization of its quantum-safe security portfolio, expand delivery capacity alongside its OEM and channel partners, continue R&D across quantum security, communications, networking and sensing, and for working capital and general corporate purposes.

Pasqal last month became the most recent quantum company to go public via a SPAC merger, and several other quantum firms have gone public in 2026. With the recent rise in concerns over AI and quantum security, and accelerating timelines for adoption of quantum-safe security techniques, could we see a few more security-specific quantum companies take this route in the year ahead?

UK-based Riverlane announced it will open a US headquarters in the area of College Park Maryland. Perhaps it was persuaded by longtime partner and College Park denizen IonQ? Riverlane has partnerships with other US firms and also has an office in Boston. Demand for its specialty in the field of quantum error correction certainly is ramping up quickly, so it’s fair to expect more US deals to come for Riverlane.

IQM Quantum Computers of Finland announced what is believed to be the first sale of an on-premises quantum computer in South America. The El Dorado Research Institute in Brazil will house a 5-qubit IQM Spark, a machine specially designed for research deployments, at its Campinas headquarters and will also access IQM’s 54-qubit cloud-based system, pairing on-premises hardware with larger-scale capability via the cloud, according to an IQM press release. Up to this point, researchers in the region only have used quantum computers via the cloud.