Neutral atom quantum computing: which startup is ahead?
In our quantum computing market deck, you will find everything you need to understand the market
SUMMARY
QuEra is ahead in neutral-atom quantum computing today, but only narrowly: Atom Computing is closing the technical gap fast, while Pasqal already leads the commercial race.
The top three are not winning the same contest. QuEra has the broadest fault-tolerance record, Atom offers the largest gate-based machine sold as a product, and Pasqal has delivered the most systems to paying institutions.
Fault-tolerant progress deserves the most weight because raw atom counts can be misleading. A large array matters far less if it cannot repeatedly detect errors, replace lost atoms and preserve logical information through useful operations.
QuEra’s lead comes from technical completeness rather than one record. Its published work combines below-threshold error correction, logical teleportation, magic-state distillation, atom movement and continuous reloading inside a coherent architecture.
Atom Computing has the strongest chance of changing the ranking. Its AC1000 starts with more than 1,200 physical qubits, and its latest toric-code work shows repeated correction and atom replacement over deep cycles rather than a single clean demonstration.
Pasqal is further ahead as a business than its third-place ranking suggests. It has audited commercial revenue, seven installed QPUs, three more in production and named customers using machines inside industrial and supercomputing environments.
Customer access splits the field in another way. QuEra is the easiest platform to try through Amazon Braket, while Pasqal has the strongest record of dedicated on-premises deployments; Atom’s commercial promise still depends heavily on the QuNorth installation working as intended.
Funding no longer settles the argument. Infleqtion and Pasqal have the largest reported capital pools, yet QuEra and Atom have converted less disclosed capital into stronger evidence on the central technical problem.
The most defensible moat belongs to QuEra because its advantage spans hardware architecture, control methods, fault-tolerance experiments, public cloud access and years of outside use. Copying one experiment is possible; reproducing the whole stack is much harder.
Our ranking is QuEra first, Atom Computing second, Pasqal third, Infleqtion fourth and planqc fifth. The order could change quickly, but Atom needs peer-reviewed and customer-operated logical performance, while Pasqal needs digital fault-tolerance results that match its commercial execution.
Neutral atom quantum computing: which startup is ahead?
QuEra is ahead overall today, with Atom Computing second and Pasqal a very close third.
Which neutral-atom quantum computing startups are really in the race?
QuEra, Atom Computing, Pasqal, Infleqtion and planqc are the five companies we would compare today.
All five build complete quantum-computing systems based on individually controlled neutral atoms. We leave out businesses focused mainly on lasers, software, quantum networking, clocks or sensors, unless they also operate a full computing platform.
The comparison needs one qualification. Infleqtion is now publicly listed and sells clocks, sensors and software alongside quantum computers. Pasqal is also pursuing a public listing. Both still belong in the competitive field because their neutral-atom computing operations remain central to their technology plans.
Funding figures are especially easy to misuse here. A completed venture round, government contract, proposed convertible financing and SPAC proceeds do not carry the same certainty. We therefore show what has been publicly disclosed and explain the main caveat.
| Startup | Main neutral-atom approach | Disclosed capital | Important caveat |
|---|---|---|---|
| QuEra | Rubidium systems spanning analog simulation, gate-based computing and fault tolerance | At least $247 million across its disclosed $17 million launch funding and later financing of more than $230 million | Government programs and commercial revenue are excluded |
| Atom Computing | Universal gate-based systems using ytterbium nuclear-spin qubits | More than $300 million announced | The total includes a planned $100 million U.S. government award under a letter of intent |
| Pasqal | Commercial analog systems with a roadmap toward digital fault tolerance | More than $550 million raised or committed, according to its investor presentation | The figure includes committed convertible financing linked to its proposed listing |
| Infleqtion | Cesium computers, quantum software and a wider atom-based product portfolio | At least $738 million across its disclosed Series B, Series C and listing proceeds | Most of the capital supports a broader company spanning computing, sensing, timing and software |
| planqc | Digital strontium systems for research centers and industrial projects | €50 million in equity funding, plus almost €50 million across two major German computer programs | Contracts fund specific systems and should not be treated as unrestricted equity |
This market map, featured in our quantum computing market deck, highlights top companies and startups in the quantum computing market
Is there a clear neutral-atom quantum computing leader today?
QuEra is ahead overall today, although Atom Computing and Pasqal are close enough to threaten that position from opposite directions.
QuEra leads on the breadth of its fault-tolerant research. Atom Computing has the largest gate-based machine offered as a commercial product, while Pasqal has installed more complete quantum computers and generated more visible computing revenue.
