Trump admin not negotiating stakes with quantum firms
US Trade Secretary Howard Lutnick speaks at a business reception at Lancaster House in central London, as part of US President Donald Trump’s second state visit to the UK, with attendees including government ministers from both the UK and US and representatives from leading UK companies. Picture date: Thursday, September 18, 2025.
Jordan Pettitt | via Reuters
The U.S. government is not in talks with quantum computing companies to take equity stakes in the companies in exchange for federal funding, a Commerce Department official told CNBC.
“The Department of Commerce is not currently negotiating equity shares with quantum computer companies,” the spokesman said in a statement.
Denial comes next Wall Street MagazineThe Trump administration is in talks with companies including IonQ, Rigetti Computing and D-Wave Quantum, he said, citing people familiar with the matter.
In transactions made on Thursday, Rigetti increased by 7%, IonQ increased by 7%, D-Wave increased by 13% and Quantum Computing It increased by 5%.
The Trump administration has recently purchased stocks in companies and industries that are vital to the national security of the United States.
Bought 10 percent shares in August Intelcountry’s leading semiconductor manufacturer. He also owned a 15 percent stake Multi-Purpose MaterialsA company that extracts rare earth elements. China has restricted rare earth exports.
The U.S. government’s growing interest in taking stakes in private companies has been unprecedented in recent years, experts say.
Trump administration officials such as Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick have argued that the government should benefit from a company’s success, especially when federal funds are involved.
Quantum computing has attracted great attention in recent years; Some of the world’s most powerful institutions have spent millions in the race to develop and build the first useful and practical quantum computer, which, according to optimistic estimates, could be completed within the next five years.
Once a useful quantum computer is available, it can perform tasks that would require too much computational time and would be impossible to accomplish on a conventional computer; for example, discovering molecules that could be useful drugs or factoring large numbers.
There’s currently nothing useful that quantum computers can do. The machines are purely for research purposes.
But governments are keeping a close eye on this technology because it has military implications, including the potential to decrypt encrypted military communications.
The industry has yet to generate significant revenue despite attracting billions of dollars in investment, including from the federal government.
According to the McKinsey report, quantum computing companies generated revenues of less than $750 million in 2024.
Wednesday on Google requested The quantum breakthrough is an advance over past research, with research showing that a quantum computer can run an algorithm 13,000 times faster than a conventional computer, and that this can be verified by a second quantum computer.
