IBM lands $1B as US backs nine quantum firms with $2B
▼ Summary
– The US Department of Commerce signed nine letters of intent to provide $2.013 billion in CHIPS Act funding to quantum computing companies in exchange for federal equity stakes.
– IBM is the largest recipient with roughly $1 billion, matched by its own $1 billion investment in a domestic quantum chip facility; GlobalFoundries will receive about $375 million.
– D-Wave Quantum, Rigetti Computing, and Infleqtion are each expected to get roughly $100 million, while startup Diraq is slated for up to $38 million.
– The government is taking equity stakes alongside grants, a structure echoing the Intel CHIPS award, and quantum stocks of recipients rose 7% to 21% in premarket trading.
– The funding targets “utility-scale, fault-tolerant” quantum computers, but no recipients have achieved this yet, and the funds are milestone-based with undisclosed equity terms.
The US Department of Commerce has signed nine letters of intent to distribute $2.013 billion in CHIPS Act funding to quantum computing firms, taking equity stakes in each recipient in exchange. The move marks the federal government’s largest single intervention in the quantum industry to date.
IBM emerges as the headline recipient with roughly $1 billion, matched by a company commitment to invest an additional $1 billion of its own capital into a domestic quantum chip-manufacturing facility. GlobalFoundries, IBM’s foundry partner, is set to receive about $375 million. Three publicly traded pure-play quantum companies,D-Wave Quantum, Rigetti Computing, and Infleqtion,are each expected to receive roughly $100 million. Silicon-spin startup Diraq is slated for up to $38 million.
The funding structure is unusual. The government is taking equity stakes alongside each grant, echoing the equity component secured in the Intel CHIPS award last year under the Trump administration. Quantum stocks moved sharply on the news, with publicly traded recipients rising between 7% and 21% in premarket trading.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick framed the funding as industrial policy aimed at China, stating the letters of intent were intended to “lead the world into a new era of American innovation.” The language aligns with the broader White House line on critical technologies.
The package covers two domestic foundries and seven quantum computing companies, according to NIST, on the theory that a quantum industry cannot exist without the chip-making capacity to support it.
For IBM, which has spent nearly a decade building out its quantum stack from a Yorktown Heights lab to a European data centre in Germany, the grant validates a long-term bet. For D-Wave, Rigetti, and Infleqtion, all of which have spent the past two years arguing their architectures deserve serious consideration, the cheque is closer to a survival event.
The letters of intent do not settle the conversion timetable. A letter of intent is not a binding award; funds are released against milestones, and the equity terms have not been disclosed.
NIST’s release frames the support as targeting “utility-scale, fault-tolerant” quantum computers, the point at which commercial advantage actually begins to mean something. None of the recipients are there yet.
The political read is straightforward. The US has spent the last three years watching China publish increasingly serious quantum results out of state-backed labs. The Commerce Department has now answered with a state-backed cap-table strategy of its own.
Whether equity stakes in a still-pre-commercial industry deliver returns or simply spread federal risk across nine balance sheets is a question the next administration, whichever one that is, will inherit.
(Source: The Next Web)
