The US Department of Commerce just wrote a $2 billion check to the quantum computing industry. The funding, announced on May 21, spans nine companies and includes both grants and equity stakes, making it one of the largest direct government bets on a technology that could eventually crack the cryptographic foundations protecting Bitcoin, banking systems, and national security infrastructure.
Where the money is going
IBM is the clear headliner, pulling in $1 billion to build Anderon, the nation’s first pure-play quantum chip foundry in Albany, New York. IBM is matching that amount with its own capital, making it a $2 billion project just for the foundry alone.
GlobalFoundries, already a major player in traditional chipmaking, is taking home $375 million. The remaining seven companies are splitting roughly $625 million among them.
D-Wave Quantum, Rigetti Computing, Infleqtion, PsiQuantum, Quantinuum, and Atom Computing are each receiving approximately $100 million. Diraq, an Australian-founded quantum startup, rounds out the group with $38 million. In exchange for several of these investments, the Commerce Department is taking non-controlling minority equity stakes, a structure that gives taxpayers some upside if these companies succeed.
