Zapata Quantum, Inc.

Summary of Risk Factors

Our business is subject to numerous risks and uncertainties that you should consider before investing in our common stock. Some of the principal risk factors that make an investment in the Company speculative or risky are summarized as follows:

Risks Related to our Financial Condition and Status as an Early Stage Company

Risks Related to our Business and Industry

Risks Related to Competition

Risks Related to Intellectual Property

Risks Related to Government Regulation and Litigation

Risks Outside Our Specific Business

Investing in our Common Stock involves a high degree of risk. Investors should carefully consider the following Risk Factors before deciding whether to invest in the Company. Additional risks and uncertainties not presently known to us, or that we currently deem immaterial, may also impair our business operations or our financial condition. If any of the events discussed in the Risk Factors below occur, our business, consolidated financial condition, results of operations or prospects could be materially and adversely affected. In such case, the value and marketability of our securities could decline.

Risks Related to Zapata’s Financial Condition and Status as an early-stage Company

We will need additional capital to continue as a going concern, implement our business plan or respond to business opportunities or unforeseen circumstances and such financing may not be available.

Through October 31, 2025, we have funded our operations primarily with proceeds from sales of preferred stock, promissory notes and warrants. Our continuation as a going concern is dependent upon our ability to effect or continue to identify future debt or equity financing and generate profitable operations from our operations. Management estimates needing to raise at least an additional $5 million to establish and continue operations over the next 12 months under our current business plan. There can be no assurance that such capital will be available in sufficient amounts or on terms acceptable to us. Further, the Company has not generated any revenue since September 2024, and does not expect to generate any revenue unless and until it can re-commence material operations which will be dependent on our ability to raise sufficient capital. These factors raise substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern.

Our business plan also contemplates a substantial scaling of Zapata across all departments, including science, software engineering, and product design, in order to launch multiple products and/or offerings in a timely manner to obtain and preserve a competitive advantage. This scaling will require substantial capital at a time when we project we will be operating at a loss and in which we have limited capital and other resources with which to execute our business plan, and this process may take longer than we anticipate. Consequently, our expansion is limited in proportion to our growth in revenue and available capital, as well as by our limited personnel and infrastructure. The capital required to sustain our business during this period may be greater than anticipated. In addition, presently unforeseen opportunities or circumstances may require capital beyond what we currently project. The period during which we expect to operate at a loss may be extended by circumstances beyond our control.

We may obtain additional financing through public or private equity or debt financings (subject to the limitations under our outstanding agreements and debt instruments) that may result in dilution to stockholders, the issuance of securities with priority as to liquidation and/or dividend and other rights more favorable than the Common Stock, or the imposition of debt covenants and repayment obligations or other restrictions that may adversely affect our business. For example, as of October 31, 2025, we have outstanding an aggregate principal amount of $4 million in secured promissory notes (collectively, the “Secured Notes”). Included in the Secured Notes is a senior secured promissory note (in the aggregate principal amount of $1 million the “Senior Secured Note”). This Senior Secured Note, among other things, converts at the option of the holder at $8.50 per share of Common Stock and prohibits Legacy Zapata from issuing additional indebtedness and undertaking certain other actions, subject to limited exceptions, which may prevent or limit us from raising further capital or engaging in strategic transactions in the future. In addition, the other Secured Notes (the “2025 Notes”) have a total outstanding principal amount of $3 million, mature on June 12, 2026 (subject to acceleration upon the occurrence of certain customary events of default or a change of control), and bear 10% per annum interest. These 2025 Notes are convertible into shares of Common Stock at the option of the holder based on a conversion price of $0.04 per share, subject to certain adjustments. These 2025 Notes convert automatically upon the Company’s completion of a securities offering resulting in gross proceeds of at least $5 million. The Company also issued warrants to purchase a total of 37,500,000 shares of Common Stock to the investors of the 2025 Notes.

There is no guarantee that future financing will be at financial terms equal to or more favorable than those described above or that our existing indebtedness will not limit or prevent us from raising capital in the future, and we may need to enter into future equity or, if available, debt financing at significantly less favorable terms. Our failure to raise capital as and when needed would have a negative impact on our financial condition and our ability to pursue our business strategy.

We may also seek additional financing even if in our view such additional financing is not required in order to take advantage of favorable market conditions or for strategic considerations. There can be no assurance that additional financing will be available on favorable terms, or at all. The inability to obtain such additional financing if needed may adversely affect our ability to operate at the levels necessary to execute our business plan or may force us into bankruptcy.

We have a history of operating losses, which are expected to continue for the foreseeable future.

We have incurred significant operating losses since our inception. We incurred net losses of $38.2 million and $29.8 million during the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023, respectively, and we have a cumulative deficit since the formation of Legacy Zapata in November 2017 through December 31, 2024 of approximately $127.7 million. Since 2024, we have continued to incur net losses. We believe that we will continue to incur operating and net losses each quarter at least for the foreseeable future. The size of future losses will depend on several factors, including the degree to which we seek to establish and expand our scientific, product, software engineering, sales and other teams, and the revenue that we can generate from sales of our quantum computing application development solutions. Our operating expenses have increased as a result of becoming a public company and we expect that our expenses will continue to increase as we grow our business, including hiring and re-hiring personnel as we seek to re-establish material operations as part of our ongoing restructuring efforts in 2025.

We are an early stage company with a limited operating history, in a nascent industry, making it difficult to forecast future results.

We were founded in 2017 to develop and provide software with related services and proprietary IP to utilize quantum math on classical and future quantum hardware. In late 2024, due to financial difficulties we temporarily suspended our operations. In June 2025, following restructuring efforts and conversion of certain outstanding indebtedness into equity, we shifted our business focus from artificial intelligence (AI) to quantum computing software and solutions. Our ability to re-establish material operations and generate revenue will be dependent upon our ability to access sufficient capital for such purpose. The market focus for our quantum computing application development solutions and the use of quantum math and algorithms are nascent fields with uncertainty on future market uptake and in technological progress in the field.

There can be no assurance that we can or will meet the challenges commonly faced by early stage companies, including the need to scale operations and to achieve and manage rapid growth. A number of factors could cause our efforts to be adversely impacted, including any inability to raise the necessary capital needed to re-establish material operations and pursue our business objectives, increased competition, lesser-than-expected growth or contraction of our overall market, our inability to accurately forecast demand for our customer offerings, our inability to establish sales or other partnerships with service firms, an inability to develop repeatable solutions, an inability to grow our team, or our failure, for any reason, to capitalize on growth opportunities. We have encountered and will encounter risks and uncertainties frequently experienced by early stage companies in rapidly changing industries, such as the risks and uncertainties described herein. We cannot provide assurance that we can meet the challenges faced by all companies, including established companies, in rapidly changing or nascent industries. The failure to address these challenges successfully or promptly could have a material adverse effect on our future operating results and financial condition.

We may not be able to scale our business and quantum computing application development solutions quickly enough to meet customer and market demand and to remain competitive in the market for quantum computing application development solutions.

In order to establish and grow our business, we will need to re-establish and scale material operations in every area from our existing start-up capacity. These challenges will require that we:

If we cannot successfully overcome these challenges and manage the organizational growth required to do so, then our business, including our ability to establish and maintain a competitive place in the market, financial condition, and profitability, may be materially adversely affected.

Our assets are pledged to the holders of the Secured Notes and failure to repay obligations to these noteholders when due, or any other default events, will have a material adverse effect on our business and could result in foreclosure on these assets.

In connection with the issuance of Secured Notes, the Company entered into Security Agreements and an Intercreditor Agreement with Acquiom Agency Services LLC as collateral agent on behalf of the noteholders (collectively, the “Security Agreement”). The Security Agreement creates a security interest in all of the property of Zapata and its subsidiaries, subject to certain exceptions specified in the Security Agreement (the “Collateral”). Pursuant to the Security Agreement, each of Zapata Computing, Inc. and Zapata Government Services, Inc. has agreed to guarantee the obligations of the Company under the Security Agreement and the Secured Notes.

Upon the occurrence of an Event of Default under the Security Agreement, the collateral agent will have certain rights under the Security Agreement, including the right to take control of the Collateral and, in certain circumstances, sell the Collateral to cover obligations owed to the holders of the Secured Notes pursuant to its terms. “Event of Default” under the Security Agreement means (i) any default of the terms, conditions or covenants of the Security Agreement (after giving effect to any applicable grace or cure period) and any event of default under the Secured Notes, which includes any failure to pay any principal or interest payment on the due date or any other payments required under the terms of the Secured Notes, a breach of any other covenant under the Secured Notes, and entering into any voluntary or involuntary bankruptcy or insolvency proceedings. Any such default would have a material adverse effect on Legacy Zapata’s and, by extension, our, business and our stockholders could lose their entire investment in us.

As a public company, we are subject to the reporting requirements of the Exchange Act, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, including regular attestations by management concerning its internal control over financial reporting. Management may not be able to effectively and timely implement controls and procedures that adequately respond to these increased regulatory compliance and reporting requirements. If we are not able to implement the additional requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (“Section 404”) in a timely manner or with adequate compliance, we may not be able to assess whether our internal control over financial reporting is effective and may fail to provide timely and accurate financial information to investors. This may subject us to adverse regulatory consequences and could harm investor confidence. We expect that the requirements of these rules and regulations will continue to increase our legal, accounting, and financial compliance costs, make some activities more difficult, time consuming, and costly, and place significant strain on our personnel, systems, and resources. We will need to hire additional accounting and financial personnel in order to achieve these goals.

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act requires, among other things, that we maintain effective disclosure controls and procedures and internal control over financial reporting. The controls required are not currently in place; however, we are working to develop and refine our disclosure controls and other procedures that are designed to ensure that information required to be disclosed by us in the reports that we will file with the SEC is recorded, processed, summarized, and reported within the time periods specified in SEC rules and forms and that information required to be disclosed in reports under the Exchange Act is accumulated and communicated to our principal executive and financial officers. We are also working to design and maintain our internal control over financial reporting.

Our current controls and any new controls that we develop may be inadequate because of changes in conditions in our business. In addition, changes in accounting principles or interpretations could also challenge our internal controls and require that we establish new business processes, systems, and controls to accommodate such changes. We have limited experience with implementing the systems and controls that will be necessary to operate as a public company, as well as adopting changes in accounting principles or interpretations mandated by the relevant regulatory bodies. Additionally, if these new systems, controls, or standards and the associated process changes do not give rise to the benefits that we expect or do not operate as intended, it could adversely affect our financial reporting systems and processes, the effectiveness of internal control over financial reporting, and/or our ability to produce timely and accurate financial reports. Moreover, our business may be harmed if we experience problems with any new systems and controls, resulting in delayed implementation or increased costs to correct any issues.

Further, in addition to the material weaknesses described in the Risk Factor which follows and elsewhere in this Report, weaknesses in our disclosure controls and internal control over financial reporting may be discovered in the future. Any failure to develop or maintain effective controls or any difficulties encountered in their implementation or improvement could harm our business or cause us to fail to meet our reporting obligations. That failure could result in a restatement of our financial statements for prior periods. Any failure to implement and maintain effective internal control over financial reporting could adversely affect the results of periodic management evaluations and annual independent registered public accounting firm attestation reports regarding the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting. Those reports will eventually be included in our periodic reports filed with the SEC. Ineffective disclosure controls or internal control over financial reporting could also cause investors to lose confidence in our reported financial and other information, which would likely have a negative effect on the trading price of our Common Stock.

Any failure to maintain effective disclosure controls and internal control over financial reporting could harm our business and could cause a decline in the trading price of our Common Stock.

We have identified material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting. If we are unable to remediate these weaknesses, identify additional material weaknesses in the future, or otherwise fail to maintain an effective system of internal control over financial reporting, this may result in misstatements in our financial statements, cause us to fail to meet periodic reporting obligations, or cause our access to capital markets to be impaired.

