The Commerce Department on May 22, 2026, signed 9 letters of intent to provide $2.013 billion in federal incentives under the CHIPS and Science Act for a new quantum technology push that includes two domestic quantum foundry companies and seven quantum computing companies. The move is aimed at strengthening America’s position in quantum computing, a field the department says matters for national defense, advanced materials, biopharmaceutical discovery, financial modeling and energy systems.
Commerce proposed incentives for GlobalFoundries and IBM as the two quantum foundries, while the initial portfolio of seven companies is meant to attack unresolved engineering problems across multiple quantum modalities. Those modalities include neutral atom, silicon-spin, superconducting, photonic and trapped ion systems, with the incentives designed to accelerate research and development on device reproducibility, optical complexity, error rates, cryogenic systems integration, control hardware and ultra-fast rea...
Howard Lutnick said the administration is “leading the world into a new era of American innovation” through the CHIPS research and development investments in quantum computing, and added that the strategic investments would build on the domestic industry and create thousands of high-paying American jobs. Bill Frauenhofer, meanwhile, said the CHIPS R&D Office is taking a portfolio approach to strengthen and accelerate U.S. leadership across multiple quantum modalities at once, while focusing each award on discrete technological problems of genuine consequence.
The contrast is clear: the government is promising a broad national industrial strategy, but the money is being split across specific technical bottlenecks that remain unresolved. That means the headline is not just federal support for quantum computing; it is a bet that the field can be pushed forward faster by funding several competing approaches at the same time, rather than waiting for one platform to emerge on its own.
For investors watching rigetti stock and other names tied to the sector, the significance lands today because the announcement turns long-discussed policy support into named commitments and a concrete dollar figure. The next step is whether the incentive package converts into signed awards, faster roadmaps and real engineering progress in the companies the department has chosen to back.
