Why does the Trump administration want to award $2 billion to quantum computing firms?

The Trump administration is officially awarding a significant $2 billion in grants to nine quantum-computing companies in deals that include the US government acquiring a major equity stake.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the department has agreed to give $1 billion of the package to IBM while GlobalFounderies will receive $375 million, in line with a recent update. 

Reports are circulating that the remaining firms including D-Wave Quantum, Rigetti Computing, and Infleqtion are expected to receive $100 million each. Conversely, Startup Diraq may receive $28 million.

The investments extend the policy initiatives for the Trump administration of taking equity stakes in companies crucial to the domestic supply chain moving to counter China’s supremacy in certain sectors, including chipmaking.

It has been observed that it has already taken stakes in companies such as Intel and MP Materials.

Quantum computers primarily utilize information different from conventional supercomputers to handle complex mathematical problems immediately.

Notably, existing quantum computers give so much of their computing power to fix errors that are not faster than classical computers. 

At present, the US Department of Commerce, IBM, De-Wave Quantum and Infleqtion did not respond instantly and made remarks on current status. It is pivotal to note that shares of companies rose between 7% and 21& in premarket trading.