Market reaction and funding details
D-Wave Quantum Inc. shares rose about +17.9% in pre-open trading following the company’s announcement that it has signed a Letter of Intent for $100 million in proposed funding under the U.S. CHIPS and Science Act, which is administered by the Department of Commerce. The planned award is intended to fund D-Wave’s U.S. quantum research and development facilities and to help speed the delivery of advanced superconducting quantum computers.
The company said the funding is intended to support efforts to deliver a 100,000-qubit annealing system and a 10,000-qubit gate-model system. Those projects are cited by the company as milestones that would advance the commercial readiness of its larger-scale quantum offerings.
Context within the federal program
This $100 million commitment to D-Wave is part of a wider $2 billion federal program allocating funds to nine quantum computing companies. Under the announced distribution, IBM is set to receive $1 billion and GlobalFoundries $375 million. D-Wave, Rigetti Computing, and Infleqtion are each expected to receive $100 million, while the startup Diraq is slated to receive $38 million. The awards form a sector-wide package and have contributed to a sympathy rally across quantum computing-related stocks.
The deals remain subject to finalization. According to the published framework, the U.S. government would take a minority equity stake in each of the participating quantum firms as part of the agreement terms.
Company filings and insider activity
Separately, D-Wave filed a Form 8-K with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission today. The company also had a Form 144 filed on May 20 indicating a potential sale of restricted securities by an insider. The filing itself signals a possible disposition, although the company has previously characterized similar filings as routine, tax-related transactions rather than discretionary insider selling.
Product status and intended benefits
D-Wave’s annealing quantum systems are already commercially available, while the company’s gate-model platform is described as targeting commercial viability once it reaches 10,000 physical qubits. D-Wave highlighted that larger-scale annealing hardware is expected to deliver greater performance gains for several use cases, including optimization problems, materials simulation, blockchain applications, and artificial intelligence workloads.
Broader market backdrop
The funding announcement arrived amid a constructive session for U.S. equities, where the S&P 500 gained +1.1%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose +1.3%, and the NASDAQ climbed +1.5%. Those market moves provided additional tailwinds for higher-beta technology names, contributing to positive sentiment in quantum computing stocks.
Conclusion
The confluence of a direct federal validation through a $100 million CHIPS Act commitment to D-Wave, the larger $2 billion sector-wide package of awards, and a risk-on market environment combined to push the company’s stock notably higher in pre-market trading. The structure of the announced program, including the proposed minority equity stakes for the federal government and the distribution of funds across multiple quantum companies, underscores a coordinated public policy effort to support commercial quantum development in the U.S.