Insider Brief
- D-Wave Quantum Inc. signed a Letter of Intent with the U.S. Department of Commerce for proposed $100 million CHIPS Act funding to support quantum computing development.
- The proposed funding would support scaling D-Wave’s annealing and gate-model quantum systems and expand research facilities in Florida, Connecticut, and Canada.
- D-Wave said the initiative could accelerate development of future large-scale superconducting quantum computing systems for optimization, AI, and materials applications.
PRESS RELEASE — D-Wave Quantum Inc. (NYSE: QBTS), (“D-Wave” or the “Company”), the only dual-platform quantum computing company providing both annealing and gate-model systems, software and services, today announced that it has signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) for $100 million of proposed funding under the U.S. CHIPS and Science Act, which is administered by the U.S. Department of Commerce. In connection with executing final award documents, D-Wave would issue $100 million in shares of its common stock to the U.S. Department of Commerce. The LOI marks a significant endorsement by the U.S. government of D-Wave’s annealing and gate-model quantum computing technologies and their potential impact on the U.S. economy.
The U.S. CHIPS and Science Act is aimed at strengthening domestic technology supply chains and advancing national and economic security. Advanced manufacturing and packaging technology is required to scale quantum computing systems and is critical for reinforcing the United States’ position at the forefront of next-generation quantum computing. This funding would accelerate development and scaling of D-Wave’s annealing and gate-model quantum systems, including at its forthcoming research and development (R&D) facility in Boca Raton, Florida as well as its R&D centers in New Haven, Connecticut and Burnaby, BC, Canada.
“We believe that the U.S. government’s strategic investment in D-Wave would advance the country’s global leadership position in quantum computing,” said Dr. Alan Baratz, CEO of D-Wave. “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.”
“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,” said Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick. “These strategic quantum technology investments will build on our domestic industry, creating thousands of high-paying American jobs while advancing American quantum capabilities.”
“The Department of Commerce’s incentives strengthen and accelerate U.S. quantum leadership and technological resilience,” said Bill Frauenhofer, Executive Director of Semiconductor Investment and Innovation. “Quantum computing has significant implications for national defense, advanced materials and biopharmaceutical discovery, financial modeling and energy systems.”
The funded initiatives would help D-Wave expedite the delivery of advanced superconducting quantum computers, including a 100,000-qubit annealing system and a 10,000-qubit gate-model system. While D-Wave’s annealing quantum computers are commercial today, its gate-model system is expected to reach commercial viability with 10,000 physical qubits, which enable 100 logical qubits. With the larger-scale and higher coherence annealing quantum computing systems, D-Wave expects even greater performance gains for solving computational problems in optimization, materials simulation, blockchain, and artificial intelligence applications. The larger-scale dual-rail gate-model quantum computer will enable dozens of logical qubits, providing a powerful application development platform for a wide range of quantum chemistry and quantum artificial intelligence use cases.
These efforts are expected to contribute to the development of a resilient, end-to-end quantum computing ecosystem, aligned with broader CHIPS and Science Act objectives to build domestic capacity in critical technologies and establish a robust and reliable pipeline for the components required to bring state-of-the-art quantum computing systems into the market.
The Award is subject to the execution by the parties of definitive Award documents.