The winner partly depends on what a customer needs. A buyer seeking a machine now would probably choose Pasqal. A research group wanting public cloud access would start with QuEra. An organization betting on maximum physical scale and Microsoft-backed logical qubits would look closely at Atom.
We give greater weight to fault-tolerant progress and product maturity because useful error-corrected computing remains the central technical prize. On that basis, QuEra holds a narrow lead over a strong top three.
If you want more recent data on this point, please see our latest quantum computing market report.
Which startup is closest to a fault-tolerant neutral-atom computer?
QuEra is currently closest to a complete fault-tolerant neutral-atom computer, with Atom Computing now emerging as a serious second.
A fault-tolerant machine must repeatedly detect errors, correct them, perform useful operations and replace lost atoms without destroying the calculation.
A Nature paper involving QuEra’s hardware used as many as 448 atoms to combine these pieces inside one architecture. The experiments achieved error-correction performance 2.14 times below threshold, kept as many as 96 logical qubits active simultaneously and ran hundreds of logical teleportations. Separate work demonstrated logical magic-state distillation, which is needed for a fully universal fault-tolerant computer.
Atom Computing made the largest recent jump. Its latest toric-code experiment ran as many as 90 error-correction cycles while measuring, replacing and reloading lost atoms. The larger code also produced a lower logical error rate than the smaller one during the tested cycles.
Microsoft had already created 24 entangled logical qubits and performed computations on 28 logical qubits using Atom’s hardware. Atom’s newest result remains a preprint, while QuEra has already shown more of the complete computation stack in peer-reviewed work. That keeps QuEra in front for now.
As this chart shows, and as featured in our quantum computing market deck, search interest in quantum computing has grown significantly
Which startup has the biggest neutral-atom quantum computer customers can use?
Atom Computing currently offers the biggest gate-based neutral-atom computer as a commercial product.
Atom’s AC1000 platform contains more than 1,200 physical qubits. It supports mid-circuit measurement, qubit reset, conditional operations and flexible connectivity between qubits. These features are more relevant to universal quantum computing than a large array that can only perform a narrower analog simulation.
QuEra has operated an array containing more than 3,000 atoms continuously for over two hours. Researchers repeatedly removed and replaced sections of the array while preserving the stored quantum states. The experiment addressed one of the practical problems facing neutral atoms: individual atoms eventually disappear from their traps.
That 3,000-atom array is research hardware rather than a product available to customers. QuEra’s current Aquila and Gemini systems contain 256 and 260 physical qubits respectively.
Pasqal has assembled a low-defect register of 1,024 atoms, while its installed commercial machines generally operate with roughly 100 to 200-plus qubits. Planqc is building a 1,000-qubit system for the Leibniz Supercomputing Centre, but the machine remains under development.
Atom therefore leads on the largest gate-based system that an institution can order today.
Which neutral-atom machine performs best, rather than simply having the most qubits?
QuEra has the strongest overall performance record today because its results cover physical gates, logical operations, error correction and externally accessible hardware.
QuEra and its academic collaborators previously reported two-qubit gate fidelity of about 99.5%. More recent experiments showed that stronger error-correcting codes reduced errors as the system grew. That below-threshold behavior is more meaningful than the raw number of atoms.
A separate academic benchmark compared QuEra’s Aquila processor with Pasqal’s Fresnel system on optimization problems reaching 102 and 85 qubits respectively. Aquila performed better across the tested quantum-adiabatic and QAOA workloads. The study remains a preprint and covers only one type of problem, but direct comparisons between commercial neutral-atom machines are still rare.
Atom Computing has impressive underlying hardware. Its nuclear-spin qubits can retain quantum information for unusually long periods, and its recent toric-code results show that the platform can preserve logical information through repeated correction and atom replacement. Wider independent access would make Atom’s performance easier to compare.
Infleqtion’s peer-reviewed experiment achieved 99.33% fidelity for an encoded Bell state, compared with 91.71% for the underlying physical version. Across random circuits, logical encoding reduced the measured error by around 15 times.
Pasqal has achieved strong analog results and recently reported a one-to-one simulation of a 256-site magnetic material. Its investor materials describe this as a quantum-advantage result, although broader independent replication is still needed.
If you want more recent data on this point, please see our latest quantum computing market report.
This chart, included in our quantum computing market deck, illustrates yearly VC funding for quantum computing startups
Which neutral-atom platform is easiest for customers to access and justify?
