HPC
Ahem. National effort required to kick-start the era of quantum-enabled scientific discovery and keep America ahead of the game
President Trump has ordered the development of a quantum computer to ensure that the US maintains a strategic technical advantage, along with a nationwide migration to post-quantum cryptography to protect sensitive data against just such a computer.
In an executive order signed Monday, Trump directed various federal agencies to establish a national program to deliver a quantum computer, aimed at driving scientific discoveries and keeping the US at the forefront of technology.
To be precise, it calls for “the first ever quantum computer powerful enough to initiate the era of quantum-enabled scientific discovery and accelerate quantum capabilities for commercial applications.”
Trump’s order directs the Assistant to the President for Science and Technology (APST), Michael Kratsios, to coordinate the effort across the Departments of Energy, Defense, Commerce, and the Intelligence Community, as well as with the broader industry and research communities.
The program is to be given the somewhat clumsy moniker of Quantum Computer for Application Development and Discovery Science (QC-ADDS), and the intent is to deliver at least one such computer to a Department of Energy (DoE) facility and make it available to the scientific community.
Kratsios told reporters that the administration believes that this goal can be achieved by 2028, so that at least one full-blown quantum system will be operating by the time Trump leaves office.
This is a bold claim, as quantum computers are one of those technologies where a big breakthrough has been promised to be just around the corner for decades, yet never seems to arrive.
Quantum computing still has a number of challenges to solve, primarily the error correction problem, as quantum bits (qubits) are extremely sensitive to noise and will easily lose their quantum properties, like superposition and entanglement, through interference from the environment.
Current quantum systems also lack the scale to do useful work; the first systems to feature more than 1,000 qubits were unveiled a couple of years ago, and an Intel-backed startup called QuantWare claims it has the technology to deliver hardware with up to 10,000 qubits by 2028. Systems to do useful work are expected to require hundreds of thousands or even millions of qubits.
The executive order makes no mention of a budget or how much the Trump administration believes development of its quantum Holy Grail will cost. However, our colleagues over at The Next Platform reported last month that it intends to dole out more than $2 billion to various companies for quantum research, plus $1.375 billion to GlobalFoundries and IBM to develop quantum foundries.
In anticipation that truly useful quantum kit could soon become reality, Trump also orders federal agencies to lead a nationwide migration to post-quantum cryptography (PQC).
The agencies in question are chiefly the National Security Agency and the Department of Homeland Security, which are to deliver guidance to other agencies on making the move to quantum-resistant encryption.
Trump's government expects “high value assets for certain uses” to be in place by 2030 or 2031, depending on the use case, with a pilot program to showcase a successful migration expected next year.
Post-quantum cryptography involves development of new encryption methods to resist attacks from quantum computers, which may be able to break existing encryption algorithms that are used to protect sensitive data and communications.
Under the order, the administration will help critical infrastructure owners adopt the same protections to keep power grids, water systems, and transportation networks safe, while the Federal Acquisition Regulatory Council, which coordinates government procurement policy, will require contractors to meet specified Federal cybersecurity standards by the end of 2030. ®