商务部敲定最高1亿美元研发奖励：Atom Computing 加速实用规模量子计算机
美国商务部11月13日宣布，旗下 CHIPS 研发办公室已与中性原子量子计算公司 Atom Computing 签署最终研发奖励协议，依《CHIPS 与科学法》提供最高1亿美元，支持该公司研发实用规模、具有商业用途的中性原子量子计算机。国家标准与技术研究院（NIST）当天发布了这一消息。
商务部表示，这笔奖励将加速多项战略研发工作，涵盖半导体及相关技术，包括操控、控制与寻址数以万计量子比特所需的硬件开发与系统集成，以及对系统性能的验证。Atom Computing 总部位于科罗拉多州 Boulder，采用光镊困住的中性原子阵列构建量子计算机，其系统已超过1,000个量子比特。
这项奖励在此前于今年早些时候宣布的意向书基础上正式敲定。Atom Computing 创始人兼首席执行官 Ben Bloom 说，量子计算正处在科学突破必须迅速转化为商业现实的关键节点，这份1亿美元合同使公司能够大力扩充把容错量子计算推向市场所需的工程能力，并确保美国在迈向实用规模时代的进程中保持领先。公司称，合同资金将用于三方面：在公司内部开发关键技术以提升系统性能与可靠性，扩充并行工程与测试平台以加快验证与产品开发，以及加强与关键供应链伙伴的研发合作以支持制造扩产。
Atom Computing 近期还成为唯一一家晋级美国国防高级研究计划局（DARPA）量子基准倡议 C 阶段的中性原子公司，该计划潜在资助最高可达3亿美元。2025年，该公司向北欧量子计划 QuNorth 出售了其首台商用本地部署量子计算机。公司表示，其在逻辑量子比特系统与容错架构上的进展，正把科学突破转化为可部署的商用系统。
（来源：美国国家标准与技术研究院）
Commerce Department Finalizes Up to $100 Million CHIPS R&D Award for Atom Computing
The U.S. Department of Commerce announced on November 13 that its CHIPS Research and Development Office has signed a final R&D award of up to $100 million under the CHIPS and Science Act with Atom Computing, a neutral-atom quantum computing company, the National Institute of Standards and Technology said.
The award will accelerate several strategic R&D initiatives for semiconductors and related technology supporting utility-scale, commercially useful neutral-atom quantum computers, including the hardware development and systems integration needed to manipulate, control and address tens of thousands of qubits, and to validate their performance. Atom Computing, based in Boulder, Colorado, builds quantum computers from arrays of optically trapped neutral atoms and has demonstrated systems with more than 1,000 qubits.
The final award follows a letter of intent announced earlier this year. Ben Bloom, Atom Computing's founder and chief executive, said quantum computing is at a critical inflection point where scientific breakthroughs must rapidly translate into commercial reality, and that the $100 million contract lets the company aggressively scale the engineering required to bring fault-tolerant quantum computing to market and ensure the United States leads the transition into the utility-scale era. The company said the funding will develop critical technologies in-house, expand parallel engineering and testbed infrastructure, and strengthen R&D collaboration with key supply chain partners.
Atom Computing was also recently selected as the only neutral-atom company to advance to Stage C of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's Quantum Benchmarking Initiative, which carries potential funding of up to $300 million. In 2025 the company sold its first commercial on-premises quantum computer to QuNorth, a Nordic quantum initiative.
(Source: National Institute of Standards and Technology)
来源：美国国家标准与技术研究院
发布：GSM·美国（发布链接）
图片来源：图：量子计算机硬件实景（资料图，非 Atom Computing 的设备）。瑞典 Chalmers 理工大学量子计算机，2017年，CC BY-SA 4.0，经 Wikimedia Commons，本图已裁为 16:9。 / Photo: Quantum computer hardware (file photo, not Atom Computing equipment): the quantum computer at Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, 2017. CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons, cropped to 16:9.
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