DoD announces $350 million in quantum computing initiatives

WASHINGTON - The Department of Defense (DoD) is launching approximately $350 million in quantum-computing initiatives intended to identify national-security applications, validate prospective utility-scale quantum computers, and strengthen the U.S. quantum-computing industrial base.

The initiatives announced by the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering include approximately $200 million in new funding associated with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's (DARPA) Quantum Benchmarking Initiative (QBI) and an approximately $150 million conditional loan commitment from the DoD's Office of Strategic Capital to quantum-computing developer PsiQuantum.

DARPA advanced four additional quantum-computing companies to Stage C of QBI, the initiative's final evaluation phase. The companies are Atom Computing, which is developing scalable arrays of neutral atoms; Diraq, which is developing silicon complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) spin qubits; IBM, which is developing modular superconducting quantum processors; and IonQ, which is developing trapped-ion quantum computers.

QBI aims to determine whether a quantum-computing approach can achieve utility-scale operation by 2033, with DARPA defining utility as computational value that exceeds the system's cost. Stage C moves the program from evaluating research and development plans to government verification and validation of the hardware and systems. DARPA will work with the companies to determine whether their proposed utility-scale systems can be constructed as designed and operated as intended.