QuEra is currently the easiest neutral-atom platform to try, while Pasqal has the strongest case for customers that want a dedicated machine.
Aquila has been available through Amazon Braket since 2022. A researcher can create an AWS account, submit a job and pay for usage without buying an entire system. This removes the need for a special facility, an internal hardware team and a large upfront commitment.
Pasqal provides cloud and institutional access through national computing programs and operates machines connected to major European supercomputing infrastructure. Its systems have also passed through several institutional procurement processes, showing that large customers will pay for private access and on-premises deployment.
Atom is selling on-premises systems and is installing its first commercial machine with logical qubits for QuNorth in Denmark. The project is more ambitious than an ordinary cloud experiment, although wider users will have to wait until the system becomes operational.
Infleqtion has delivered an operational machine to the United Kingdom’s National Quantum Computing Centre. Approved researchers and industry partners can use the national testbed. Planqc’s largest computers are still being built for German institutions.
Atom could eventually offer attractive economics per logical qubit because AC1000 starts with a much larger physical-qubit pool than current QuEra and Pasqal products. That advantage depends on Atom proving that its preferred error-correcting codes work efficiently inside customer systems.
No company publishes enough pricing, uptime, maintenance or service-cost information for a proper total-cost comparison. For now, QuEra wins on low-risk access and Pasqal on proven on-premises adoption.
| Startup | What users can reach now | Access level |
|---|---|---|
| QuEra | The 256-qubit Aquila system on Amazon Braket, plus the Gemini installation in Japan | Broadest public access |
| Pasqal | Several installed QPUs, institutional cloud access and national HPC programs | Strong access, but spread across different programs |
| Atom Computing | Commercial on-premises product and selected partner access | Limited while major customer systems are installed |
| Infleqtion | Operational UK national testbed and selected programs | Available to approved users |
| planqc | Development partnerships and application projects | Large hardware systems are still under construction |
Which neutral-atom startup has built the strongest business?
Pasqal has built the strongest business specifically around selling and operating neutral-atom quantum computers.
Pasqal’s June 2026 investor presentation reported €16.5 million in commercial revenue for 2025, up from €3.5 million one year earlier. That represents roughly 4.7 times more commercial revenue. Including grants, total revenue increased from €14.3 million to €23.7 million.
The same presentation reported more than €66 million in booked and awarded business, including grants, across more than 25 quantum-solutions contracts. Pasqal also had seven QPUs installed and three more in production. Some of that future business will take years to recognize, but the company has moved well beyond isolated pilots.
Infleqtion reported $9.5 million in first-quarter revenue, up 14%, and raised its full-year guidance to at least $40 million. That gives Infleqtion the strongest conventional financial reporting in the group. However, clocks, sensors, defense systems and software generate a substantial part of its revenue, so we cannot identify how much comes from neutral-atom computers.
QuEra disclosed $11 million in revenue when it emerged from stealth in 2021, but it has not released comparable recent figures. Atom has confirmed the sale of its first commercial on-premises computer to QuNorth without disclosing the price. Planqc has large government-backed contracts, including a €29 million DLR program, although these remain development projects rather than repeat product sales.
If you want more recent data on this point, please see our latest quantum computing market report.
This chart, included in our quantum computing market deck, looks at IonQ’s strategy in quantum computing
Which neutral-atom startup is gaining ground fastest now?
Atom Computing is the fastest-rising challenger right now.
During its recent run, Atom demonstrated repeated toric-code error correction, raised a $100 million Series C, signed a letter of intent for another $100 million from the U.S. Department of Commerce and moved its first sold machine toward installation. The company also added collaborations with Cisco, NVIDIA, Nu Quantum and Phasecraft.
These developments support one coherent strategy. Atom is building large gate-based machines, improving their logical performance and preparing to connect several processors when one machine becomes too small. The Nu Quantum work, for example, focuses on optical links that could join separate Atom processors.
Pasqal is accelerating fastest commercially. Its revenue expansion, new customer agreements and production pipeline show that its installed systems are creating a real sales operation. The company has also hired a former Hewlett Packard Enterprise HPC and AI sales leader to push deployments across Europe, the Middle East and Asia-Pacific.
QuEra remains highly active. It expanded its AWS relationship, introduced a 2028 fault-tolerant product and published a new architecture with Los Alamos designed to reduce the hardware needed for early fault-tolerant simulations.
Atom still trails QuEra on the breadth of its published fault-tolerant stack and Pasqal on delivered systems, but it has narrowed both gaps faster than any other challenger.
