U.S. quantum funding expands under CHIPS Act as startup investment surges

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US quantum funding expands

Highlights

The U.S. government finalizes $100 million investments each in Quantinuum, D-Wave Quantum, and Rigetti Computing under the CHIPS Act, broadening federal support to quantum startups.
Quantinuum raises $1.68 billion in its June 4 listing, D-Wave gains 5.4%, and Rigetti rises 7.4% after securing federal funding and launching its Cepheus-1 system in partnership with Nvidia.
Quantum startups secure $12.6 billion in funding in 2025, up 6.6 times year-over-year, with the market projected to double by 2028 according to QED-C.

Federal backing broadens quantum push

As reported by Weiss Ratings, the U.S. government finalizes agreements on Sept. 8 to invest $100 million each in three quantum computing startups in exchange for minority stakes, extending the reach of the CHIPS and Science Act beyond traditional semiconductor manufacturing.

The move marks a notable policy shift because the CHIPS Act originally focuses on conventional transistor-based chips and domestic supply resilience. The expansion into quantum reflects growing confidence that the technology is advancing quickly enough to merit direct public support, even as commercially useful systems remain under development.

Large technology companies are already deepening their efforts in the field. Microsoft unveils its Majorana 1 quantum chip after Nvidia's chief executive says at the start of 2025 that highly useful quantum computers are still 15 to 30 years away; Nvidia later revises that view and now says quantum utility is a matter of years, while also launching its own quantum research lab.

Startups, stocks and investment strategy

Among the companies receiving CHIPS funding, Quantinuum focuses on trapped-ion qubits, D-Wave Quantum develops systems aimed at narrower commercial uses such as scheduling and logistics, and Rigetti Computing builds superconducting circuits similar to approaches pursued by Google and IBM.

Weiss Ratings says Quantinuum raises $1.68 billion in its June 4 listing, while D-Wave's shares rise 5.4% and Rigetti's stock gains 7.4% after the funding announcement. Rigetti also launches its Cepheus-1 system this year and partners with Nvidia to connect its systems with Nvidia GPUs.

The sector still offers limited present-day commercial value because current quantum systems do not yet outperform classical computers on business tasks that companies broadly need solved. Even so, more than 300 companies globally have adopted the technology, quantum startups secure $12.6 billion in funding in 2025, up 6.6 times from a year earlier, and the market is projected to double by 2028, according to QED-C.

For investors, the article argues that quantum shares trade more on technology roadmaps and government contracts than on earnings. It points to exchange-traded funds, including the Defiance Quantum ETF, as a diversified way to gain exposure across pure-play developers, large technology groups and suppliers linked to the emerging quantum ecosystem.

Our earlier article on Intel and SK Hynix talks to manufacture memory chips in the U.S. outlined exploratory options such as leasing space at Intel’s planned Ohio facility or forming a broader partnership. We noted that the discussions fit Washington’s push to strengthen domestic semiconductor supply chains, while also raising practical hurdles such as potential South Korean review related to sensitive technology transfers.

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