What was most striking about the US government’s $2 billion in grants and investments across nine quantum computing companies were the names that were left off the list: Google, Microsoft, and IonQ.

Cohen & Company Capital Markets’ Brandon Sun, who advises quantum companies on going public through SPACs, says the omission could amount to a “comparative disadvantage” for the quantum companies that don’t get the Trump administration’s blessing, an implicit nod that could serve as a precursor to further government contracts. Microsoft declined to comment. Google and IonQ didn’t respond to requests for comment.

The Trump administration’s move to take equity stakes in tech companies marks a change from years past, when the US government would issue grants and contracts to seed smaller ventures. But there are still a lot of details to iron out.

What the administration announced were actually letters of intent, rather than finished deals. We still don’t know whether the funding comes with strings attached, one person familiar with the matter told Semafor, like technological milestones needed to unlock funding, as was the case with USA Rare Earth.

The US is trying to build up its domestic supply chain as quantum technology advances, Scott Crowder, vice president of quantum adoption at IBM, told Semafor. “Even though the discussion around [quantum computing] is still, ‘Does it exist,’ the next question that follows very rapidly is ‘How do you build 100 of them?’” he said.

IBM predicts it will create its first effective, scalable system in 2029. “This is the time you need to make the investment to be ready for fault tolerant systems and manufacturing scale,” he said.