Which startup has the best neutral-atom quantum customers and partners?
Pasqal has the strongest list of actual hardware buyers, while QuEra and Atom Computing have secured the most influential technology-platform partners.
Pasqal has placed machines with organizations including Aramco and CINECA. Its CINECA system contains more than 140 qubits and is designed to work alongside the Leonardo supercomputer. Aramco hosts a Pasqal computer in its data-center environment, giving the company a foothold with one of the world’s largest industrial groups.
Pasqal has also moved beyond early finance experiments with Crédit Agricole CIB. Their latest agreement focuses on operational use in capital-markets activities after several years of joint research. LG Electronics, EDF, Thales, Sumitomo and CMA CGM add further industrial credibility.
QuEra’s strongest relationships sit closer to the computing stack. AWS distributes Aquila and plans to make the future Libra system available through Amazon Braket. Google, NVIDIA, AIST, Los Alamos and DARPA give QuEra access to hardware expertise, supercomputing environments and advanced research programs.
Atom’s partnership with Microsoft is arguably the most valuable single technical relationship in the category. Microsoft provides the logical-qubit software and enterprise platform around Atom’s hardware. QuNorth gives Atom a real customer installation, while Cisco and Nu Quantum support its longer-term distributed-computing plans.
Infleqtion has strong government customers, including NASA and the UK’s National Quantum Computing Centre. Planqc’s deepest relationships are with Germany’s DLR, the Leibniz Supercomputing Centre, Airbus and ESA.
This chart, included in our quantum computing market deck, illustrates yearly funding for quantum computing startups
Who can actually manufacture and deliver neutral-atom quantum computers at scale?
Pasqal is currently the only startup delivering neutral-atom quantum computers at something close to an industrial rhythm.
Pasqal’s installed base spans several countries and different customer environments. Its three additional systems in production show that deliveries are overlapping rather than occurring as isolated multiyear projects.
The machines work inside standard data and supercomputing centers, according to Pasqal, and consume less than four kilowatts. Each deployment still requires specialized optics, vacuum equipment, calibration and support, but Pasqal has repeated that process more often than its competitors.
The company has also taken a fresh step upstream. Pasqal now coordinates Q-PLANET, a €50 million European pilot line involving 11 countries. The program aims to industrialize chip-scale components used in neutral-atom computing, sensing and communications. That should help Pasqal secure components and standardize parts of its production process.
QuEra used its large financing round to expand manufacturing infrastructure and doubled its global workforce during 2025. Its continuous-reloading work also tackles a major operating bottleneck. The company still discloses fewer customer installations than Pasqal.
Atom’s AC1000 was designed as an on-premises system, but the QuNorth machine will be its first major test of external installation and long-term support. Infleqtion has delivered one national computing platform and already manufactures several other atom-based products. Planqc must complete its German systems before we can judge whether it can repeat the process.
What can QuEra do that neutral-atom competitors cannot easily copy?
QuEra has the deepest technical moat in neutral-atom quantum computing today.
QuEra’s advantage comes from the way several capabilities work together. Its systems can move atoms between storage, entanglement and readout zones, perform operations on selected groups, detect lost atoms and introduce replacements. The same research program has produced below-threshold correction, logical teleportation, magic-state distillation and continuous atom reloading.
A rival can reproduce one of those experiments. Rebuilding the complete architecture, control software and operating knowledge is much harder.
QuEra also has years of real usage through Amazon Braket. Developers have written programs for Aquila, universities have published experiments on it and AWS has committed to distribute QuEra’s planned fault-tolerant system. That ecosystem remains small by classical-software standards, but it gives QuEra an advantage over hardware that few outsiders can use.
Atom has the strongest alternative moat. Its ytterbium nuclear-spin qubits offer very long coherence, and its large arrays provide room for codes that protect several logical qubits efficiently. Microsoft’s error-correction and cloud software deepen that advantage.
Pasqal’s protection comes from industrial experience. Customer installations, production teams and relationships with supercomputing centers would take years to recreate. Infleqtion controls a broader stack covering hardware, photonics, software and sensing. Planqc has specialist strontium knowledge and unusually close access to Germany’s quantum infrastructure.
QuEra’s moat is the most complete because it joins scientific results, system engineering, software and distribution.
If you want more recent data on this point, please see our latest quantum computing market report.
This chart, included in our quantum computing market deck, compares the main business model options for quantum computing hardware startups
Is funding deciding the neutral-atom quantum computing race?
