IBM and the U.S. Department of Commerce signed a letter of intent to build America's first pure-play quantum foundry. The new company, Anderon, will operate a 300-millimeter quantum wafer fabrication facility in Albany, New York. IBM is pouring $1 billion into the venture alongside $1 billion in CHIPS Act incentives, betting that domestic quantum manufacturing will keep the U.S. competitive globally.

Anderon will start by producing wafers for superconducting qubit systems and supporting electronics, then expand into other quantum modalities. IBM brings decades of wafer fabrication expertise, intellectual property, and a workforce that has already deployed over 90 quantum systems. The foundry aims to serve multiple hardware vendors, not just IBM, positioning itself as the anchor of a national quantum supply chain.

The broader quantum industry could generate up to $850 billion in economic value by 2040, according to projections cited in the announcement. Officials tied the investment to national security and economic competitiveness, with applications spanning materials science, biopharma, and defense. Anderon remains subject to definitive agreements between IBM and the Commerce Department.