D-Wave Quantum stock jumped more than 4.5% on Tuesday after the company said it finalized a definitive agreement with the U.S. Department of Commerce for up to $100 million in CHIPS and Science Act funding. The stock was trading around $16.96 in premarket, up 2.29% before the regular session open.
The funding deal had been telegraphed earlier via a Letter of Intent, but Tuesday’s announcement confirmed the agreement is now locked in.
D-Wave says the money will go toward research and development for both its annealing and gate-model quantum computing technologies. That covers two different approaches to quantum computing, which is relatively rare in the industry.
The U.S. government is backing $RGTI and $QBTS with up to $200M combined to scale next generation quantum systems.
Commerce will also take minority stakes in both as Rigetti works to scale superconducting systems and D Wave targets up to 100,000 qubits. pic.twitter.com/mvzmm9x6x2
— Shay Boloor (@StockSavvyShay) September 8, 2026
The company is planning to use the funds to build a 100,000-qubit annealing system. Target applications include optimization problems, materials simulation, blockchain and artificial intelligence.
D-Wave also has plans for a 10,000-qubit gate-model system. That system is designed to support 100 logical qubits capable of running more than one million operations, aimed at quantum chemistry and quantum AI use cases.
CEO Alan Baratz welcomed the award, saying it reflects U.S. government leadership in quantum innovation. He said the funding will help D-Wave expand domestic quantum capabilities and strengthen its supply chain.
There is a catch to the funding. As a condition of receiving the money, the U.S. Department of Commerce will receive a minority, non-controlling equity stake in D-Wave. The company framed this as a way to offer potential returns to U.S. taxpayers.
The deal fits into the broader goals of the CHIPS and Science Act, which aims to grow domestic capacity in advanced technologies including quantum computing.
Despite the headline-grabbing news, the technical setup for QBTS is still not pretty. The stock is sitting 9.5% below its 20-day simple moving average of $18.81 and more than 20% below its 200-day SMA of $21.52.
The MACD remains below its signal line with a negative histogram. A death cross also formed back in March when the 50-day SMA crossed below the 200-day SMA, a bearish technical signal.
Traders are watching $19.50 as a key resistance level and $16 as near-term support.
Analyst sentiment, however, stays positive. The stock holds a Buy consensus rating with an average price target of $38.78. Rosenblatt has maintained its Buy rating with a $43 target as recently as August, while Wedbush holds an Outperform rating with a $40 target.
D-Wave also has exposure through quantum-focused ETFs including the WisdomTree Quantum Computing Fund (WQTM) and the Tradr 2X Long QBTS Daily ETF (QBTX).
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