As part of its $2 billion infusion into the quantum computing sector, the U.S. government is taking equity stakes in three publicly traded pure-play quantum computing companies: D-Wave Quantum (QBTS 0.79%), Rigetti Computing (RGTI 2.00%), and Infleqtion (INFQ 3.40%). Each will receive up to a $100 million investment. Their stocks skyrocketed on the news, but should retail investors follow Washington's lead and buy in? 1. D-Wave Quantum NYSE: QBTS Key Data Points D-Wave Quantum is targeting the quantum computing market in two distinct yet intertwined ways. The company is a leader in quantum annealing, a narrow-purpose technology that can be used to find answers that are the best or close to the best ones for specific types of complex problems. While there is a wide array of computing tasks that it's not suitable for, quantum annealing excels at optimization problems, and these come up frequently in industries like logistics, finance, and defense. This specialized technology is further along in the commercialization process; D-Wave is already selling its Advantage II systems to commercial customers. Meanwhile, the company is looking to take what it learned from developing its annealing technology and apply it to create a more traditional gate-based quantum computer. It will use fluxonium qubits, a type of superconducting qubit that is similar to those it uses for its annealing technology. And through its acquisition of Quantum Circuits in January, it has added a dual-rail gate-model processor that has built-in error detection. It thinks this can help it create a system with the fidelity (accuracy) of the trapped-ion technology used by IonQ, but with the speed of superconducting qubits. D-Wave aims to use the government's investment to speed up its development of a 100,000-qubit annealing system and a 10,000-qubit gate-model system. 2. Rigetti Computing NASDAQ: RGTI Key Data Points Rigetti Computing