The U.S. government will take minority stakes in three quantum computing companies in return for a combined $300 million in support, part of an effort to build up semiconductor and hardware supply chains within the United States. Shares of all three companies rose after the announcement.
The Commerce Department will provide $100 million each to D-Wave Quantum, Rigetti Computing and Quantinuum, The Wall Street Journal reported on the 8th. The money takes the form of research and development grants under the CHIPS Act. As part of the awards, the department will acquire minority stakes in the three companies.
Quantinuum traded at $50.47, up 1.65%, while D-Wave rose 6.57% to $17.67. Rigetti gained 4.01% to $15.81.
The support is aimed at solving the hardest problems facing the quantum computing business. Quantum computers have been expected to tackle problems beyond the reach of conventional machines in drug discovery, materials science, cryptography and artificial intelligence. But scaling them up remains difficult and costly. The government wants the funding to help grow quantum computing into larger, more practical systems.
Each company plans to use the money differently. Rigetti will address technical bottlenecks that arise when scaling up superconducting quantum processors. That work involves reducing the electronics used to read quantum chips, expanding the capacity of the cryogenic environments quantum computers require, and developing chips that allow more qubits to communicate with one another.
D-Wave said it would pursue microelectronics research and development centered on prototyping advanced semiconductors for quantum technology. Its goals include a 100,000-qubit annealing system and a 10,000-qubit gate model system that would deliver 100 logical qubits.
Quantinuum's award will go toward scaling a different approach, ion trap quantum technology. The company plans to work with GlobalFoundries (GFS) to produce next-generation ion traps and electronics on 300-millimeter wafers, with Quantinuum helping to develop lasers and optical components.
Separately, GlobalFoundries finalized an agreement tied to $375 million in support over five years. Under the terms, the company will receive research and development funding from the Commerce Department linked to performance milestones. The aim is to help quantum hardware developers move from laboratory prototypes to commercial mass production. GlobalFoundries shares also rose more than 1% in premarket trading.
