How far quantum got

DARPA runs the one programme that checks the quantum industry's claims. Here is how far each got.

Numbers as of 8 Sept 2026

The full story

The Quantum Benchmarking Initiative asks a single question: can any approach to quantum computing reach what DARPA calls utility-scale - computational value exceeding cost - by 2033. It is the only public scorecard not written by the companies being scored.

Stage A opened in April 2025 with 17 companies named. On 6 November 2025, 11 went through to Stage B. Five stopped there: Rigetti, HPE, Alice & Bob, Atlantic Quantum (since absorbed into Google) and Oxford Ionics (since bought by IonQ).

Above Stage B sits Stage C - verification of an industrially useful quantum computer. Two companies are in it, Microsoft and PsiQuantum, and they got there through US2QC, a separate DARPA programme whose final phase has the same goal. Stage C decisions for the Stage B group are expected in the last quarter of 2026.

D-Wave, a company worth about $6 billion, is not in the programme at all. It was not on the Stage A list.

Two things this picture does not say. DARPA states plainly that not advancing does not mean a company never will. And a stage is a judgement about a technical plan, not about a share price.