D-Wave Quantum (QBTS) shares jumped 9% on Tuesday morning after the company signed a definitive agreement with the U.S. Department of Commerce for significant federal funding.
The agreement grants D-Wave access to “up to $100 million” in funding under the U.S. CHIPS and Science Act, marking a major milestone for the quantum computing firm.
D-Wave stock soared through 10:50 a.m. ET Tuesday as investors responded enthusiastically to the news of the federal commitment.
CEO Dr. Alan Baratz said the $100 million will be used to help “scale, commercialize and manufacture … domestic quantum capabilities,” including by “strengthening the underlying supply chain” for building quantum computers.
The funding is expected to accelerate research and development for D-Wave’s annealing and gate-model quantum systems, pushing the company’s technology roadmap forward considerably.
Among the targeted milestones is a 100,000-qubit annealing system aimed at greater performance across optimization, materials simulation, blockchain, and artificial intelligence applications.
The agreement also supports development of a 10,000-qubit gate-model system designed to enable 100 logical qubits capable of successfully performing more than one million operations.
Those capabilities are intended to unlock advanced applications such as quantum chemistry and quantum AI, areas where commercial demand is growing rapidly across multiple industries.
As a condition of receiving the funds, the U.S. Department of Commerce will receive a minority, non-controlling equity stake in D-Wave, a structure designed to enhance returns for U.S. taxpayers.
D-Wave was not the only quantum computing company to finalize such an agreement on Tuesday, as Rigetti Computing and Quantinuum each secured their own $100 million CHIPS Act awards under similar terms.
The three deals together total $300 million and are structured as research-and-development grants, with the federal government taking a minority, non-controlling equity stake in each company as a condition of the grants.
While D-Wave emerged as investors’ favorite quantum computing stock on the day, GlobalFoundries received a substantially larger share of government CHIPS Act funding than the three pure-play quantum companies combined.
That distinction positions GlobalFoundries as the more prominent recipient in the broader federal semiconductor and quantum investment push, even as pure-play quantum firms celebrate their own landmark awards.
For D-Wave (QBTS), Tuesday’s agreement represents one of the most significant federal endorsements in the company’s history, validating its commercial and technological strategy in a rapidly evolving sector.
