BREAKING: US government awards 2 billion dollars to nine quantum companies under CHIPS Act and takes

[codeberg]

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This is the biggest single day for quantum computing investment in history and it broke about three hours ago. The Trump administration, via Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, has awarded 2 billion dollars in CHIPS Act grants to nine quantum computing companies, taking minority equity stakes in each one in return. The structure mirrors the Intel deal from August 2025 where the government took a 10 percent stake for an 8.9 billion dollar investment.

The breakdown: IBM gets 1 billion dollars, half the total pot, and immediately used the announcement to launch Anderon, a new standalone subsidiary that will be America's first dedicated 300-millimeter quantum wafer foundry, based in Albany, New York. IBM is matching the government grant dollar for dollar with 1 billion dollars of its own cash plus IP, assets, and workforce. GlobalFoundries receives 375 million dollars. D-Wave Quantum, Rigetti Computing, and Infleqtion each receive approximately 100 million dollars. Startup Diraq is in line for 38 million dollars. Atom Computing, PsiQuantum, and Quantinuum are also named as recipients. Deals are structured as Letters of Intent and must be formally completed.

Stock reaction tells the story. IBM up 6 to 7 percent premarket. D-Wave up 16 percent. Rigetti up 14 percent. Infleqtion up over 23 percent. IBM CEO Arvind Krishna previously compared the current quantum moment to where AI chips were ten years ago. The market appears to agree.

IBM and U.S. Department of Commerce Announce America's First Purpose-Built Quantum Foundry, Supported by Proposed $1 Billion CHIPS Award

https://newsroom.ibm.com/ibm-and-u-s-department-of-commerce-announce-americas-first-purpose-built-quantum-foundry

Quantum stocks soar as U.S. reportedly plans $2 billion 'award' and taking equity stakes

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/05/21/quantum-stocks--us-taking-equity-stakes.html

[Vanessa26]

This is the semiconductor CHIPS Act playbook applied to quantum and it is the right call. You cannot win a technology race without manufacturing infrastructure and the US had none specifically for quantum wafers

[Rapid Crossing]

Anderon is the headline buried in the IBM announcement. A purpose-built 300mm quantum wafer foundry serving multiple hardware vendors is the missing piece of the US quantum supply chain

[Velvet Connor]

The equity stake model is the interesting governance question. The government as a minority shareholder in nine quantum companies creates alignment of interest that pure grants do not. It also creates conflicts

[TheGame]

Does this prove the quantum thesis. It proves the US government believes the quantum thesis strongly enough to take equity rather than just write cheques. That is a higher conviction signal than a research grant

[Holly43]

Comparing this to where AI chips were ten years ago is Krishna's bet that quantum is at the 2016 GPU moment. If he is right this looks prescient. If the timeline slips it looks like the TSMC CHIPS grants that took years to show results

[Glenn_44]

Rigetti and D-Wave getting 100 million each is the part that will age either very well or very badly. Both companies have been burning cash for years. Government capital extends the runway but does not validate the technology

[JohnyBlue]

The nine companies span superconducting qubits, trapped ions, neutral atoms, photonics, and annealing approaches. The government is not betting on one architecture. That is strategically sensible and scientifically humble

[Falcon]

PsiQuantum and Quantinuum being on the list without specific dollar amounts is worth flagging. Both have raised significant private capital and have strong technology positions. Their allocations matter

[CosmicRay17]

The timing today alongside all the other quantum news this week, the ETH paper, the QKD demonstrations, the Superpositions launch, was not planned but the combined effect is a week that shifts the quantum narrative

[Sparrow]

Letters of Intent still need to be formally completed. Anyone trading the premarket surge needs to understand these are not finalised deals yet

[Dark Hawk]

Commerce saying this will position the US to manufacture most of the world's quantum wafers is an ambitious claim. China has been investing heavily in quantum manufacturing for years and the gap is not zero