Xanadu moves closer to public listing as quantum race heats up

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In finance, Monte Carlo simulations used in risk assessment can take six to eight hours to complete, he said. “So imagine if you can kind of do this in a few minutes, or a few seconds. This would be game-changing, particularly if you are one of the first to have access to it.”

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There are many other players in the race to deliver useful quantum supercomputers by the end of decade, including International Business Machines Corp., Alphabet Inc. and Amazon.com Inc., along with numerous startups.

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“Quantum can have multiple winners because there’s multiple sub-segments within,” said Richard Shannon, an analyst with Craig-Hallum Capital Group, adding there are also several different approaches to the technology.

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The first firms to reach a capacity of 100 logical qubits or more — a qubit is the basic unit of information in a quantum processor — will have a better chance to stand out, Shannon said, because that’s the point when the technology will start delivering practical applications.

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Many quantum companies have managed to reach low double digits in terms of logical qubits. IonQ Inc., which uses trapped ions instead of photons, “certainly shows getting to 100 logical qubits and even higher well earlier than others, and so time to market would be important,” said Shannon. Xanadu’s Aurora system has achieved 12 qubits, but the company argues its networking and modular capabilities could deliver much more than that, soon.

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“We did start what would have been our Series D, and it was going well, but it was slow to be honest,” he said. “We can now think about acquisitions as we’ve seen in the space as well, if they make sense.”

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D-Wave Quantum Inc. went public through a SPAC deal in August 2022. It was based in Vancouver at the time but it has since moved its headquarters to the US.

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Last month, the quantum computing firm Infleqtion Inc. completed a deal with serial dealmaker Michael Klein’s SPAC, Churchill Capital Corp. X. Almost no redemptions from the SPAC shareholders were made, and the stock price rose in its public debut, but has fallen by more than 30 per cent since.

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“Our focus isn’t on short-term fluctuations in peer share prices,” said Weedbrook. “I believe our differentiated technology speaks for itself, and that the long-term investors we’re interested in attracting will value us accordingly.”

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All quantum firms are currently burning cash and typically carry valuations disproportionately high compared to their sales. Xanadu said in a regulatory filing its revenue was US$2.7 million for the first nine months of 2025.

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Wedbush Securities Inc. analyst Antoine Legault said investors are “now looking beyond artificial intelligence, and what might be the next frontier of technology,” and valuations for quantum firms are analogous to biotech or emerging pharmaceutical companies.

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“Quantum is often cited as being sort of the next big thing,” he said. Much of the hype stems from retail investors as large asset managers have not started investing in the sector since quantum firms are still in a development phase — that comes with more volatility, and less support for quantum stocks when shares start going down. “The game hasn’t even begun.”

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