The Trump administration has agreed to award $1 billion to International Business Machines Corp. to build a foundry for producing quantum computing chips, part of a broad strategy to bolster US leadership in an emerging industry.

IBM is breaking into the quantum computing foundry business.

The US Department of Commerce is awarding $2 billion in grants to American quantum-computing companies, half of which will go to IBM, in a bid to bolster the buildout of super computers that could solve some of the world’s most pressing problems.

Shares of International Business Machines (NYSE:IBM) are up 8% in mid-morning trading Thursday, while three legacy enterprise tech peers don’t have the same rocket fuel today. Oracle (NYSE:ORCL), Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO),

By Harshita Mary Varghese and Aditya Soni May 21 (Reuters) - The Trump administration will take $2 billion in equity stakes across nine quantum-computing companies, including a new IBM venture, as part of efforts to shore up the domestic supply chain and counter China in crucial sectors.

The US government has taken $2 billion worth of equity stakes in quantum computing companies, including one linked to the Trump family.

IBM rarely gets the same hype as newer AI companies, yet investors keep coming back to it for one reason: consistency. The company has spent decades building one of the market’s longest dividend streaks,

Investors have been attuned to mainframe disruption threats from artificial intelligence, but IBM posted 51% growth in Z mainframe hardware revenue.

The Trump administration is awarding grants to a handful of companies, including IBM, that are focused on quantum computing in exchange for stakes in some of them.

IBM said it would match with a $1 billion investment to form a new entity to operate a secure 300mm quantum water fab at Albany NanoTech.