IBM Shares Rise as US Government Invests $2 Billion in Quantum Computing Initiative

US Government Invests $2 Billion in Quantum Computing

The Trump administration has agreed to award $1 billion to International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) to build a foundry for producing quantum computing chips, as part of a broad strategy to bolster US leadership in an emerging industry. In addition to the government funding, IBM will also invest $1 billion into a new company, called Anderon, which will produce the processors.

The news sent shares of IBM up as much as 11% in New York on Thursday, marking the biggest intraday gain in more than a year. Other companies that received awards also jumped, with GlobalFoundries Inc., a semiconductor firm developing specialized chips for quantum computing, rising as much as 14%. D-Wave Quantum Inc. gained 29%, Rigetti Computing Inc. increased 28%, and Infleqtion Inc. surged 44%.

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Governments are lining up financing for quantum computing, a nascent technology that researchers believe could provide a range of new capabilities in everything from drug discovery to computing encryption standards. Though the machines are primarily used for research purposes for now, their promised capabilities could pose a threat to national security, breaking the systems that protect banks and government data.

In addition to IBM, the US government awarded funding to more than a half-dozen other companies. The deals, which have yet to be finalized, are part of a broader $2 billion support package from the Commerce Department for quantum computing, using resources from the 2022 Chips and Science Act. The US government is set to receive minority, noncontrolling equity stakes in each of the companies in exchange for the awards.

The funds will come from a research and development office that had received $11 billion under the Chips Act, a broader $52 billion overall initiative signed by then-President Joe Biden to boost the US semiconductor industry. Last year, Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick voided $7.4 billion of the $11 billion given to a nonprofit for research, steering a share of that money toward investments that would provide a return for the government.

A mix of startups and large firms, including Microsoft Corp. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google, are trying to apply quantum physics to make computers exponentially more powerful than today’s machines. These companies are betting that the nascent field, which uses the rules of subatomic particles to manipulate and transmit information, is getting closer to delivering real-world progress in fields like drug discovery and finance.

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