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FROM THE EDITOR.

We’re nearing the halfway point of 2025 — often a time to look back and take stock, usually in hopes of finding some guidance for the future.

For quantum, despite some meteoric ups and catastrophic downs — and that was, like, just the first two weeks of January — the trend lines are pointing in the right direction.

In terms of investments, anecdotally, the industry is already approaching three-quarters of last year’s total funding. Infleqtion’s $100 million round this week certainly didn’t hurt that trend. (Read our breakdown below.)

We’re also seeing technological and scientific progress that is — tug by tug — pulling quantum technologies closer to commercialization. Turning quantum from an interesting (and vexing) laboratory problem into practical, real-world solutions remains a key concern for companies.

Evidence of this progress includes startup roadmaps pointing toward “quantum advantage” in the near future — like OQC’s new timeline released this week.

And finally, even though we’re still in the Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum (NISQ) era, the revenues and earnings of quantum companies are rising, as shown in recent quarterly reports.

Still, yesterday — and even today — aren’t always reliable predictors of tomorrow. We’ll have to wait and see what this quantum future looks like.

Have a great weekend!

— Matt, Chief Content Officer at The Quantum Insider

INSIDER BRIEF.

• OQC’s Roadmap

• Photonic Advance

• Solving Solvents

• Roadrunner Consortium to Speed up Deep Tech

• IonQ-Lightsynq Acquisition Finalized

• Harper Court Ventures Announces $25 Million Chicago-based Fund

• Quantum Research Park Gets OK

• Quantum Makes Frances Top Tech List

• Making Nuclear Power Quantum Safe

ANALYST NOTES.

The Noteworthy & Nuanced

It’s our first week of summer and funding & M&A activity is coming in hot. Infleqtion raised $100M in Series C funding to scale its atom-based quantum systems for commercial and government sectors. Backed by investors like SAIC and In-Q-Tel, the company plans to accelerate deployment of quantum sensing, timing, and communication technologies. The successful round strengthens the existing revenue of $30M in 2024 and a $200M customer pipeline.

IonQ isn’t slowing down with acquisitions, recently grabbing Lightsynq Technologies in an all-stock deal involving over 12.3M shares, securing quantum networking IP and talent to advance scalable, modular quantum systems. This follows its acquisitions of Qubitekk and ID Quantique, reinforcing IonQ’s strategy to dominate quantum infrastructure. Lightsynq’s expertise in quantum memory and photonic interconnects will bolster IonQ’s push toward data center-scale systems and future quantum internet applications.

Closing out with philanthropy for dessert, a $21M gift from Thea Berggren will establish the Berggren Center for Quantum Biology and Medicine at the University of Chicago, advancing quantum-enabled diagnostics and therapies. The donation reflects growing interest in applying quantum innovation beyond physics, particularly in healthcare. The initiative aims to train researchers and develop tools that merge quantum sensing with biomedicine. — Alan Kanapin, Analyst at The Quantum Insider

The Research Rundown

This week’s signals point to quantum communication maturing from controlled lab tests to operational, high-risk environments, all while confronting both its potential and its vulnerabilities. To kick things off, researchers demonstrated quantum key distribution inside a live nuclear reactor. The team showed stable key rates, real-time encrypted signal exchange, and even graceful failover modes, all under Purdue’s fully autonomous PUR-1 reactor. As we move toward remote, software-dependent energy systems such as microreactors, secure-by-physics communication may become equal parts preferable and necessary.

But QKD’s potential is not without challenge. A separate analysis of the Micius satellite, long celebrated as a QKD milestone, found a flaw in its implementation. Due to slight but consistent timing mismatches between lasers, signal and decoy photons could be distinguished in more than 98% of cases. That undermines the foundational assumption of decoy-state QKD protocols. The fact that this vulnerability was baked into the satellite’s architecture, with no way to fix it after launch, raises questions about verification standards for quantum technologies deployed in space and elsewhere.

Maneuvering between these two extremes, high-stakes deployments and implementation vulnerabilities, is a growing interest in quantum machine learning for QKD. A new review argues that QML could be used to dynamically optimize protocols, detect anomalies in real time, and even improve quantum random number generation, which are all areas where rigid QKD systems currently struggle. These capabilities are particularly relevant as quantum networks scale and face increasingly noisy, complex environments. Still, major barriers remain as most QML models are not yet optimized for cryptographic use.

While QKD moves into nuclear plants, orbit, and enterprise conversations, we are reminded that as deployment accelerates, so, too, must scrutiny. — Cierra Choucair, Journalist & Analyst at The Quantum Insider

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INSIDER SPOTLIGHT: Infleqtion Raises $100 Million Series C

➡️ Infleqtion raised $100 million in Series C funding to accelerate the commercialization of atom-based quantum computing, sensing, and precision timing systems.

➡️ The company generated $30 million in revenue last year and has a $200 million customer pipeline, with deployments across NASA, the U.S. Department of Defense, and the UK’s National Quantum Computing Centre.

➡️ Strategic investors including SAIC and In-Q-Tel are backing Infleqtion’s expansion into national security, aerospace, and government markets through field-ready systems like atomic clocks and quantum RF communication.

