US government commits $300 million to accelerate domestic quantum computing industry

The US Commerce Department has formalised funding agreements worth up to $100 million each with D-Wave, Rigetti, and Quantinuum to bolster quantum research and manufacturing amidst rising international competition.

The U.S. Commerce Department has turned earlier quantum computing funding plans into binding agreements, committing up to $100 million each to D-Wave Quantum, Rigetti Computing and Quantinuum under the CHIPS and Science Act, according to reporting by Foreign Policy Journal and related industry briefings. The money is aimed at research, development and commercialisation, and it also reflects Washington’s wider effort to strengthen domestic quantum capability at a time of sharper international competition.

The structure of the deals differs across the three companies. Foreign Policy Journal said the federal government will take non-controlling equity stakes in D-Wave and Rigetti, although the precise size of those holdings has not been disclosed. That leaves investors without clear visibility on dilution. Quantinuum is an exception: it is receiving the funds without giving up an equity stake, according to the report and a separate briefing on the finalised awards.

For Rigetti, the funding is to be released over three years and is meant to support work on superconducting quantum systems, where scaling and technical reliability remain major hurdles. D-Wave, meanwhile, is broadening its approach after acquiring Quantum Circuits earlier this year, giving it a dual-rail gate-model processor with built-in error detection. The company says it also intends to develop fluxonium-based gate systems, seeking to combine superconducting speed with higher accuracy, although that effort is still at an early stage.

Quantinuum plans to use the proceeds to improve its supply chain and manufacturing base, working with GlobalFoundries and Monarch Quantum, according to the company’s announcement as reported in industry briefings. Analysts quoted in the coverage argued that the government’s minority stakes are unlikely to change the core investment case for the companies, but the awards do signal a clear federal push to build out a domestic quantum ecosystem and the supporting industrial capacity behind it.