The United States government’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has announced four quantum computing companies selected to advance to Stage C of its Quantum Benchmarking Initiative (QBI).

The companies that have advanced thus far are Atom Computing, Diraq, IBM, and IonQ. They join Microsoft and PsiQuantum, which advanced to Stage C following participation in the Underexplored Systems for Utility-Scale Quantum Computing (US2QC) initiative.

US2QC is a pilot program that was ultimately expanded to become QBI following the two companies’ successful completion of Stages A and B. The final phase of US2QC has the same technical goals as Stage C of QBI, DARPA said.

Stage B participants missing from the Stage C list include Nord Quantique, Photonic Inc., Quantinuum, Quantum Motion, QuEra Computing, Silicon Quantum Computing, and Xanadu. However, in a statement, DARPA said that doesn’t necessarily mean those companies won’t advance, noting that further promotions to subsequent stages are still expected, including additional companies advancing to Stage C in the near future.

“Stage B is about putting the performers’ plans under a microscope: understanding the assumptions, identifying the risks, and determining whether the proposed development paths could plausibly get all the way to utility scale,” said QBI managing director Micah Stoutimore. “Stage C is where we begin moving from plans to proof. Our team will be closely scrutinizing the hardware and systems as they develop to determine whether the technology performs the way the models and roadmaps say it should.”

First launched in mid-2024, DARPA’s QBI program aims to determine whether it's possible to build a fault-tolerant quantum computer within a decade and if any quantum computing approach can achieve utility-scale operation by 2033.

DARPA has previously said QBI is not a competition between companies but instead is looking to evaluate the current landscape of commercial quantum computing efforts and “spot every company on a plausible path to a useful quantum computer.”