Atom Computing Finalizes $100 Million U.S. Department of Commerce R&D Award

Insider Brief

• Atom Computing signed an agreement for up to $100 million with the U.S. Department of Commerce to accelerate development of fault-tolerant, utility-scale quantum computers.
• The funding will support in-house technology development, expanded engineering and testing infrastructure, and collaboration with supply chain partners.
• Atom Computing also advanced to Stage C of DARPA’s Quantum Benchmarking Initiative, with potential funding of up to $300 million.

PRESS RELEASE — Atom Computing, a leader in scalable neutral-atom quantum computing, today announced it has signed an agreement for up to $100 million with the U.S. Department of Commerce to accelerate research and development of fault-tolerant, utility-scale quantum computers. The award follows a Letter of Intent announced earlier this year and represents a significant investment in advancing next-generation computing technologies critical to U.S. economic competitiveness, scientific leadership, and national security.

Atom Computing‘s neutral-atom architecture is increasingly recognized as one of the most viable approaches for building large-scale, commercially useful quantum computers. Today’s announcement closely follows the company’s recent selection as the only neutral atom company to advance to Stage C of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Quantum Benchmarking Initiative (DARPA QBI) with potential funding up to $300 million.

Atom has consistently demonstrated technical leadership through several industry milestones, including being the first to build a platform with more than 1,000 qubits, the first neutral-atom company to demonstrate sub-threshold behavior on a system with full, end-to-end quantum error correction over many rounds, and the first to commercially offer a logical-qubit quantum computer. In 2025 Atom Computing sold its first commercial on-premises quantum computer to QuNorth, a Nordic quantum initiative funded by EIFO and Novo Nordisk Foundation.

“Quantum computing is reaching a critical inflection point where scientific breakthroughs must rapidly translate into commercial reality,” said Dr. Ben Bloom, CEO and Founder of Atom Computing. “This $100 million contract enables us to aggressively scale the engineering required to bring fault-tolerant quantum computing to market and ensure the United States leads the transition into the utility-scale era.” 

The Department of Commerce contract will accelerate several of Atom Computing’s strategic R&D initiatives which will shorten the timeline to economically viable quantum computing, including:

• Developing critical technologies in-house to improve system performance, reliability, and vertical integration
• Expanding parallel engineering and testbed infrastructure to rapidly validate innovations and speed product development
• Strengthening R&D collaboration with key supply chain partners to support manufacturing scale-up and long-term growth

Industry and government interest in practical quantum computing continues to accelerate, with advances in error correction, system scale, and hardware performance driving increased confidence in the technology’s commercial potential. Atom Computing has demonstrated leadership in logical-qubit systems and fault-tolerant architectures, translating scientific breakthroughs into deployable commercial systems for real-world applications.