D-Wave Quantum said it signed a letter of intent for $100 million in proposed funding under the U.S. CHIPS and Science Act to accelerate the development and scaling of the company’s annealing and gate-model quantum systems.
Under the proposed agreement signed May 21, D-Wave would issue $100 million in common stock to the Commerce Department upon finalization of the award. The company said the LOI reflects strong federal support for its quantum computing technologies and their broader economic potential.
“With today’s CHIPS Research and Development investments in quantum computing, the Trump administration is leading the world into a new era of American innovation,” Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said in a statement. “These strategic quantum technology investments will build on our domestic industry, creating thousands of high-paying American jobs while advancing American quantum capabilities.”
D-Wave said the funding would accelerate delivery of advanced superconducting quantum computers, including a 100,000-qubit annealing system and a 10,000-qubit gate-model system, at its planned research and development facility in Boca Raton, Fla., as well as existing research and development centers in Connecticut and Canada.
Annealing systems are designed to solve complex optimization problems, while gate-model systems use quantum logic operations to run applications more similar to traditional computers.
D-Wave said its commercial annealing quantum systems are already in use, and planned advancements will enable performance gains in solving computational problems in optimization, materials simulation, blockchain, and artificial intelligence (AI) applications.?D-Wave’s next-generation gate-model platform is being developed for advanced applications in AI, quantum chemistry, optimization and materials simulation.
“We believe that the U.S. government’s strategic investment in D-Wave would advance the country’s global leadership position in quantum computing,” Alan Baratz, CEO of D-Wave, said in a statement. “The award would accelerate D-Wave’s ability to scale quantum innovation domestically, expedite key fabrication processes, and deliver real-world quantum applications to our global customers today.
“We see this as a transformative moment for not just D-Wave, but also for quantum computing and the United States,” Baratz added.
The CHIPS and Science Act was approved by Congress in 2022 and made up to $52 billion of funding available to incentivize semiconductor makers to establish new manufacturing operations in the United States.
Last year, President Donald Trump issued an executive order that wrapped the Commerce Department’s CHIPS Program Office into a new United States Investment Accelerator to smooth the way for foreign and domestic business investments exceeding $1billion.