US CHIPS Act quantum funding backs Diraq and PsiQuantum

Australian-founded quantum companies Diraq and PsiQuantum are in line for up to $US38 million (about $59 million) and $US100 million (about $155 million) under a new US Department of Commerce quantum funding package aimed at building a domestic US quantum supply chain. The proposed awards place two companies with Australian roots inside a nine-company programme worth $US2.013 billion (about $3.1 billion), and Commerce said each deal would include a minority government equity stake.

The announcement also lands as Australian founders press Canberra for more support for long-horizon deep-tech ventures. In separate reports, SmartCompany and Startup Daily cast the awards as another example of US industrial policy reaching Australian-founded quantum groups before local settings are settled.

According to the NIST announcement, the package covers five quantum-computing companies, two quantum foundries, one sensing company and one networking company. GlobalFoundries and IBM are the foundry recipients. That matters because Diraq’s silicon-spin design and PsiQuantum’s photonic approach both rely on manufacturing partners that can move beyond university-scale prototypes.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said in the department’s statement that the investment would help push quantum computing into “a new era of American innovation”.

For Diraq, the letter of intent is meant to scale domestic quantum processors based on silicon spin technology. Founder and chief executive Andrew Dzurak said in the company’s statement that US agencies had backed silicon quantum research for more than 25 years, making the proposed award part of a longer shift from lab work to manufacturing capacity.

Dzurak said: “The U.S. Government has played an important role for over 25 years in funding silicon quantum research through entities such as the U.S. Army Research Office and more recently DARPA”.

PsiQuantum said its $US100 million letter of intent would support a domestic supply chain for utility-scale quantum systems. President Victor Peng said strong technology supply chains are essential to US security and prosperity. The larger allocation also suggests Washington is backing more than one hardware path as it tries to keep quantum fabrication and component supply onshore.

Why it matters for Australia

For Australia, the announcement stands out because the money is coming from Washington rather than Canberra. SmartCompany and Startup Daily both placed the awards inside a broader debate over whether Australia is doing enough to keep deep-tech companies close to home as they mature.

The letters remain preliminary, and Commerce said final awards still depend on due diligence and negotiations. Even so, the equity stakes show the US government wants a direct interest in companies building commercially relevant quantum hardware. For Diraq and PsiQuantum, the latest large public commitment has come from the US, not Australia.