Europe just put its first quantum computing company on a major American stock exchange. And it did so without leaving home. IQM, a Finnish maker of quantum machines, started trading on Nasdaq this week. The debut was equal parts landmark and reality check.
IQM began trading on the Nasdaq Global Select Market on 2 July under the ticker “IQMX,” the company confirmed. It reached the market not through a traditional IPO but by merging with a US shell company. It walks away with a pro forma cash pile of €337 million.
The milestone is real. IQM is the first European quantum firm to list on a major US exchange. It says it has sold 23 full-stack quantum computers worldwide, more than any rival. Buyers include Italy’s CINECA, Germany’s Leibniz Supercomputing Centre and the US Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
A Finnish company that stayed Finnish
The more unusual part is what IQM did not do. For years, the playbook for an ambitious European deep-tech firm has been to reincorporate in Delaware, decamp to the US and list there alone. IQM stayed put.
