DARPA just slashed its quantum roster in half. Here are the early winners

The quantum computing world got a jolt when the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) announced, after market close yesterday, a list of companies selected to advance to Stage C of its Quantum Benchmarking Initiative (QBI), widely considered to be the most rigorous and objective vetting program for cutting-edge quantum hardware. Last November, DARPA selected 11 companies to enter the second phase of the initiative, Stage B. Since then, they’ve had to show the agency that they have a