Trump Administration Unveils $2 Billion Quantum Computing Initiative, Secures Equity Stakes in Leading Firms

Key Highlights

• Total Investment: $2.013 billion in federal incentives allocated across nine quantum computing companies under the CHIPS and Science Act.
• Major Recipients: IBM receives $1 billion to establish Anderon, a new quantum foundry subsidiary; GlobalFoundries receives $375 million for Quantum Technology Solutions.
• Other Awardees: Atom Computing, D-Wave, Infleqtion, PsiQuantum, Quantinuum, and Rigetti each receive $100 million; Diraq receives $38 million.
• Equity Structure: The Department of Commerce will take minority, non-controlling equity stakes in each company, a departure from traditional grant-based funding.
• Executive Orders: President Trump signed twin orders on quantum innovation and post-quantum cryptography, establishing a five-year timeline for a high-powered quantum computer and mandating federal PQC migration by 2031.

Administration Takes Portfolio Approach to Quantum Leadership

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Department of Commerce announced today the signing of letters of intent with nine quantum computing companies to provide $2.013 billion in federal incentives under the CHIPS and Science Act, representing one of the most substantial government investments in quantum technology to date.

The funding is structured to strengthen America's position in quantum computing, a frontier technology with significant implications for national defense, advanced materials discovery, pharmaceutical research, financial modeling, and energy systems. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick stated that the investments would "create thousands of high-paying American jobs while advancing American quantum capabilities".

In a departure from traditional government grant programs, the Department of Commerce will receive minority, non-controlling equity stakes in each company receiving funding, a structure intended to enhance returns for U.S. taxpayers. This approach has been adopted previously by the administration in investments with Intel, U.S. Steel, Westinghouse, and MP Materials.

The Herbert C. Hoover Building, headquarters of the US Department of Commerce in Washington DC. Photograph: Tony Webster, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

IBM and GlobalFoundries Lead Foundry Development

The bulk of the funding is directed toward establishing domestic quantum manufacturing capacity. IBM will receive $1 billion to establish Anderon, a standalone quantum chip foundry subsidiary headquartered in Albany, New York. IBM has committed to matching the government investment with $1 billion in cash, intellectual property, assets, and workforce contributions. Anderon is expected to operate as a state-of-the-art 300-millimeter quantum wafer foundry, initially supporting superconducting qubit wafer fabrication with plans to expand into other quantum modalities.

IBM Chairman and CEO Arvind Krishna described the initiative as a critical step for American innovation: "IBM has pioneered quantum computing for decades. Our work in silicon wafer fabrication has been a key to IBM's success and will be critical to enable a broader quantum technology landscape that will reshape global innovation and economic competitiveness".

GlobalFoundries will receive $375 million to launch Quantum Technology Solutions, a new quantum manufacturing business based in New York and Vermont. Senator Peter Welch (D-Vt.) welcomed the announcement, noting the investment "will help launch Quantum Technology Solutions, continue GlobalFoundries' longstanding work with the U.S. government, and create jobs right here in Vermont". GlobalFoundries' Quantum Technology Solutions is launching with customers across multiple qubit modalities, including PsiQuantum, Quantinuum, Diraq, Equal1, and Quantum Motion, with public support from Google Quantum AI, Microsoft, and Nvidia.

Portfolio of Quantum Computing Firms Receives Funding

The remaining $738 million is distributed among seven quantum computing companies addressing different technological approaches—or "modalities"—to quantum computing:

• Atom Computing receives $100 million to address technical and manufacturing challenges for neutral-atom quantum computing, including systems for manipulating tens of thousands of qubits.
• D-Wave receives $100 million for advancements in annealing and gate-model superconducting quantum computing systems, including improvements in qubit counts and error rates.
• Infleqtion receives $100 million to develop engineering systems for large-scale neutral-atom-based quantum computers.
• PsiQuantum receives $100 million to address photonic quantum computing technical challenges, including electro-optic materials and single-photon detectors.
• Quantinuum receives $100 million to address manufacturing bottlenecks for scaling fault-tolerant trapped-ion quantum computers.
• Rigetti receives up to $100 million to develop next-generation superconducting quantum computing technologies.
• Diraq receives $38 million to develop and scale silicon spin quantum computing technologies.