In connection with the preparation and audit of our financial statements as of and for the year ended December 31, 2024, material weaknesses have been identified in its internal control over financial reporting. A material weakness is a deficiency, or a combination of deficiencies, in internal control over financial reporting such that there is a reasonable possibility that a material misstatement of annual or interim financial statements will not be prevented or detected on a timely basis.

The material weaknesses we identified include:

These material weaknesses could result in a misstatement of account balances or disclosures that would result in a material misstatement to our combined annual or interim financial statements that would not be prevented or detected.

In an effort to remediate the material weaknesses, we have retained an accounting consulting firm to provide additional depth and breadth to our technical accounting and financial reporting capabilities. We intend to engage internal control consultants to assist us in performing a risk assessment to identify relevant risks and specify needed objectives. With their assistance, we intend to formalize and communicate our policies and procedures surrounding our financial close, financial reporting and other accounting processes, and to further develop and document necessary policies and procedures regarding our internal control over financial reporting, such that we are able to perform a Section 404 analysis of our internal control over financial reporting when and as required. We cannot assure that these measures will significantly improve or remediate the material weaknesses described above. We also cannot assure that we have identified all or that we will not have additional material weaknesses in the future. Accordingly, a material weakness may still exist when we report on the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting for purposes of our management’s required attestation. Further, while we remain an emerging growth company, we will not be required to include an attestation report on internal control over financial reporting issued by our independent registered public accounting firm.

We have incurred and expect to incur additional costs to remediate these control deficiencies, though there can be no assurance that our efforts will be successful or that we will avoid potential future material weaknesses. If we are unable to successfully remediate our existing or any future material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting, or if we identify any additional material weaknesses, the accuracy and timing of our financial reporting may be adversely affected, we may be unable to maintain compliance with securities law requirements regarding timely filing of periodic reports in addition to applicable stock exchange listing requirements, investors may lose confidence in our financial reporting, and our stock price may decline as a result. We also could become subject to investigations by the SEC or other regulatory authorities.

Our ability to use existing or future net operating loss carryforwards and other tax attributes may be limited.

We have incurred net operating losses (“NOLs”) for tax purposes for each year since our incorporation and we expect to continue to operate at a loss for the foreseeable future. As of December 31, 2024 we had a cumulative U.S. federal carryforward of approximately $68.8 million and a cumulative state NOL carryforward of approximately $39.7 million. If not utilized, the state NOLs will expire at various dates through 2044. The U.S. federal NOLs generated after 2017 can be carried forward indefinitely. Under the Code, the deductibility of the U.S. federal NOL carryforward as of December 31, 2024 and all future U.S. federal NOL carryforwards is limited to 80% of taxable income, limiting or delaying in part the use of NOL carryforwards if and when we cease operating at a loss. We may potentially use these U.S. federal and state NOLs to offset taxable income for U.S. federal and state income tax purposes. However, the use of these NOLs may be subject to numerous limitations under the Code and under state tax laws. Among such limitations, Section 382 of the Code may limit the use of these NOLs in any year for U.S. federal income tax purposes in the event of certain past or future changes in ownership of us or Legacy Zapata. An ownership change under Section 382 of the Code, referred to in this discussion as an ownership change, generally occurs if one or more stockholders or groups of stockholders who own at least 5% of a company’s stock increase their ownership by more than 50 percentage points over their lowest ownership percentage within a rolling three-year period. We have not conducted a Section 382 study to determine whether the use of our NOLs is impaired under Section 382 of the Code as a result of any prior ownership change. We may have previously undergone one or more ownership changes. An ownership change in respect of us also could be deemed to be an ownership change in respect of Legacy Zapata. The Merger, or future issuances or sales of our securities, including certain transactions involving our securities that are outside of our control, could result in ownership changes. Ownership changes that have occurred in the past or that may occur in the future could result in the imposition of an annual limit under Section 382 of the Code on the amount of pre ownership change NOLs and other tax attributes that we or Legacy Zapata could use to reduce our taxable income, potentially increasing or accelerating its liability for income taxes, and also potentially causing those tax attributes to expire unused.

States may impose similar limitations on the use of applicable NOLs. We have recorded a valuation allowance related to NOL carryforwards and other deferred tax assets due to the uncertainty of the ultimate realization of the future benefits of those assets.

Any limitation on using NOLs, whether under Section 382 of the Code or otherwise under U.S. federal or state tax laws, could, depending on the extent of such limitation and the NOLs previously used, result in Legacy Zapata or us retaining less cash after payment of U.S. federal and state income taxes in respect of any year in which we have taxable income, rather than losses, than we would be entitled to retain if such NOLs were available as an offset against such income for U.S. federal and state income tax reporting purposes, which could adversely impact our operating results.

Risks Related to our Business and Industry

Failure of quantum computing solutions in general and our quantum computing application development solutions in particular to satisfy customer demands or to achieve increased market acceptance would adversely affect our business, results of operations, financial condition, and growth prospects, and the current state of the quantum computing industry is still new and rapidly evolving, so there is no guarantee that it will succeed.

When we re-commence material operations, we expect to derive substantially all of our revenue from our quantum computing application development software and related services. Accordingly, the market acceptance of quantum computing in general - and our quantum computing solutions in particular - is critical to our continued success.

The market for quantum computing is still in its early stages and is rapidly evolving. Adoption depends on customer awareness of the potential benefits of quantum computing over classical methods, the continued progress of underlying hardware, and the availability of practical quantum algorithms and workflows. There is no assurance that quantum computing will achieve large scale commercial viability or that customers will adopt our products at the rate or in the manner we anticipate.

Demand for our solutions is affected by factors largely beyond our control, including the pace of hardware advancement, competitive product introductions, data-security and regulatory considerations, and general macroeconomic conditions. Further, the use of quantum technology is not widespread and is generally limited to certain specific types of organizations and activities, and our prospective customer base will therefore be limited. We expect the needs of our customers to continue to evolve and grow in complexity as the industry progresses toward fault-tolerant quantum computing. To remain competitive, we must continually enhance the functionality, performance, and usability of our software and services to meet these changing demands.

If the market fails to achieve broad acceptance of quantum computing or our application development solutions do not meet with sufficient customer demand, or if we fail to keep pace with rapid technological change, our business, operating results, and growth prospects could be materially and adversely affected.

While significant progress has been made in advancing quantum hardware, the commercial utility of quantum computing remains largely unproven. As the technology is applied to new domains such as chemistry, materials science, optimization, cryptography, and machine learning, it is possible that performance gains may be more limited than current forecasts suggest. Techniques we or others develop could quickly become obsolete as new methods or architectures emerge. Because many of our competitors are larger companies with greater resources, they may be able to incorporate new techniques or access next-generation hardware more rapidly than we can.

There can also be no assurance that our analysis of the eventual market need for quantum computing is correct. If our assessment proves inaccurate, the future value of our products and services, our competitive position, and our profitability could be materially lower than we currently anticipate.

Our business plan could suffer if we are not able to establish and grow contractual relationships with third parties or enter into certain important strategic partnerships, and if we are unable to ensure that our quantum computing application development solutions interoperate with computing hardware or software that are developed by others, we may become less competitive and our resulting operations may be harmed.

As a quantum computing application development company, our solutions must provide our customers with the ability to use products of third parties, such as quantum processors and classical computing resources, which we do not manufacture. The cost or availability of these dependencies could be adversely affected by a variety of factors, including the transition to a clean energy economy, local and regional environmental regulations, and geopolitical disruptions. Our quantum computing application development solutions must integrate with a variety of hardware and software platforms, and we need to continuously modify and enhance our quantum and classical software libraries to adapt to changes in hardware and software technologies. In particular, we have developed our quantum development frameworks to be able to easily integrate with key third-party applications, including the applications of software providers that compete with us as well as our partners. In general, we are and will be subject to standard terms and conditions of such providers and open source licenses, which govern the distribution, operation, and fees of such software systems, and which are subject to change by such providers from time to time. Our business will be harmed if any provider of such software systems:

Third-party services and products are constantly evolving, and we may not be able to modify our quantum computing application development solutions to assure their compatibility with that of other third parties as they continue to develop or emerge in the future or we may not be able to make such modifications in a timely and cost-effective manner. In addition, some of our competitors may be able to disrupt the operations or compatibility of our quantum development frameworks with their products or services, or exert strong business influence on our ability to, and terms on which we, operate our quantum computing application development solutions. Should any of our competitors modify their products or standards in a manner that degrades the functionality of our quantum development frameworks or gives preferential treatment to our competitors or competitive products, whether to enhance their competitive position or for any other reason, the interoperability of our quantum computing application development solutions with these products could decrease and our business, results of operations, and financial condition would be harmed. If we are not permitted or able to integrate with these and other third-party applications in the future, our business, results of operations, and financial condition would be harmed.

Our business plan could suffer if we are not able to enter into important strategic partnerships.

As part of our growth plans, we expect to expand, sell to, with, and through partners, including developing repeatable solutions built with services firms, and developing partnerships with hardware providers, system integrators and consulting services firms. However, our relationships with these partners may not result in additional business. If we are unable to enter into beneficial and contractual strategic partnerships, or further its relationship with existing partners, or is unable to do so on favorable terms, then its growth could be limited or delayed.

If we cannot manage our growth effectively, we may not become profitable.

Businesses, including development stage companies such as ours which often grow rapidly, tend to have difficulty managing their growth. If we are able to successfully market our products and services, we will likely need to expand our management team and other key personnel by recruiting and employing experienced executives and key employees and/or consultants capable of providing the necessary support.

As described elsewhere in this Report, we are in the process of developing and/or pursuing business plans for relatively novel technology in an industry that remains in its infant stages, and which involves a unique business model and would take substantial time and resources to execute and develop into a revenue generating enterprise. We cannot assure you that our management will be able to manage our growth effectively or successfully. Our failure to meet these challenges could cause us to lose money, and your investment could be lost.

We are highly dependent on our key employees.

Our ability to achieve our goals will depend heavily on our Chief Executive Officer and key employees. In late 2024 and early 2025, most of our key personnel left the Company due to our financial difficulties and suspension of operations. We have since re-hired three such individuals, and will need to re-hire and/or find suitable replacement or supplemental personnel in order to commence material operations and execute on our business plan. The procurement and retention of these key employees and consultants, together with additional key hires, is critical to the long-term success of the Company. All of our personnel, including the are “at will” employees who could leave the Company to accept alternative employment at any time. The more success we achieve serves to increase the risk that competitors, including large, well-established companies with far greater resources, will seek to hire our employees, including key employees. The loss of any key employee, especially to a competitor, could have a material adverse effect on our business, including by delaying the roll-out of products or diminishing the quantity or quality of our scientific output. Further, our industry and operations are highly specialized, and the loss of key personnel would therefore impose substantial challenges on us, and we may be unable to locate and hire suitable replacements on favorable terms or at all, and could lose competitive advantages, market share, and the ability to operate as planned as a result of the loss of certain key personnel.

Our future success is also highly dependent on locating and hiring highly qualified key employees, both to replace any losses of key employees, including following our previous reductions in force, as well as to supplement our current employees. If we are unable to grant sufficient or competitive compensation, including equity awards and bonuses, we may be unable to attract new or retain key employees.

The failure to attract and retain additional qualified personnel or to maintain our company culture could harm our business and prevent us from executing our business strategy.

To execute our business strategy, we must attract and retain highly qualified personnel. Competition for executives, data scientists, engineers, software developers, sales personnel, and other key employees in our industry is intense. In particular, we compete with many other companies for employees with high levels of expertise in quantum computing, computer science, mathematics, and enterprise software, as well as sales and operations professionals, which are specialized fields with limited pools of qualified candidates with the knowledge, education, training and experience needed to fill various roles that will be critical to our operations. As disclosed above, we will need to hire additional personnel to execute our business plan. At times, we have experienced, and we may continue to experience, difficulty in hiring personnel who meet the demands of our selection process and with appropriate qualifications, experience, or expertise, and we may not be able to fill positions as quickly as desired, particularly in light of our previous reductions in workforce. Potential candidates may not perceive our compensation package, including our equity awards, or our future prospects as favorably as employees hired in the past which may render recruiting and retaining qualified individuals more difficult. In addition, our recruiting personnel, methodology, and approach may need to be altered to address a changing candidate pool and profile. We may not be able to identify or implement such changes in a timely manner.

