Quantum Startups Secure $1 Billion+ in Q1 as Commercial Race Accelerates

Insider Brief

• Private investment in quantum computing surged to over $1.2 billion in Q1 2025, up 125% year-over-year, signaling increased confidence in commercialization.
• Major funding rounds included QuEra’s $230 million Series B, Quantum Machines’ $170 million Series C, and IonQ’s $360 million equity raise and acquisition of ID Quantique.
• The sector is showing signs of maturity, with funding consolidating around fewer firms and increased emphasis on scalable hardware, software orchestration, and post-quantum cybersecurity.

A surge in private funding for quantum computing firms marked the first quarter of 2025, signaling renewed confidence in commercializing the once-theoretical technology.

More than $1.2 billion flowed into the sector in the first three months of the year, up 125% from the same quarter last year, according to data from The Quantum Insider’s Q1 2025 report. While the number of deals fell, their size pushed total funding up by 28% over the previous quarter. Leading the charge were a handful of companies that secured mega-rounds as they moved toward building usable quantum systems and software.

Boston-based QuEra Computing raised $230 million in a Series B round, the largest reported in the quarter. QuEra, which builds quantum computers based on neutral atoms, said the capital will accelerate its work on scalable, fault-tolerant machines. The company is among the few focusing on analog quantum computing as a near-term solution while aiming for digital fault tolerance in the long run.

Quantum Machines, an Israeli startup that builds control systems to operate quantum processors, brought in $170 million in Series C funding. That pushed its total raised to $280 million. The company supplies orchestration platforms used across multiple quantum hardware architectures, a position that has helped it attract major investors including Intel Capital and PSG Equity.

IonQ, a U.S.-listed quantum computing company, raised $360 million through an equity offering. The firm also announced the acquisition of ID Quantique, a Swiss provider of quantum-safe encryption, as it broadens its commercial offerings. Alongside the funding and acquisition, IonQ named Niccolò de Masi as its new CEO.

Other capital market activity included D-Wave’s completion of a $150 million equity offering and Horizon Quantum Computing’s announcement of a planned public listing through a special purpose acquisition company. The SPAC deal would value the Singapore-based software firm at about $500 million, according to the report.

The investment boom comes as the quantum sector shifts focus from experimental demonstrations to real-world applications. Microsoft made headlines with the debut of its Majorana 1 chip, which it claims uses a new “topological” architecture that may help build fault-tolerant quantum machines. However, the scientific community expressed skepticism, prompting calls for replication and further validation. Microsoft also launched a “Quantum Ready” program to prepare businesses for integration, aiming to bridge today’s capabilities with future deployments.

Governments also ramped up support. The United Kingdom’s National Cyber Security Centre published a timeline for migrating to post-quantum cryptography, advising organizations to begin assessments now to meet a 2035 target for full transition. The shift is seen as critical, as future quantum systems could break today’s encryption methods.

On the research front, the report highlighted several milestones. A study involving JPMorgan Chase, Quantinuum, and U.S. national labs demonstrated “certified quantum randomness,” a task previously thought to be unachievable by classical computers. The work, published in Nature, used a quantum advantage task called random circuit sampling to generate true randomness for security applications.

Meanwhile, D-Wave said it had achieved “quantum supremacy” for a real-world problem in materials simulation, publishing the results in Science. The company used its annealing quantum system to outperform a top classical supercomputer in solving magnetic modeling problems. If validated, it would be one of the first demonstrations of a quantum machine solving a task with practical relevance faster than any existing classical system.

Despite the progress, the industry faced headwinds. A comment by NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang sent quantum stocks lower after he said quantum computing may not deliver “very useful” systems for another 15 to 30 years. While not new, such timelines contrast with the accelerating pace of private investment and corporate deployment plans.

The Quantum Insider’s analysts noted that while the number of deals dropped, the overall funding surge suggests capital is consolidating around fewer but better-positioned companies. Large, late-stage rounds now dominate the landscape, as investors place bigger bets on companies closest to commercial viability.

The report also noted a growing emphasis on software, encryption, and control platforms, which are seen as essential layers in the emerging stack of quantum technologies. Horizon Quantum Computing and Microsoft’s respective software pushes align with this trend, offering bridges across different hardware approaches.

As the quarter closed, signs pointed to increasing maturity and strategic focus across the ecosystem. With over 50% of all known quantum computing companies now served by the top hardware and control firms, the next phase may see tighter integration across layers—hardware, control, software, and cybersecurity—required to deliver on the technology’s long-promised potential.

You can access the report here.