➡️ The round reflects growing institutional confidence in atom-based platforms as deployable quantum technologies with near-term applications in mission-critical environments.

Analyst Commentary

Large funding rounds — the nine-figure variety — are somewhat common now. Infleqtion’s $100 million Series C might pass below the radar. That would be a mistake. This company has a long legacy for turning quantum science into commercial opportunities. They have a real potential to translate quantum research into real-world infrastructure.

At the center of the story is a technology that does not often make headlines and a company that’s not known for flashy press conferences or hyped-up press releases. Infleqtion is focused on commercializing quantum systems built from trapped atoms — the same fundamental building blocks that now underpin programs at NASA, the Department of Defense, and the UK’s National Quantum Computing Centre. With customers already in deployment and a $200 million pipeline, this isn’t a bet on the future. It’s a signal that quantum sensing, navigation, and timing are starting to deliver on promises today.

What sets Infleqtion apart is not just its scientific credibility, but its operational posture. In a sector still dominated by feasibility studies and university partnerships, the company is running dozens of active government and commercial programs. Its atomic clocks — offering 100x improvements over legacy precision systems — are already supporting national security missions. And through its new go-to-market partnership with SAIC, Infleqtion is positioning to embed quantum tools like inertial sensors and quantum RF into broader defense infrastructure.

Infleqtion may be quiet, but enough people — enough of the right people — have taken notice. The investor list reads like a cross-section of the strategic deep tech landscape: In-Q-Tel, SAIC, Breakthrough Victoria, and the National Security Strategic Investment Fund (NSSIF). Add to that an $11M award from the U.S. Department of Defense and a leadership role in Japan’s Quantum Moonshot initiative, and the picture sharpens: Infleqtion is not building general-purpose computers. It is delivering tactical capability.

Even the company’s computing platform — Sqale — is a neutral-atom quantum processor already installed at the UK’s national center. But the firm’s ambitions go beyond hardware. With tools like its Superstaq compiler and Nvidia-backed contextual machine learning platform, Infleqtion is quietly carving out a stack that blends classical acceleration, quantum simulation, and domain-specific AI — particularly in defense and biotech use cases.

Zooming out… This raise is more than runway. It’s a checkpoint in the commercialization arc of quantum technologies. And it reinforces the idea that national security and industrial systems — not just finance or pharmaceuticals — may be where quantum finds its first sustained foothold.

To be clear, Infleqtion isn’t heavily involved in quantum error correction or staking out supremacy claims. Its model is pragmatic: field-deployable systems, proven engineering, and direct government partnerships. In a sector long marked by timelines stretching into the 2030s, this is a company making revenue now.

Whether this model scales globally — or remains a specialized edge in high-security domains — is still to be seen. But in the quantum landscape, Infleqtion is an early proof point that commercial success may come not from waiting for perfect qubits, but from building around the atoms we already understand.

And for investors, governments, and system integrators looking to make quantum real today — that distinction matters.They’re laying the groundwork for what’s next in industry.

DATA SPOTLIGHT.

Quantinuum has achieved a major milestone in quantum computing, becoming the first commercial system to reach a 2-qubit gate fidelity of 99.914(3)%, surpassing the “three nines” threshold of 99.9% fidelity. Additionally, its Quantum Volume—a key performance benchmark—has reached 1,048,576 (2²⁰), setting a new high in the industry and significantly outpacing competitors. These advances place Quantinuum at the forefront of scalable, high-fidelity quantum computing technology. Will the company also be the first to breach the “four nines” (99.99%)? That remains to be seen.

INDUSTRY HIGHLIGHTS.

💡 Xanadu achieved the generation of error-resistant GKP states on a silicon-based chip. Using high-efficiency detectors and low-loss silicon nitride waveguides, the experiment advances scalable, room-temperature quantum computing with modular, fiber-compatible architectures.

🇺🇸 Qblox has opened its North America headquarters in Downtown Boston as a step in its global expansion and strengthening U.S.–EU quantum collaboration. The new hub will support deployment of scalable, high-fidelity quantum control stacks across the U.S. and Canada.

💎 Fraunhofer IAF has deployed Europe’s first room-temperature quantum accelerator using diamond-based NV centers, integrating Quantum Brilliance’s QB-QDK2.0 system into its HPC infrastructure. Housed in a standard server rack without cryogenics, the compact platform enables hybrid quantum-classical computing and will soon be available to scientific and industrial partners.

🗺️ Oxford Quantum Circuits has released an ambitious roadmap aiming for 200 logical qubits by 2028 and 50,000 by 2034. Claiming a 10x efficiency advantage in qubit error correction, OQC targets early commercial impact in sectors like finance, defense, and cybersecurity.

🥼 A $21 million gift from Thea Berggren will establish the Berggren Center for Quantum Biology and Medicine at the University of Chicago, uniting quantum engineering with biomedical research to develop next-generation diagnostics and treatments.

🇮🇳 Karnataka has approved ₹48 crore (~$5.78M USD) for the second phase of its Quantum Research Park at IISc Bengaluru, intended to boost R&D, workforce training, and startup incubation in quantum technologies. The initiative will support 55 projects, 13 startups, and 15 faculty-led efforts.