Funding has stopped being the main differentiator because four neutral-atom contenders now have enough capital to remain serious.
Infleqtion received approximately $528 million in gross proceeds from its public transaction and later reported $569 million in cash and marketable securities. That gives the company the longest visible financial runway, although the money supports its entire quantum portfolio.
Pasqal reports more than $550 million of capital raised or committed. Part of that amount depends on financing connected to its proposed listing, so the final cash available could change. The company already had about €120 million in cash before the transaction proceeds shown in its investor materials.
Atom has announced more than $300 million in total funding. As noted earlier, the total includes a planned government award rather than only closed private capital. QuEra has disclosed at least $247 million from its main funding announcements.
Planqc has raised far less equity, but its government contracts directly finance the construction of major systems. That structure limits how the money can be spent while reducing the amount of venture capital needed to reach delivery.
Capital conversion now tells us more than capital raised. QuEra has turned roughly a quarter-billion dollars into the strongest overall fault-tolerance record. Pasqal has turned its capital into the broadest installed base and the clearest computing revenue. Atom has built a four-figure-qubit product and reached repeated error correction with considerably less disclosed capital than the public companies.
Whose neutral-atom quantum roadmap should we believe?
QuEra has the most believable neutral-atom roadmap, although its own schedule has already moved later.
In 2024, QuEra said it aimed to reach about 100 logical qubits in 2026. Its current plan places Libra, a system designed for more than 256 error-corrected logical qubits, on Amazon Braket in 2028. QuEra then targets a larger system capable of more than one billion reliable logical operations around 2028 or 2029.
The delay is significant, but the revised plan is more useful than maintaining a target the company could no longer support. QuEra has also published experiments covering most of Libra’s core ingredients, giving the roadmap a stronger base than a slide containing only future qubit numbers.
Atom’s most important promise is the QuNorth system. The machine is intended to bring logical-qubit computing to Denmark and is currently being installed with Microsoft. Successful customer operation would move Atom from impressive internal hardware to a proven external platform.
Pasqal targets more than 10,000 physical qubits and over 200 logical qubits in 2029. Its roadmap requires the company to carry its current analog deployment skills into a much more demanding digital and error-corrected system.
Infleqtion and planqc also have ambitious delivery plans. Infleqtion wants to move from its current logical demonstrations toward larger error-corrected machines, while planqc is expected to complete a fully digital 1,000-qubit system for Germany.
We would trust the order of milestones more than the precise delivery years. QuEra has the strongest sequence of completed experiments, Atom is progressing quickly, and Pasqal has the best record of delivering what customers can use today.
This chart, featured in our quantum computing market deck, illustrates how revenue is divided among customer segments in the quantum computing market
How much can we trust the neutral-atom startup claims?
We trust QuEra’s technical claims most, Pasqal’s commercial claims most and Infleqtion’s financial claims most.
QuEra’s strongest results appear in peer-reviewed Nature papers, and outside researchers can run work on Aquila. The close relationship between QuEra and the academic teams behind several experiments should still be kept in mind, but the methods and results are available for scientific scrutiny.
Atom’s Microsoft-backed logical-qubit work carries substantial external credibility. Its latest toric-code result is extremely promising but remains a preprint. Independent users also have limited access to AC1000, making broad performance comparisons difficult.
Pasqal now releases far more business detail because of its proposed public transaction. Its revenue figures are audited, while its installed-system count, contracts and booked business come from investor disclosures. Booked and awarded business includes grants and future work, so it should never be described as current annual revenue.
Infleqtion files public financial statements. We can verify its revenue, losses and cash position more easily than those of private competitors. The remaining problem is segmentation: Infleqtion does not report neutral-atom computing revenue separately.
Planqc’s contract values are supported by German public institutions. Its largest performance claims will remain prospective until the machines are completed and independently used.
| Startup | Evidence we trust most | Main reason for caution |
|---|---|---|
| QuEra | Peer-reviewed fault-tolerance experiments and public hardware access | Several results come from closely connected company and academic teams |
| Atom Computing | Microsoft validation and detailed logical-qubit experiments | Latest repeated-correction result is still a preprint; access remains limited |
| Pasqal | Audited revenue, installed systems and named customers | Bookings include grants and multiyear future work |
| Infleqtion | SEC filings and peer-reviewed logical-qubit results | Computing figures are mixed with sensing, timing and software |
| planqc | Publicly documented German contracts | Flagship systems remain under construction |
Which neutral-atom quantum computing startups are actually ahead?
QuEra is ahead overall today, with Atom Computing second and Pasqal a very close third.
