Thursday’s Nasdaq debut put Quantinuum shares at $68 when trading began, a 13% premium over the IPO price that translated into a market capitalization of approximately $17.6 billion.

Pricing was set Wednesday night at $60 a share — topping the previously announced $53 to $55 range — and the final deal size of 28 million shares, expanded from an initial target of 26.5 million, generated proceeds of $1.68 billion, according to CNBC.

In an interview with MarketWatch, CEO Rajeeb Hazra explained why Quantinuum bypassed the SPAC route in favor of a conventional public listing: the company needed to show there is “no air gap between what we’re saying and what we’re doing.”

The company’s origins trace to 2021, when Honeywell’s…