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US defence invests $73 million in Diraq with another $357m on the table. Diraq grabs A$73m from DARPA to prove silicon quantum can scale. Sydney quantum computing startup Diraq has secured an initial US$51 million ($73m) from US defence research agency DARPA, with potential funding of up to US$300 million (A$430m) to test its plans for a commercially useful, fault-tolerant quantum computer. The funding follows Diraq's selection for Stage C, the final phase of DARPA's Quantum Benchmarking Initiative, which, a little bit like AI, is trying to figure out by 2033, if quantum computers can deliver more economic value than they cost to build and run. (The challenge being that the only work in near absolute zero ie. −273°C temps). The first tranche supports 12 months of technical demonstrations, system development and expanded research and testing infrastructure. Stage B involved a development plan, including the risks, ways to address them and prototypes needed to test its approach (things AI has't really bothered itself about). Diraq joins three other heavy hitters in the final stage - IBM, IonQ and Atom Computing. Microsoft and PsiQuantum are already part of it after participating in an earlier pilot program. Get the best of Startup Daily straight to your inbox. DARPA's independent team will look at whether Diraq's silicon-based systems can be built and operated as intended. "Stage C is where we begin moving from plans to proof," program MD Micah Stoutimore said. Diraq founder and CEO Andrew Dzurak said reaching Stage C shows his startup's development plan had survived rigorous technical scrutiny. "This gives Diraq a decisive advantage: we are scaling on a manufacturing base that already exists, while others are still working out how to build one," he said. Diraq uses silicon spin qubits (quantum bits that encode and store info in the momentum (ie. spin) of single electrons). Its manufacturing is compatible with conventional semiconductor production. The company says it has demonstrated an eight-qubit array using an industrial chip manufacturing process and is targeting 150,000 physical qubits on a single chip by 2029 and more than two million by 2031. The UNSW spinout, founded in 2022, has signed an agreement last month to establish operations at the Roadrunner Quantum Lab in New Mexico. Chairman Scott McGregor, the former Broadcom CEO, said manufacturing costs would determine the winners. "The quantum computing race will mirror the evolution of the semiconductor industry, and the winners will be decided by manufacturing economics," he said. The DARPA funding follows a US$38 million letter of intent from the US Department of Commerce under the CHIPS and Science Act to support American production. Earlier this year, the Australian government's National Reconstruction Fund invested $20m in the pioneering quantum startup as part of an ongoing $75m raise. Diraq has more than 130 staff globally, with its US headquarters in Palo Alto and labs in Chicago and Albuquerque.

Diraq advances to final stage of DARPA's Quantum Benchmarking Initiative. Funding of up to US$300 million will support independent verification and validation of Diraq's path to utility-scale, fault-tolerant quantum computing under DARPA's Quantum Benchmarking Initiative. October 07, 2026 17:35 ET | Source: Diraq PALO ALTO, Calif. and SYDNEY, Oct. 07, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) - Diraq, the quantum computing pioneer, today announced it has been selected by the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to advance to Stage C of the agency's Quantum Benchmarking Initiative (QBI), the final stage of the world's most rigorous program evaluating whether any quantum computing approaches can achieve utility-scale operation by 2033. Utility scale is the point at which a quantum computer can solve problems which deliver more value than the machine costs to build and run. In Stage C, Diraq will work with DARPA's independent verification and validation team to assess the design and performance of its silicon-based systems and the critical capabilities required to deliver a utility-scale quantum computer. "Advancing to Stage C of the QBI program represents a crucial independent validation that our path to utility-scale quantum computing holds up under rigorous technical scrutiny," said Andrew Dzurak, Diraq Founder and CEO. "Diraq's silicon spin qubits are built using the same manufacturing processes and infrastructure that already produce the world's conventional computer chips, which is a different starting point than approaches that require entirely new fabrication techniques to reach scale. That gives Diraq a decisive advantage: we are scaling on a manufacturing base that already exists, while others are still working out how to build one." Diraq's advancement follows the successful completion of Stage B. During Stage B, Diraq developed and detailed its research and development plan for reaching utility scale, including the technical risks, mitigation strategies, and risk-reduction prototypes required to progress its silicon quantum computing architecture. Over the coming months, Diraq will deliver a series of technical demonstrations, system updates, and design activities aimed at validating critical capabilities needed for its future utility-scale quantum computing platform. The program will also support the expansion of specialized research infrastructure and testing environments that enable more advanced experimentation and system development. An initial US$51 million funding tranche will support the next year of Diraq's path to a utility-scale, fault-tolerant quantum computer. "The quantum computing race will mirror the evolution of the semiconductor industry, and the winners will be decided by manufacturing economics," said Scott McGregor, Diraq Chairman and former CEO of Broadcom. "Stage C is where that gets tested rather than asserted. DARPA is examining whether the cost and manufacturability hold up, which is exactly the test the industry should be applying." Diraq has already demonstrated high-fidelity silicon spin qubits manufactured using an industrial 300mm CMOS-compatible process and, more recently, the coherent operation of an eight-qubit array fabricated using the same process. These advances set the stage for the company to rapidly scale to 150,000 qubits by 2029, an acceleration made possible by the foundry compatibility of silicon spin qubits. This scaling will culminate in Diraq achieving utility scale by 2031 - two years ahead of the QBI schedule - with more than 2 million physical qubits on a single chip. The first step toward that scale is already underway. Last month Diraq announced that it will deploy the world's first silicon spin quantum computer to operate in a shared commercial data centre, with Equinix in Sydney, Australia, before the end of 2026. Stage C follows a period of rapid growth for Diraq across the United States, where the company has established its U.S. headquarters in Palo Alto, laboratories in Chicago and Albuquerque and a technology hub in Los Angeles. Diraq has also secured a Letter of Intent for $38M from the U.S. Department of Commerce under the CHIPS and Science Act to support U.S. production of its fault-tolerant silicon quantum computers. About Diraq Diraq is commercializing quantum computing with a silicon-based approach that uses existing CMOS processes. By utilizing the same manufacturing methods that produce today's semiconductor components, Diraq is pioneering a faster, more economical road to commercial-scale quantum computing. The company's proprietary 'quantum dot' technology is based on 20 years of research by CEO and Founder Andrew Dzurak, designed to enable millions of qubits on a single chip, for powerful and scalable deployments. Diraq's mission is to revolutionize quantum computing by unlocking the scale needed for useful commercial applications. Founded in Sydney, Diraq has more than 130 team members globally, with operations in Melbourne, Palo Alto, Los Angeles, Chicago and Alburquerque. To learn more, visit diraq.com, or follow Diraq on LinkedIn, YouTube, Substack, and X.