Global quantum technology competition will heat up

Significance

Large-scale practical applications and commercialisation may still be a decade or more away, but their future significance is already moving them to the forefront of US-China strategic competition, the effects of which will increasingly flow to other technologically capable nations.

Impacts

• The United States and China will adopt measures that are long-term and far-reaching, such as upgrading encryption against quantum computing.
• US measures may cause friction with Europe and motivate European efforts towards strategic autonomy through indigenous quantum capabilities.
• As quantum technologies begin to be applied at scale, they will reinforce the trend towards competing technological spheres of influence.