Analysis
IQM, the Finland-based full-stack quantum computing company, went public on Nasdaq on July 2, 2026 via a SPAC merger with blank-check company RAAQ, at a valuation of roughly $1.9 billion. Shares did not pop -- they spent most of the trading day below the IPO price, a lukewarm welcome that TechCrunch reporting suggests was arguably fueled by IQM's own prospectus, which stated plainly that "large-scale commercial traction of quantum computing technology may never occur."
That warning applies, in fairness, to every company in the quantum computing sector, and it hasn't stopped IQM or its peers from acquiring real, paying customers using the technology as it exists today for tasks like simulations and optimizations. IQM sells both physical quantum computers and cloud-access computing time, with customers including VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland and Germany's Leibniz Supercomputing Centre. "We sell computers into advanced supercomputing centers and data centers, and we sell computing time through the cloud," CEO and co-founder Jan Goetz told TechCrunch. The company grew from 8 customers in 2024 to 22 in 2025, including its first private-sector wins -- real momentum, even as genuine "quantum advantage" (the point at which quantum chips definitively outperform classical computers across a broad range of complex tasks) remains undefined and, per IQM's own filing, possibly permanent uncertainty rather than a matter of when.
The listing's timing benefits from real policy tailwinds: President Trump's recent executive orders aimed at accelerating the US quantum computing timeline have prompted the Department of Energy to commit to deploying "the world's first fault-tolerant, scientifically relevant quantum computer" by 2028. IQM stands to benefit directly, having recently established a quantum tech center in Maryland and deployed a computer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, part of the DOE -- "we can benefit directly from it," Goetz said, referring to the administration's push, which follows similar national quantum-acceleration announcements from France, Germany and the UK.
“"We sell computers into advanced supercomputing centers and data centers, and we sell computing time through the cloud," CEO and co-founder Jan Goetz told TechCrunch.”
IQM's structure reflects genuine European origins even as it pursues a US listing: founded in 2018 as a spinout from Finland's Aalto University, the company still has two-thirds of its roughly 420-person staff working out of Espoo, with about 100 more based in Munich. Rather than shifting its center of gravity across the Atlantic like many European tech unicorns pursuing US listings, IQM is simultaneously debuting on Nasdaq Helsinki in parallel with its US Nasdaq ticker (IQMX), maintaining continued support from Tesi, Finland's sovereign wealth fund. The RAAQ board, in IQM's prospectus, specifically cited "over €200 million in public support for IQM" from European sovereign states and companies as evidence the company had already demonstrated its ability to operate credibly both within and outside Europe.
Goetz expressed pride at IQM becoming the first European quantum company to list in the US, doing so within a hair's breadth of French competitor Pasqal, which has separately announced its own plans to go public via SPAC. "It always feels good to be first and to be a pioneer, but ultimately it's about long-term success," Goetz said -- a notably measured framing given how close the race with Pasqal actually was. The listing itself generated approximately €198 million ($226 million) in new liquidity after costs, on top of the $300 million IQM had already raised in a private round the previous September. "It's a big success raising very shortly after the Series B," Goetz said, framing the public listing's main goal as positioning IQM more prominently in a technology race that remains, by the company's own admission, full of fundamental unknowns.
For founders and investors in quantum computing and other deep-tech categories with long, uncertain commercialization timelines, IQM's candid prospectus language and lukewarm debut are a useful reminder that public markets can be unforgiving toward a sector's own honest risk disclosures, even when a company shows real customer growth. For LPs, IQM's first-mover advantage over Pasqal in the US listing race, combined with genuine sovereign-fund support from Finland and Trump-administration quantum policy tailwinds, positions it as a credible bellwether for how public markets price quantum computing exposure more broadly.
What to watch: whether IQM's stock recovers above its IPO price once initial market skepticism settles, how Pasqal's competing SPAC listing performs by comparison once it completes, and whether the DOE's 2028 fault-tolerant quantum computer target and broader Trump administration policy support translate into concrete new contracts for IQM's Maryland center and Oak Ridge deployment.
