Zapata Quantum (OTCMKTS:ZPTA) Chief Executive Officer Sumit Kapur used a presentation at the OTC Markets Global Technology Conference to argue that quantum computing is moving from a hardware-focused phase toward one in which software and applications will determine much of the sector’s value.
Kapur said the company, which trades on the OTCQB Venture Market under the symbol ZPTA, is positioned as a “hardware agnostic” quantum software provider at a time when enterprises are reluctant to commit to any single quantum hardware platform. He described Zapata as the only U.S.-based publicly traded quantum software company and said it has built its foundation since spinning out of Harvard’s Quantum Computing Lab in 2017.
Software Seen as Key to Quantum Value Creation
Kapur framed the company’s strategy around the view that software has historically captured significant value in major technology cycles, citing examples including operating systems in personal computing, cloud platforms in web infrastructure and software platforms in artificial intelligence. He said quantum computing is currently dominated by hardware and full-stack efforts, naming companies such as IonQ, Quantinuum, D-Wave, Rigetti, Google and IBM as examples of firms pursuing different hardware approaches.
That competition, Kapur said, has created what he described as a “collective action problem” in quantum software, with less progress being made on the applications and algorithms that connect quantum machines to commercial use cases.
He outlined Zapata’s framework as a three-layer model: the “why,” or use cases such as drug discovery, optimization and simulation; the “what,” or the algorithms used to solve them; and the “how,” or the hardware. Kapur said Zapata’s hardware-agnostic approach allows enterprises to work on applications without betting on a specific hardware paradigm.
Company Highlights Patents, Research and Partnerships
Kapur said Zapata has more than 60 foundational patents in quantum software and more than 40 peer-reviewed scientific papers. He also highlighted the company’s work with public-sector and private-sector organizations, including DARPA, BMW, BP and BASF.
According to Kapur, Zapata led all three phases of DARPA’s quantum benchmarking program, which he said helped lay the foundation for the company’s current work in quantum application development. He also pointed to research conducted with Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital involving the KRAS cancer mutation. Kapur said the work used a hybrid quantum-classical approach on a 16-qubit IBM quantum computer and produced 15 molecules worth synthesizing, with a couple showing binding activity.
He said the research was recognized by Nature Biotechnology as one of its top 10 papers of 2025 and described it as a template for future pharmaceutical and biotech engagements.
“It is a validated application,” Kapur said. “We actually went end-to-end and produced new scientific knowledge on the basis of a quantum computing software.”
AI, NVIDIA Collaboration and Product Development
Kapur also discussed Zapata’s collaboration with NVIDIA around applying agentic artificial intelligence to quantum algorithm development. He said the companies are working on quantum resource estimation, which he described as a significant bottleneck in the process of developing quantum applications.
In response to a question about what success would look like over the next 12 to 24 months, Kapur said the goal is to compress a process that can currently take one to two years and involve teams of PhDs into a process that could initially take months and eventually weeks or days with a smaller technical team.
Kapur also described Zapata’s QuantumGraph and QuantumPilot products as tooling layers designed to support the full quantum application life cycle, from discovery to development and deployment. He said the products build on prior work with companies including BP, BASF, Mitsubishi Chemical and BMW.
Restructuring, Financing and Potential Catalysts
Kapur said Zapata is at the “very, very tail end” of its restructuring, which included moving from Nasdaq to the OTC market. He said the company is now listed on OTCQB and is in the process of seeking an uplisting to Nasdaq or the NYSE.
He said the restructuring cleaned up the balance sheet, including the restructuring of more than $20 million of debt, and that operations have been fully restored while key technical leadership remains intact. Kapur also referenced an oversubscribed $15 million strategic financing in response to an investor question.
Near-term milestones cited by Kapur included:
- Commercial conversions from private-sector and public-sector customers;
- Applications for government grants and programs;
- Continued product development;
- Additional partnerships similar to the NVIDIA collaboration;
- Increased investor awareness and potential exchange uplisting.
Kapur said Zapata has applied to the Department of Energy’s Genesis Mission program with Lawrence Berkeley National Lab and MIT Lincoln Lab as subcontractors and a letter of support from NVIDIA.
During the question-and-answer session, Kapur said the company is seeing interest from regulated and defense-related sectors, which he said could improve revenue visibility because some government-related contracts can have long durations. He did not provide specific revenue guidance.
Kapur closed by saying Zapata is pursuing what it views as the next phase of growth in quantum software following its restructuring, and said the company believes it is still early in identifying the most important applications for quantum computing.
About Zapata Quantum (OTCMKTS:ZPTA)
Zapata Computing Holdings Inc operates as an industrial generative artificial intelligence (AI) software company in the United States. The company offers subscription-based solutions that combine software and services to develop generative AI applications, as well as accompanying services to solve complex industrial problems. It also provides Zapata AI Sense, a suite of algorithms and complex mathematical models to enhance analytics and other data-driven applications; Zapata AI Prose, a set of generative AI solutions based on large language models for generic chatbot applications; and Orquestra, an industrial generative AI application development platform, which provides sense and prose.
