U.S. Quantum Bet Puts Hardware First, But Utility Remains the Test

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May. 25, 2026 –

By Pat Brans, EE Times

A $2 billion CHIPS Act package backs quantum foundries and hardware companies across major modalities, signaling that Washington sees quantum computing as strategic infrastructure. But the harder challenge is turning qubits, wafers, and architectures into useful applications.

The Department of Commerce announced letters of intent for $2.013 billion in proposed CHIPS and Science Act incentives for nine companies across the quantum computing ecosystem—IBM, GlobalFoundries, D-Wave Quantum, Diraq, Rigetti Computing, Infleqtion, Atom Computing, PsiQuantum, and Quantinuum. The awards are still proposed, not final, but their structure is revealing: Washington is spreading support across foundries, hardware platforms, and competing quantum architectures, making the package less a conventional R&D grant than an industrial-policy move to build domestic quantum capacity before the market has fully matured.

The bet also raises a harder question. If public money accelerates quantum manufacturing and hardware capacity, will the industry be ready to turn that capacity into measurable value?

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