Welcome back to This Week in Quantum — your weekly digest of the most important news from the world of quantum computing.
The week of May 18–22 will likely be remembered as the moment quantum computing became a matter of explicit industrial policy on both sides of the Atlantic. In the span of two days, the United States and France each committed over a billion dollars to quantum — and the private sector moved in parallel. Let’s get into it.
Industry News
U.S. commits $2 billion in CHIPS Act funding to nine quantum companies
On May 21, the U.S. Department of Commerce announced letters of intent to invest just over $2 billion across nine quantum computing companies under the CHIPS and Science Act — in exchange for minority equity stakes in each recipient.
IBM receives the largest single allocation: $1 billion in CHIPS incentives matched by $1 billion of its own capital to establish Anderon, described as America’s first pure-play quantum chip foundry. Anderon will be headquartered in Albany, New York, and will initially focus on 300mm superconducting qubit wafer fabrication, with plans to expand into other quantum modalities.
The remaining $1 billion is distributed across eight companies:
- GlobalFoundries — $375 million
- D-Wave Quantum, Rigetti Computing, Infleqtion, Atom Computing, PsiQuantum, and Quantinuum — $100 million each
- Diraq — $38 million Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick framed the awards as a direct competitive response to Chinese and European quantum investment. The government’s equity stake model — borrowed from the CHIPS semiconductor playbook — marks a structural shift in how Washington engages with the quantum sector.
France answers with €1 billion for its national quantum plan
One day after the U.S. announcement, French President Emmanuel Macron visited the CEA’s Very Large Computing Center in Bruyères-le-Châtel and announced an additional €1 billion for France’s national quantum strategy (Plan Quantique), plus €550 million for a future European semiconductor program — both drawn from the France 2030 investment framework.
The announcement brings France’s total public quantum commitment to €3.3 billion, up from €2.3 billion. Macron called for “European preference” in public procurement and urged the CEA, CNRS, and Inria to form a European research coalition with counterparts in Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, and Poland. He also signaled that France would push for faster progress on a EU-level “Quantum Act” regulatory framework.
During the visit, Macron toured Lucy, the photonic quantum computer installed at the TGCC facility.
NVIDIA’s NVentures backs Alice & Bob
On the same afternoon as Macron’s announcement, NVIDIA’s venture capital arm NVentures invested in Alice & Bob, the Paris- and Boston-based company building fault-tolerant quantum computers using a proprietary cat-qubit architecture. The investment extends Alice & Bob’s Series B round, which originally closed at €100 million in January 2025. The timing — French sovereign funding and Silicon Valley private capital arriving on the same day — underscores Alice & Bob’s positioning as one of Europe’s most-watched quantum hardware bets.
Rigetti signs letter of intent with U.S. government (May 21)
Rigetti Computing signed a letter of intent with the U.S. government as part of the CHIPS Act quantum package, securing $100 million in federal incentives. The agreement adds to Rigetti’s already strong Q1 2026 momentum — record revenue and a $100 million UK commitment announced the previous week.
EPB and University of Tennessee launch $6.8M quantum workforce initiative (May 22)
EPB, the Chattanooga-based energy and broadband provider, and the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga announced a $6.8 million partnership to build quantum workforce infrastructure — expanding academic programs, funding research, and training the next generation of quantum engineers in the region.
Research Highlights
Flatiron Institute algorithm challenges D-Wave’s 2025 quantum supremacy claim
Researchers at the Flatiron Institute published a classical algorithm that, using a 3D tensor network architecture combined with belief propagation, can simulate the complex quantum dynamics that D-Wave claimed constituted quantum supremacy in 2025. The algorithm runs on standard hardware and matches the accuracy of D-Wave’s quantum annealer on the specific problem class used in D-Wave’s original benchmark.
D-Wave pushed back, arguing the Flatiron paper’s scope is severely limited and ignores more complex, higher-level problems where the company has demonstrated advantages classical computers cannot replicate. The debate is not settled — but it is a reminder that the boundary of quantum advantage is moving, contested, and methodologically tricky to pin down.
Penn researchers create hybrid light-matter particle for AI computing (May 18)
Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania created a hybrid light-matter particle — a polariton — that could significantly accelerate AI computing while consuming far less energy than conventional electronics. The breakthrough suggests that certain computing processes currently done electronically could be replaced by ultra-efficient light-based alternatives, with quantum coherence playing a central role in the efficiency gain.
Upcoming Events
- Quantinuum IPO — Nasdaq debut expected in coming weeks
- Optica Quantum Industry Summit — June 16–17, 2026, Glasgow, UK
- DOE Office of Science Community Town Hall — June 12, 2026 (virtual)