Many of the companies with which we compete for experienced personnel have greater resources than we have, and some of these companies may offer more attractive compensation packages. If the perceived value of our equity awards declines, or if the mix of equity and cash compensation that we offer is unattractive, it may adversely affect our ability to recruit and retain highly skilled employees. Our ability to offer attractive compensation packages to our current and prospective employees is limited by our limited capital resources and our reliance on equity compensation which may be viewed as less attractive based on the prices and lack of liquidity of our Common Stock.

Additionally, laws and regulations, such as restrictive immigration laws, or export control laws, may limit our ability to recruit internationally. We must also continue to retain and motivate existing employees through our compensation practices, company culture, and career development opportunities.

Companies with greater resources than we have in the past recruited or attempted to recruit our employees. If we cannot retain these employees, it may adversely affect our ability to deliver on our quantum computing application development solutions. Furthermore, third-party offers to our employees of greater compensation have in the past forced and may in the future force us to offer significant additional compensation, which may adversely impact our financial performance, and we are limited in issuing equity by the number of shares reserved for issuance under our equity plans. Additionally, continued high inflation, without regard to competition, may require us to increase compensation and failure to do so might impact our employee retention. Such increases would also adversely impact our financial performance.

We believe that a critical component to our success and our ability to retain our best people is our culture. As we continue to grow and develop a public company infrastructure, we may find it difficult to maintain our company culture. If we fail to attract new personnel or to retain our current personnel, our business would be harmed.

Our business is dependent on growing and retaining competitive teams of sufficient size in the areas of algorithm development, product development, and software engineering; the failure to achieve any one of these objectives could materially affect our business.

Our core business model is to develop and sell software capable of delivering quantum computing application development solutions to enterprise customers at scale and services in connection with such software. This requires a science team to develop algorithms, capable of addressing valuable problems using quantum techniques and other mathematics. This requires a product development team that can describe software that not only is able to use the quantum techniques developed by its team, but also is able to handle enterprise production issues at scale. It also requires a software engineering team that can implement the product design through products that comply with the myriad legal and enterprise information technology (“IT”) requirements and are robust enough to function in an enterprise production environment. Finally, these teams must have the capacity to complete their respective tasks in time to be of value to the market.

The ability to hire the personnel required to execute our business plan depends, in part, on the availability of qualified applicants, something which is beyond our control. Quantum information processing is a relatively new field and are inherently difficult. Although the pool of qualified quantum scientists and software engineers is growing, it is limited and competition for that talent is global and aggressive, pitting us against large, well-established companies with larger financial resources than we have, as well as programs sponsored by foreign countries. In addition, limitations in or changes to immigration and work permit laws and regulations or the administration or interpretation of those laws could impair our ability to attract and retain highly qualified employees.

There is no assurance that we will be able to hire and retain an adequate number of quantum scientists, product design specialists, and/or software engineers with the qualifications required to execute our business plan. Our failure to build and maintain any one or more of these requisite teams could have a material adverse effect on our future prospects.

Our estimate of market opportunities may prove to be inaccurate.

At present, there is no mature market for quantum computing solutions. This creates significant uncertainty in determining the potential market for our quantum computing application development solutions. For example, estimates on the current and potential total addressable market for quantum computing as an industry are based on third-party estimates and our own internal judgment, both of which may be materially inaccurate. There can be no assurance that our or third-party estimates of the potential total addressable market for quantum computing are correct, and such numbers do not account for the substantially more limited service obtainable market for our quantum computing application development solutions. Additionally, our market opportunities, future prospects, and future profitability will be materially lessened by delays in widespread enterprise adoption of quantum computing, if enterprises adopt quantum computing at all, which would reduce the relevant total addressable market.

Our business depends on our ability to attract new customers and on our existing customers purchasing additional subscriptions from us and/or renewing their existing subscriptions.

To establish material revenue following the suspension of our operations and to increase our revenue, we must attract new customers. As an early stage company, we have limited experience with sales and, in particular, sales to our target large enterprise customers. Our success will depend to a substantial extent on the level of adoption of our quantum computing application development solutions. Quantum computing is a new and evolving industry, so the level of adoption is uncertain. Numerous factors may impede our ability to add new customers, including but not limited to, our failure to compete effectively against alternative products or services, to attract and effectively train new sales and marketing personnel, to develop relationships with partners, to successfully innovate and deploy new applications and other solutions, to provide a quality customer experience and customer services, including increasing our employee headcount to provide for additional service providers, or to ensure the effectiveness of our marketing programs. If we are not able to attract customers, it will have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Our current quantum computing application development solutions, as well as applications, features, and functionality that we may introduce in the future or that we offer but have not yet sold, may not be widely accepted by our customers or may receive negative attention, each of which may lower our margins and harm our business.

Our ability to engage, retain, and increase our base of customers and to establish and increase our revenue will depend on our ability to successfully market our existing quantum computing application development solutions, as well as create new applications, features, and functionality. We may introduce significant changes to our existing quantum computing application development solutions or develop and introduce new applications, including technologies with which we have little or no prior development or operating experience. These new applications and updates, as well as our existing solutions that we have marketed but not yet sold, may fail to engage, retain, and increase our base of customers or may suffer from lag in adoption. New applications may initially suffer from performance and quality issues that may negatively impact our ability to market and sell such applications to new and existing customers. The short- and long-term impact of any major change to our quantum computing application development solutions, or the introduction of new applications or initial sales of our applications to enterprise customers, is particularly difficult to predict. If new or enhanced applications fail to engage, retain, and increase our base of customers, we may fail to generate sufficient revenue, operating margin, or other value to justify our investments in such applications, any of which may harm our business.

If the market for our quantum computing application development solutions fails to develop or grow as we expect, or if businesses fail to adopt our quantum computing application development solutions, our business, operating results, and financial condition could be adversely affected.

It is difficult to predict customer adoption rates and demand for our quantum computing application development solutions, the entry of competitive software, platforms and services. A substantial majority of our revenue in past periods came from, and we expect future revenue will come from, sales of our subscription-based software and related services, which we expect to continue for the foreseeable future if and when we re-commence sales of our products and services which will depend on our ability to raise sufficient capital. We cannot be sure that the quantum computing market will continue to grow or, even if it does grow, that businesses will adopt our quantum computing application development solutions. Our future success will depend in large part on our ability to create a market for quantum computing application development solutions. Our ability to create such a market depends on a number of factors, including the cost, performance, and perceived value associated with our quantum computing application development solutions. Potential customers may have made significant investments in classical computing systems and may be unwilling to invest in new platforms and applications, and may prefer to work with larger, more established companies that have entered the broader quantum computing market. If the quantum computing market fails to develop or grows more slowly than we currently expect, our business, operating results, and financial condition could be adversely affected.

Our business plan relies upon the adoption of our quantum computing application development solutions by enterprise customers.

Our primary targeted customers are large enterprises with intractable problems that require addressing at scale. The success of our business plan, therefore, materially depends upon our ability to sell our quantum computing application development solutions to such large enterprise customers. Sales to such customers involve risks that are different from or greater than risks involved in selling to smaller customers. Such risks include difficulties associated with longer sales, product, evaluation, and implementation cycles; higher customer-tailored requests and greater bargaining power on the part of the customer; and more intense competition from vendors who have been providing other software and services for years to the customer and are embedded in the customer’s IT infrastructure. If we are not able to overcome these risks and successfully establish a meaningful share of the enterprise market, then its business prospects and future profitability could suffer.

Our sales cycles are expected to be long and unpredictable, and our sales efforts will require considerable time and expense.

Our results of operations may fluctuate, in part, because of the complexity of customer problems that our quantum computing application development solutions address, the resource-intensive nature of our sales efforts, the length and variability of the sales cycle for our offerings, and the difficulty in making short-term adjustments to our operating expenses. The timing of our sales is difficult to predict. The length of our sales cycle, from initial evaluation to payment for our subscriptions and related services can vary substantially from customer to customer and could extend over a number of years for some customers. Our sales efforts are expected to involve educating our customers about the use, technical capabilities, and benefits of our offerings. Customers often undertake a prolonged evaluation process. In addition, the size of potential customers may lead to longer sales cycles. We may also face unexpected deployment challenges with large organizations or more complicated deployment of our offerings. Large organizations may demand additional features, support services, and pricing concessions or require additional security management or control features. Some organizations may also require an on-premise solution rather than a cloud solution, which potentially requires additional implementation time and potentially a longer sales cycle. We may spend substantial time, effort and money on sales efforts to large organizations without any assurance that our efforts will produce any sales. As a result, it is difficult to predict exactly when, or even if, we will make a sale to a potential customer or if we can increase sales to existing customers.

Individual sales can be part of a long sales cycle, which impacts our ability to plan and manage cash flows and margins. These large individual sales have, in some cases, occurred in quarters subsequent to those we anticipated, or have not occurred at all. If our sales cycle lengthens or our substantial upfront investments do not result in sufficient revenue to justify our investments, our operating results could be adversely affected. In addition, within each quarter, it is difficult to project which month a deal will close. Therefore, it is difficult to determine whether we are achieving our quarterly expectations and whether we will achieve annual expectations. We may fail to budget and manage costs and operating expenses or anticipate working capital needs. Therefore, if expectations for our business are not accurate, we may not be able to adjust our cost structure on a timely basis, and our margins and cash flows may differ from expectations.

If we fail to respond to rapid technological changes, extend our quantum computing application development solutions, or develop new features and functionality, our ability to remain competitive could be impaired.

The market for our quantum computing application development solutions is characterized by rapid technological change, particularly since quantum computing is a new and evolving industry, including frequent new hardware and software introductions and enhancements, changing customer demands, and evolving industry standards. The introduction of software embodying new technologies can quickly make existing software obsolete and unmarketable. Quantum computing is inherently complex, and it can take a long time and require significant research and development expenditures to develop and test new or enhanced methods and solutions. The success of any enhancements or improvements to our existing quantum computing application development solutions or any new applications depends on several factors, including timely completion, competitive pricing, adequate quality testing, integration with existing technologies, and overall market acceptance, particularly as we provide custom solutions for specific use cases.

Any failure of our quantum computing application development solutions to operate effectively with future infrastructure platforms and technologies could impact our ability to attain new customers and generate revenue therefrom. If we are unable to respond to these changes in a timely and cost-effective manner, our quantum computing application development solutions may become less marketable, less competitive, or obsolete, and our business may be adversely affected.

The introduction of new quantum computing platforms and applications by competitors or the development of entirely new technologies to replace existing offerings could make our quantum computing application development solutions obsolete or adversely affect our business, results of operations, and financial condition. We may experience difficulties with software development, design, or marketing that could delay or prevent our development, introduction, or implementation of new quantum computing application development solutions, features, or capabilities, applying our existing quantum computing application development solutions to new use cases. Any delays could result in adverse publicity, loss of revenue or market acceptance, or claims by customers brought against us, all of which could harm our business.

Our business could be negatively impacted by delays in development of our software platform.

We have plans, including raising sufficient capital and obtaining adequate staffing and other resources, that we believe if successfully executed will result in the development of and continued improvements to our software platform on a schedule that permits the execution of our business plan in a timely manner. Any delays in platform design and engineering work required to accomplish this could result in corresponding delays in the implementation of our business plan in the market. We are presently unaware of any outstanding design or engineering issues that cannot be resolved in the normal course, but the failure to complete necessary components of or improvements to its platform in a timely manner would have a serious negative impact on the company and might cause the company to fail.

Any failure to offer high-quality support services for our customers may harm our relationships with our customers and, consequently, our business.

