The Trump administration is pushing US quantum information science and technologies (QISTs) out of the lab as the first products mature, more private investment arrives, and Washington strives to match growing Chinese competition, writes Paul Dempsey.

This summer, Washington unveiled an interlinked set of presidential executive orders, procurement timetables and government strategy. It has rare bipartisan support.

Funding is to be directed at quantum manufacturing as well as wider R&D ranging from fabs based on TSMC’s pure foundry model to specialist cryogenic equipment. Washington has committed an initial $1.4bn (£1bn) to foundry projects through the CHIPS Act. The latest private investment is Morgan Stanley’s 10-year, $1.5tn US Innovation Infrastructure Initiative, a broad-based initiative including QIST.

Much of the plan’s impetus comes from executive order 14413, ‘Ushering in the Next Frontier of Quantum Innovation’. It makes commercial and military supply chains a top priority, directs the Pentagon to identify at least three QIST-based sensor projects for fielding by September 2028, and initiates efforts to build a new, more fault-tolerant quantum computer for scientific discovery.

“The question is no longer simply who achieves the next technical milestone, but who can govern the supply chains, institutions and standards through which quantum systems will operate,” noted Dongyoun Cho, senior fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

On the application chosen for the Pentagon, she observed that, “Quantum sensing sits furthest along the maturity curve: quantum clocks, gravimeters and magnetometers offer navigation and detection capabilities that do not depend on fault-tolerant computing and can be integrated into existing platforms.”

In the UK last week, the Royal Navy said it had successfully used quantum clock-based networked radar as an alternative to global navigation satellite-dependent timing in a trial of systems from Southampton-based Aquark Technologies. The UK’s Quantum Leap programme aims to enable the manufacture of QIST computers “at scale” early in the 2030s.

Quantum processors are improving but still considered further from commercial viability than sensors. The two categories will share significant tooling and manufacturing infrastructure.

Two projects received the CHIPS Act QIST foundry grants: IBM’s Anderon 300mm pure-play project ($1bn) and GlobalFoundries’ Quantum Technology Solutions division ($375m).

Brendan Burke, research director at the Futurum Group, said the winners illustrate “the program’s intent to incubate a domestic manufacturing base for a new economy that TSMC has not yet addressed.”

The US programme must also increase Western capacity in dilution refrigerators, necessary to stabilise qubits and an area where China has advanced rapidly.

According to Marin Ivezic, founder of research group Applied Quantum, the country has 10 such manufacturers. “In 2021, China had zero,” Ivezic continued. “The transformation from total import dependency to a sprawling domestic cryogenics industry, achieved in roughly the time it takes to complete a PhD, represents one of the most striking supply-chain buildouts in quantum technology history.”

In March, Beijing named QIST among the key “future industries” in the 2026-2030 five-year plan, alongside areas that include embodied AI, 6G and brain-computer interfaces. Funding was, however, already being channelled to quantum infrastructure through state-owned enterprises and state-operated investment funds.

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