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Quantum computing insiders, investors, and skeptics have been waiting on an announcement from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) that has enormous implications for the future of the industry: the list of companies that have survived Stage A of the agencys Quantum Benchmarking Initiative (QBI) and are advancing to Stage B. The QBI was launched in July 2024 to rigorously verify and validate whether any quantum computing approach can achieve utility-scale operation by 2033, according to DARPA. In essence, the QBI seeks to determine if a quantum computer technology is worth pursuingif its benefits will be greater than the effort and resources it takes to pursue them. For a technology that could produce world-changing feats but remains far from maturityand into which billions of investment dollars have been flowing in recent monthsthe QBI validation is profound. The QBIs first judgments, announced yesterday, reconfigure the competitive landscape, bolstering some powerful incumbents and boosting lesser-known players and outlier approaches. They also delivered a formidable gut punch to a couple of industry pioneers. QBI is not a competition to narrow the field to a few winners. Rather, the aim is to evaluate each companys approach on its own merits DARPA said in a press release. The agency makes clear that multiple participants could demonstrate a path to an industrially useful quantum computer, or perhaps none of them. The new quantum computing playing field During Stage A of QBI, companies had six months to provide detailed technical concepts that showed feasibility for creating utility-scale quantum systems. The initial stage included 18 companiesIBM, Quantinuum, Atom Computing, Alice & Bob, IonQ, Rigetti, and Xanadu, among them. These companies, which were eligible for up to $1 million in funding, represent a variety of approaches to building a quantum computer, down to their technology for constructing qubits, the fundamental building blocks of a quantum computation. The 11 companies that were selected to move onto Stage B are pursuing different systems. Two companies, Atom Computing and QuEra Computing, use neutral atom qubits. IonQ and Quantinuum both use so-called trapped ions. Several companies use silicon spin qubits. IBM is pursuing superconducting qubits. And Xanadu uses a photonics-based qubit. Now, moving into Stage B, they will be asked for a comprehensive research and development plan capable of realizing their quantum computer, with an assessment of the risks associated with the plan, and their mitigation approaches. In Stage C, companies will work with the government to verify and validate that their utility-scale quantum computer concept can be constructed as designed and operated as intended. DARPA anticipates that additional teams will advance through stages A, B, and C. And companies have entered the evaluation process on varying timelinesGoogle Quantum AI, for example, joined lateresulting in staggered advancement across stages. Two companies, Microsoft and PsiQuantum, have already advanced to Stage C in a separate but related DARPA initiative called Underexplored Systems for Utility-Scale Quantum Computing (US2QC). IBMs progression to Stage B of DARPAs Quantum Benchmarking Initiative is a firm validation of IBMs approach to delivering a large-scale, fault-tolerant quantum computer, said IBMs director of research Jay Gambetta in a company press release. As the industry advances, we look forward to working with DARPA as they continue an unbiased review of potential viable strategies across the field. It’s not that we got in that matters as much as making sure we didnt not get in, says Christian Weedbrook, CEO and founder of Toronto-based Xanadu Quantum Technologies. A lot of late nights the team was pushing themselves, and I said, we don’t want a black mark across us now for getting the stage B. One of the great things about [the process] is that it really forced us in different teams to work harder together. Earlier this week, Xanadu announced plans to go public via SPAC, which Weedbrook expects to happen in the first or second quarter of 2026. This would be the only way, currently at least, that investors can invest in a photonics-based approach, he says. Soul searching, and new funding Even if you are able to do months of diligence, nothing really beats the team of scientists and researchers from across the [Department of Defense] labs, the national labs, and the intelligence and universities ecosystem that DARPA has assembled to do this diligence, says Prineha Narang, a professor of physical sciences and electrical and computer engineering at UCLA and a partner at deep-tech venture firm DCVC. This is far more than any VC or anyone on the private capital side could do. Narang says that companies that didnt make it to Stage B should take it very seriously. It doesn’t mean that they dont have an approach that could eventually work, but just that today they couldn’t articulate and present [that plan] to DARPA, she adds. The Stage A contenders that didnt make the cut include Alice & Bob, which uses innovative cat qubits, Atlantic Quantum, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Oxford Ionics, and Rigetti Computing, which was founded in 2013 and is the first full-stack, universal pure-play quantum computing company. On the other hand, Narang notes that a few companies that made it to Stage B have term sheets that call out the QBI outcome as a condition for the next round of funding. Several investments and deals are now in flight, she says. [They are] happening, and happening faster than the usual pace of these.
