Pasqal Shares Surge 60 Percent in Nasdaq Debut

Pasqal, a French quantum-computing company, saw its shares surge approximately 60 percent during its Nasdaq debut on Friday. The company entered the public market through a merger with the special purpose acquisition company Bleichroeder Acquisition Corp II, a transaction that valued the firm at roughly $2 billion prior to new funding.

The merger provided the loss-making company with about $360 million in cash. Pasqal intends to use these funds to expand production, deploy additional processors, and pursue fault-tolerant quantum computing. The company continues to receive support from the French state bank Bpifrance, which participated in the merger-linked financing.

The listing occurs as President Donald Trump has ordered U.S. agencies to accelerate the development of quantum technology. However, Pasqal was not among the nine companies selected to receive preliminary incentives from the United States Department of Commerce, which signed agreements for $2 billion in incentives for other firms.