Uncle Sam Awards $2 Billion-Plus To Quantum Companies, But Wants A Cut
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Uncle Sam Awards $2 Billion-Plus To Quantum Companies, But Wants A Cut
Jeff Burt
Jeff<br>Burt
Published<br>wed 27 May 2026 // 13:30 UTC
Governments have long taken an interest in quantum computing<br>as part of the larger picture of high-end computing that over the past several<br>years has included the race to exascale<br>supercomputers and in recent years AI – both<br>generative and agentic – systems. Of those, fault-tolerant, useful quantum<br>computing has been viewed as a long-term probability, something more likely<br>than not to come into being at a time measured in decades than years.<br>But as we’ve written numerous times over the past few years,<br>advancements in critical<br>areas like error correction, software<br>and algorithm development, and scale have accelerated to the point where<br>governments – in particular the United States and China – are ramping up their<br>investments in the technology, seeing it as both a national economic and<br>national security imperative.
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“In this technological race, theoretical breakthroughs and<br>advances in research will be just as crucial as practical, applied technical<br>knowledge for countries and companies,” researchers with the Center for<br>Strategic and International Studies wrote earlier this year in a report<br>about China’s investments. “A comprehensive quantum ecosystem that balances<br>deep scientific discoveries with the accumulation of practical technical<br>know-how is required.”<br>In its 15th<br>Five Year Plan, which spans 2026 to 2030, the Chinese government elevated<br>quantum to the top of its list of the seven future industries that will become<br>new economic growth markets and spread<br>$17.5 billion across three regional funds focused on quantum, with money<br>for 27 direct investment projects as of earlier this year.<br>The United States under both the Biden<br>and Trump administrations has talked about the importance of quantum leadership<br>for the country and started putting money toward the effort. The first Trump<br>Administration in 2018 enacted the National<br>Quantum Initiative Act. The US Department of Energy also runs National<br>Quantum Information Science (QIS) Research Centers at five national<br>laboratories, such as Argonne National Lab in Illinois and Lawrence Berkeley<br>National Lab in California. We recently wrote about the work<br>in hybrid classical-quantum systems being done at Oak Ridge National Lab in<br>Tennessee.<br>In its second go-round, the Trump Administration this month<br>announced it intends to dole<br>out more than $2 billion to nine companies, including seven for the work<br>they’re doing in various areas of the technology. In addition, $1.375<br>billion will go to IBM ($1 billion) and GlobalFoundries ($375 million) to<br>develop quantum foundries.
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The rest will go a range of other quantum vendors. That<br>includes $100 million each to Atom Computing, D-Wave, Infleqtion, PsiQuantum, Quantinuum,<br>and Rigetti. In addition, Diraq will receive $38 million.
The money is being distributed via the U.S. Commerce<br>Department (DOC) and funded through the CHIPS and Science Act created by<br>President Biden. In announcing the funding, the DOC stressed the importance of<br>U.S. leadership in quantum, noting the technology’s role in national defense,<br>advanced materials, and business sectors from biopharmaceuticals to finance and<br>banking to energy.<br>IBM will add its own $1 billion to the DOC investment create<br>a pure-play quantum chip foundry called Anderon. In addition, will shift IP,<br>assets, and a skilled workforce to Anderon, which will be an IBM company<br>operating as a 300-millimeter quantum wafer foundry and be headquartered in<br>Albany, New York, according to Big Blue, which noted estimates that the quantum<br>industry will generate up to $850 billion in economic value by 2040.<br>Anderon will offer its capabilities to IBM as well as other<br>quantum vendors. It initially will focus on wafer<br>fabrication for superconducting qubits and electronics wafers, with plans<br>to expand into other modalities, such as neutral atoms and trapped ions.
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IBM chairman and chief executive officer Arvind Krishna said<br>that the IT giant “has pioneered quantum computing for decades. Our work in<br>silicon wafer fabrication has been a key to IBM's success and will be critical<br>to enable a broader quantum technology landscape that will reshape global<br>innovation and economic competitiveness.”<br>GlobalFoundries noted that “while the past decade of HPC has<br>been defined by advanced-node CPUs, GPUs and AI ASICs, the next generation will<br>be focused on enabling real-world quantum computing, and [the foundry] will<br>manufacture the complete quantum hardware solution from quantum processor units<br>(QPUs) to the cryogenic read-out and control ICs that operate them and the<br>advanced packaging and superconducting interconnects that bind them into<br>systems.”<br>The company also launched Quantum Technology Solutions, a<br>new...