Artificial intelligence may be the biggest technology race in the world, but SandboxAQ CEO Jack Hidary believes the United States is still investing with the wrong playbook.
Speaking on CNBC on Thursday, July 9, Hidary argued that America should treat strategic technologies the way countries like Norway manage national wealth by making long-term investments in industries that strengthen economic competitiveness. The timing of his comments was notable, coming alongside a $500 million federal award for SandboxAQ’s large quantitative models (LQMs) and growing government support for quantum computing and advanced manufacturing.
Why Hidary Wants a U.S. Sovereign Wealth Fund
Hidary framed recent federal equity stakes and grants as part of a broader capital strategy, not one-off subsidies. “Many countries out there have a sovereign wealth fund. Norway has a very successful one now at $2 trillion. It’s time that America really has a sovereign wealth fund to really push forward the core technologies that advance our economy,” he said on CNBC.
He tied that thesis directly to domestic capacity. “This investment in SandboxAQ and in other companies… [is] really part of a larger picture of a sovereign wealth strategy that builds value for the American taxpayer, builds resiliency so that we can build semiconductors in America, so that we can build the advanced pharmaceuticals in America as well,” Hidary added.
Oslo’s Government Pension Fund Global in Norway, valued at $2 trillion, functions as a long-duration equity investor funded by resource revenues. Hidary’s version would deploy federal capital into deep-tech companies whose outputs, from battery chemistries to pharmaceutical candidates, feed strategic industries.
The $500 Million CHIPS Award and What LQMs Do
SandboxAQ announced it had won a $500 million award from the Department of Commerce’s CHIPS program for its large quantitative models. LQMs sit alongside large language models in the current AI stack but are engineered to reason about numerical and physical systems rather than text. Hidary said the models can produce novel battery chemistries without relying on foreign raw-material sources, an explicit response to supply-chain concentration in critical minerals.
His framing of the addressable opportunity was blunt. “If you want to make a new drug for cancer, for Alzheimer’s, if you want to make a new material for batteries… we just won the award from the CHIPS program of the Department of Commerce. 500 million award for our LQMs,” he said. Because 85% of the U.S. economy is quantitatively based, the target market for quantitative reasoning tools stretches across pharma, energy, materials, and financial services.
SandboxAQ’s models are now available on the Google Cloud Marketplace to enterprise customers. Placing LQMs inside an existing procurement channel shortens sales cycles for regulated buyers that already run workloads on Google Cloud.
Quantum Computing May Be the Next Federal Investment Wave
Hidary’s sovereign-wealth argument fits alongside the Commerce Department’s broader quantum push. On May 21, 2026, the department announced $2.013 billion in federal incentives under the CHIPS and Science Act through letters of intent with 9 companies, including two quantum foundries and seven quantum computing companies.
IBM (NYSE:IBM | IBM Price Prediction) was slated to receive $1 billion in planned funding to establish a new quantum foundry subsidiary for quantum-grade superconducting wafers, and GlobalFoundries (NASDAQ:GFS) was set for $375 million in planned funding to establish a secure, domestic quantum foundry.
Hidary flagged that program as an underappreciated catalyst. “The Department of Commerce recently announced letters of intent in a number of quantum hardware companies. I think that could be a very big positive for that sector,” he said.
For readers interested in how AI power demand and infrastructure could create new opportunities, our team’s Free Report: 7 Stocks Powering the AI Boom (That Aren’t Chipmakers) is worth reading.
What to Watch Next
Hidary’s proposal reaches well beyond SandboxAQ. His broader argument is that America should treat strategic technologies as long-term national investments rather than as isolated corporate subsidies.
The next clues will come from Washington. Additional CHIPS awards, enterprise adoption of SandboxAQ’s models through Google Cloud Marketplace, and any movement toward a U.S. sovereign investment vehicle would all signal whether policymakers are embracing the capital-allocation strategy Hidary envisions.
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