Trump's Government Wants To Take Shares In Quantum Computing Computing Company

United States President Donald Trump (photo: x @realDonaldTrump)

JAKARTA The administration of US President Donald Trump is reportedly exploring talks with a number of quantum computing companies to take share ownership in exchange for federal funding. This information was revealed by The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday, October 22, citing sources familiar with the plan.

Several companies mentioned in the report include IonQ, Rigetti Computing, and D-Wave Quantum, which are in discussions for the US government to become shareholders through a minimum USD 10 million funding scheme from Washington for each company.

Apart from the three, companies such as Quantum Computing Inc. and Atom Computing are also reportedly considering similar agreements.

Even so, a Reuters report said there had been no official verification of the news. A US Commerce Department official said in an emailed statement that it was not negotiating with any companies regarding it.

This step is in line with the pattern of economic intervention that has begun to be seen in several policies of President Trump. Earlier this year, he announced plans for the US government to take 10 percent of shares in Intel, converting government grants into a form of share ownership.

A similar step was also taken in other agreements, such as the Department of Defense (Pentagon) which is the largest shareholder in mining company MP Materials to strengthen the production of rare earth magnets. In addition, the US government also obtained a golden share' share with veto rights' in an agreement that allowed Japanese Nippon Steel to buy US Steel.

Meanwhile, the IonQ company declined to comment, and the White House and other companies called "Rigetti, D-Wave, Atom, and Quantum Computing" have yet to provide a response to requests for media comments.

According to a WSJ report, the funding talks were led by Paul Dabbar, the US Deputy Minister of Commerce who is also a former executive in the quantum computing industry and senior officials in the Department of Energy.

This phenomenon comes amid increasingly intense global competition in the development of quantum computing technology that has the potential to revolutionize the way computers process information. In February, Microsoft announced a new chip that it claims proves that quantum computing is "only a few years away, not decades away," in line with predictions from Google and IBM.

This Trump administration move shows the ambition of the United States to strengthen its strategic position in the field of quantum computing technology which is considered one of the keys to the future supremacy of global technology.