Quantinuum's buzzy IPO ends with a whimper as stock gives back early gains

By Britney Nguyen

The quantum company's stock opens 13% above its IPO price but ends just cents above the IPO price

Quantinuum shares started trading on the Nasdaq on Thursday.

Shares of Quantinuum initially popped in their Nasdaq debut on Thursday, but the gains were short-lived.

The stock opened at $68, which was 13% above its initial-public-offering price of $60, but ended the day up just 0.6% at $60.38.

The quantum company (QNT) priced its upsized IPO at $60 per share on Wednesday evening, leading to a $1.68 billion raise. The company sold 28 million shares, after it had expected to sell 26.5 million. Thursday's closing price makes for a $15.7 billion market capitalization.

Unlike some other publicly traded quantum companies, Quantinuum opted for a traditional IPO rather than going through a special-purpose acquisition company.

Quantinuum CEO Rajeeb Hazra told MarketWatch that the company chose the traditional IPO route because it wants to "demonstrate that there's no air gap between what we're saying and what we're doing" - especially in an industry that's still in its early days.

"You're starting to see real revenue that's coming from these companies, so it makes sense for them to start to go public," said Willy Lee, a principal at SuRo Capital (SSSS).

See more: Quantinuum raises $1.68 billion in IPO that seeks to give quantum computing more street cred

Quantum technology has been around for decades, but only in recent years has commercial adoption started to take off. While meaningful revenue is still further out for companies focused on futuristic technologies like this one, Lee noted an uptick in contracts that signals business momentum is growing.

While it's understood that quantum computing is an important technology, "it's another thing when you start to see actual real contract volume come in," Lee told MarketWatch.

Part of that is tied to the artificial-intelligence boom, as companies look for ways to develop infrastructure faster and run into bottlenecks, he said.

Quantum computers harness massive amounts of computing power, enabling them to solve complex problems that classical computers can't handle. The technology has been touted for advancing breakthroughs across industries, from drug discovery to financial applications.

Quantinuum's IPO "speaks to the investor interest and confidence within quantum," Lee said. The U.S. government is also making investments to develop the technology in the interest of national security.

The company has developed three generations of quantum hardware, including its Helios quantum computer, which it says puts it on the path to building a fully fault-tolerant quantum computer. Quantinuum also develops software, and Hazra said its "solution experts" work with customers to build use cases for the technology.

The company was formed after Honeywell Quantum Solutions and Cambridge Quantum combined in 2021.

"There's still a lot of misconception that quantum is still to happen or [that] use cases are not real today," Hazra said. "The fact of the matter is quantum is here today, now," he added, noting that customers are asking for a quantum strategy as AI evolves.

The stock's first days of trading will serve as a bellwether for the rest of the quantum space, Wedbush analyst Antoine Legault told MarketWatch. Quantum-computing stocks tend to be highly correlated - so if Quantinuum's stock does well, Legault sees that action potentially lifting the rest of the sector.

-Britney Nguyen

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06-04-26 1713ET