(Bloomberg) — The Trump administration has agreed to award $1 billion to International Business Machines Corp. to build a foundry for producing quantum computing chips, part of a broad strategy to bolster US leadership in an emerging industry.
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IBM will also invest $1 billion into a new business, called Anderon, which will produce the processors, the company said in a statement on Thursday. Both IBM and government funding will go toward operating a quantum wafer facility at an existing semiconductor manufacturing research center in Albany, New York, according to a statement from Chuck Schumer, a Democratic senator from the state.
Shares of IBM rose 12% to $252.97 in New York on Thursday, marking the biggest single-day gain in more than a year.
Other companies that received awards also jumped. GlobalFoundries Inc., a semiconductor firm developing specialized chips for quantum computing, rose 15%. D-Wave Quantum Inc. gained 33%, Rigetti Computing Inc. rose 31%, and Infleqtion Inc. surged 31%.
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. GlobalFoundries is receiving $375 million, the company said in a statement. D-Wave, Rigetti, Infleqtion and PsiQuantum said in separate statements that they had signed letters of intent with the US Commerce Department for as much as $100 million apiece. Other recipients of $100 million awards included Atom Computing Inc. and Quantinuum, while the startup Diraq will get $38 million.
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, according to a statement Thursday from Commerce.