Once our quantum computing application development solutions are deployed, customers will depend on our services teams to resolve technical and operational issues relating to our quantum computing application development solutions. Our ability to provide effective support will largely be dependent on our ability to attract, train, and retain qualified personnel with experience in interfacing with customers. If the number of our customers grows, this will put additional pressure on our customer services teams. We may be unable to respond quickly enough to accommodate short-term increases in customer demand for support. We also may be unable to modify the future, scope, and delivery of our support to compete with changes in the services provided by our competitors. Increased customer demand for support services, without corresponding revenue, could increase costs and negatively affect our operating results. In addition, if we experience increased customer demand for support, we may face increased costs that may harm our results of operations. If our customer base expands, we will need to hire additional support staff to deliver and support our quantum computing application development solutions, and our business may be harmed. Our ability to attract and retain customers is highly dependent on our business reputation and on our ability to deliver value to customers. Any failure to deliver value, or a perception that we do not deliver value for our customers, would harm our business.

We selectively pursue U.S. government contracts as a complementary revenue source. We may also target highly regulated organizations. Sales to such entities are subject to a number of challenges and risks. Selling to such entities can be highly competitive, expensive, and time consuming, often requiring significant upfront time and expense without any assurance that these efforts will generate a sale. Government contracting requirements may change and in doing so restrict our ability to sell into the government sector. Government demand and payment for our quantum computing application development solutions may be affected by public sector budgetary cycles and funding authorizations, with funding reductions or delays adversely affecting public sector demand for our quantum computing application development solutions.

Further, governmental and highly regulated entities may demand contract terms that differ from our standard arrangements and may be less favorable than terms agreed with private sector customers.

Contracts with governmental entities may also include preferential pricing terms, including, but not limited to, “most favored customer” pricing. In the event that we are successful in being awarded a government contract, such award may be subject to appeals, disputes, or litigation, including but not limited to bid protests by unsuccessful bidders.

As a government contractor or subcontractor, we will be required to comply with laws, regulations, and contractual provisions relating to the formation, administration, and performance of government contracts, which affect how we and our partners do business with government agencies. As a result of actual or perceived noncompliance with government contracting laws, regulations, or contractual provisions, we may be subject to non-ordinary course audits and internal investigations which may prove costly to our business financially, divert management time, or limit our ability to continue selling our products and services to our government customers. These laws and regulations may impose other added costs on our business, and failure to comply with these or other applicable regulations and requirements, including non-compliance in the past, could lead to claims for damages from our channel partners, downward contract price adjustments or refund obligations, civil or criminal penalties, and termination of contracts and suspension or debarment from government contracting for a period of time with government agencies. Any such damages, penalties, disruption, or limitation in our ability to do business with a government would adversely impact, and could have a material adverse effect on, our business, results of operations, financial condition, public perception and growth prospects.

Governmental and highly regulated entities may have statutory, contractual, or other legal rights to terminate contracts with us or our partners for convenience or for other reasons. Any such termination may adversely affect our ability to contract with other government customers as well as our reputation, business, financial condition, and results of operations. All these factors can add further risk to business conducted with these customers. If sales expected from a government entity or highly regulated organization for a particular quarter are not realized in that quarter or at all, our business, financial condition, results of operations, and growth prospects could be materially and adversely affected.

Our success could be materially affected by problems with or defects in the Orquestra platform or our other software offerings.

In addition to issues commonly facing all providers of commercial software, the development of our quantum computing application development solutions involves converting novel, complex scientific algorithms into software code. We may experience unintended design and/or implementation defects or other quality issues in our software code. We may also experience defects in the products and services of third parties on which we rely to provide our products and services, including third-party cloud providers. Problems can be caused by a variety of factors, including premature or failed introduction of new products, vulnerabilities or defects in proprietary and open source software, human error or misconduct, design limitations, or denial of service or other security-related incidents. We do not have a contractual right with our public cloud providers that will compensate us for any losses due to availability interruptions in the public cloud.

Any defects in the Orquestra platform or other software offerings, whether caused by defective design, defective coding, or defects introduced through third-party components; any disruptions in our ability to provide our quantum computing application development solutions, including by means of public cloud; and/or any other quality issues with our quantum computing application development solutions could affect our business reputation and brand, could cause us to spend material amounts to address the defects, could cause material delays in the execution of our business plan, and could have a material adverse effect on our business opportunities, revenue, and future profitability.

The pursuit of inorganic growth opportunities could result in harm to our business.

We may pursue growth opportunities by acquiring complementary businesses or other assets for strategic purposes, such as companies with products and services used in, complementary to, or overlapping with our offerings; companies with an IP portfolio that could complement ours; companies with customer lists that could shorten the sales cycle to significant customers. The pursuit of such strategic opportunities could be both expensive and distracting, could have a significant impact on the company’s capital structure, and even if the transaction is completed as desired the results may not be as predicted. To the extent such opportunities may arise, there can be no assurance that the pursuit of any such opportunities will succeed and, if they fail, they could have a material adverse effect on our business and future profitability.

Risks Related to Competition

Competitors may develop products and technologies that are superior to our quantum computing application development solutions.

Our business plan is based on the belief that the value of our quantum computing application development solutions will be enhanced by delivering, in a single unified software platform, the ability to: allow deployment in any desired environment; permit the development or implementation of applications and services that are capable of data handling tasks, including processing data in a manner calculated to maximize the performance of quantum and hybrid computing solutions, and leveraging AI to accelerate quantum application development. While we believe our approach is differentiated, other companies are actively developing quantum software, benchmarking, and workflow tools that may overlap with or compete against ours. Further, a prolonged delay in re-launching material operations and commencing sales will give our competitors a timing advantage to enter and pursue market opportunities which we may have otherwise have had an opportunity to pursue, which delay and resulting disadvantage will continue until we can raise sufficient capital and hire the necessary personnel to pursuant our business plan.

Many of our existing and potential competitors have, or could have, substantial competitive advantages such as:

There can be no guarantee that a competitor will not develop a product superior to ours or one that is perceived by the market to be superior. Nor can there be any guarantee that a combination of products will not be able to provide solutions that are superior, or are perceived to be superior, to our quantum computing application development solutions. The introduction of such a product or combination of products could have a material adverse effect on our business, profitability, and financial condition.

The quantum computing industry is highly competitive and we may not be successful in establishing ourself as a viable competitor without regard to the value of our quantum computing application development solutions.

Quantum computing is an industry with great promise that has attracted global interest and participation. In addition, the recent rapid rise of the quantum computing industry has given rise to less-established public and private companies, including new startups, which may compete, in whole or in part, with our products and services. This competition in the market for quantum computing is already great and is expected to intensify over time.

To compete successfully in this market, we must develop our products and technologies in a timely manner, effectively market these products against multiple competitors, and support these products at levels expected by enterprise customers. Delays in the introduction of products and services may cause potential customers to adopt competitors’ products, making it difficult or impossible for our products later to displace the competitive products without regard to the relative value of the respective products.

There can be no assurance that we will be able to timely deliver products that will result in us having a material share of this market, even if our products are superior. Our inability to establish a position and market share in this highly competitive industry will adversely affect our future prospects and may cause the company to fail.

Our business plan depends, in part, on access to public clouds through major cloud providers and there is no guarantee that access will be available on reasonable terms.

Our quantum computing application development solutions will permit deployment of our software in various scenarios, including on the premises of a customer, hybrid clouds controlled by the customer, or a public cloud controlled by us. Although not necessary in all customer engagements, an important aspect of business plan is to make our quantum computing application development solutions available via a public cloud controlled by us. To accomplish this, we are required to negotiate cloud access with one or more cloud providers. Multiple large public cloud providers, such as Google and Microsoft, are both engaged in their own initiatives that could compete with our quantum computing application development solutions in whole or in part. There is a risk that a cloud provider important to our business plan could use control of their public cloud to deny or place us at a competitive disadvantage by various means, including embedding innovations or privileged interoperating capabilities in products competing with ours, bundling competing products, requiring unfavorable pricing, including terms or conditions or regulatory requirements that make our quantum computing application development solutions uncompetitive, or leveraging their existing relationships with our customers to pressure customers to use their products rather than ours. Further, if we fail to comply with requirements of these third parties, we could be denied access to a critical platform, which would have a material adverse effect on our business.

There can be no guarantee that we will be able to deploy our quantum computing application development solutions on public clouds controlled by competitors. The failure to be able to access public clouds, or the imposition of restrictive terms as a condition to such access, limit the adoption and use of our quantum computing application development solutions by customers, increase our operating expenses, damage our brand, and/or place us at a disadvantage when competing for customer accounts. Any of these could have a material adverse effect on our business operations, market share, and profitability.

Our business plan depends, in part, on access to quantum processing units (QPUs), high-performance classical compute resources, and other specialized hardware either directly through the purchase of computing hardware and installation in data centers, or through third party providers. There is no guarantee that access through either path will be available on reasonable terms, or at all.

Many of the techniques developed by us require the use of specialized hardware to execute an algorithm in a time or cost-efficient manner as required by the constraints of an application. Access to this hardware can be obtained through the purchase of quantum or hybrid computing systems and installation in a data center or on-premise, or through a third-party infrastructure service provider. Hardware could be purchased or accessed from providers such as IBM, IonQ, D-Wave, Rigetti or NVIDIA. Many of these providers are also our competitors in that they operate in the quantum software space in addition to hardware. Supply chain problems, chip shortages, or regulatory or geopolitical conditions beyond our control including tariffs or trade restrictions could all impact our ability to access this hardware, either directly or through a third-party provider, and/or the prices we must pay for the hardware. Additionally, obtaining space in an existing facility and maintaining the hardware would require additional expertise that would need to be either hired or contracted by us, and identifying and hiring such experts could be costly and time-consuming. We could also face difficulties securing terms to host this hardware on reasonable terms, or at all, and we may be forced to incur substantial additional or unforeseen expenses to navigate these challenges.

Alternatively, instead of competing to purchase hardware directly, we could rent time on that hardware from classical or quantum cloud infrastructure service providers, such as Amazon AWS, Amazon Braket, Oracle Cloud, Microsoft Azure, or IBM Quantum. In this case, we would rely on third-party providers to provide cloud-based network access to these systems on an hourly, subscription, or other basis. However, there can be no assurance that these third-party providers could obtain or maintain access to quantum hardware on reasonable terms, or at all. If we are unable to access on favorable terms the necessary hardware to operate our business as needed to establish, sustain or grow our operations as planned, it will have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations.

Risks Related to Intellectual Property

Our patent applications may not result in issued patents, which may have a material adverse effect on our ability to prevent others from commercially exploiting products similar to ours. The status of patents involves complex legal and factual questions and the breadth of claims allowed is uncertain. As a result, we cannot be certain that the patent applications that we file will result in patents being issued, or that our patents and any patents that may be issued to us will afford protection against competitors with similar technology. Numerous patents and pending patent applications owned by others exist relating to quantum computing, quantum inspired classical methods, algorithms and software, differential equations and optimization, and hardware optimization. In addition to those who may have patents or patent applications directed to relevant technology with an effective filing date earlier than any of our existing patents or pending patent applications, any of our existing or pending patents may also be challenged by others on the basis that they are otherwise invalid or unenforceable. Furthermore, patent applications filed in foreign countries are subject to laws, rules and procedures that differ from those of the United States, and thus we cannot be certain that foreign patent applications related to issued U.S. patents will be issued.

Even if our patent applications succeed and we are issued patents in accordance with them, it is still uncertain whether these patents will be contested, circumvented, invalidated or limited in scope in the future. The rights granted under any issued patents may not provide us with meaningful protection or competitive advantages, and some foreign countries provide significantly less effective patent enforcement than in the United States. In addition, the claims under any patents that issue from our patent applications may not be broad enough to prevent others from developing technologies that are similar or that achieve results similar to ours. The intellectual property rights of others could also bar us from licensing and exploiting any patents that issue from our pending applications. In addition, patents issued to us may be infringed upon or designed around by others and others may obtain patents that it needs to license or design around, either of which would increase costs and may adversely affect our business, prospects, financial condition and operating results.

There is no guarantee that our IP will provide the desired competitive advantage.

