Last year, quantum stocks were the best performers on Wall Street. IonQ ran roughly 700%. D-Wave jumped 2,000%. Some names posted gains as high as 6,200%. Think you missed it? Look at when that happened. Before the President signed two executive orders launching a national quantum program. Before the government committed $2 billion for direct ownership stakes. Before the world’s central banks went public about the threat to the financial system. The first move ran on promise alone. The next one runs on federal mandate. And one $20 company, part-owned by Washington itself, sits directly in the path of the money. Ticker revealed here. The second wave is starting >> “The Buck Stops Here” Kelly Maguire Behind the Markets | | | |
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Capital Flux Review Two publicly traded quantum companies just handed Uncle Sam a stake in their stock. | The Power Ledger · Investigation | | | Washington Just Became a Quantum Computing Shareholder — Twice | | | The Commerce Department finalized $200 million in CHIPS Act awards this week to two publicly traded quantum computing firms, taking equity in both. | | | On September 8, 2026, the U.S. Department of Commerce finalized $100 million funding agreements each with Rigetti Computing (NASDAQ: RGTI) and D-Wave Quantum (NYSE: QBTS). Both deals carry the same condition: the federal government receives a minority, non-controlling equity stake in the company as a term of the award. This is not a loan, a grant with reporting requirements, or a tax credit. It is the U.S. government becoming a shareholder in a publicly traded corporation — confirmed by the companies’ own statements and reported directly by The Quantum Insider and 24/7 Wall St. | | | | The stated purpose, per the Commerce Department, is to “accelerate solving the most critical technology challenges in the race to develop utility scale, fault-tolerant quantum computers” and to “enhance the return for the U.S. taxpayer.” Rigetti CEO Subodh Kulkarni: “The overall goal of this $100 million is to accelerate our roadmap.” D-Wave CEO Alan Baratz described it as strengthening “domestic quantum capabilities” and the “underlying supply chain.” On its face, this reads as straightforward industrial policy. | | | | 1. | May 21, 2026 — Commerce announces letters of intent with nine quantum computing companies for a combined $2.013 billion in CHIPS Act incentives, with equity stakes attached as a condition of every award. Quantum stocks rally broadly. | | | 2. | May 21, 2026 — NIST publishes the full breakdown: IBM ($1 billion, quantum foundry subsidiary), GlobalFoundries ($375 million, domestic quantum foundry), and seven technology-focused firms at roughly $38–100 million each — Atom Computing, Diraq, D-Wave, Infleqtion, PsiQuantum, Quantinuum and Rigetti. | | | 3. | September 8, 2026 — The letters of intent convert into finalized, binding agreements for Rigetti and D-Wave, each at $100 million, each carrying the same minority equity condition disclosed in May. Rigetti shares rose 6% and D-Wave shares rose 5% on the news, despite both stocks remaining down sharply for the year — Rigetti off 26% YTD, D-Wave off 33% YTD. | | | | What the Sequence Suggests | | | Our interpretation: the four-month gap between the May letters of intent and the September finalization suggests the equity terms were the harder part of the negotiation, not the funding amount, which was set in May and did not change. Companies down 26–33% for the year got only a 5–6% one-day pop on confirmed, binding federal capital — a comparatively muted reaction. That gap suggests the market had already priced in most of the benefit back in May, and September’s move mainly reflects the removal of deal-completion risk. | | | | Both companies disclosed healthy cash positions heading into these deals — Rigetti held approximately $541 million and D-Wave approximately $546 million as of Q2 2026. That raises a fair question this publication believes deserves scrutiny, though we do not have direct evidence of the answer: why does a company holding roughly five times the size of its federal award still need government equity financing, rather than pursuing private capital on its own terms? | | Clearly Labeled This is a reported fact (the cash balances) paired with an open question (the rationale) — not a claim of wrongdoing. | | | | | Confirmed beneficiaries include existing shareholders of Rigetti and D-Wave, who saw one-day price gains on deal certainty; the companies themselves, which secured non-dilutive-in-cash-terms funding (the government took equity rather than requiring loan repayment); and the broader domestic quantum supply chain, which Commerce states is the intended target of the $2.013 billion program. Whether “the U.S. taxpayer” — the stated beneficiary — sees a positive return is a reported claim, not a confirmed fact: it depends on outcomes years away. | | | | The exact percentage equity stake the government received in either company has not been disclosed in the sourcing available to us. Neither company’s SEC filings on this transaction were independently reviewed line-by-line for this edition; our account relies on company statements as reported by The Quantum Insider and 24/7 Wall St. Readers who want warrant strike prices, vesting terms or governance rights should consult the companies’ forthcoming 8-K filings directly. | | | | If you hold, or are considering, shares in any of the nine CHIPS Act quantum recipients, you now own a stock where the federal government is also a shareholder, with its own incentives around disclosure, oversight and future funding rounds. That is a structural change in the cap table, not merely a financing event — and it sets a precedent that investors in AI infrastructure, semiconductors or defense electronics should not assume their sector is exempt from. | | Next Verifiable Checkpoint | | | Watch for the 8-K filings from Rigetti and D-Wave disclosing the specific equity instrument (warrants versus direct shares), the strike price or valuation used, and any board observation or governance rights granted to Commerce. Also watch whether the remaining seven letters-of-intent recipients — including IBM’s $1 billion award — convert to finalized agreements on a similar timeline. | | | NIST — Commerce Announces Letters of Intent With 9 Companies for $2 Billion https://www.nist.gov/news-events/news/2026/05/department-commerce-announces-letters-intent-9-companies-2-billion | | | The Quantum Insider — D-Wave Finalizes $100M U.S. Government Agreement https://thequantuminsider.com/2026/09/08/d-wave-signs-100m-us-government-agreement-quantum-computing-rd/ 24/7 Wall St. — Quantum Stocks Rally as Commerce Takes Equity Stakes https://247wallst.com/investing/2026/09/08/quantum-stocks-rally-as-commerce-department-takes-equity-stakes-rigetti-surges-6-d-wave-climbs-5/ CNBC — Quantum stocks soar as U.S. plans $2 billion funding incentives https://www.cnbc.com/2026/05/21/quantum-stocks--us-taking-equity-stakes.html | | |
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