IBM launches quantum chip foundry Anderon, lands US govt investment

IBM said it will launch Anderon, a quantum chip wafer foundry, with the help of the US Department of Commerce.

The Anderon launch lands as the US Department of Commerce invested in a host of quantum computing companies. In a statement, IBM said the US government investment is part of the CHIPS and Science Act.

Under the terms of the deal, the Department of Commerce will invest $1 billion and IBM will contribute $1 billion in cash to launch Anderon with intellectual property, assets and staff. The US Department of Commerce and IBM have signed a letter of intent.

Anderon will focus on 300-millimeter quantum wafers. IBM said AAnderon is the first pure-play quantum chip foundry. IonQ recently said it would acquire SkyWater, a foundry that makes quantum chips and other types of semiconductors.

IBM CEO Arvind Krishna said, "our work in silicon wafer fabrication has been a key to IBM's success and will be critical to enable a broader quantum technology landscape."

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The US government has been focused on domestic chip manufacturing with a high-profile investment in Intel.

Anderon also gives IBM another avenue to monetize its quantum efforts. For instance, Honeywell spun off Quantinuum, which is planning an initial public offering.

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The IBM news was the headliner in a series of letters of intent to invest $2 billion spread among nine quantum computing companies under the CHIPS and Science Act.

Of that $2 billion, IBM gets $1 billion in funding and GlobalFoundries gets $375 million to expand to quantum processors.

Here's a look at the other investments by the US government:

• Atom Computing gets $100 million.
• Diraq gets $38 million.
• D-Wave, Infleqtion, PsiQuantum, Quantinuum and Rigetti all gets $100 million each.

When the deals are completed, the US government will hold a stake in all of the quantum companies listed.