We seek to provide ourselves with a competitive advantage by making key elements of our quantum computing application development solutions proprietary, through one of two means. First, we pursue patent protection for some inventions that we believe qualify for protection under the patent laws. In cases in which patent protection is sought, the details of the invention eventually will be made public in the normal course, usually within eighteen months of filing. As to these inventions, competitors will eventually know the details of and can use the inventions to compete with us, unless a patent is granted prohibiting such use and we can learn of violations and effectively enforce our patent rights in light of the costs and complexities involved in such enforcement litigation. Second, some elements of our quantum computing application development solutions we seek to protect as trade secrets. As to our trade secrets, competitors will not be able to know our techniques provided the trade secrets are not improperly disclosed, but if a competitor independently develops the same technique and files for and is granted patent protection we could find ourselves prohibited by the patent laws from practicing our trade secret technology.

There is no assurance that our pending or future patent applications will be granted and provide us patent protection as to the claims in those applications. Moreover, we cannot guarantee that our patent rights will not be violated by competitors, that we will be able to detect such violations, or that if violations are detected we will be in a position effectively to enforce our patent rights. Nor can we guarantee that our trade secrets will remain secret and not be disclosed to competitors either inadvertently or through violation of contractual secrecy agreements, or that our trade secrets are not independently developed by competitors. The failure of our IP strategy to protect key elements of our quantum computing application development solutions could materially reduce any competitive advantage we might otherwise have and have a corresponding adverse effect on our market share and/or profitability.

We may become subject to intellectual property disputes. Intellectual property litigation is often extremely expensive and entails high legal fees and costs of expert witnesses.

Our success depends, in part, on our ability to develop and commercialize our products, services and technologies without infringing, misappropriating or otherwise violating the intellectual property rights of third parties. However, we may not be aware that our products, services or technologies are infringing, misappropriating or otherwise violating third-party intellectual property rights and such third parties may bring claims alleging such infringement, misappropriation or violation. For example, there may be issued patents of which we are unaware, held by third parties that, if found to be valid and enforceable, could be alleged to be infringed by our current or future products, services or technologies.

There also may be pending patent applications of which we are not aware that may result in issued patents, which could be alleged to be infringed by our current or future products, services or technologies. Because patent applications can take years to issue and are often afforded confidentiality for some period of time, there may currently be pending applications, unknown to us, that later result in issued patents that could cover our current or future products, services or technologies. Lawsuits can be time-consuming and expensive to resolve, and they divert management’s time and attention. Numerous patents and pending patent applications owned by others exist in the fields in which we have developed and are developing our technology. Companies that have developed and are developing technology are often required to defend against litigation claims based on allegations of infringement, misappropriation or other violations of intellectual property rights. Our products, services or technologies may not be able to withstand any third-party claims against their use. In addition, many companies have the capability to dedicate substantially greater resources to enforce their intellectual property rights and to defend claims that may be brought against them. In a patent infringement claim against us, we may assert, as a defense, that we do not infringe the relevant patent claims, that the patent is invalid or both. The strength of our defenses will depend on the patents asserted, the interpretation of these patents, and its ability to invalidate the asserted patents. However, we could be unsuccessful in advancing non-infringement and/or invalidity arguments in its defense. In the United States, issued patents enjoy a presumption of validity, and the party challenging the validity of a patent claim must present clear and convincing evidence of invalidity, which is a high burden of proof. Conversely, the patent owner need only prove infringement by a preponderance of the evidence, which is a lower burden of proof. Our patent portfolio may not be large enough to deter patent infringement claims, and our competitors and others may now and in the future have significantly larger and more mature patent portfolios. Any litigation may also involve patent holding companies or other adverse patent owners that have no relevant solution revenue, and therefore, our patent portfolio may provide little or no deterrence as it would not be able to assert its patents against such entities or individuals. If a third party is able to obtain an injunction preventing us from accessing such third-party intellectual property rights, or if we cannot license or develop alternative technology for any infringing aspect of our business, we may be forced to limit or stop sales of its products, services or technologies or cease business activities related to such intellectual property. Although the Company carries general liability insurance, our insurance may not cover potential claims of this type or may not be adequate to indemnify us for all liability that may be imposed. We cannot predict the outcome of lawsuits and cannot ensure that the results of any such actions will not have an adverse effect on its business, financial condition or results of operations. Any intellectual property litigation to which we might become a party, or for which it is required to provide indemnification, regardless of the merit of the claim or its defenses, may require us to do one or more of the following:

Even if the claims do not result in litigation or are resolved in our favor, these claims, and the time and resources necessary to resolve them, could divert the resources of its management and harm its business and operating results. Moreover, there could be public announcements of the results of hearings, motions or other interim proceedings or developments and if securities analysts or investors perceive these results to be negative, it could have a substantial adverse effect on the price of our Common Stock. The occurrence of infringement claims may grow as the market for our products, services and technologies grows. Accordingly, our exposure to damages resulting from infringement claims could increase and this could further exhaust its financial and management resources.

Our use of third-party open source software could negatively affect our ability to offer and sell subscriptions to our quantum computing application development solutions and subject us to possible litigation.

A portion of the technologies we use incorporates third-party open source software, and we may incorporate third-party open source software in our solutions in the future. Open source software is generally licensed by its authors or other third parties under open source licenses. From time to time, companies that use third-party open source software have faced claims challenging the use of such open source software and requesting compliance with the open source software license terms. Accordingly, we may be subject to suits by parties claiming ownership of what we believe to be open source software or claiming non-compliance with the applicable open source licensing terms. Some open source software licenses require end users who use, distribute or make available across a network software and services that include open source software to offer aspects of the technology that incorporates the open source software for no cost. We may also be required to make publicly available source code (which in some circumstances could include valuable proprietary code) for modifications or derivative works we create based upon, incorporating or using the open source software and/or to license such modifications or derivative works under the terms of the particular open source license. Additionally, if a third-party software provider has incorporated open source software into software that we license from such provider, we could be required to disclose any of our source code that incorporates or is a modification of our licensed software. While we employ practices designed to monitor our compliance with the licenses of third-party open source software and protect our valuable proprietary source code, we may inadvertently use third-party open source software in a manner that exposes us to claims of non-compliance with the terms of their licenses, including claims of intellectual property rights infringement or for breach of contract. Furthermore, there exists today an increasing number of types of open source software licenses, almost none of which have been tested in courts of law to provide guidance of their proper legal interpretations. If we were to receive a claim of non-compliance with the terms of any of these open source licenses, we could be required to incur significant legal expenses defending against those allegations and could be subject to significant damages, enjoined from offering or selling our solutions that contained the open source software, and required to comply with the foregoing conditions, and we may be required to publicly release certain portions of our proprietary source code. We could also be required to expend substantial time and resources to re-engineer some of our software. Any of the foregoing could disrupt and harm our business.

In addition, the use of third-party open source software typically exposes us to greater risks than the use of third-party commercial software because open source licensors generally do not provide warranties or controls on the functionality or origin of the software. Use of open source software may also present additional security risks because the public availability of such software may make it easier for hackers and other third parties to determine how to compromise our quantum computing application development solutions. Any of the foregoing could harm our business and could help our competitors develop platforms and applications that are similar to or better than ours.

In addition, companies that currently sponsor and maintain open source software may choose to change the terms of their open source software licenses. These license changes could cause us to lose access to upgrades for commercial use that are currently available to us or otherwise restrict the way we are currently using them. These changes could mean that we must invest engineering resources to maintain that library itself, move to a different underlying software library, or engineer a replacement in order to keep the same feature set in its offerings.

Because of the characteristics of open source software, there may be fewer technology barriers to entry by new competitors and it may be relatively easy for new and existing competitors with greater resources than we have to compete with us.

One of the characteristics of open source software is that the governing license terms generally allow liberal modifications of the code and distribution thereof to a wide group of companies and/or individuals. As a result, others could easily develop new platforms and applications based upon those open source programs that compete with existing open source software that we support and incorporate into our quantum computing application development solutions. Such competition with use of the open source projects that we utilize can materialize without the same degree of overhead and lead time required by us, particularly if the customers do not value the differentiation of our proprietary components. It is possible for new and existing competitors with greater resources than ours to develop their own open source software or hybrid proprietary and open source software offerings, potentially reducing the demand for, and putting price pressure on, our quantum computing application development solutions. In addition, some competitors make open source software available for free download and use or may position competing open source software as a loss leader. We cannot guarantee that we will be able to compete successfully against current and future competitors or that competitive pressure and/or the availability of open source software will not result in price reductions, reduced operating margins and loss of market share, any one of which could seriously harm our business.

If open source software programmers, many of whom we do not employ, or our own internal programmers do not continue to develop and enhance open source technologies, we may be unable to develop new technologies, adequately enhance our existing technologies or meet customer requirements for innovation, quality and price.

We rely to a significant degree on a number of open source software programmers, or committers and contributors, to develop and enhance components of our quantum computing application development solutions. Additionally, members of the corresponding Apache Software Foundation Project Management Committees (“PMCs”), many of whom are not employed by us, are primarily responsible for the oversight and evolution of the codebases of important components of the open source data management ecosystem. If the open source data management committees and contributors fail to adequately further develop and enhance open source technologies, or if the PMCs fail to oversee and guide the evolution of open source data management technologies in the manner that we believe is appropriate to maximize the market potential of our solutions, then we would have to rely on other parties, or we would need to expend additional resources, to develop and enhance our quantum computing application development solutions. We also must devote adequate resources to our own internal programmers to support their continued development and enhancement of open source technologies, and if we do not do so, we may have to turn to third parties or experience delays in developing or enhancing open source technologies. We cannot predict whether further developments and enhancements to these technologies would be available from reliable alternative sources. In either event, we may incur additional development expenses and experience delays in technology release and upgrade. Delays in developing, completing, or delivering new or enhanced components to our quantum computing application development solutions could cause our offerings to be less competitive, impair customer acceptance of our solutions, and result in delayed or reduced revenue for our solutions.

Risks Related to Government Regulation and Litigation

If we fail to comply with United States and foreign laws related to privacy, data security, and data protection, it could adversely affect our operating results and financial condition.

We, either directly or through our customers, collaborators or end-users of our products, are or may become subject to a variety of laws and regulations regarding privacy, data protection, and data security. This includes the European Union’s (“EU”) General Data Protection Regulation (the “EU GDPR”) and the United Kingdom’s General Data Protection Regulations (the “UK GDPR”). Other countries where we may seek to do business also may have data privacy laws we will be required to comply with. These laws and regulations are continuously evolving and developing. The scope and interpretation of the laws that are or may be applicable to us are often uncertain and may be conflicting, particularly with respect to foreign laws. The application of these laws and regulations can arise from our e-commerce platform, social media activities, drone technology and applications, relationships with third parties and their operations, or from other activities we undertake now or that we may undertake in the future. Data privacy and protection regulations are frequently broad in terms of scope of the information protected, activities affected, and geographic reach.

In particular, there are numerous United States federal, state, and local laws and regulations and foreign laws and regulations regarding privacy and the collection, sharing, use, processing, disclosure, and protection of personal data. Such laws and regulations often vary in scope, may be subject to differing interpretations, and may be inconsistent among different jurisdictions. For example, the GDPR includes operational requirements for companies that receive or process personal data of residents of the EU that are broader and more stringent than those previously in place in the EU and in most other jurisdictions around the world. The GDPR includes significant penalties for non-compliance, including fines of up to €20 million or 4% of total worldwide revenue. Additionally, in June 2018, California enacted the California Consumer Privacy Act (the “CCPA”). The CCPA requires covered companies to provide California consumers with new disclosures and will expand the rights afforded consumers regarding their data. Fines for noncompliance may be up to $7,500 per violation. In September 2025, California amended the CCPA to (i) regulate technologies that replace or substantially replace human decisions, (ii) require comprehensive risk assessment reports that address specific processing activities that present a significant risk to a consumer’s privacy, and (iii) clarify when a cyber security audit must be conducted. The costs of compliance with, and other burdens imposed by, the GDPR, CCPA, and similar laws may limit the use and adoption of our products and services and/or require us to incur substantial compliance costs, which could have an adverse impact on our business.

