Commerce commits to funding incentives with 9 companies to spur quantum development
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The letters of intent provide over $2 billion in funding from the CHIPS and Science Act to spur research and development in fault-tolerant quantum computing.
The Commerce Department signed letters of intent with nine quantum computing and quantum foundry companies to provide funding from the CHIPS and Science Act to support innovation in quantum computing.
Announced on Thursday, $2.013 billion in CHIPS funding will go to IBM, GlobalFoundries, Atom Computing, Diraq, D-Wave, Infleqtion, PsiQuantum, Quantinuum and Rigetti to spur different components of the burgeoning quantum computing ecosystem.
IBM and GlobalFoundries will receive $1 billion and $375 million, respectively, to build quantum tech-specific foundries. IBM will focus on manufacturing quantum-grade superconducting wafers, while GlobalFoundries will be tasked with scaling components of leading quantum computing architectures and modalities, such as superconducting circuits, photonics, trapped ions and more.
The remaining seven companies will use Commerce’s funding to improve their proprietary quantum computing technologies and modalities. Infleqtion, for example, manufactures quantum computers powered by neutral atom systems, and will receive $100 million to further scale its work.
Of the seven companies funded to continue innovation in their individual quantum computing spaces, Diraq, which specializes in quantum computing via silicon spin qubits, received $38 million. The other six each received $100 million.
“With today’s CHIPS Research and Development investments in quantum computing, the Trump administration is leading the world into a new era of American innovation,” Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said in a press release. “These strategic quantum technology investments will build on our domestic industry, creating thousands of high-paying American jobs while advancing American quantum capabilities.”
Commerce’s announcement follows the Trump administration’s behind-the-scenes work on at least one executive action that will spur agency migration to post-quantum cryptographic standards ahead of the advent of a cryptographically-viable quantum computer, which poses a threat to the classical encryption schemes safeguarding modern digital networks.