By Mackenzie Tatananni
The United Kingdom has pledged to commit $2.5 billion to scale quantum computers in the region by the start of the next decade and the investment has implications for some of the buzziest American companies in the industry.
The U.K. on Tuesday unveiled a program worth up to 2 billion euros ($2.5 billion) to support manufacturing, research and development, and talent procurement. As part of the pact, the government will be deepening its ties to companies that already have established a presence in the region, such as IonQ.
The College Park, Md.-based company unveiled last week a strategic partnership with Cambridge University to create the IonQ Quantum Innovation Centre, a research hub hosting IonQ's upcoming 256-qubit computer. Other companies highlighted by the government include Infleqtion, the quantum start-up that made its trading debut last month.
The U.K.'s pledge to build bigger, better quantum computers can be seen as an effort to legitimize the technology. It also isn't the country's first. A similar initiative called the National Quantum Technologies Programme launched more than a decade ago and since has been backed by more than EUR1 billion in public funding. The U.S. and U.K. separately signed a memorandum of understanding to advance the development of quantum computing in September 2025.
The immediate effect of Tuesday's announcement on other pure plays such as Rigetti Computing and D-Wave Quantum is less clear. However, both companies have established a presence in the region, either by deploying a computer (in Rigetti's case) or forming relationships with prospective customers. It's difficult to see the country's commitment to supporting the wide-scale deployment of quantum computing as anything other than a positive.
Write to Mackenzie Tatananni at mackenzie.tatananni@barrons.com
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March 17, 2026 08:20 ET (12:20 GMT)
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