The U.S. Department of Energy has announced the Quantum Genesis Q Competition, which offers up to $215 million in planned funding to advance fault-tolerant quantum computers capable of running scientific workflows.

The competition is open to for-profit domestic companies that can deliver a complete quantum computing stack. DOE anticipates selecting between three and 10 applicants to participate. Its request for applications calls for a “scientifically relevant quantum computer,” or SRQC, that can operate under quantum error correction on a DOE-relevant scientific workload.

DOE’s benchmark for a first-generation system includes 100 logical qubits and roughly 100,000 hard operations, meaning operations that are especially costly under a system’s error correction scheme. The agency says the specific metrics may vary by architecture. Awardees must also show that the machine can complete a scientific workflow, potentially in conjunction with a classical supercomputer. The RFA notes that the workload does not necessarily have to operate at a scale already beyond classical computing.

Making scientific utility part of the milestone indicates DOE will not judge progress on hardware performance alone. An Office of Science advisory committee report released Thursday takes a similar stance, recommending that quantum systems be evaluated against scientific problems and integrated with high performance computing and other existing research infrastructure.

Funding is also tied to milestones. Selected companies can receive $250,000 after DOE approves a verification and validation plan, followed by $1.25 million for a validated prototype. DOE also plans a $100 million incentive pool to be divided evenly among participants that reach the first-generation SRQC target, plus separate $50 million bonus pools for awardees that meet those requirements while reaching at least 150 and 200 logical qubits.

The competition’s structure gives DOE a direct role in validating the systems. National laboratory personnel are expected to receive physical and virtual access to participating machines and operate them to verify performance. The agency separately opened a lab call with $45 million in planned funding to establish quantum and high performance computing validation and verification capabilities to support the competition.

Darío Gil, under secretary for science, said the competition will help build a new era of compute power through this public-private partnership model.

“This competition will enable new quantum computing capabilities and unleash new computational frontiers, driving new scientific and technological discoveries that have previously only been theorized,” Gil said.

Applications are due Oct. 19, and DOE anticipates announcing initial participant selections no earlier than Nov. 13, 2026. The agency plans to evaluate first-generation systems in September 2028, although it will consider proposals that reach the target as late as 2030.

Most of the planned $215 million depends on future appropriations. DOE says $2.5 million is available in fiscal 2026, while funding for later years is contingent on congressional appropriations.