💰️ Quantum investment in the first five months of 2025 has already hit 70% of 2024’s total, driven by fewer but larger and more strategic funding rounds. Commercial orders for quantum computers reached $854 million in 2024—up 70% from 2023—signaling a shift toward broader adoption, longer-term contracts, and full-stack deployments.

🤝 Pasqal has acquired Canadian photonic chipmaker AEPONYX to integrate advanced photonic integrated circuits into its neutral-atom quantum computing platform. The move enhances qubit control, stability, and scalability. AEPONYX’s 27-person team and silicon photonics IP will now support Pasqal’s push to scale from hundreds to thousands of qubits with chip-based light manipulation.

🇨🇳 China has launched a 2030 metrology action plan to advance strategic capabilities in quantum sensing, semiconductor measurement, and rare earth technologies, aiming to reduce reliance on foreign standards amid intensifying U.S.-China tech tensions. The plan targets over 50 core metrology technologies, supports military-aligned quantum applications like GPS-free navigation.

🇫🇮 Finland will lead a new EU defense initiative called Quest to explore military applications of quantum technologies under the Pesco framework, with partners including Germany, Denmark, Latvia, and Italy. The project will focus on encryption-breaking, GPS-free positioning, and missile defense.

🖥️ SemiQon has advanced scalable quantum computing by demonstrating large-scale characterization of quantum dot qubits using its ultra-low-power cryogenic CMOS technology. By integrating control electronics with silicon-28 qubits on a single chip, SemiQon reduces power consumption by 100x and minimizes external hardware.

🇪🇺 The EU has released a unified strategy to position Europe as a global quantum leader by integrating research, infrastructure, and commercialization efforts. Key proposals include Quantum Competence Clusters, EuroHPC-linked computing networks, secure communications, chip manufacturing pilot lines, and a Competitive Procurement Challenge for fault-tolerant quantum computing.

🎲 Quantum Dice has launched an Authorised Partner Programme to expand global access to its DISC™-enabled quantum random number generation products. Aimed at resellers and systems integrators, the program offers sales support, training, lead sharing, and early access to QRNG innovations.

💸 Roadrunner Venture Studios and the New Mexico State Investment Council have launched the Roadrunner Venture Consortium to connect deep tech startups—spanning quantum, AI, semiconductors, and more—with top U.S. investors and national labs.

🇫🇷 Alice & Bob and Pasqal have been named to France’s 2025 Tech Next40/120 list, signaling strong government support for scaling quantum technologies. Alice & Bob, developing self-correcting cat qubits, was selected for the elite Next40 group, while Pasqal, known for its neutral atom quantum processors, joins the broader French Tech 120 cohort following its recent photonics acquisition.

🔍️ Grayscale has filed with the SEC to launch a Quantum Computing ETF that will passively track companies advancing quantum technologies via the S&P Kensho Global Quantum Computing Technologies Index.

EVENTS.

Now -July 30- -- Womanium & WISER QUANTUM PROGRAM 2025. The 2025 Theme: Quantum solvers: algorithms for the world's hardest problems will be held Mondays & Wednesdays from 10:30 -12:00 ET. Register here.

June 9-12 -- Adiabatic Quantum Computing (AQC) 2025 Conference will be held at the campus of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada from June 9-12, 2025. The AQC conference series, now in its 14th year, is an annual international gathering of researchers working on diverse aspects of quantum computing.

June 18-19 -- Quantum Now|ICI Quantique will be held in Montréal, Québec, Canada. Where strategic leaders secure their quantum future!

Aug. 31– Sept. 5 -- IEEE Quantum Week 2025 will be held in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Sept. 16-18 -- Quantum World Congress 2025 will be held at Capital One Hall in Greater Washington. The event is a chance for the world’s quantum ecosystem comes together to bring a quantum-ready future into focus.

Sept. 24-25 -- Q2B25 Paris at Cité des Sciences et de l’Industrie, Paris, France.

Sept. 29-Oct. 1 -- Quantum.Tech Europe is taking place in Rotterdam, Netherlands. The event will bring together the whole quantum supply chain to drive forward the commercial applications of Quantum Technologies.

Oct. 8 -- The Fifth Anniversary of The City Quantum & AI Summit at the Mansion House in the City of London takes place this year with the subtitle Race for Growth.

Oct. 13-17 -- Quantum Reference Frames 2025 will bring together leading experts on quantum reference frames and the many related subjects in the first focused event in the new era of quantum frame covariance. QRF 2025 is co-funded by the Quantum Information Structure of Spacetime consortium.

Oct. 19-21 -- Q+AI will be held in New York City. Uncovering the coming wave of Quantum + AI, including 50+ speakers, daily mentoring sessions and 16 sessions, one continuous track.

Nov. 10-12 -- European Quantum Technologies Conference 2025 will be held at Øksnehallen, Copenhagen, Denmark.

Dec. 1-4 -- QUEST-IS 2025 Quantum Engineering Sciences and Technologies for Industry and Services From Quantum Engineering to Applications for Citizens. EDF Lab, Paris-Saclay, France.