Since the CCPA was enacted, the United States currently has at least 20 states – California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and Virginia, that have comprehensive data privacy laws in place, or enacted comprehensive data privacy laws set to soon take effect. An additional seven states have enacted narrower privacy laws – Florida, Maine, Michigan, Nevada, New York, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin. During the 2025 legislative cycle, comprehensive federal privacy reform was not prevalent in state legislatures, but at least eight states with existing privacy statutes expanded the scope of their privacy frameworks, including Colorado, Connecticut, Virginia, Utah, Texas, Oregon, Montana, and Kentucky. However, this patchwork approach to privacy legislation could pose compliance and liability risks for companies that have multistate operations. Proposed and enacted bills in various states have similar rights in preexisting privacy legislation but differ in implementation and enforcement. In June 2024, the American Privacy Rights Act of 2024 was introduced in the United States House of Representatives and was subsequently referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce has and is not yet adopted. As of November 2025, the House Energy & Commerce Committee has convened a Privacy Working Group to solicit comments from stakeholders on the legislation. As introduced, this proposed legislation would establish requirements for how companies handle personal data by, among other things, limiting the collection, processing, and transfer of personal data, prohibiting companies from transferring individuals’ personal data without their affirmative express consent, establishing a right to access, correct, and delete personal data, requiring companies to provide individuals with a means to “opt out” of the transfer of non-sensitive covered data and the right to opt out of the user of their personal information for targeted advertising, requiring companies to implement security practices aimed at protecting personal data, and imposing enforcement actions and the possibility of civil proceedings for violations. Proposed federal legislation, will likely continue to be debated and, at some point, may be enacted in some form.

We intend to strive to comply with all applicable laws, policies, legal obligations, and industry codes of conduct relating to privacy, data security, and data protection. Our limited resources may adversely affect our compliance effort. Given that the scope, interpretation, and application of these laws and regulations are often uncertain and may be in conflict across jurisdictions, it is possible that these obligations may be interpreted and applied in a manner that is inconsistent from one jurisdiction to another and may conflict with other rules or our practices. Any failure or perceived failure by us, customers, or third-party vendors or end-users involved with our products to comply with our privacy or security policies or privacy-related legal obligations, or any compromise of security that results in the unauthorized release or transfer of personal data, may result in governmental enforcement actions, litigation, or negative publicity, and could have an adverse effect on our operating results and financial condition.

Governments are continuing to focus on privacy and data security, and it is possible that new privacy or data security laws will be passed or existing laws will be amended in a way that is material to our business. Any significant change to applicable laws, regulations, or industry practices regarding the personal data of our employees, agents or customers could require us to modify our practices and may limit our ability to expand or sustain our salesforce or bring our products to market. Changes to applicable laws and regulations in this area could subject us to additional regulation and oversight, any of which could significantly increase our operating costs and materially affect our operating results and financial condition.

Outside the United States, an increasing number of laws, regulations, industry standards and other obligations may govern privacy, data protection and security. For example, the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (“EU GDPR”), the United Kingdom’s General Data Protection Regulation (“UK GDPR”), Brazil’s General Data Protection Law (Lei Geral de Proteção de Dados Pessoais, or “LGPD”) (Law No. 13,709/2018), and China’s Personal Information Protection Law (“PIPL”) impose strict requirements for processing personal data.

For example, under the EU GDPR, companies may face temporary or definitive bans on data processing and other corrective actions; fines of up to 20 million Euros or 4% of annual global revenue, whichever is greater; or private litigation related to processing of personal data brought by classes of data subjects or consumer protection organizations authorized at law to represent their interests. Additionally, we also target customers in Asia and may be subject to new and emerging data protection and privacy regimes in Asia, including China’s PIPL, Japan’s Act on the Protection of Personal Information, and Singapore’s Personal Data Protection Act.

In addition to privacy, data protection and security laws, we may become subject to contractually mandated standards and/or industry standards adopted by industry groups, as well as other potential obligations related to privacy, data protection and security, and our efforts to comply with such obligations may not be successful.

We may at times fail, or be perceived to have failed, in our efforts to comply with our privacy, data protection or security obligations. Moreover, despite our efforts, our personnel or third parties on whom we rely may fail, or be perceived to have failed, to comply with such obligations, which could negatively impact our business operations. If we or the third parties on which we rely fail, or are perceived to have failed, to address or comply with applicable privacy, data protection or security obligations, we could face significant consequences, including but not limited to: government enforcement actions (e.g., investigations, fines, penalties, audits, inspections, and similar events); litigation (including class-action claims); additional reporting requirements and/or oversight; bans on processing personal data; and orders to destroy or not use personal data. Any of these events could have a material adverse effect on our reputation, business, or financial condition, including but not limited to: loss of customers; inability to process personal data or to operate in certain jurisdictions; interruptions or stoppages in our business operations or data collection; limited ability to develop or commercialize our products; expenditure of time and resources to defend any claim or inquiry; adverse publicity; or substantial changes to our business model or operations.

Compliance with data use, privacy, and security laws will be an inherent feature in our product design and a change in those laws could negatively affect the value of our quantum computing application development solutions.

We seek to provide quantum computing application development solutions to large enterprise users located anywhere in the world. We anticipate that the data required to be processed by such solutions can be located in different jurisdictions, subject to different and changing data laws. We also anticipate that our future enterprise customers may have their own policies with respect to the manner in which the data they maintain can be handled, stored, and used. Our quantum computing application development solutions are and will continue to be designed to permit compliance with any applicable data laws or internal IT policy of enterprise customers.

There can be no assurance, however, that our software product design is adequate to permit the deployment of our quantum computing application development solutions in compliance with existing data laws or customer policies or that these laws and/or policies will not change in the future in a way that makes deployment of our solutions impossible or more costly. A failure on our part to design and re-design our software platform to permit compliance with applicable data laws and customer policies could limit our sales, harming our growth and profitability, or in the worst case create substantial contract liability to a customer for causing a breach of applicable data laws with respect to the customer’s data.

We are potentially subject to governmental export and import control laws that could negatively impact our business.

As are all U.S.-based businesses, we are subject to various U.S. laws prohibiting the export of certain goods and services and imposing certain trade sanctions. Presently, quantum software including quantum inspired techniques and AI software are not generally subject to the U.S. export control regime but could be subject to those controls depending on the specific application the software would be used to address. Moreover, the list of goods and services subject to the U.S. export control regime is expected to change and grow in the future to include additional items relating to quantum computing. These laws might limit our ability to sell our quantum computing application development solutions to customers.

In addition, under the “deemed export” rules, to the extent the export control laws prohibit a sale of certain technology to non-U.S. customers the laws also prohibit disclosure of that technology to non-U.S. persons. Our workforce is global and includes non-U.S. employees. A prohibition on disclosure of certain of our technology to such employees could be disruptive to our business and cause delays and additional expense in developing, selling, and supporting our quantum computing application development solutions.

There can be no assurance that our efforts to comply with current and future export control laws will be successful and the failure to do so could result in significant expense associated with governmental investigation and/or enforcement action. There also can be no assurance that the export control laws or changes to those laws will not limit our ability to sell our quantum computing application development solutions or affect our internal operations in a way that causes a material adverse impact on our financial condition or profitability.

We are subject to U.S. and foreign anti-corruption, anti-bribery, and similar laws, the violation of which can lead to substantial harm to our business.

We are subject to various anti-corruption and anti-bribery laws in the U.S., including the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977, as amended, and the U.S. domestic bribery laws, the U.K. Bribery Act, and other anti-corruption and anti-money laundering laws in the countries in which we conduct activities. Such laws prohibit companies, their employees, and their third-party agents and representatives from authorizing, promising, offering, soliciting, or accepting, directly or indirectly, improper payments or benefits to or form any person whether in the public or private sector. Awareness of and compliance with these laws is of particular concern to us, because we are and intend in the future to be doing business with both U.S. and foreign entities, some of which are affiliates of the U.S. or foreign governments. In addition, our business is likely to require us to seek governmental approvals from time to time. Detecting, investigating, and resolving any actual or alleged violations of these laws can be expensive and time-consuming.

There can be no assurance that our efforts to comply with these laws will be successful and a failure to comply, whether such failure results from the actions of our own employees or a third-party representing us, could result in costly internal or outside investigations, whistleblower complaints, governmental investigations and enforcement actions, substantial financial settlements, fines or other criminal penalties, injunctions or other bans limiting our ability to do business, reputational harm, and other collateral consequences, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our profitability and the value of our Common Stock.

To the extent we have customers outside the United States, we may be subject to increased business and economic risks that could harm our business.

We have in the past and may in the future have customers and business development activities in countries outside of North America, including Asia (e.g., Japan and Singapore) and Europe (e.g., the United Kingdom, Spain and Denmark). Subject to cash availability, we plan to include international markets in addition to prospective U.S.-based customers in our marketing efforts. Any new markets or countries into which we attempt to sell our quantum computing application development solutions may not be receptive. For example, we may not be able to expand further in some markets if we are not able to satisfy certain government-and industry-specific requirements. In addition, our ability to manage our business and conduct our operations internationally in the future may require considerable management attention and resources and is subject to the particular challenges of supporting an early stage company with limited resources in an environment of multiple languages, cultures, customs, legal and regulatory systems, alternative dispute systems, and commercial markets. Future international expansion will require investment of significant funds and other resources. Operating internationally subjects us to new risks and may increase risks that we currently face, including risks associated with:

Compliance with laws and regulations applicable to our global operations substantially increases our cost of doing business in international jurisdictions. We may be unable to keep current with changes in laws and regulations as they occur. Although we have implemented policies and procedures designed to support compliance with these laws and regulations, there can be no assurance that we will always maintain compliance or that all of our employees, contractors, partners, and agents will comply. Any violations could result in enforcement actions, fines, civil and criminal penalties, damages, injunctions, or reputational harm. If we are unable to comply with these laws and regulations or manage the complexity of our global operations successfully, we may need to relocate or cease operations in certain foreign jurisdictions.

We are exposed to risks associated with litigation, investigations, and regulatory proceedings.

We may in the future face legal, administrative, regulatory, and/or criminal proceedings that are based on a variety of individual or governmental complaints against us, including by way of example: shareholder direct or derivative actions alleging violations of the securities laws by the company or breach of fiduciary duty by our directors; challenges to our IP brought by competitors; breach of contract claims asserted by customers; employee lawsuits asserting violation of various employment or whistleblower laws; or governmental actions based on alleged violations of securities, tax, anti-trust, export control, data privacy, or other applicable laws. Litigation and regulatory proceedings are inherently uncertain, but in nearly every instance are time-consuming, expensive, and cause reputational damage. The potential outcomes can include substantial monetary awards, limitations on our ability to do business, or criminal liability on the part of the company and/or some of its officers, directors, or employees. In some instances, it may not be possible to obtain insurance against specific risks. Even when insurance is available, we may not have purchased such insurance either by oversight or by a conscious decision that the cost of the insurance did not justify its purchase. We also cannot guarantee that our existing insurance coverage and coverage for errors and omissions will continue to be available on acceptable terms or that our insurers will not deny coverage as to any future claim.

In addition, we may conclude in the future to bring a legal action against a customer or competitor, for example to recover damages caused to us. Such litigation can be lengthy, time-consuming, and expensive and the outcome is uncertain. Because of these considerations, such litigation is often settled for an amount materially less than the actual damage caused.

There can be no assurance that we will not be subject of litigation, investigations, and/or regulatory proceedings which, whether singly or cumulatively, will have a material adverse effect on our financial condition or ability to do business. Nor can there be any assurance that we will prevail in any litigation brought by us or even if we do prevail that an award or settlement will timely or adequately compensate us for the losses the litigation sought to recover.

Risks Outside Our Specific Business

Our business relies on computer systems which are vulnerable to attack and/or failure.

