June 2026
IN THIS EDITION...
Infleqtion Attends Quantum EO Signing Ceremony
How the new EO helps Colorado quantum
Atom Computing Raises $300M+
Infleqtion, CU Boulder team for first quantum space initiative
Jobs, events, and more!
The Quantum Lead
Infleqtion Joins Quantum Executive Order Signing Ceremony at White House
On June 22, President Trump signed two executive orders aimed at cementing U.S. leadership in quantum information science, one directing a national push to build a powerful quantum computer for scientific discovery, and a second accelerating the federal migration to post-quantum cryptography by 2030–2031, well ahead of the prior 2035 deadline.
The first order, "Ushering in the Next Frontier of Quantum Innovation," directs the Assistant to the President for Science and Technology to update the National Quantum Strategy within 180 days and establishes the Quantum Computer for Application Development and Discovery Science (QC-ADDS) Effort, a national program to deliver at least one science-enabling quantum computer to a Department of Energy facility. The second tightens timelines on agency adoption of NIST-vetted quantum-resistant encryption.
Infleqtion CEO Matt Kinsella, whose Louisville-based company received a $100 million letter of intent from the Department of Commerce in May, attended the signing ceremony at the White House, a direct seat at the table for the Mountain West.
Quantum Future
Executive Orders Lift Colorado’s Quantum Stocks and Aspirations
Colorado Public Radio’s Sarah Mulholland talked with Elevate Quantum CEO Jessi Olsen for the Mountain West perspective on what the orders mean and how seriously to take the administration’s five-year timeline. Olsen framed the orders as a signal that the federal government grasps what’s at stake in quantum.
Quantum Investment
Atom Computing Raises $300M+ and Notches a Quantum Error Correction First
Boulder-based Atom Computing announced it has raised more than $300 million in total funding to accelerate development and deployment of commercial-scale, fault-tolerant quantum computers. The package includes a $100 million Series C round led by Third Point Ventures, alongside the company’s previously announced $100 million Letter of Intent with the U.S. Department of Commerce.
The fundraise capped a defining month for Atom, after the company became the first in the industry to demonstrate full quantum error correction on a neutral-atom system using a toric code, joining only one other company to demonstrate many rounds of error correction at all. The fresh capital will support continued scaling beyond Atom’s 1,000+ qubit systems toward utility-scale, fault-tolerant performance.
Quantum Research
Sandia, Quantinuum Publish Mountain West Quantum Benchmark in Nature
Sandia National Laboratories and Quantinuum jointly announced a peer-reviewed paper in Nature establishing performance benchmarks for Quantinuum’s 98-qubit Helios system, the company’s largest and most reliable quantum computer to date.
Helios posted single-qubit operation fidelity of 99.9975% and two-qubit fidelity of 99.921%, with Quantinuum’s Helios lead architect Tony Ransford noting that the system now operates beyond the reach of classical simulation alone and sets a new benchmark of fidelity and complexity for the field.
The result lands as a textbook Mountain West public-private partnership. Sandia, home to the Department of Energy’s longest-running quantum computing program, has been working with Quantinuum for four years under a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement that was renewed in May. Quantinuum’s corporate headquarters are in Colorado; its R&D site sits near Sandia’s main campus in Albuquerque, putting the Helios collaboration squarely inside the EQ footprint. Sandia developed a new benchmarking methodology for the non-destructive mid-circuit measurements that are essential for quantum error correction.
Quantum Innovation
Infleqtion Launches America’s Quantum Space Initiative, CU Boulder Founding Innovator
Infleqtion announced America’s Quantum Space Initiative, a public-private coalition focused on accelerating the deployment of quantum technologies for future space systems. Founding innovators include Voyager Technologies, Monarch Quantum, Armada, and the University of Colorado Boulder, putting two Mountain West organizations at the center of an emerging national push to translate quantum sensing, precision timing, and secure communications into mission-ready space capabilities.
The initiative will operate through a collaborative network called the Quantum Space Hub and builds on more than a decade of orbital flight heritage, including Infleqtion’s contributions to NASA’s Cold Atom Laboratory aboard the International Space Station and its role on the upcoming Quantum Gravity Gradiometer Pathfinder mission.
Quantum Research
CNM Exports Quantum Technician Bootcamp Model Nationwide
Central New Mexico Community College (CNM), Elevate Quantum’s lead institution for quantum technician workforce development, has begun exporting its training model to colleges and universities across the country. In early June, CNM hosted a Quantum Educators Workshop that drew 45 faculty members and academic leaders from institutions stretching from Maryland to Arizona and Florida to South Dakota, with participants getting a hands-on introduction to the curriculum behind CNM’s nationally recognized Quantum Technician Bootcamp.
Built in partnership with Sandia National Laboratories and backed by EQ, the 10-week, 40-hour-per-week bootcamp has now graduated two cohorts, with many of those graduates already placed at Albuquerque-area quantum companies including Qunnect at starting salaries in the $80,000 range. The workshop is the first major step in CNM’s effort to scale a zero-prerequisite, technician-first training model nationwide, paired regionally with the new EQUIP Vacuum and Cryogenic Technician Training Program EQ launched with Front Range Community College and CU Denver last month.
Quantum Impact
Elevate Quantum Details Quantum’s Impact on Colorado
Colorado’s quantum ecosystem got prime-time billing when 9NEWS’ Business Buzz segment turned its lens on the state’s quantum economy. The piece framed Colorado as an emerging quantum-computing hub built through public-private partnerships and highlighted the scale of the hiring pipeline ahead, with Elevate Quantum member companies expected to add thousands of jobs by 2030.
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