Privately owned companies go public because the strategic business move helps them to raise capital, improve their public image, lower the risk of doing business, and broaden their business scope. Given these numerous benefits of publicly listening companies, quantum computing (QC) companies are now jumping on the bandwagon. I
According to Yahoo!, the size of enterprise QC market is expected to rise from $2.74 billion in 2022 to $11.45 billion in 2027. That shows it holds huge prospects. So, in this article, we will review the top quantum computing companies in 2022. The yardsticks for this ranking are the company’s innovativeness and stability, considerable progress made so far, and huge growth potential.
Top Quantum Computing Companies in 2022
9. IonQ Inc.
In October 2021, IonQ Inc., a company that develops general-purpose trapped ion QC and software systems for quantum circuit generation, went public. Founded in 2015, IonQ Inc. went public through SPAC (a special purpose acquisition company). The management of the Maryland-based QC company implemented the initiative after announcing a merger with dMY Technology Group III.
Later, it started trading on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). IonQ made history as the first pure-play publicly traded QC company in October 2021. Nevertheless, it announced its initial public offering (IPO) in March 2021. One month later, the stock was about $15 with a proforma market cap of roughly $2 billion. Today, its market cap has hit $887.82 million, while its stocks sell at $4.44 per share.
8. Nvidia Corporation
Founded in California in April 1993, Nvidia is a top-tier semiconductor design and development company that powers next-gen tech with its GPUs for accelerated computing power. Over time, the California-headquartered chipmaker has diversified into developing QC systems using GPUs and moving on to become a leader in the AI and machine learning subindustry.
In November 2020, it released a presentation showing quantum’s near-future applications using GPUs – an ecosystem in which it will play a significant role. It would later run the industry’s biggest quantum algorithm using supercomputers a year later. In Q1 2022, its cuQuantum, a high-performance library for facilitating QC workflow, went public. .
7. Rigetti Computing Inc.
Meet Rigretti Computing Inc., a California-headquartered QC firm established in 2013. At Regetti Computing, the team strongly believes that complex problems require powerful computing to tackle them. Consequently, it develops quantum integrated circuits used for QC systems. To help coders write quantum algorithms, the company built a cloud platform, Forest.
More importantly, Rigetti Computing Inc. went public in October 2021, and it is listed on NASDAQ, with stocks exchanging for $0.838 and a market cap of $98.73 million. When Rigetti Computing went public in 2021, it merged with a SPAC and was valued at about $1.5 billion and expected to receive $458 million in cash.
6. D-Wave Quantum Inc.
With a strong focus on quantum annealing, D-Wave, a leading QC company based in British Columbia, Canada, has carved a niche for itself in the industry. Despite leaving an indelible footprint in quantum annealing, D-Wave is now furthering its research and hoping to divest universal gate-based QC systems.
The QC company develops and delivers QC systems, software, and services. In fact, it is the first QC company to surpass the 1000-qubit threshold. Today, the Canadian company has built Advantage System, a quantum annealing-based QC system of over 5,000 qubits .
In February 2022, it announced that it was going public via a SPAC, with a valuation target of $1.2 billion (CAD 1.5 billion).
5. Arqit Quantum Inc.
This is another QC company worth reviewing in 2023. Founded in 2017, Arqit Quantum is a UK-based cybersecurity technology that supplies quantum encryption platform-as-a-service (PaaS), securing links of networked nodes against cyberattacks. Over the years, the cybersecurity company has created unbreakable, easy-to-use software encryption keys of universal applications.
Arqit Quantum also churns out encryption keys for unique quantum encryption technology. This way, they build a foolproof platform for networked nodes. In September 2021, the British QC company announced that it was going public via a SPAC merger.
Upon completing the deal, its value rose from $1.4 billion to over $4.5 billion. Sure, it is a plus!
4. Intel Corp.
You probably live on the moon if you haven’t used a PC whose processor was manufactured by Intel Corp. The California-based tech corporation has been around since July 1968 but has expanded and scaled its offerings to a generation of processors that incorporates quantum technology, scaling from 17 qubits to 49 qubits.
Determined to give other QC industry players a run for their money, Intel Corp invested a whopping sum of $50 million in QuTech, a Netherlands-based QC research centre. Today, Intel is listed on NASDAQ, with stocks sitting at $28.16 and a market cap of $116.22 billion.
3. Alphabet Inc. (GOOGL)
Many industry analysts would forgive you if you didn’t know that the parent company of Google, the world’s biggest search engine, is Alphabet.
Way back in 2019, Google announced that it reached its quantum advantage when it experimented with IBM’s superfast classical computer. To deepen its stake in the QC ecosystem, Google launched Google Quantum AI, the open-source, best-in-quantum tool suite that allows developers and researchers to explore quantum technology at no fee. Sure, Alphabet Inc.
2. Microsoft Corp
Microsoft Corp. is no newbie in the computing world because the multinational tech company has been around since April 1975. However, the world’s biggest classical software development corporation branched out into quantum computing in 2022 with the development of Azure Quantum, a program that allows users to develop devices capable of creating quantum properties.
On the other hand, Azure cloud computing service offers a select few clients access to its prototype quantum computers. According to the company, they have been investing in quantum technology since the 2000s.
1. International Business Machine
If you closely follow IBM’s feats in the QC space, one could wrongly assume that the tech corporation leaps before it looks. That’s because the company has been releasing a series of QC systems over the years. In fact, IBM is the world’s leading QC company with a plan to release 1,121-qubit Condor and 1386-qubit Flamingo sometime this year.
No doubt, this is a threshold its QC rivals can only imagine. In truth, IBM is in a league of its own. Today, IBM’s stocks are traded on NYSE at $134.39 per share and a market cap of $121.51 billion. You won’t go wrong if you buy IBM stocks.
Last Words
The quantum computing sector is moving at a pace we have not seen before, there are many doors opening, but its only just the beginning. Quantum Computing will be significantly different in 3, 5, 7, 10 years and beyond. Its hard to know witch path will succeed or fail. Will it be gate based, photonic etc, no body knows. Each approach has its own strengths and weaknesses.
My top pics, equate to diversity, don’t focus on one technology or vendor or approach. Spread the risk for now and as time progresses re-asses.
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