The Trump administration announced Thursday that it has signed preliminary agreements to provide $2 billion in financing and take equity stakes in nine companies related to quantum computing.
The move aims to promote an emerging IT field in the United States that has led to innovation in medicine, business and science. It would also significantly expand the portfolio of investments that the Trump administration has acquired in the private sector over the past year.
The Commerce Department said it signed letters of intent with the companies to provide funding under a 2022 bill, the CHIPS and Science Act. He would receive a “non-controlling minority stake in each company,” he said, “to improve the return for the American taxpayer.”
Quantum computers are based on the puzzling properties of quantum mechanics, which enable a dramatic acceleration in computing power. Computers can be used to discover drugs and achieve other scientific innovations, analyze markets and supply chains, and crack modern encryption.
Most of the money would go to two beneficiaries – GlobalFoundries and IBM – for foundries that make wafers and other technologies for quantum computers. IBM would receive $1 billion and GlobalFoundries $375 million.
IBM said in a statement that it would invest $1 billion alongside the government to create a new company, Anderon, in Albany, New York.
Seven other companies would receive government investments to address technical challenges related to various components and materials, develop underlying engineering systems and carry out other related work. Atom Computing, D-Wave, Infleqtion, PsiQuantum, Quantinuum and Rigetti would each receive $100 million and Diraq $38 million.
Howard Lutnick, the Commerce Secretary, said in a statement that these investments would create thousands of good-paying jobs and advance the nation’s quantum capabilities.
“With CHIPS’ current investments in quantum computing research and development, the Trump administration is leading the world into a new era of American innovation,” he said.
The Trump administration has adopted an unusual new strategy of acquiring stakes in private companies, arguing it will provide taxpayers with more benefits than previous government grants and loans. Thanks to these new investments, the government now holds stakes in more than 20 private companies.
Last year, the government took stakes or negotiated the option to acquire them in the future in Intel, US Steel, Westinghouse, MP Materials and other companies. In a statement this week, the White House made public the increase in the value of the government’s stake in Intel, after the company’s shares rose in recent months.
