Quantum funding surge draws BlackRock, Nvidia and Temasek

Venture investment in quantum computing reached a record $3.9 billion across 125 deals in 2025, according to PitchBook data reported by Fortune. The shift matters because the biggest checks are now coming from major financial and technology investors, even as the field remains years away from broad commercial use.

PitchBook said quantum companies raised $1.6 billion in the third quarter of 2025 alone, more than the sector had raised in any full year before 2021. The pace carried into 2026, with $1.2 billion raised in the first quarter, according to the firm.

The investor mix has changed sharply. PitchBook identified BlackRock, with $1.7 billion deployed, and Nvidia, with $1.6 billion, among the leading backers by capital committed, alongside Baillie Gifford, Ripple Impact Investments and Temasek.

Growth-stage venture deals also took a larger share of funding. PitchBook said that tier accounted for about 1% of quantum deal value in 2024 and 30.4% in 2025, the largest one-year stage change in its data.

Dimitri Zabelin, a senior AI analyst at PitchBook, told Fortune that large companies such as Nvidia understand the market signal created by their investments. He said they know investors are watching where they direct capital and what themes they appear to endorse.

Large deals reset expectations

Quantinuum has become one of the sector’s clearest examples of investor demand, according to Fortune. The company raised an $838.9 million Series B round in November at a $10 billion pre-money valuation, then raised $1.68 billion in a Nasdaq IPO in June at $60 a share and opened trading at $68.

PsiQuantum has also attracted large backers. Fortune reported that the company closed a $1 billion Series E round in September at a $7 billion valuation, with BlackRock, Temasek and Baillie Gifford leading the financing.

Exit activity has picked up as well, according to PitchBook data cited by Fortune. Four first-quarter 2026 deals involving Xanadu, Infleqtion, Quantum Circuits and Horizon Quantum Holdings totaled $5.7 billion, about 15 times the combined exit value from the previous three years.

Governments are adding pressure

Public funding has become another force behind the sector. PitchBook said global government commitments to quantum now exceed $60 billion.

China’s 15th Five-Year Plan, adopted in early 2026, placed quantum at the top of its list of future industries, ahead of AI and semiconductors, according to Fortune. The plan is backed by an estimated $17.5 billion National Guidance Venture Fund, while the U.S., European Union and Japan are responding at different speeds, Fortune reported.

Zabelin told Fortune that he would be more concerned if he were in Europe than in the U.S. He said Europe has a pattern of regulating before innovating, while noting that the Soviet Union launched Sputnik and still lost the broader space race.

Commercial payoff remains uncertain

The funding surge has not removed the technical risks. Fortune reported that many quantum companies have entered public markets through SPAC-style reverse mergers rather than conventional IPOs.

Fortune also reported that industry insiders generally do not expect a commercially useful quantum computer until late in the decade. The technology’s promised uses include breaking encryption, speeding drug discovery and modeling molecules that classical computers cannot handle, but those goals remain ahead.

The funding data show a split market. PitchBook said the median quantum deal in 2025 was $9 million, while the average deal was $50.4 million, suggesting that a small number of large platform companies are drawing much of the capital.

Zabelin told Fortune that talent is another constraint, saying quantum physicists are not easy hires for startups. He also cautioned that investment alone does not guarantee breakthroughs and said quantum’s future will likely come through use alongside AI.

This story draws on original reporting from Fortune.