IBM shares climbed sharply on Thursday after the Trump administration unveiled a more than $2 billion (€1.7bn) federal investment programme targeting quantum computing companies, a move that triggered a broader rally across the sector.
The funding package, called the CHIPS Act initiative, focused on quantum computing and domestic manufacturing, will distribute $1 billion (€861mn) to IBM to build a foundry for producing quantum computing chips. This comes as part of a broader strategy to bolster US leadership in the quantum industry.
The other half of the grant will be awarded to eight other quantum companies, including GlobalFoundries, which received $375 million (€322mn). Most of the remaining companies were tied to proposed awards of about $100 million (€86mn) each, including D-Wave Quantum, Rigetti Computing, Infleqtion, Quantinuum, PsiQuantum, Atom Computing and Diraq, which is expected to receive up to $38mn (€32.7mn).
In return, the US federal government is taking equity stakes of varying sizes in every company mentioned, similar to public investments previously made by the Trump administration, such as those in Intel last summer.
The shares of the publicly traded companies on the list surged significantly on the news. IBM climbed more than 12%, adding over $27 billion (€23.2bn) in market capitalisation, which is approximately equivalent to Adidas’ entire size, to put this into perspective.