Category:
E-Commerce
President Donald Trump is adjusting his messaging strategy to win over voters who are worried about the cost of living with plans to emphasize new tax breaks and show progress on fighting inflation.The messaging is centered around affordability, and the push comes after inflation emerged as a major vulnerability for Trump and Republicans in Tuesday’s elections, in which voters overwhelmingly said the economy was their biggest concern.Democrats took advantage of concerns about affordability to run up huge margins in the New Jersey and Virginia governor races, flipping what had been a strength for Trump in the 2024 presidential election into a vulnerability going into next year’s midterm elections.White House officials and others familiar with their thinking requested anonymity to speak for this article in order to not get ahead of the president’s actions. They stressed that affordability has always been a priority for Trump, but the president plans to talk about it more, as he did Thursday when he announced that Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk would reduce the price of their anti-obesity drugs.“We are the ones that have done a great job on affordability, not the Democrats,” Trump said at an event in the Oval Office to announce the deal. “We just lost an election, they said, based on affordability. It’s a con job by the Democrats.”The White House is keeping up a steady drumbeat of posts on social media about prices and deals for Thanksgiving dinner staples at retailers such as Walmart, Lidl, Aldi and Target.“I don’t want to hear about the affordability, because right now, we’re much less,” Trump told reporters Thursday, arguing that things are much better for Americans with his party in charge.“The only problem is the Republicans don’t talk about it,” he said. The outlook for inflation is unclear As of now, the inflation outlook has worsened under Trump. Consumer prices in September increased at an annual rate of 3%, up from 2.3% in April, when the president first began to roll out substantial tariff hikes that suddenly burdened the economy with uncertainty. The AP Voter Poll showed the economy was the leading issue in Tuesday’s elections in New Jersey, Virginia, New York City and California.Grocery prices continue to climb, and recently, electricity bills have emerged as a new worry. At the same time, the pace of job gains has slowed, plunging 23% from the pace a year ago.The White House maintains a list of talking points about the economy, noting that the stock market has hit record highs multiple times and that the president is attracting foreign investment. Trump has emphasized that gasoline prices are coming down, and maintained that gasoline is averaging $2 a gallon, but AAA reported Thursday that the national average was $3.08, about two cents lower than a year ago.“Americans are paying less for essentials like gas and eggs, and today the Administration inked yet another drug pricing deal to deliver unprecedented health care savings for everyday Americans,” said White House spokesman Kush Desai.Trump gets briefed about the economy by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and other officials at least once a week and there are often daily discussions on tariffs, a senior White House official said, noting Trump is expected to do more domestic travel next year to make his case that he’s fixing affordability.But critics say it will be hard for Trump to turn around public perceptions on affordability.“He’s in real trouble and I think it’s bigger than just cost of living,” said Lindsay Owens, executive director of Groundwork Collaborative, a liberal economic advocacy group.Owens noted that Trump has “lost his strength” as voters are increasingly doubtful about Trump’s economic leadership compared to Democrats, adding that the president doesn’t have the time to turn around public perceptions of him as he continues to pursue broad tariffs. New hype about income tax cuts ahead of April There will be new policies rolled out on affordability, a person familiar with the White House thinking said, declining to comment on what those would be. Trump on Thursday indicated there will be more deals coming on drug prices. Two other White House officials said messaging would change but not policy.A big part of the administration’s response on affordability will be educating people ahead of tax season about the role of Trump’s income tax cuts in any refunds they receive in April, the person familiar with planning said. Those cuts were part of the sprawling bill Republicans muscled through Congress in July.This individual stressed that the key challenge is bringing prices down while simultaneously having wages increase, so that people can feel and see any progress.There’s also a bet that the economy will be in a healthier place in six months. With Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s term ending in May, the White House anticipates the start of consistent cuts to the Fed’s benchmark interest rate. They expect inflation rates to cool and declines in the federal budget deficit to boost sentiment in the financial markets.But the U.S. economy seldom cooperates with a president’s intentions, a lesson learned most recently by Trump’s predecessor, Democrat Joe Biden, who saw his popularity slump after inflation spiked to a four-decade high in June 2022.The Trump administration maintains it’s simply working through an inflation challenge inherited from Biden, but new economic research indicates Trump has created his own inflation challenge through tariffs.Since April, Harvard University economist Alberto Cavallo and his colleagues, Northwestern University’s Paola Llama and Universidad de San Andres’ Franco Vazquez, have been tracking the impact of the import taxes on consumer prices.In an October paper, the economists found that the inflation rate would have been drastically lower at 2.2%, had it not been for Trump’s tariffs.The administration maintains that tariffs have not contributed to inflation. They plan to make the case that the import taxes are helping the economy and dismiss criticisms of the import taxes as contributing to inflation as Democratic talking points.The fate of Trump’s country-by-country tariffs is currently being decided by the Supreme Court, where justices at a Wednesday hearing seemed dubious over the administration’s claims that tariffs were essentially regulations and could be levied by a president without congressional approval. Trump has maintained at times that foreign countries pay the tariffs and not U.S. citizens, a claim he backed away from slightly Thursday.