- The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has signed a $125 million agreement with PsiQuantum as part of the Quantum Benchmarking Initiative
- The agreement expands an existing relationship between the two parties on the evaluation and testing of PsiQuantum’s utility-scale hardware and other assets
- The company reached Stage C of the initiative in February 2025
PsiQuantum announced Wednesday that it has finalized an expanded $125 million agreement with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, as part of Stage C of DARPA’s Quantum Benchmarking Initiative.
The performance-based agreement will support broader testing of the company’s software, system architecture and supporting infrastructure, including verification and validation work tied to its utility-scale hardware design, custom photonic manufacturing processes and cryogenic systems. Facilities in Milpitas, California and Chicago are expected to see continued investment as part of the effort.
How Is the Award Connected to Federal Quantum Initiatives?
The expanded DARPA award comes two months after PsiQuantum signed a Letter of Intent with the U.S. Department of Commerce for up to $100 million in proposed CHIPS and Science Act incentives, aimed at supporting American leadership in quantum computing and semiconductors.
Beyond DARPA and Commerce, PsiQuantum has built out relationships across the federal government, including with the Air Force Research Laboratory and multiple national laboratories, as it continues to position itself within the U.S. government’s broader quantum computing strategy.
How Has the QBI Program Advanced Since 2023?
PsiQuantum’s relationship with DARPA traces back to January 2023, when the company was chosen for the first stage of the Underexplored Systems for Utility-Scale Quantum Computing program, a precursor to QBI. It progressed to a second stage in January 2024 and reached Stage C in February 2025. A $31.8 million agreement followed in September 2025 to fund continued on-site testing under that stage.
DARPA’s assessment of PsiQuantum has involved detailed technical reviews, on-site inspections, live demonstrations, and direct testing of hardware components. Over the course of 2025, PsiQuantum hosted DARPA-led reviews and demonstrations, and provided the agency with prototype design documentation, component-level test results, and validated resource estimates for quantum algorithms. The company also gave DARPA access to Construct, its internal platform for developing fault-tolerant quantum algorithms.
“DARPA’s Quantum Benchmarking Initiative is one of the most comprehensive and rigorous government programs for evaluating emerging technology that I have ever seen,” said Victor Peng, chief executive officer of PsiQuantum. “Their widely respected team of experts has stress-tested PsiQuantum’s approach, provided an independent and clear-eyed assessment and validation of our designs and our teams, and ultimately made our company and technology all the better for it,” he remarked.
