The White House will give $2 billion to quantum companies. Who is the main beneficiary?

The U.S. Department of Commerce will allocate $2 billion in grants to nine companies involved in quantum computing, including computer manufacturer IBM, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) writes, citing the agency's statement. Against this backdrop, shares of companies from the quanto sphere rose sharply on Thursday. Combined with advances in AI, quantum technologies can give a strong impetus to scientific research, making them an economic and national security priority for US President Donald Trump, WSJ notes.

The U.S. Department of Commerce will provide $2 billion in state support to a number of U.S. companies developing various areas in the quantum sphere, WSJ reports. The government will enter into agreements with each of the firms, under which it will provide them with subsidies. The deals will also involve the US government taking minority stakes in the quantum companies it funds. However, details on the exact size and structure of these deals were not disclosed by the US Department of Commerce.

Nevertheless, as follows from the releases of each of the companies, $1 billion of the total package of grants will go to IBM Corporation - the leader in the race to create quantum supercomputers, WSJ notes. Such systems work on the basis of quantum mechanics and are potentially capable of solving the most complex problems many times faster than traditional computing machines. As part of the deal with the U.S. government, IBM announced the creation of a venture called Anderon, - "America's first dedicated quantum technology manufacturing facility." IBM and the U.S. Department of Commerce will each contribute $1 billion in cash to Anderon, with IBM investing in Anderon "significant intellectual property, assets and [providing the venture] with qualified personnel."

Chip maker GlobalFoundries will receive $375 million in government grants. Other participants of the support program from the U.S. Department of Commerce, including public firms engaged in quantum technologies, namely Infleqtion, Rigetti Computing and D-Wave Quantum, as well as startups Atom Computing, PsiQuantum and Quantinuum, will be able to count on $100 million each from the government. The only exception will be the Diraq project (developing silicon-based quantum processors), to which the U.S. Department of Commerce plans to allocate $38 million.

Shares of IBM on May 21 jumped up to almost 6%. The value of shares of small quantum companies also went up: Infleqtion securities went up by 38.7%, Rigetti Computing - by 24%, and D-Wave Quantum - by almost 26%.

Government funding for US quantum companies is allocated under the Chips and Science Act of 2022 (Chips and Science Act), which provides support for promising technological developments that have not yet reached the stage of mass production, the newspaper explains. The new $2 billion initiative by the US Department of Commerce comes amid the US President Donald Trump's administration preparing a decree to support the quantum industry, sources familiar with the matter told the newspaper.

Quantum technologies accelerate data processing by an order of magnitude compared to traditional computing and have the potential to solve complex problems much faster than even the most powerful modern supercomputers. In addition to quantum computing, other quantum technologies are at various stages of development, including highly sensitive quantum sensors and quantum data networks. In particular, some analysts, for example, believe that one of the applications of quantum technologies could potentially replace GPS technology, WSJ points out.

This isn't the first time the White House has shown interest in quantum technology. In 2018 - during the president's first term - Trump signed the National Quantum Initiative Act, which provided $1.2 billion in federal funding for quantum physics research. Later, under Joe Biden - came the CHIPS and Science Act, which authorized further funding for government quantum computing programs.

Last summer, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said quantum technology could accelerate cloud computing.

But now, an unnamed Commerce Department official remarked to the WSJ, the quantum sector is in a much better position than it was even a few years ago: there is now a clearer vision that quantum technology is indeed becoming a reality, he added.

By 2030, the quantum computing market could exceed $11 billion versus $1.7 billion in 2024, Bloomberg wrote, citing data from Stratistics Market Research Consulting.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor