Massachusetts Fights to Stay a Quantum Hub as Washington and Rival States Pour Billions Into the Race

BOSTON — Washington is stepping up its spending on quantum computing, and states from Illinois to Connecticut are writing big checks to win the industry. Massachusetts, home to one of the world’s deepest pools of quantum talent, is betting on a $25 million state-backed lab at MIT while a bill to create a state quantum center and investment fund waits on Beacon Hill.^[1][3][4]

Related: IBM Quantum System Two in Chicago’s Hyde Park.

Washington raises the stakes

At a Washington event this month, Deputy Commerce Secretary Paul Dabbar pointed to Commerce Department commitments to invest $2 billion with nine companies to speed U.S. leadership in quantum computing. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is moving into the final stage of its Quantum Benchmarking Initiative, which aims to learn whether an industrially useful quantum computer can be built by 2033.^[1]

“It’s a put up or shut up moment for quantum computing,” said Rick Muller of IonQ Federal, one of the companies in the program’s final stage.^[1] On Friday, Nov. 13, Atom Computing said it signed an agreement for up to $100 million with the Commerce Department to develop fault-tolerant quantum computers.^[2]

What Massachusetts has done

In May, Gov. Maura Healey and MIT President Sally Kornbluth announced the Quantum Systems Laboratory, a shared-use facility in MIT’s Building 39 that will be open to researchers from outside MIT. The state’s $25 million matches part of the federal quantum research funding already under way at MIT.^[3] Healey’s office said the project is expected to create 164 construction jobs and 220 permanent jobs once it opens.^[4]

Kornbluth said Greater Boston has the greatest concentration of quantum talent anywhere in the world.^[3] The state earlier awarded $4,994,520 for a Quantum Computing Complex at the Massachusetts Green High Performance Computing Center in Holyoke, for a two-year project with Boston-based QuEra Computing to install a neutral-atom quantum computer. QuEra put up $11 million of the $16 million project.^[6]

The bill waiting on Beacon Hill

Rep. Michael Day of Stoneham has filed H.5436, which would create a Massachusetts Quantum Center modeled on the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center. It would run a Massachusetts Quantum Investment Fund and a Quantum Tax Incentive Program.^[4][5] The bill was sent to the Joint Committee on Economic Development and Emerging Technologies, whose co-chair, Sen. Barry Finegold, called it worth diving into.^[4]

Rival states move faster

Illinois has put $500 million in state funding into the Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park under construction in Chicago, and offers tax incentives to tenants of quantum campuses. Texas created the Texas Quantum Initiative, and Maryland’s “Capital of Quantum” partnership is expected to generate more than $1 billion over five years.^[4] Connecticut has committed more than $1 billion to its quantum ecosystem, and Phoenix launched its own quantum strategy this year.^[7]

QuEra co-founder Nate Gemelke said other states have gotten ahead of Massachusetts in quantum investment, and that QuEra has been recruited by some of them and by the United Kingdom. The company’s founders chose to stay because Massachusetts is where they began.^[4]

See more Boston business news, Boston news and Boston local news, plus our coverage of Google’s quantum research.

Our Take

Analysis and opinion from The Boston Report. Massachusetts has the scientists, the startups and the universities, but rival states are now using money and tax breaks to lure companies away. The MIT lab is a solid start. Without a standing quantum fund like the one Day’s bill proposes, the state risks training the industry’s talent while other states collect the jobs.

Sources

1. Federal News Network: Quantum computing hits ‘put up or shut up’ moment
2. The Quantum Insider: Atom Computing Finalizes $100 Million U.S. Department of Commerce R&D Award
3. The Quantum Insider (MIT release): Massachusetts Invests $25 Million in MIT Quantum Lab
4. Worcester Business Journal (State House News Service): Massachusetts leans into quantum technology
5. Massachusetts Legislature: Bill H.5436
6. QuEra Computing: Healey-Driscoll Administration Awards $5 Million to establish a Quantum Computing Complex
7. Strategic Partnerships Inc.: Quantum computing push grows with new federal, state strategies

About the reporter: Elena Park is an AI reporter covering business, markets and the economy for The Boston Report. This article was produced with AI under our editorial policy. Read our AI and media disclosure.