“They might be paying something,” he said. “But when you take the overall impact, the Americans are gaining tremendously.” Associated Press writers Will Weissert and Michelle L. Price contributed to this report. Josh Boak, Associated Press
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E-Commerce
Yesterday, Tesla, Inc. (Nasdaq: TSLA) shareholders overwhelmingly approved the controversial and historic pay package deal for the electric vehicle makers CEO, Elon Musk. That package is worth up to nearly $1 trillion in compensation for Muskprovided the company reaches certain milestones. But if those milestones are met, it would make Musk, already the worlds richest man, the worlds first trillionaire. Heres what you need to know about the historic pay package and how investors and Teslas shares are reacting to the news. Whats in Musks historic Tesla pay deal? At Teslas investor meeting yesterday, over three-quarters of shareholders voted to approve Musks nearly $1 trillion compensation package. However, the package isnt a blank check filled with thirteen digits before the decimal place. Instead, it is an agreement that includes a series of milestones Tesla needs to reach under Musks leadership. With each milestone reached, Musk receives some of the pay packages agreed-upon sum, mostly in the form of Tesla shares. As Fast Company previously reported, those milestones wont be easy. They include the following: 20 million Tesla vehicles delivered 10 million active Full Self-Driving subscriptions 1 million robots delivered 1 million Robotaxis in commercial operation A series of adjusted EBITDA benchmarks A market cap for Tesla of at least $8.5 trillion All of these are a tall order, particularly the last one. No company in history has ever come close to an $8.5 trillion market capitalization. Last month, NVIDIA Corporation (Nasdaq: NVDA) briefly became the worlds first $5 trillion company. Today, it retains its number one spot, with a market cap of around $4.4 trillion. Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL) and Microsoft Corporation (Nasdaq: MSFT) currently come in at numbers two and three, with market caps of $4 trillion and $3.6 trillion, respectively. As for Tesla, the company currently ranks as having the 10th largest market cap in the world, at $1.4 trillion. That means Teslas stock price would have to increase by more than six times todays valuation if Musk is to get the full compensation deal payout. And thats not even to mention the other lofty milestones Tesla needs to achieve under Musk, including delivery of one million robots into the wild. Still, the majority of voting shareholders seem to believe that the historic pay deal is not only appropriate to retain Musk as the companys leader, but that he, of all people, could take Tesla to a place itand no other companyhas ever been before. How has Wall Street reacted? As you would expect from such a controversial pay package, opinions on Tesla shareholders approving the $1 trillion compensation are mixed. Reuters spoke to a number of Wall Street insiders. Among them was Mike ORourke, chief market strategist at Jones Trading, who said that given Musk could easily abandon the struggling Tesla to run his other private companies, it was worth it for shareholders to lock his leadership in. Nonetheless, ORourke added, it is highly unlikely this works out well when a $1.5 trillion company needs to award a $1 trillion pay package to the richest man in the world.” Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, told the outlet that given the demanding milestones required by the compensation package, Tesla investors had little to lose: If Musk does get the $1 trillion, shareholders will have done very nicely indeed. As could be expected, many everyday retail investors on social media who are Musk fans and Tesla bulls cheered the passage of the compensation package. How have TSLA shares reacted? While Tesla shareholders have now approved the historic package, nothing much actually changes for Tesla today. Still, shares in Tesla have fallen since the markets opened this morning, their first day of trading after shareholders approved the pay package. As of the time of this writing, TSLA shares are currently down about 2.5% to $434.40. They had fallen by over 4.5% at one point right after the markets opened. Yet its hard to take any meaning from TSLAs price drop this morning. A low single-digit drop could just be due to everyday profit taking, and not a signal that investors think the approval of the compensation package was bad news for the company (indeed, the majority of voting investors clearly thought the deal was a good thing). Year to date, TSLA shares are now up around 6% as of the time of this writing. Over the past 12 months, TSLA shares have risen more than 44%.
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E-Commerce
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