Using quantum technology

The largest engineering project ever undertaken during a time of peace was the Apollo program. In today’s dollars, it cost approximately $200 billion and employed hundreds of thousands of people in several businesses. For a project of this size, it was necessary to combine the ingenuity, creativity, and execution that belong to the private sector with the funding and infrastructure that only the government can supply.

Among the industries that quantum computing is expected to revolutionize are cybersecurity, financial services, transportation, and drug development. Technically speaking, constructing useful quantum computers could be more difficult than landing a person on the moon. The “quantum moonshot” is at the nexus of cutting-edge engineering and basic scientific advancements, whereas the “original moonshot” was a tremendous engineering challenge. However, the potential consequence is so significant. governments from all across the globe understand how important quantum is to their economies, competitiveness, and security. The government is investing tens of billions of dollars on national quantum projects.

It will need considerable cooperation between academics, business, and government to develop robust and long-lasting national quantum capabilities. In programs spanning a wide range of fields within fundamental physics, computer science, and engineering, academic research has to have adequate funding. To provide a pipeline of educated, qualified personnel to fulfill the industry’s rising demands, these academic programs must be backed by a larger workforce development initiative. Innovative programs, including the first professional Master’s program in quantum computing in the world, are developing to meet this need.

The “long game” of quantum requires finance that is prepared to sustain basic deep research and R&D efforts — beyond the interest, scope, and timing of the average private investor. Government financing is required to assist the growth of scale-ups and startups that can hasten the commercialization of quantum technology. The recent appearance of initiatives to create national quantum computing centers is maybe the most intriguing feature of the quantum revolution. These are envisioned as user facilities holding one or more quantum computers. Some of these facilities will be run by government agencies, while others will be run by private businesses under government supervision. In every situation, the overriding aim is the same as the lunar moonshot: attaining big, audacious goals by utilizing a government’s capacity to plan and spend at scale for the long-term good of the country.

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Israel recently announced financing for a national quantum computing facility of 100 million shekels ($29 million). The “startup country” is home to several quantum firms, a thriving quantum economy, and top-tier academic research initiatives. Three various modalities of quantum computers, including superconducting, cold/neutral atom, and photonic, are scheduled to be housed by the Israel Innovation Authority. The multimodality center in question will be the first of its type ever built. Having numerous computers of various sorts is a wise strategy to ensure optimum value from the center since, according to Boston Consulting Group, different types of quantum computers would excel in different use cases.

Japan’s bold, long-term perspective on the effects of industry. Since these capabilities can already be purchased at the touch of a button from cloud service companies’ quantum products, there is little purpose in investing hundreds of millions of government dollars to merely develop them. National quantum computing centers should support efforts that commercial businesses cannot carry out on their own, such as providing infrastructure, talent development, ecosystem orchestration, and patient capital to allow really transformative goals for the country.

President Kennedy issued a challenge to NASA in 1961: put a man on the moon and bring him back to Earth without incident. Although the Apollo program’s primary goal was to compete with Russia in a national existential race, it also produced countless commercial advancements in a variety of sectors, including materials science, communications, optics, and food science. Kennedy stated in his address that the moonshot objective “will serve to organize and gauge our abilities and best efforts. His remarks have a profound significance and resonance for the trip that the United States, Japan, Israel, and many other countries have decided to take as we stand here today at the dawn of the quantum computing revolution. All the best to us!