A number of public and private companies are competing to develop a full genome sequencing platform that is commercially robust for both research and clinical use, including Illumina, Knome, Sequenom,
454 Life Sciences, Pacific Biosciences, Complete Genomics,
Helicos Biosciences, GE Global Research (General Electric), Affymetrix, IBM, Intelligent Bio-Systems, Life Technologies, Oxford Nanopore Technologies, and the Beijing Genomics Institute. These companies are heavily financed and backed by venture capitalists, hedge funds, and investment banks.
A commonly-referenced commercial target for sequencing cost until the late 2010s was $1,000USD, however, the private companies are working to reach a new target of only $100.