The race to commercialize quantum computing is hitting the public markets.
Honeywell (HON) announced this morning that its majority-owned unit, Quantinuum, plans to confidentially file draft IPO papers with the SEC. The move sent Honeywell shares up 1.6% in pre-market trading as investors cheered the value unlock.
🦄 THE METRICS:
- Valuation: Quantinuum was valued at $10 billion in a September fundraising round.
- Backers: Raised ~$600 million recently from heavyweights including Nvidia’s venture arm.
- Origins: Formed in 2021 by merging Honeywell’s quantum division with Cambridge Quantum.
🏭 THE STRATEGY: This divestiture is the latest step in Honeywell’s aggressive simplification strategy.
- The Breakup: Last year, Honeywell announced plans to split its vast conglomerate into three focused companies (Automation, Aerospace, Advanced Materials).
- The Logic: By carving out Quantinuum, Honeywell allows the market to value the high-growth deep tech asset separately from its industrial core, while still retaining a stake in the upside.
🧬 REAL WORLD USE CASES: Quantinuum isn’t just a science experiment. It is a full-stack provider already working with blue-chip clients like Airbus, BMW, HSBC, and JPMorgan Chase on complex problems ranging from hydrogen fuel cell design to financial modeling.
💡 ANALYST TAKEAWAY: With a $10B valuation, Quantinuum would instantly become the bellwether stock for the quantum sector (dwarfing pure-plays like IonQ or Rigetti). If the IPO window holds, this listing will test whether public market investors are ready to price “Deep Tech” manufacturing risk again, or if they still prefer the immediate cash flows of AI software.
👇 Tech Investors: Is a $10B valuation for a quantum computing firm justified by current commercial revenues, or is this pricing in a decade of future growth?