DARPA Selects QuEra for Stage B of Quantum Benchmarking Initiative (QBI)

After Successful Phase A, DARPA to award up to $15M in additional funding to advance QuEra's Stage B R&D plan toward utility-scale neutral-atom quantum computing

BOSTON, Nov. 6, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- QuEra Computing, the leader in neutral-atom quantum computers, today announced the successful completion of Stage A and selection for Stage B of the Quantum Benchmarking Initiative.  QBI is designed to rigorously verify and validate whether any quantum-computing approach can achieve utility-scale operation—where computational value exceeds cost—by 2033.

A focused, staged path to utility-scale systems

QuEra's advancement follows successful completion of Stage A, a six-month plausibility assessment with select providers. Stage B narrows the field and provides up to $15M over 12 months to validate QuEra's baseline R&D plan before independent hardware verification and validation in Stage C. The selection reflects DARPA's determination that QuEra's neutral-atom platform merits continued investment and scrutiny.

"We're honored that DARPA's experts determined our neutral-atom platform merits continued investment after close collaboration during Stage A," said Andy Ory, CEO of QuEra. "We are energized to continue our progress toward putting quantum to work for HPC centers, government programs, and enterprise innovators, while accelerating the transition from 'one day' to 'Day One.'"

Neutral-atom momentum aligned with QBI

QuEra's approach delivers energy-efficient, cost-effective, highly-scalable, small-footprint systems suitable for diverse organizational deployments. The platform leverages neutral atoms' intrinsic advantages: perfectly identical natural qubits that scale to large system sizes, room-temperature operation, and flexible all-to-all connectivity. Its architecture supports highly parallel operations and accommodates multiple quantum error correction codes, reducing overhead costs and enabling versatile implementation pathways.

QuEra and its collaborators have advanced this architecture through achievements such as quantum error correction and the availability of commercial systems both on-cloud and on-premises. Our academic partners have demonstrated continuous operation of multi-thousand-atom arrays.

"The science is rapidly moving from promising to practical," said Mikhail Lukin, Co-founder of QuEra and Professor of Physics, Harvard University, "Over the past decade, neutral-atom platforms have progressed from basic control of a few atoms to programmable arrays with thousands of identical qubits and highly-scalable quantum operations. Today we are implementing critical building blocks such as error correction and operating larger and more powerful systems. Looking ahead, during Stage B we will continue to break new ground in scale and programmability, while exploring powerful algorithms that take advantage of these unique capabilities."

About QuEra Computing

QuEra is putting quantum to work. As the scientific and commercial leader in neutral-atom quantum computing, we help enterprise innovators leverage quantum to gain competitive advantage, support HPC centers as they help users tackle classically intractable problems, and enable government programs to build national capability and sovereign infrastructure. We do this through our quantum innovation platform, combining quantum systems available on-premises and via the cloud with application co-design and collaborative research. Born at Harvard and MIT, still advancing together, QuEra operates globally from Boston, Tokyo, and the UK. As quantum computing moves from "one day" to "Day One," QuEra delivers practical impact today while advancing toward large-scale, fault-tolerant systems. Learn more at quera.com.

Media Contact: [email protected]

SOURCE QuEra Computing