As is the case with nearly every business, we rely on computers and computer networks, both public and private, to perform most of the actions required for us to do business, including internal and external communications, development of our software and IP, storage of our business and financial records, and deployment of our quantum computing application development solutions. Such computer systems are inherently susceptible to unintentional failures as well as various forms of cyber-attack, including denial of service attacks, ransomware attacks, email hacking and phishing, computer malware and viruses, and social engineering attacks. Like other companies, we may also be the subject of unauthorized access resulting from employee misconduct. These risks are potentially greater for us because the nature of our business provides an additional incentive for bad actors, including foreign nation states and domestic and foreign businesses, to attack our systems for the purpose of gaining information about generative AI, quantum computing and quantum algorithms, the development of which currently is a priority for many businesses and countries.

Our Orquestra platform is built to be accessed through third-party public cloud providers such as AWS and Azure. These providers may also experience breaches and attacks to their products which may impact our systems. Data security breaches may also result from non-technical means, such as actions by an employee with access to our systems. While we and our third-party cloud providers have implemented security measures designed to protect against security breaches, these measures could fail or may be insufficient, resulting in the unauthorized disclosure, modification, misuse, destruction, or loss of sensitive or confidential information.

Any of the previously identified or similar threats could cause a security incident or other interruption that could result in unauthorized, unlawful, or accidental acquisition, modification, destruction, loss, alteration, encryption, disclosure of, or access to our sensitive information, or our technology systems, or those of the third parties upon whom we rely. A security incident or other interruption could disrupt our ability (and that of third parties upon whom we rely) to provide our platform or other software. Any actual or potential security breach of our software, our operational systems, our physical facilities, or the systems or facilities of our vendors, or the perception that one has occurred, could result in adverse consequences, such as litigation, indemnity obligations, regulatory enforcement actions, investigations, fines, penalties, mitigation and remediation costs, disputes, reputational harm, diversion of management’s attention, and other liabilities and damage to our business. Even though we do not control the security measures of third parties, we may be perceived or asserted to be responsible for any breach of such measures or suffer reputational harm even where we do not have recourse to the third party that caused the breach. In addition, any failure by our vendors to comply with applicable law or regulations could result in proceedings against us by governmental entities or others, with further financial, operational, and reputational damage.

The costs to respond to a security breach and/or to mitigate any security vulnerabilities that may be identified could be significant, our efforts to address these problems may not be successful, and these problems could result in unexpected interruptions, delays, cessation of service, negative publicity, and other harm to our business and our competitive position. We could be required to fundamentally change our business activities and practices in response to a security breach or related regulatory actions or litigation, which could have an adverse effect on our business. In addition, laws, regulations, government guidance, and industry standards and practices in the United States and elsewhere are rapidly evolving to combat these threats. We may face increased compliance burdens regarding such requirements from regulators and customers regarding our products and services and also incur additional costs for oversight and monitoring of security risks relating to our own services. Most jurisdictions have enacted laws requiring companies to notify individuals, regulatory authorities, and others of security breaches involving certain types of data. In addition, our agreements with certain customers and partners may require us to notify them in the event of a security breach involving customer or partner data on our systems. Such mandatory disclosures are costly, could lead to negative publicity, may cause our customers to lose confidence in the effectiveness of our security measures, and require us to expend significant capital and other resources to respond to or alleviate problems caused by the actual or perceived security breach may cause us to breach customer contracts.

If we (or a third party upon whom we rely) experience a security incident or are perceived to have experienced a security incident, we may experience adverse consequences such as government enforcement actions (for example, investigations, fines, penalties, audits, and inspections); additional reporting requirements and/or oversight; restrictions on processing sensitive information; litigation (including class claims); indemnification obligations; negative publicity; reputational harm; monetary fund diversions; interruptions in our operations (including availability of data); financial loss; and other similar harms. Litigation resulting from security breaches may adversely affect our business. Unauthorized access to our software, systems, networks, or physical facilities could result in litigation with our customers or other relevant stakeholders. These proceedings could force us to spend money in defense or settlement, divert management’s time and attention, increase our costs of doing business, or adversely affect our reputation. We could be required to fundamentally change our business activities and practices or modify our software capabilities in response to such litigation, which could have an adverse effect on our business. If a security breach were to occur, and the confidentiality, integrity or availability of our data or the data of our partners or our customers was disrupted, we could incur significant liability, or our software, systems, or networks may be perceived as less desirable, which could negatively affect our business and damage our reputation.

We may not have adequate insurance coverage for security incidents or breaches, including fines, judgments, settlements, penalties, costs, attorney fees and other impacts that arise out of incidents or breaches. Depending on the facts and circumstances of such an incident, the damages, penalties and costs could be significant and may not be covered by insurance or could exceed our applicable insurance coverage limits. If the impacts of a security incident or breach, or the successful assertion of one or more large claims against us that exceeds our available insurance coverage, or results in changes to our insurance policies (including premium increases or the imposition of large deductible or co-insurance requirements), it could have an adverse effect on our business. In addition, we cannot be sure that our existing insurance coverage and coverage for errors and omissions will continue to be available on acceptable terms or that our insurers will not deny coverage as to all or part of any future claim or loss. Our risks are likely to increase as we grow our customer base, and store, transmit, and otherwise process increasingly large amounts of proprietary and sensitive data. There can be no assurance that we can successfully prevent such occurrences, which could damage our reputation and/or result in the theft our important IP, either of which could damage our business prospects and future profitability.

Widespread damage to the U.S. or global economy and/or our industry would likely adversely affect our business.

The U.S. economy and the global economy as a whole is susceptible to conditions unrelated to us or the computing industry, including the possibility of an economic recession or depression, international trade wars, the imposition of tariffs on our products or third parties’ products on which we rely, political unrest, natural catastrophes, climate change, terrorism, wars between nation states, or other matters that could have a general widespread negative impact on global commerce. In recent times, central bank interest rates, a deteriorating labor market, tariffs and trade tensions and geopolitical hostilities and elevated stock price valuations, have contributed to a growing rhetoric that a recession in the U.S. or abroad could be imminent. Any such condition or development could affect our business in one or more of a variety of ways, including reducing or eliminating the availability of capital at a time when we require such capital, denying us the ability to sell our quantum computing application development solutions in certain countries around the world, restricting our ability to hire qualified employees needed to effectuate our business plan, diminishing our ability to obtain customers, causing customers to reduce or eliminate their expenditures on quantum techniques enhanced software or generative AI computing, and/or preventing customers from paying amounts owed to us.

Further, many market analysts and other stakeholders have voiced growing concerns that the technology sector, including AI and quantum-focused businesses, are currently in a stock market “bubble” characterized by extreme valuations and unsustainable stock price growth over the past few years. If these views prove to be correct, or if the public begins to perceive such concerns as valid, it could result in a severe market correction or downturn, which could materially adversely affect us, including by limiting or preventing us from raising capital and by diminishing our customer base and market for our products and services.

Damage to the global economy could materially harm our business and if we are unable to persevere through such adverse conditions could cause us to fail.

Because of the number of shares of Common Stock issuable upon conversion and exercise of outstanding securities, holders of our Common Stock will experience substantial future dilution and downward price pressure on our Common Stock.

There are 162,580,506 shares of our Common Stock issued and outstanding as of the date of filing of this Report. We will be obligated to issue all or very many of the following shares of common stock which will dilute our current stockholders: (1) 75,000,000 shares of Common Stock issuable upon conversion of outstanding convertible promissory notes, (2) 63,749,982 shares of Common Stock issuable upon exercise of outstanding warrants, (4) 25,983,000 shares of Common Stock issuable upon conversion of our Series A Convertible Preferred Stock and Series C Convertible Preferred Stock, and (5) 38,503,451 shares of Common Stock issuable upon exercise of outstanding stock options. In addition, we expect to issue additional securities in the near future in order to raise capital and to hire and retain personnel. Of the securities described above, 67,507,667 shares of Common Stock are subject certain Universal Resale and Registration Provisions (the “Resale Provisions”) pursuant to which such recipients agreed to certain lock-up provisions restricting and limiting their sale, transfer, pledge, or disposal of any shares of common stock held by or issuable to such recipients for a period ending 12 months following the date of a resale registration statement with respect to the common stock comprising or underlying such securities is declared effective by the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) (such period, the “Lock-Up Period”). The Resale Provisions provide that up to 10% of each holder’s shares may be sold or transferred during the first 90 days following such effective date, and up to 25% of such holder’s shares may be sold or transferred in each subsequent 90 day period thereafter for the remainder of the Lock-Up Period; and that during each of the third and fourth ninety 90 day periods referred to above, each holder may sell or transfer up to an additional 10% of its shares, but only to the extent such amount represents shares that were eligible for sale or transfer in prior periods but were not sold or transferred by such holder. The Resale Provisions also contains certain additional limitations and exceptions with respect to such lock-up provisions, including a volume limitation on the holders’ sales of shares pursuant to which the holders collectively may not sell more than 10% of the shares in a given trading day, and the cessation of the Lock-Up Period and termination of such lock-up provisions if certain events do not occur within a specified time and as more particularly set forth therein. Pursuant to the Resale Provisions the Company also agreed to provide the holders with registration rights pursuant to which, if the Company closes a securities offering resulting in gross proceeds of at least $5 million, the holders shall have “piggy back” registration rights for the inclusion for resale of their shares to be registered on any subsequent registration statement filed with the SEC in connection with such offering. The Company also agreed to file a registration statement for the holders’ sales of shares within 180 days after the Company makes the requisite filings under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and prepares the requisite audited and unaudited financial statements, as applicable, to become eligible to file a resale registration statement, and to cause such registration statement to be declared effective within 90 days thereafter. The Company also agreed to provide the holders with certain indemnification rights in connection with such registration rights.

Based on our capital structure and anticipated capital raising and other transactions as described above, the issuance of the shares of Common Stock pursuant to the outstanding derivative securities and anticipated transactions, many of which are expected to occur in the near term, will cause significant dilution to the Company’s other investors whereby their respective percentage ownership in our Company will experience a drastic decline. As a result, the voting rights, dividend rights, and other perceived benefits of holding our Common Stock will be diluted due to the new stockholders. Further, a majority of the newly issued shares will be freely tradeable because the transactions are subject to registration rights, so the per-share price of our Common Stock could decline, which decline could be dramatic and long-term or permanent.

In the future, we expect to obtain financing or to further increase our capital resources by issuing additional shares of our capital stock or offering debt (subject to the limitations under the existing agreements) or other equity securities, including senior or subordinated notes, debt securities convertible into equity, or shares of preferred stock. Issuing additional shares of capital stock, other equity securities, or securities convertible into equity may dilute the economic and voting rights of our then-existing stockholders, reduce the market price of our Common Stock, or both. Debt securities convertible into equity could be subject to adjustments in the conversion ratio pursuant to which certain events may increase the number of equity securities issuable upon conversion. Preferred stock, if issued, could have a preference with respect to liquidating distributions or a preference with respect to dividend payments that could limit our ability to pay dividends to the holders of our Common Stock. Our decision to issue securities in any future offering will depend on market conditions and other factors beyond its control, which may adversely affect the amount, timing, or nature of its future offerings. As a result, holders of our Common Stock bear the risk that our future offerings may reduce the market price of our Common Stock and dilute their percentage ownership.

The market price of our shares of Common Stock is subject to volatility.

The market price of our Common Stock has been and may continue to be volatile and fluctuate substantially, which could cause the value of your investment to decline.

Factors that could cause fluctuations in the trading price of our Common Stock include the following:

There is currently a limited trading market for the Company’s Common Stock.

Because we are delinquent in our SEC reports, our Common Stock is currently quoted on the OTC Expert Market under the symbol “ZPTA.” Quotation on the Expert Market means our Common Stock is not eligible for proprietary broker-dealer quotations, all quotes in this stock reflect unsolicited customer orders, and Unsolicited-Only stocks have a higher risk of wider spreads, increased volatility, and price dislocations. Investors may therefore have difficulty selling this stock. An initial review by a broker-dealer under SEC Rule15c2-11 is required for brokers to publish competing quotes and provide continuous market making. While we expect the filing of past-due periodic reports including this Report will enable us to become instead quoted on the OTC Basic Market in the near future, even when that occurs there will be a limited trading market in our Common Stock, and we cannot assure you that a consistent, active trading market will develop. Trading on the OTC Basic Market is less liquid than the leading national securities exchanges and higher tier OTC markets. The lack of an active market may impair your ability to sell your shares at the time you wish to sell them or at a price that you consider reasonable.

