“IBM has pioneered quantum computing for decades. Our work in silicon wafer fabrication has been a key to IBM's success and will be critical to enable a broader quantum technology landscape that will reshape global innovation and economic competitiveness,” IBM CEO and Chairman Arvind Krishna said in a statement. “With the support of the U.S. Department of Commerce, Anderon will be well-positioned to fuel America's fast-growing quantum technology industry.”
Under the proposal, the Department of Commerce would provide $1 billion in CHIPS incentives while IBM contributes another $1 billion in cash, intellectual property, manufacturing assets, and personnel. The facility would be headquartered in Albany, New York, and focus on 300-millimeter superconducting quantum wafer manufacturing.
Beyond the IBM investment, GlobalFoundries is expected to receive $375 million from the U.S. government, while Atom Computing, D-Wave, Infleqtion, PsiQuantum, Quantinuum, and Rigetti are each slated for $100 million awards. Quantum startup Diraq will receive $38 million. In return, the government will take varying equity stakes in each of the companies.
“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, 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.”
Superconducting qubits store information using tiny electrical circuits cooled to temperatures colder than space. Unlike normal computer bits, which can only be a 0 or a 1, qubits can exist in multiple states at once, allowing quantum computers to solve some problems much faster than traditional machines.
One of the major hurdles in quantum computing is manufacturing the chips themselves. Quantum chips are built on ultra-thin silicon discs called wafers, which hold the qubits and supporting electronics. Producing them requires extremely precise manufacturing and very low error rates. IBM said Anderon will initially make wafers for superconducting quantum chips and related electronics before expanding into other types of quantum hardware.
Researchers warn that blockchains face a particular risk because transactions are public and irreversible. Once public keys are exposed on-chain, future quantum computers could potentially derive the corresponding private keys and steal funds. Once assets are moved, there is no fraud recovery system capable of reversing the theft.
