Quantum News Nexus

The Wall Street Journal reports this morning that the Trump administration is set to hand out $2 billion worth of grants to nine quantum ecosystem companies in deals that will result in the federal government owning stakes in each firm.

The biggest deal of the bunch is a $1 billion deal with IBM that will help the quantum computing pioneer establish a “pure-play quantum foundry” called Anderon. IBM also will invest about $1 billion in that endeavor.

Companies reportedly getting investments of varying amounts include, in addition to IBM, US firms Infleqtion, Rigetti Computing, D-Wave Quantum and chipmaker GlobalFoundries. Also listed in the report is Australian company Diraq, which has a sizable presence in the US. The investments are taking the form of agreements with the US Department of Commerce. As the report circulated, more companies listed began to acknowledge the funding agreements with their own official announcements (see more below).

The report suggests that nine companies will benefit. If the initial list of names is correct, it is not yet clear who the remaining three are. Notably, IonQ was not listed among the companies receiving investment. The reasons could vary, but IonQ has appeared to be deeply engaged with the Trump administration and federal government in general.

The reported move comes about seven months after the WSJ first reported that the Trump administration was considering exchanging federal grants for stakes in quantum companies, following a pattern of similar deals it had made in other sectors. After that October 2025 report, the likelihood of such investments was widely questioned, but now things appear to be changing.

More to come…

UPDATES: Here’s D-Wave’s official announcement of a Letter of Intent with the Commerce Dept. for $100 million in funding. The company states that the funding will help it accelerate its working on superconducting quantum computing as D-Wave continues to pursue a dual strategy for quantum annealing and gate-model quantum computing systems.

Atom Computing announced it is among the nine companies initially selected for funding. Atom, like D-Wave and several others, is set to receive $100 million.

Quantinuum is also getting $100 million, and the agreement comes as the company is preparing for its eventual IPO. Quantinuum’s release included this interesting nugget about working with fellow grant recipient GlobalFoundries and San Diego firm Monarch Quantum:

“The letter of intent supports Quantinuum’s plan to partner with the CHIPS R&D Office and onshore suppliers GlobalFoundries, for critical semiconductor components, and Monarch Quantum, for integrated photonics, to further optimize key engineering pathways for components within Quantinuum’s future commercial roadmap.“

Infleqtion’s official announcement of $100 million in funding includes this paragraph about the Letter of Intent, which I don’t think was explicitly mentioned in the other announcements. so perhaps it only applies to Infleqtion(?):

“The LOI contemplates a portion of the award being funded up front and the remainder funded on a milestone-based award structure tied to eligible project costs and technical progress. The LOI also contemplates taxpayer upside through the issuance of Infleqtion common stock to the Department on the award date with a value of $100 million at a 15% discount to market based on the closing price on the execution date of the LOI or the definitive agreement, whichever is lower. The securities are expected to be held on a passive basis. Final terms remain subject to definitive award documents and required approvals. The proposed funding is contingent on completion of diligence and definitive award documents and internal approvals of the U.S. Government.”

AI image from vecstock via freepik.