Julie Chang

The deal is the administration's latest move to bolster the position of the US in critical industries.

Several of those deals have involved the US government taking equity stakes in companies.

And we exclusively report that quantum computing company IonQ has struck a deal to buy chip maker Skywater Technology for roughly $1.8 billion.

The deal is the biggest one yet for IonQ, which has a market value above $16 billion.

IonQ aims to solve problems too difficult for traditional computers across a range of industries, for example, assisting with drug discovery and national defense.

Skywater is a U.S.-based semiconductor foundry serving industries including quantum computing, defense, and aerospace.

IonQ's CEO said the deal would help it become the NVIDIA of quantum.

That's your TNB Tech Minute.

Join us again this afternoon for more.

Here's your afternoon TNB Tech Minute for Thursday, January 22nd.

I'm Julie Chang for The Wall Street Journal.

Elon Musk plans to start selling humanoid robots to the public by the end of 2027.

Musk spoke earlier today at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

His EV company, Tesla, currently has Optimus robots performing basic functions.

Musk said he expects them to start handling more complex factory tasks by the end of this year.

The billionaire typically isn't shy of providing public timelines that can shift.

He also said Tesla plans to make self-driving robo-taxis widespread across the U.S.

this year.

And at SpaceX, he said the company hopes to demonstrate this year that both the Starship rockets booster and spacecraft can be reused.

Shares of crypto infrastructure firm BitGo opened nearly 25% higher in its New York Stock Exchange debut today.