On May 21, the Department of Commerce revealed the Trump Administration’s plan to invest $2.013 billion under the the CHIPS and Science Act to support United States leadership and innovation in quantum computing. Nine companies will receive these funds, and the Department will receive minority, non-controlling equity stakes in each. 

“The administration’s $2 billion equity stake across nine quantum companies marks the moment Washington stopped treating quantum as a speculative bet and started treating it as critical national infrastructure, accelerating both the timeline for quantum capability and the urgency of the cybersecurity migration that has to run alongside it,” says Rebecca Krauthamer, CEO and Co-Founder of QuSecure. She is also the founder of Quantum Thought, the first Quantum Computing Venture Studio, and serves on the World Economic Forum’s Global Futures Council on Quantum Computing. 

According to Krauthamer, this deal signals something interesting about development timelines. 

“Equity stakes are not grants. The federal government does not take ownership positions in technologies it considers speculative,” she states. “This is Washington pricing in a quantum timeline that is years shorter than the previous conventional wisdom.” 

The companies that will receive funds include two organizations in domestic quantum foundry and seven in quantum computing. 

Funded Domestic Quantum Foundry Companies

The Department intends to fund two organizations in order to establish and develop the quantum sector’s domestic manufacturing abilities. These include GlobalFoundries and IBM. 

GlobalFoundries 

• Receiving: $375 million

• Purpose: Establishing a domestic quantum foundry for architectures and modalities for use in large-scale quantum computers. 

IBM

• Receiving: $1 billion
• Purpose: Establishing a quantum foundry subsidiary for quantum-grade wafers.

Funded Quantum Computing Companies 

Seven organizations will be funded for the purpose of resolving consequential engineering concerns in multiple quantum modalities: Atom Computing, Diraq, D-Wave, Infleqtion, PsiQuantum, Quantinuum and Rigetti. 

Atom Computing

• Receiving: $100 million

• Purpose: Addressing manufacturing and technical difficulties for neutral-atom quantum computing.

Diraq 

• Receiving: $38 million
• Purpose: Create and scale quantum logic units, accelerating critical manufacturing and integration abilities. 

D-Wave

• Receiving: $100 million

• Purpose: Anneal and gate-model quantum computing systems. 

Infleqtion 

• Receiving: $100 million
• Purpose: Develop engineering systems and integration needs for such computers and architectures. 

PsiQuantum 

• Receiving: $100 million

• Purpose: Address photonic quantum computing technical concerns. 

Quantinuum 

• Receiving: $100 million
• Purpose: Address bottlenecks in scaling for technology and manufacturing. 

Rigetti 

• Receiving: $100 million
• Purpose: Address technical concerns for developing and scaling the next generation of quantum computing technologies/architectures. 

As Investment Accelerates, So Do threats 

“As quantum investment accelerates, so too does the quantum threat to cybersecurity,” explains Krauthamer. “Most people are aware of this, and people should be very concerned, but not for the reasons that most think. The quantum threat is largely a solved problem on paper. The standards exist, and they run on the infrastructure organizations already have. The real danger is not the physics, it is governments and enterprises failing to migrate in parallel with the technology they are investing in.”

Krauthamer points out that this move “is the offense side of the ledger getting funded.” That, however, is only one part of quantum security, as defensive measures will also need prioritization.  

“The defense side, including the federal migration deadlines, are currently phased from 2027 to 2035,” Krauthamer says. “There is a growing gap between these timelines that the U.S. had previously put in place and those that other countries have been issuing in the last year. Expect the next move out of Washington to compress those timelines. Also expect additional capital to follow into private quantum companies as well as the companies doing the quantum security migration work. Thursday’s news funds nine companies building quantum capability. It does not fund the migration required to defend against it. Washington is well aware, and that second story is the one to watch next.”

As the world moves closer and closer to a quantum reality, organizations must consider if they are moving fast enough to keep pace. 

“Federal dollars build quantum computers. They do not migrate a bank, a hospital, or a power grid,” Krauthamer points out. “Every board in the country should be asking one question this quarter: are we moving on post-quantum cryptography at the same speed our government is moving on quantum itself? For too many of them, the honest answer right now is still no.”