IBM and the U.S. Department of Commerce signed a Letter of Intent on May 21 to launch Anderon, the nation’s first pure‑play quantum chip foundry. The project receives $1 billion in CHIPS Act incentives and an equal cash match from IBM, anchoring a $2 billion quantum package that spans nine firms. Anderon will operate a 300 mm superconducting silicon fab in Albany, New York.

The funding hierarchy places IBM’s 300 mm line at the top, allocating half quantum capital to a approach while smaller equity stakes go to trapped‑ion, photonic and neutral‑atom startups. GlobalFoundries earned $375 million to build a 300 mm quantum fab, underscoring the administration’s belief that wafer‑scale production will dictate which architectures scale commercially. The disparity, roughly 50:1 between Anderon’s $1 billion and Diraq’s $38 million, signals a bet on scale.

IBM’s ASIC control architecture, co‑fabricated on the same wafers, promises tighter integration between qubits and classical electronics, a prerequisite for fault‑tolerant systems. By tying federal equity to Anderon and the other eight firms, the Commerce Department aims to create thousands of high‑paying jobs while cementing a domestic supply chain. The structure gives superconducting silicon a decisive economic edge over competing quantum approaches.