Commerce Takes Stakes in Three Quantum Firms in $300 Million CHIPS Deal

The U.S. Department of Commerce is pairing public research funding with minority ownership in three quantum-computing companies. A $300 million CHIPS Act deal gives D-Wave Quantum, Rigetti Computing and Quantinuum $100 million each to scale quantum-computing research, while the government takes minority equity stakes.

Research funding with an ownership condition

The money is structured as research-and-development grants, rather than a conventional government purchase of products or services. Commerce is funding work intended to scale quantum-computing research while gaining a financial interest in each recipient.

For D-Wave, the terms are explicit. The company said it finalized a definitive agreement with Commerce on September 8 and has access to up to $100 million in CHIPS and Science Act funding. Commerce will receive a minority, non-controlling equity stake in D-Wave as a condition of the funding.

$300 millionCombined CHIPS Act deal

The deal allocates $100 million to each of D-Wave, Rigetti and Quantinuum.

D-Wave’s development plans

D-Wave said its award is expected to accelerate development of two types of quantum systems: annealing systems and gate-model systems. The company said the funding would support next-generation machines and domestic quantum-computing capacity.

Targets cited by D-Wave

• A 100,000-qubit annealing system aimed at improved performance in optimization, materials simulation, blockchain and artificial intelligence.
• A 10,000-qubit gate-model system designed to enable 100 logical qubits capable of more than one million operations.

Those are development targets, not delivered systems. D-Wave cautioned that the agreement can be terminated and that disbursements depend on conditions including project milestones and available appropriated funds.

A potential return alongside research support

The equity stakes give the government a possible financial return if the companies gain value. D-Wave characterized its stake as enhancing the return for U.S. taxpayers. The disclosed terms do not specify the size of any stake.

Shares of all three companies rose in premarket trading after the announcement. That market reaction does not determine whether the companies will meet their technical targets or how Commerce’s minority ownership will affect them over time.