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Find similar grantsDARPA-PA-26-02-02 (QBI Stage A) deadline is September 30, 2026, matching the stored deadline. Stage B is limited to already-selected companies.
Quantum Benchmarking Initiative Phase B is sponsored by DARPA. Quantum Benchmarking Initiative Phase B is a grant from DARPA that funds rigorous verification and validation of quantum computing systems to assess whether they can achieve utility-scale operation — meaning computational value exceeding the cost to execute.
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Stage B selection | DARPA Department of War organization. QBI: Quantum Benchmarking Initiative As of Nov. 6, 2025, DARPA has selected 11 companies to enter the second stage (Stage B) of the agency’s Quantum Benchmarking Initiative (QBI), which aims to rigorously verify and validate whether any quantum computing approach can achieve utility-scale operation — meaning its computational value exceeds its cost — by the year 2033.
As QBI continues, DARPA anticipates additional teams to advance to stages A, B, and C, as described below. Companies have entered the evaluation process on varying timelines, resulting in staggered advancement across the three stages. During the six-month Stage A, companies characterized their unique concepts for creating a useful, fault-tolerant quantum computer.
Now, in the yearlong Stage B, they will develop and detail their R&D plans, including identifying and mitigating the associated risks, and specifying the necessary risk-reduction prototypes.
Companies successful in Stage B will be invited to progress to QBI’s final stage, in which a government verification and validation team will determine if their utility-scale quantum computer concept can be constructed as designed and operated as intended.
Companies selected for Stage B have described compelling technical concepts and the QBI team will scour their R&D plans to determine whether they are on track to meet not only near-term milestones, but also the ultimate objective: a useful quantum computer by 2033. A significant challenge in evaluating quantum computing development plans lies in the diversity of technological approaches.
Unlike classical computing, no single dominant architecture exists. The Stage B teams employ a wide range of quantum bit (qubit) technologies – the fundamental building blocks of a quantum computer – each with its own strengths, weaknesses, and technical hurdles. QBI is not a competition to narrow the field to a few “winners.
” Rather, the aim is to evaluate each company’s approach on its own merits. Multiple, single, or even no participants will ultimately demonstrate a path to an industrially useful quantum computer within the next eight years. Thorough evaluation is crucial to understanding the true potential of the technology.
The following companies (with their qubit technology approach) have been selected for Stage B at this time: Atom Computing : Boulder, Colorado (scalable arrays of neutral atoms) Diraq: Sydney, Australia, with operations in Palo Alto, California, and Boston, Massachusetts (silicon CMOS spin qubits) IBM: Yorktown Heights, New York (quantum computing with modular superconducting processors) IonQ: College Park, Maryland (trapped-ion quantum computing) Nord Quantique: Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada (superconducting qubits with bosonic error correction) Photonic Inc .
: Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada (optically-linked silicon spin qubits) Quantinuum: Broomfield, Colorado (trapped-ion quantum charged coupled device (QCCD) architecture) Quantum Motion: London, UK (MOS-based silicon spin qubits) QuEra Computing: Boston, Massachusetts (neutral atom qubits) Silicon Quantum Computing Pty.
Ltd.: Sydney, Australia (precision atom qubits in silicon) Xanadu: Toronto, Canada (photonic quantum computing) It is likely but not guaranteed that additional teams will enter Stage B in the future. DARPA will announce any additional promotion decisions after contracting with those teams is finalized.
The Stage B promotions followed an announcement that Google Quantum AI joined Stage A in September 2025, and earlier announcements that Microsoft and PsiQuantum entered the third and final phase of the Underexplored Systems for Utility-Scale Quantum Computing (US2QC) program. US2QC is a pilot effort that was expanded to become QBI in 2024.
Both companies were participating in the second phase of US2QC when the QBI expansion was announced. The final Phase of US2QC has the same technical goals as Stage C of QBI: verification and validation of an industrially useful quantum computer.
Quantum Benchmarking Initiative Topic (QBIT) Stage A QBI Topic Independent Verification and Validation (IV&V) Microsystems Technology Office QBI: Quantum Benchmarking Initiative Quantum Benchmarking Initiative expands quest to separate hype from reality DARPA, State of New Mexico establish framework to advance quantum computing DARPA, State of Maryland sign agreement to propel quantum research DARPA eyes companies targeting industrially useful quantum computers DARPA selects two discrete utility-scale quantum computing approaches for evaluation DARPA to host meeting, discussions with quantum computing companies Moving quantum computing from hype to prototype Voices from DARPA: The Quantum Mechanic | Ep 71
Based on current listing details, eligibility includes: Stage B is limited to 11 companies already selected by DARPA. New entrants may apply to Stage A via DARPA-PA-26-02-02 with a deadline of September 30, 2026. Applicants should confirm final requirements in the official notice before submission.
Current published award information indicates $1,000,000 - $5,000,000 Always verify allowable costs, matching requirements, and funding caps directly in the sponsor documentation.
The current target date is September 30, 2026. Build your timeline backwards from this date to cover registrations, approvals, attachments, and final submission checks.
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SBIR/STTR Programs (Defense Health Agency) is sponsored by Department of Defense (DOD) - Defense Health Agency (DHA). The DHA SBIR/STTR Programs fund biomedical and health-focused technologies that enhance medical readiness, clinical care delivery, force health protection, operational medicine, and military healthcare modernization. Priority research domains include digital health systems, AI-enabled triage, and physiological analytics.
SBIR/STTR Programs is sponsored by Defense Health Agency (DHA). The DHA SBIR and STTR programs support U.S. small businesses in developing high-risk, high-impact medical materiel technologies with potential for wider commercialization, including those that could leverage AI for warfighter health and survival. This program seeks proposals that demonstrate both technical innovation and real clinical relevance in areas such as trauma care, battlefield triage, far-forward telemedicine, and digital health systems with AI-enabled triage.
Defense Health Agency (DHA) Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program is sponsored by Defense Health Agency (DHA). The DHA SBIR program provides funding and support for small businesses to develop innovative healthcare technologies and solutions that benefit the military. It focuses on biomedical and health-focused technologies that enhance medical readiness, clinical care delivery, force health protection, operational medicine, and military healthcare modernization. Topics are aligned with real-world needs such as trauma care, telemedicine, infectious disease diagnostics, and wearable monitoring tools.
NSF 26-507 establishes a new $8.5M K-12 AI education research-to-prototype pipeline with 50 Planning grants ($50K, 2 months) feeding 20 Development grants ($300K, 1 year). The mandatory team composition — K-12 educators, technologists, researchers, and parents/guardians — is a structural break from how NSF has historically funded education research.
Read articleDARPA-PS-26-04, published February 25, 2026 by the Tactical Technology Office, restructures the contract around three phases — Phase 0 Backbone (6 months), Phase 1 Base (12 months), Phase 2 Option (18 months) — and culminates in an instrumented flight-test campaign. The solicitation is not really about T&E. It is about the digital-twin and uncertainty-quantification middleware DoD needs for any AI-enabled combat system.
Read articleDARPA's Mathematics of Boosting Agentic Communication program — DSO-led, \$2M Phase I cap, abstracts already in, full proposals due June 16, 2026 — is the first federal initiative to treat multi-agent AI communication as a mathematical object rather than a product feature. The Mendeleev-rediscovery benchmark in the solicitation is the tell.
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