The Trump administration announced $2 billion in grants to nine quantum computing companies on Thursday. The deals, confirmed by the Commerce Department, also include the U.S. government taking equity stakes in each company.
The entire quantum sector is on fire this morning after the Trump Administration announced they will award $2B in grants to nine quantum-computing companies
These deals may include U.S. government EQUITY STAKES
Pre-market moves so far:
$INFQ +24%
— TrendSpider (@TrendSpider) May 21, 2026
IBM is the biggest winner, receiving $1 billion from the government. The company says it will match that with $1 billion of its own money to build what it calls the nation’s first specialized quantum chip manufacturing facility.
Chip maker GlobalFoundries will receive $375 million. Smaller publicly traded companies D-Wave Quantum, Rigetti Computing, and Infleqtion are each expected to receive around $100 million. Startup Diraq may receive $38 million.
Other quantum startups slated for funding include Atom Computing, PsiQuantum, and Quantinuum.
Shares in the publicly traded companies rose sharply on the news. IBM and GlobalFoundries each gained around 7% in premarket trading. D-Wave, Rigetti, and Infleqtion surged roughly 15% or more.
International Business Machines Corporation, IBM
D-Wave confirmed that all of its $100 million award will come as an equity investment. The company recently had a market value of more than $7 billion. Rigetti and Infleqtion said their deals would follow a similar structure.
The funding comes from the 2022 Chips and Science Act, which set aside money for early-stage technology projects.
This is not the first time the Trump administration has taken equity in a company it sees as strategically important. It has already taken a nearly 10% stake in Intel and invested in rare earth firms MP Materials and Vulcan Elements.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said the deals are structured so taxpayers will ultimately benefit. A senior Commerce Department official acknowledged the investments could take years to pay off, and said the government spread money across multiple companies to reduce risk.
The administration is also working on an executive order focused on the quantum industry, according to people familiar with the matter.
Quantum computers use the laws of quantum mechanics to process information much faster than traditional computers for certain complex problems. Right now, though, most quantum computers spend so much power fixing errors that they are not yet faster than regular computers on a net basis.
IBM CEO Arvind Krishna has compared today’s quantum computing to where AI chips were a decade ago. “We think now the time frames have actually collapsed,” he said in a March interview.
Companies including Microsoft and Google’s parent Alphabet are also investing heavily in quantum computing following recent breakthroughs in the field.
The deals still need to be completed before any money changes hands.
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