Our Common Stock is a “penny stock” and thereby be subject to additional sale and trading regulations that may depress the price of our common stock.

Our Common Stock is a “penny stock” if it does not qualify for one of the exemptions from the definition of “penny stock” under Section 3a51-1 of the Exchange Act. Our Common Stock may be a “penny stock” if it meets one or more of the following conditions: (i) it trades at a price less than $5 per share; (ii) it is not traded on a “recognized” national securities exchange which excludes OTC Markets; or (iii) is issued by a company that has been in business less than three years with net tangible assets less than $5 million. Thus, our Common Stock is a penny stock.

The principal result or effect of being designated a penny stock is that securities broker-dealers participating in sales of our Common Stock are discouraged from soliciting purchases of our Common Stock by the SEC’s rules which generally results in low prices and limited trading volume. For example, SEC Rule 15g-2 requires broker-dealers dealing in penny stocks to provide potential investors with a document disclosing the risks of penny stocks and to obtain a manually signed and dated written receipt of the document at least two business days before effecting any transaction in a penny stock for the investor’s account. Moreover, Rule 15g-9 requires broker-dealers in penny stocks to approve the account of any investor for transactions in such stocks before selling any penny stock to that investor. This procedure requires the broker-dealer to: (i) obtain from the investor information concerning his or her financial situation, investment experience and investment objectives; (ii) reasonably determine, based on that information, that transactions in penny stocks are suitable for the investor and that the investor has sufficient knowledge and experience as to be reasonably capable of evaluating the risks of penny stock transactions; (iii) provide the investor with a written statement setting forth the basis on which the broker-dealer made the determination in (ii) above; and (iv) receive a signed and dated copy of such statement from the investor, confirming that it accurately reflects the investor’s financial situation, investment experience and investment objectives. Compliance with these requirements may make it more difficult and time consuming for holders of our Common Stock to resell their shares to third parties or to otherwise dispose of them in the market or otherwise. In addition, clearing firms, which hold retail accounts dislike penny stocks and through extra compliance efforts and costs they impose, make it hard to sell penny stocks.

As a former shell company, we face certain disadvantages relative to other companies, including ineligibility for certain forms and rules for extended periods.

Until 2024, we were a special purpose acquisition company which is a form of shell company under the rules of the SEC. Shell companies are more highly regulated than non-shell operating companies and face certain restrictions on their activities under federal securities laws. However, companies that were formerly shell companies continue to face disadvantages under SEC rules, including (a) limitations on its stockholders to receive unrestricted stock certificates and use the Rule 144 exemption, (b) the inability to qualify as a “well-known seasoned issuer” and file automatically effective registration statements for three years after ceasing to be a shell company, (c) the inability to “incorporate by reference” information in certain registration statements filed under the Securities Act for a period of three years after ceasing to be a shell company, (d) the inability to use most free writing prospectuses until at least three years after a qualifying business combination, and (e) exclusion from certain safe harbors for offering-related communications under the Securities Act for three years after ceasing to be a shell company, including for research reports and certain communications in connection with business combinations. For more information about Rule 144 and its potential impact on our stockholders, please see the section titled “Securities Act Restrictions on Resale of Common Stock” in this prospectus. We expect that these disadvantages will make it more challenging and expensive, and create greater risks and delays, for us and our stockholders to offer securities. These challenges may make our securities less attractive than those of companies that are not former shell companies and may raise our relative cost of capital.

If securities analysts do not publish research or reports about our business or if they publish negative evaluations of our Common Stock, the market price and trading volume of our Common Stock could decline.

The trading market for our Common Stock will rely, in part, on the research and reports that industry or financial analysts publish about us or our business. We have limited research coverage by industry or financial analysts. If no, or few, additional analysts commence coverage of us, the trading price of our Common Stock would likely decrease. If one or more of the analysts covering our business downgrade their evaluations of our Common Stock, the price of our Common Stock could decline. If one or more of these analysts cease to cover our Common Stock, we could lose visibility in the market for our Common Stock, which in turn could cause our stock price to decline.

We will incur significant increased costs as a result of being a public company, and our management will be required to devote substantial time to new compliance initiatives.

As a public company, we have incurred and will continue to incur significant legal, accounting and other expenses that Legacy Zapata did not incur as a private company. These expenses may increase even more after we are no longer an “emerging growth company.” Our management and other personnel will need to devote a substantial amount of time and incur significant expense in connection with compliance initiatives. For example, we will need to implement additional internal controls, both generally and to address the material weaknesses discussed in “Risks Related to Zapata’s Financial Condition and Status as an Early Stage Company,” and disclosure controls and procedures, retain a transfer agent and adopt an insider trading policy. As a public company, we bear all of the internal and external costs of preparing and distributing periodic public reports in compliance with our obligations under the securities laws.

In addition, regulations and standards relating to corporate governance and public disclosure, including the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, and the related rules and regulations implemented by the SEC, have increased legal and financial compliance costs and will make some compliance activities more time-consuming. We intend to invest resources to comply with evolving laws, regulations and standards, and this investment will result in increased general and administrative expenses and may divert management’s time and attention from our other business activities. If our efforts to comply with new laws, regulations and standards differ from the activities intended by regulatory or governing bodies due to ambiguities related to practice, regulatory authorities may initiate legal proceedings against us, and we could be subject to the delisting of our Common Stock, fines, sanctions and other regulatory action, which may be harmful to its business. In the future, it may be more expensive or more difficult for us to obtain director and officer liability insurance, and we may be required to accept reduced coverage or incur substantially higher costs to obtain coverage. These factors could also make it more difficult for us to attract and retain qualified members of our Board, particularly to serve on its audit committee and compensation committee, and qualified executive officers.

Due to our size, we have a limited management team, which has limited experience in operating a public company.

We presently only have one executive officer, who acts as both our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, and has limited experience in the management of a publicly traded company. Until we are able to raise the capital to broaden our management, we may be handicapped in managing our business and our public company obligations. Executives’ limited experience in dealing with the increasingly complex laws pertaining to public companies could be a significant disadvantage as they will likely need to devote an increasing amount of their time to these activities, resulting in less time being devoted to our management and growth. We may not have adequate personnel with the appropriate level of knowledge, experience, and training in the accounting policies, practices or internal controls over financial reporting required of public companies.

We do not currently intend to pay cash dividends on our Common Stock, so any returns will be substantially limited to the value of our Common Stock.

We have no current plans to pay any cash dividends on our Common Stock. The declaration, amount and payment of any future dividends on shares of our Common Stock will be at the sole discretion of our Board. We currently anticipate that we will retain future earnings for the development, operation and expansion of its business and do not anticipate declaring or paying any cash dividends from future earnings for the foreseeable future. In addition, our ability to pay dividends may be limited by covenants under indebtedness that we or our subsidiaries may incur in the future, as well as other limitations and restrictions imposed by law. As a result, you may not receive any return on an investment in our Common Stock unless you sell our Common Stock at a greater price than that which you paid for it.

Our Certificate of Incorporation designates a state or federal court located within the State of Delaware as the exclusive forum for certain disputes between our stockholders and us, and also provides that the federal district courts will be the exclusive forum for resolving any complaint asserting a cause of action arising under the Securities Act, each of which could limit our stockholders’ ability to choose the judicial forum for disputes with us or our directors, officers, stockholders, or employees.

Our Certificate of Incorporation provides that, unless we consent to the selection of an alternative forum, the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware will, to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, be the sole and exclusive forum for any internal or intra-corporate claim or any action asserting a claim governed by the internal affairs doctrine, including, but not limited to, (i) any derivative action brought by a stockholder on our behalf, (ii) any claim of breach of a fiduciary duty owed by any of our directors, officers, stockholders, or employees and (iii) any claim against us arising under our Certificate of Incorporation, Bylaws or the DGCL. The Certificate of Incorporation designates the United States District Court for the District of Delaware as the exclusive forum for the resolution of any complaint asserting a cause of action arising under the Securities Act.

This exclusive forum provision will not apply to claims under the Exchange Act, but will apply to other state and federal law claims including actions arising under the Securities Act. Section 22 of the Securities Act, however, created concurrent jurisdiction for federal and state courts over all suits brought to enforce any duty or liability created by the Securities Act or the rules and regulations thereunder. Accordingly, there is uncertainty as to whether a court would enforce such a forum selection provision as written in connection with claims arising under the Securities Act.

This choice of forum provision may have the effect of increasing costs for investors to bring a claim against us and our directors and officers and of limiting a stockholder’s ability to bring a claim in a judicial forum that it finds favorable for disputes with us or any of our directors, officers, other employees or stockholders, which may discourage (but not prevent) lawsuits with respect to such claims.

Delaware law and provisions in our Certificate of Incorporation and Bylaws might discourage, delay or prevent a change in control of the Company or changes in our management and, therefore, depress the trading price of our Common Stock.

Our status as a Delaware corporation and the anti-takeover provisions of the DGCL may discourage, delay or prevent a change in control by prohibiting us from engaging in a business combination with an interested stockholder for a period of three years after the person becomes an interested stockholder without the approval of holders of two-thirds of the voting power of our stockholders other than the interested stockholder, even if a change of control would be beneficial to our existing stockholders. In addition, our Certificate of Incorporation and Bylaws contain provisions that may make the acquisition of the Company more difficult, including the following:

These anti-takeover defenses could discourage, delay, or prevent a transaction involving a change in control of the Company. These provisions could also discourage proxy contests and make it more difficult for stockholders to elect directors of their choosing or to cause us to take other corporate actions they desire, any of which, under certain circumstances, could limit the opportunity for our stockholders to receive a premium for their shares of Common Stock.

We are an “emerging growth company,” and a “smaller reporting company,” and if we take advantage of certain exemptions from disclosure requirements available to emerging growth companies, this could make our securities less attractive to investors and may make it more difficult to compare our performance with other public companies.

We are an “emerging growth company,” as defined in the JOBS Act, and for as long as we continue to be an emerging growth company, we may choose to take advantage of exemptions from various reporting requirements applicable to other public companies but not to emerging growth companies, including not being required to comply with the auditor attestation requirements of Section 404, reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation in our periodic reports and proxy statements, and exemptions from the requirements of holding a nonbinding advisory vote on executive compensation and stockholder approval of any golden parachute payments not previously approved. We will remain an emerging growth company until the earlier of (1) the last day of the fiscal year (a) following the fifth anniversary of the completion of our initial public offering, (b) in which we have total annual gross revenue of over $1.235 billion or (c) in which we are deemed to be a large accelerated filer, which means the market value of our Common Stock held by non-affiliates exceeds $700 million as of the last business day of the second fiscal quarter of such year and (2) the date on which we have issued more than $1.0 billion in non-convertible debt during the prior three-year period. We cannot predict if investors will find our Common Stock less attractive if we choose to rely on these exemptions. If some investors find our Common Stock less attractive as a result of any choices to reduce future disclosure, there may be a less active trading market for our Common Stock, and our stock price may be more volatile.

Further, we are a “smaller reporting company” as defined in the Exchange Act. We may continue to be a smaller reporting company even after we are no longer an emerging growth company. We may take advantage of certain of the scaled disclosures available to smaller reporting companies and will be able to take advantage of these scaled disclosures for so long as the market value of our voting and any non-voting common stock held by non-affiliates is less than $250 million measured on the last business day of our second fiscal quarter, or our annual revenue is less than $100 million during the most recently completed fiscal year and the market value of our voting and any non-voting common stock held by non-affiliates was less than $700 million measured on the last business day of our second fiscal quarter. To the extent we take advantage of such reduced disclosure obligations, it may also make comparison of our financial statements with other public companies difficult or impossible.