PsiQuantum has signed a $125 million agreement with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency under the Quantum Benchmarking Initiative, an effort to evaluate commercial pathways to utility-scale quantum computing.
The company is one of two in Stage C, QBI’s final stage meant to verify and validate the company’s approach to building, deploying and operating its utility-scale quantum computers as designed.
“DARPA’s Quantum Benchmarking Initiative is one of the most comprehensive and rigorous government programs for evaluating emerging technology that I have ever seen,” said Victor Peng, CEO of PsiQuantum.
“Their widely respected team of experts has stress-tested PsiQuantum’s approach, provided an independent and clear-eyed assessment and validation of our designs and our teams, and ultimately made our company and technology all the better for it.”
This performance-based award will test and evaluate PsiQuantum’s utility-scale hardware designs, critical components, system-level performance and software development. PsiQuantum will be able to invest in essential infrastructure at its facilities in Milpitas, California, and Chicago, Illinois, as it works to build utility-scale, fault-tolerant quantum computers.
“Since our first engagement with DARPA several years ago, we have been delighted to give their team unparalleled access to our most sensitive designs, performance data, and plans,” said Dr. Pete Shadbolt, co-founder and chief scientific officer of PsiQuantum.
“The QBI program has been admirably skeptical by design. Expert scrutiny from DARPA has put us to the test and significantly strengthened our plans. We are very grateful for the ongoing partnership.”
DARPA selected PsiQuantum in January 2023 for the first stage of the Underexplored Systems for Utility-Scale Quantum Computing program, a QBI predecessor.
In January 2024, PsiQuantum entered the second stage, and in February 2025, it advanced to Stage C of QBI. In September 2025, the company announced a $31.8 million agreement to continue on-site testing and evaluation under Stage C.
Under the new $125 million tasking, PsiQuantum and DARPA are expanding the scope and pace of QBI’s validation and verification work across hardware and architecture, software and applications, the company said.
