Quantum Capital Explodes, September 2025
GM frens, this is the Quantum Doom Clock with Colton Dillion and Rick Carback, the founders of Quip Network, building the world’s shared quantum computer.
The highlight this month is that the market is not just betting on quantum—it is pouring billions into it. Capital is flowing like water, governments moved from observation to action, and the race for quantum supremacy became a national infrastructure priority. We are not yet at the stage where your cab driver knows about it, but you would be justified in thinking we may be entering a bubble, but it is completely unclear how much value quantum will provide!
Massive Capital Infusion, Market Valuation Surge, and Government Strategic Interest
PsiQuantum’s $1B Series E and $7B valuation mark the first time a quantum company reached unicorn status without shipping a single production machine. Meanwhile, Quantinuum closed $600M at a $10B pre-money valuation as enterprise clients lock in quantum access contracts.
IQM’s $320M Series B led by Ten Eleven Ventures signals U.S. capital flowing into European quantum infrastructure. IonQ’s $1.075B acquisition of Oxford Ionics is part consolidation, part vertical integration of trapped-ion control stacks.
Most surprising, to us, is Rigetti’s $5.3B market cap now exceeds the combined revenue of every quantum startup on Earth. Investors are not waiting for industry value today, moreso speculating there is a the path to it.
Governments are matching this capital surge. Japan’s OQTOPUS homegrown system is the nation’s first fully homegrown system, while the U.S. NSF launched its $16M National Quantum Virtual Laboratory to accelerate algorithm testing. New Mexico’s Quantum Frontiers Project and Andhra Pradesh’s IBM 133-qubit deployment signal a global race for quantum sovereignty. Governments are no longer treating these as R&D projects, more like sovereign tech assets.
Quantum Internet and Networked Quantum Systems Take Shape
IonQ’s demonstration of quantum frequency conversion to telecom wavelengths is the first step toward a quantum backbone over existing fiber. This does not look like a lab experiment but infrastructure engineering. The same breakthrough enables long-haul quantum key distribution without cryogenic repeaters, a game-changer for secure government and financial networks.
Quantum Motion Technologies’ silicon CMOS-based quantum computer is now deployed at the UK’s National Quantum Computing Centre, proving quantum hardware can be built with standard semiconductor processes. This scalability enables distributed quantum nodes that can connect via optical links—exactly what the quantum internet needs. The EU’s LUMI-Q consortium is already integrating these nodes into pan-European quantum networks, turning theoretical protocols into operational reality.
Quantum LEGOs and Living Qubits
Quantum Motion’s silicon CMOS architecture introduces quantum LEGO chip modules. Each qubit module is fabricated using 300-mm wafers, allowing modular scaling like building blocks. This approach decouples qubit quality from system size, letting you add more units without re-engineering the entire stack. IBM’s Heron roadmap mirrors this, with chiplets that can be stacked and cooled in parallel.
The other interesting architectural news was University of Chicago’s biological qubits using engineered proteins as qubits that operate at room temperature. These qubits are tiny biological modules that can interface with living systems.
Hybrid Quantum-Classical Architectures Become Industry Standard
IBM and AMD’s “quantum-centric supercomputing” partnership is the new standard. Their joint architecture integrates quantum processors directly into exascale workflows—not as add-ons, but as co-processors. This isn’t theoretical: Oak Ridge’s Quoll system now runs quantum algorithms alongside Frontier’s AI workloads in real time, accelerating materials discovery by 40x.
Microsoft’s analog optical computer for AI optimization is now deployed in Azure Quantum, solving combinatorial problems 100x faster than classical GPUs. Meanwhile, Stanford’s quantum router enables superposition-based routing across quantum networks—allowing packets to explore multiple paths simultaneously. This isn’t networking. It’s quantum state routing.
Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) Transition Accelerates Under Government Mandate
NIST’s draft Cybersecurity White Paper 48 now outlines practices to support migration from the current set of public-key cryptographic algorithms to replacement algorithms resistant to quantum computer-based attacks. IBM demonstrated breaking a 6-bit ECC key using a 127-qubit system, proving the fundamentals that the algorithm itself is no longer theoretical. Fortunately, the world is taking the issue seriously, with El Salvador moving all BTC reserves to newer addresses with better safety from quantum threats.
Error Mitigation Outpaces Qubit Count as Key Metric
IBM’s T-REx technique lets a 5-qubit device outperform a 156-qubit noisy system in energy calculations—by turning noise into signal. This isn’t error correction—it’s error exploitation. The same approach is now being used in quantum chemistry simulations at Argonne National Lab.
Rice University and NIST’s tomography algorithms now reconstruct quantum states from noisy measurements with 98% fidelity—making qubit count irrelevant. The latest benchmark stack for D-Wave, meanwhile, are showing the rapid progress of analog quantum optimisation with quantum annealers.
Frequently Asked Questions
Have a question? Just e-mail us at team at quantumdoomclock dot com. Below are the top questions we have received since our last update.
Q: Can we really build quantum internet with existing fiber?
A: Yes. IonQ’s telecom wavelength conversion means you don’t need new cables—just quantum repeaters. The EU’s LUMI-Q consortium is already testing this across 12 countries. Your next secure bank transfer might be encrypted with quantum keys sent over your existing broadband line. The infrastructure is already there. We just need to upgrade the encryption.
Q: If error mitigation beats qubit count, does that mean we don’t need million-qubit machines?
A: Not at all. We need both. Error mitigation builds better qubits and breaking RSA requires logical qubits which will need many physical ones. The breakthroughs we are seeing now accelerating progress, not alternate paths. They get us to cryptographically relevant quantum computers faster.
The Quantum Doom Clock is brought to you by Richard Carback and Colton Dillion, the cofounders of Quip Network
The Quantum Doom Clock is a monthly mailing list that summarizes news for Quantum Computing and its effects on the cryptography and cryptocurrency spaces. We do not sell your e-mail.
