Milestone note Oct 10, 2026
DARPA moved four more quantum companies to hands-on hardware testing — six rival approaches, one outside yardstick
On October 7 DARPA advanced Atom Computing, Diraq, IBM and IonQ to Stage C, the final phase of its Quantum Benchmarking Initiative, where government evaluators physically test each company's hardware to judge whether it can reach utility scale by 2033. They join Microsoft and PsiQuantum. Neutral atoms, silicon spins, superconducting circuits, trapped ions, topological qubits and photonics will now be measured by the same outside party.
IBM 
IonQ