In-Q-Tel Reaches 800th Investment Milestone, Expanding Into AI and Quantum Computing

In early April 2025, In-Q-Tel announced its 800th investment since the CIA venture capital arm’s founding in 1999, marking a major expansion of intelligence community financial entanglement with private technology companies. The milestone investment came as In-Q-Tel broadened its focus beyond traditional information technology into quantum computing, artificial intelligence, biotechnology, and autonomous systems—technology categories with profound surveillance and military applications.

Over its 26-year history, In-Q-Tel’s portfolio had grown to include 469 active companies, with 20 unicorns (companies valued over $1 billion), 21 initial public offerings, and 156 acquisitions. The firm had evolved from a U.S.-focused information technology investor into what it described as “a global platform spanning frontier technologies,” operating offices across seven locations worldwide. The portfolio included major surveillance and data analysis firms: Palantir, Recorded Future (later acquired by Mastercard for $2.65 billion), and Anduril (valued at $28 billion as of February 2025).

In-Q-Tel’s 2025 NatSec 100 Report showed the firm held investments in 32 of the top 100 national security technology companies—far more than any other venture capital fund, demonstrating the CIA’s pervasive financial presence across the defense technology sector. The firm had made 27 new investments in 2025 alone (as of November), continuing an aggressive expansion pace with 22 investments in 2024.

The 800th investment milestone came amid growing concerns about the revolving door between In-Q-Tel and private profit. A 2021 SPAC launched by In-Q-Tel CEO Christopher Darby and President Stephen Bowsher had been characterized as “the revolving door on steroids” by ethics watchdogs. The expanding portfolio meant that nearly every major technology company working on AI, autonomous weapons, quantum computing, or surveillance capabilities had some financial tie to CIA investment priorities.

By 2025, In-Q-Tel worked with over a dozen U.S. government partners beyond the CIA, including the Defense Intelligence Agency, FBI, NSA, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, National Reconnaissance Office, Department of Homeland Security, and U.S. Cyber Command, plus intelligence services in the United Kingdom and Australia. The 800-company portfolio represented not just financial investments but a vast network of corporate relationships giving intelligence agencies early access to emerging technologies before they reached the commercial market—and often before their broader societal implications were understood or debated.