US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick speaks at a enterprise reception at Lancaster Home in central London, with attendees together with authorities ministers from each the UK and US and representatives from main UK corporations, as a part of the second state go to to the UK by US President Donald Trump. Image date: Thursday Sept. 18, 2025.
Jordan Pettitt | By way of Reuters
The U.S. authorities is just not in talks with quantum computing corporations to take fairness stakes within the companies in alternate for federal funding, a Commerce Division official advised CNBC.
“The Commerce Division is just not at present negotiating fairness stakes with quantum computing corporations,” the spokesperson stated in a press release.
The denial comes a day after the Wall Avenue Journal, citing individuals acquainted with the matter, stated that the Trump administration was in talks with corporations together with IonQ, Rigetti Computing, and D-Wave Quantum.
Throughout buying and selling on Thursday, Rigetti Computing was up 7%, IonQ was up 7%, D-Wave was up 13%, and Quantum Computing was up 5%.
The Trump administration has taken fairness stakes in corporations in industries seen as important to U.S. nationwide safety. In August, it took a ten% stake in Intel, the nation’s main semiconductor producer. It additionally took a 15% stake in MP Supplies, which mines uncommon earth parts. China has restricted exports of uncommon earths.
Consultants say that the U.S. authorities’s rising curiosity in taking stakes in personal corporations is unprecedented in current a long time. Trump administration officers comparable to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick have argued that the federal government ought to profit from an organization’s success, particularly the place federal funds are concerned.
Quantum computing has attracted vital consideration in recent times, with a few of the strongest establishments on the planet spending thousands and thousands in a race to develop and construct the primary helpful and sensible quantum laptop, which may very well be accomplished within the subsequent 5 years, in keeping with optimistic predictions.
When there’s a helpful quantum laptop, it could be capable of do duties that may require a lot computing time on a conventional laptop that it could be infeasible, comparable to discovering molecules that may very well be helpful medicines, or factoring massive numbers.
Proper now, there is not something helpful that quantum computer systems can do. They’re purely for analysis. However governments maintain an in depth eye on the know-how as a result of it has navy implications, together with the potential to have the ability to decipher encrypted navy communications.
However though the business is attracting billions in investments, together with from the federal authorities, it has not generated vital income but. Quantum computing corporations generated below $750 million in income in 2024, in keeping with a McKinsey report.
On Wednesday, Google claimed a quantum breakthrough through which it performed analysis that confirmed {that a} quantum laptop can run an algorithm over 13,000 occasions quicker than a conventional laptop, and that it may very well be verified by a second quantum laptop, an development over previous analysis.