The Department of Commerce described this as a "portfolio approach" designed to strengthen U.S. leadership across multiple quantum modalities simultaneously while focusing each award on specific, consequential engineering problems.

Connections to Administration and Pentagon Officials

Several recipients have connections to individuals with ties to the Trump administration or Pentagon leadership. PsiQuantum, which is set to receive $100 million, previously raised funding from a group of investors including 1789 Capital, a venture capital firm at which Donald Trump Jr. is a partner. A person close to the company told the Financial Times that 1789 is a passive minority investor with no involvement in PsiQuantum's operations, and a spokesperson for Trump Jr. stated he had no involvement in negotiations with the government on behalf of 1789's portfolio companies.

D-Wave was taken public in 2022 by Emil Michael, who now serves as a top Pentagon official. The company's shares rose more than 20 percent following the announcement.

Executive Orders on Quantum Innovation and Post-Quantum Cryptography

The administration has supplemented the investment with two executive orders signed in June 2026.

The Quantum Innovation Order establishes the Quantum Computer for Application Development and Discovery Science (QC-ADDS) Effort, directing federal agencies to collaborate on developing a quantum computer capable of pursuing scientific discoveries, with deployment to a Department of Energy facility. The order also directs agencies to develop plans for partnering with the private sector on quantum-enabling component technologies and to expand workforce development programs in quantum-relevant fields.

The Post-Quantum Cryptography Order mandates an accelerated federal migration to post-quantum cryptography to secure government systems, critical infrastructure, and the digital economy against future quantum decryption threats. The order requires that federal systems support PQC by December 31, 2030, and use PQC by December 31, 2031. The Department of War has since released its own PQC Strategy, extending these requirements across the defense industrial base.

National Cyber Director Sean Cairncross noted at the signing ceremony: "As quantum rolls forward, it will challenge public key cryptography, which is what secures everything. It secures our financial transactions, our civilian critical infrastructure, and it secures the digital systems that Americans rely on for their daily life".

Industry and Market Response

The announcement has been met with significant market interest, with shares in quantum computing specialists rising sharply following the Commerce Department's disclosure. The quantum computing market is estimated to generate up to $850 billion in economic value by 2040, according to industry projections cited by IBM.

Industry analysts have characterized the GlobalFoundries initiative as a potential inflection point for the quantum computing sector. A Yahoo Finance analysis described the foundry announcement as "the Pinocchio moment in quantum computing: an occasion marking the moment the entire space grew up and, instead of becoming a real boy, became a real industry". The analysis noted that the move from laboratory-scale research to manufacturable quantum devices represents a structural change in the industry's maturity.

Outlook

The funding agreements remain subject to the negotiation and execution of definitive documents between the Department of Commerce and each recipient company. The Department of Commerce's CHIPS Research and Development Office is administering the incentives, with the National Institute of Standards and Technology overseeing the announcement.

The administration's quantum strategy, encompassing both the CHIPS Act investments and the executive orders, represents a coordinated approach to maintaining U.S. leadership in quantum computing while preparing for the cybersecurity challenges that quantum technology will introduce.

About the Initiative

The CHIPS and Science Act is a 2022 bipartisan law providing federal funding for semiconductor research, development, and manufacturing. The Department of Commerce's CHIPS Research and Development Office administers incentives under the act.

The Department of Commerce has signed letters of intent with nine quantum computing companies, providing $2.013 billion in federal incentives while taking minority, non-controlling equity stakes in each firm.

Executive Orders signed by President Trump in June 2026 establish the QC-ADDS quantum computing initiative and mandate federal migration to post-quantum cryptography.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. The views expressed are those of the companies referenced and not necessarily those of the publisher.

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