By Isabelle Bousquette

It could be years until quantum computing delivers on its promise to revolutionize everything from financial trading to drug discovery. But that's not stopping the companies developing quantum hardware and software from speeding headlong into the public markets.

Three different quantum computing companies -- Infleqtion, Xanadu and Horizon Quantum -- have gone public in recent months, while another five have announced plans to do so later this year. By contrast, before this year, there were only four pure-play public quantum companies: D-Wave, Rigetti Computing, IonQ and Quantum Computing Inc.

"There's so much appetite for quantum assets in this market right now," said Antoine Legault, VP of equity research at Wedbush Securities. "If you have quantum in your company name, you're worth at least $1 billion from the get go."

That enthusiasm is helping upstarts nab much higher valuations than they could get on the private markets, he said. And it is funding their ability to poach in-demand talent and build the tech that could ultimately make them first to market with a truly game-changing quantum computer, a development that could be worth tens of billions in addressable market, said Legault.

"Strike while the iron's hot, and the proverbial iron's really hot in quantum right now," Legault said.

Xanadu founder and Chief Executive Christian Weedbrook said the company's decision to go public was a matter of how much money it could raise and how fast. "Time is of the essence," he said. "It is a bit of a race."

For Infleqtion, "We wanted to make sure that, if this was our chance to raise the capital we needed, we got ahead of it," CEO Matt Kinsella said.

Quantum companies IQM, Pasqal, Terra Quantum, Seeqc, and Quantinuum have all unveiled plans to go public this year, the majority through SPAC deals.

Also called a blank-check company, a SPAC, or special-purpose acquisition company, is a shell firm that lists publicly with the sole intent of merging with a private company to take it public. For companies looking to go public, they have become a way to get into the markets faster, with less scrutiny over metrics like revenue.

Quantum computing promises to leverage the principles of quantum physics to solve problems far beyond the capabilities of today's best supercomputers, with applications across financial trading, drug development, shipping, logistics, internet delivery and aviation.

It has been in development for decades, both by pure-play quantum companies and tech giants like IBM, Google, Microsoft and Amazon. During that time, it's been through periods of massive hype and disillusionment.

Recently, a renewed interest from the U.S. government and support and developments from the broader tech ecosystem have brought it back to the fore. Earlier this month, Nvidia launched a new family of open source quantum AI models designed to help researchers and enterprises build quantum processors.

"It definitely legitimizes the entire space when you have the world's largest and arguably one of the most important companies dropping this," Wedbush's Legault said.

Quantum companies are also legitimizing themselves by continuing to execute on the technology development milestones in their public road maps, said John McPeake, senior research analyst at Rosenblatt Securities.

Many of those road maps put the era of so-called "fault tolerance," when quantum machines can reliably run large-scale commercial applications, occurring by the end of the decade.

"So it's not too far out. That's what I think is driving the interest," McPeake said.

Quantum companies say the massive economic boom fueled by the AI industry in recent years also provides a promising model for investors of what quantum could be -- and right now could be the sweet spot in terms of getting in the door.

"You probably want to be in AI just before ChatGPT comes out. You don't want to be 15 years early, but you don't want to be 15 years late either, " said Joe Fitzsimons, founder and CEO of recently public Horizon Quantum.

Wasiq Bokhari, CEO of Pasqal, which plans to go public in the second half of 2026, agreed. "People are realizing that quantum computing is only a few years behind AI."

He added, "We feel like it is a good time for us to be able to go out and tell our story."

Write to Isabelle Bousquette at isabelle.bousquette@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 27, 2026 07:00 ET (11:00 GMT)

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