QuEra has produced the most complete proof that neutral atoms can progress from programmable arrays to universal, error-corrected computation. Its architecture has operated with as many as 96 active logical qubits, roughly four times the 24 entangled logical qubits in Atom’s best-known Microsoft demonstration. Those experiments are not identical benchmarks, but the gap still shows QuEra’s lead in logical breadth.
Atom deserves second place because it is now attacking QuEra’s strongest advantage. Its toric-code work shows repeated correction and atom replacement across deep cycles, while AC1000 contains more than four times as many physical qubits as QuEra’s 260-qubit Gemini system. Atom could move into first place if that performance survives peer review and appears inside the QuNorth customer machine.
Pasqal sits only slightly behind Atom. Pasqal already wins on revenue, installed systems, production experience and direct industrial customers. We rank it third because analog commercial leadership does not yet answer the harder question of who will build the first broadly useful fault-tolerant computer. Pasqal’s position would change quickly if its digital systems begin matching QuEra and Atom on logical performance.
Infleqtion ranks fourth. The company has strong logical results, an operational national testbed, major government customers and more financial resources than any private competitor. Its neutral-atom computing position remains harder to judge because the wider business earns money from clocks, sensors and software.
Planqc ranks fifth today. Its German contracts and 1,000-qubit projects make it a credible challenger rather than a research spinout with a presentation. The company still needs to deliver those systems and publish enough operating data for direct comparison with the top four.
The gaps are meaningful without being permanent. QuEra leads technically, Pasqal leads commercially and Atom has the fastest path to disrupting both. Our current answer remains QuEra because technical completeness carries the most weight in a market where useful fault-tolerant computing is still the prize.
| Rank | Startup | Why it ranks here |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | QuEra | Broadest fault-tolerance evidence, strongest independent accessibility and the most complete route from current systems to continuous logical computation |
| 2 | Atom Computing | Largest commercial gate-based machine, Microsoft-backed logical capabilities and the fastest recent progress in repeated error correction |
| 3 | Pasqal | Clear leader in revenue, installations, manufacturing and industrial customers, with more work needed on digital fault tolerance |
| 4 | Infleqtion | Strong finances, credible logical results and valuable government relationships, but computing traction remains mixed with a broader product portfolio |
| 5 | planqc | Serious sovereign-backed projects and a large digital system under construction, but fewer delivered machines and independent benchmarks |
If you want more recent data on this point, please see our latest quantum computing market report.
This chart, included in our quantum computing market deck, shows how cloud quantum computing access technology has evolved over time
OUR METHODOLOGY
This analysis compares the neutral-atom quantum computing companies that operate complete computing platforms: QuEra, Atom Computing, Pasqal, Infleqtion and planqc. We assessed who is ahead across fault-tolerant progress, machine capability, customer access, commercial execution, manufacturing, partnerships, financial capacity, defensibility and roadmap credibility.
We gave the most weight to completed fault-tolerance experiments, logical performance and product maturity. Raw atom counts, funding totals and future roadmaps were treated as supporting evidence rather than decisive proof, because the central test is whether a company can turn neutral-atom arrays into useful and reliable computation.
Peer-reviewed results carried more weight than preprints, although recent preprints were included when they showed material progress. Delivered systems carried more weight than announced installations, audited revenue carried more weight than bookings, and closed financing carried more weight than proposed government awards or listing-related commitments.
We did not force unlike experiments into artificial one-to-one comparisons. The companies use different atomic species, computing models, error-correction codes, workloads and access methods, so we compared what each result demonstrated about technical completeness, repeatability, external usability and the path toward fault-tolerant operation.
Commercial traction was assessed through installed QPUs, named customers, public cloud access, on-premises sales, audited revenue, production pipelines and the ability to support systems outside a company laboratory. Broader company revenue was treated cautiously when neutral-atom computing was mixed with sensing, timing, software or defense products.
Key sources included QuEra’s fault-tolerant roadmap and expanded AWS collaboration, QuEra’s technical platform materials, Atom Computing’s AC1000 specifications, Atom Computing’s scientific publications, Microsoft’s report on logical qubits using Atom hardware, Pasqal’s investor materials, Pasqal’s Aramco deployment, and Pasqal’s CINECA delivery.
We also used Infleqtion’s annual filing, Infleqtion’s quarterly filing, Infleqtion’s first-quarter revenue update, planqc’s 1,000-qubit project announcement, planqc’s Series A announcement, and planqc’s €29 million DLR contract.
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