Overview
- PsiQuantum announced a $125 million agreement with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, its largest U.S. government award to date, to fund on-site evaluation of its hardware and software.
- The deal expands PsiQuantum’s role in DARPA’s Quantum Benchmarking Initiative, a program that aims to determine whether commercial approaches can deliver industrially useful quantum computers by 2033.
- PsiQuantum, which announced the deal on Wednesday, said DARPA reviewers have already examined designs, prototype reports, fabrication and demonstrations as part of a multi-stage validation process.
- The company uses a photonics approach with chips manufactured at GlobalFoundries in New York and still projects a first commercial-scale machine around 2030 while government benchmarking continues.
- The agreement builds on prior DARPA support and a proposed $100 million Commerce Department CHIPS equity stake that is not final, and it strengthens private and public backing after PsiQuantum’s $1 billion fundraise and recent leadership moves.