Issue: ORN-2026-20

Commerce commits to funding incentives with 9 companies to spur quantum development: The Commerce Department signed letters of intent with nine quantum computing and quantum foundry companies to provide funding from the CHIPS and Science Act to support innovation in quantum computing. Announced on Thursday, $2.013 billion in CHIPS funding will go to IBM, GlobalFoundries, Atom Computing, Diraq, D-Wave, Infleqtion, PsiQuantum, Quantinuum and Rigetti to spur different components of the burgeoning quantum computing ecosystem. IBM and GlobalFoundries will receive $1 billion and $375 million, respectively, to build quantum tech-specific foundries. IBM will focus on manufacturing quantum-grade superconducting wafers, while GlobalFoundries will be tasked with scaling components of leading quantum computing architectures and modalities, such as superconducting circuits, photonics, trapped ions and more.  The remaining seven companies will use Commerce’s funding to improve their proprietary quantum computing technologies and modalities. Infleqtion, for example, manufactures quantum computers powered by neutral atom systems, and will receive $100 million to further scale its work.  Of the seven companies funded to continue innovation in their individual quantum computing spaces, Diraq, which specializes in quantum computing via silicon spin qubits, received $38 million. The other six each received $100 million. More information is posted on the NextGov website.

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Tech bills of the week: Mitigating risks to critical infrastructure; incentivizing domestic high-tech manufacturing; and more: Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., introduced two measures on Tuesday to combat cybersecurity threats to critical infrastructure services.  The first, the Strengthening Cyber Resilience Against State-Sponsored Threats Act, would establish a joint interagency task force to detect, analyze and respond to Chinese-connected threat actors.  Scott’s office said in a press release that the group would be helmed by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and would “align and reinforce the work of Sector Risk Management Agencies and other key departments by sharing analysis, inspections, audits, and other relevant information.” A House version of the measure was introduced by Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., last year. That bill overwhelmingly passed the House in November. Scott, alongside Sen. Andy Kim, D-N.J., also rolled out the Maritime Cybersecurity Act to address digital threats to critical waterways and related systems. That proposal would direct the Department of Homeland Security to conduct annual vulnerability assessments of the software and hardware used at maritime facilities to identify cyber weaknesses. More information is posted on the NextGov website.