Global Investment in Quantum Computing
Which countries are investing the most private and public money into quantum computing?
I have compiled the data shown below from three sources:
- Crunchbase for private investments in startups
- Qureca for public investments from governments
- World Bank for current GDP figures
Note that private investments for the United States are underrepresented because companies such as IBM, Google, Microsoft, Honeywell, and Amazon invest heavily in quantum technologies, though they do not necessarily publish these figures. This applies somewhat to China too, except that Alibaba and Baidu have already shuttered their quantum divisions.
The countries that invest the most public or private funds into quantum technologies as a fraction of their GDP are:
- United Kingdom (0.15%)
- South Korea (0.14%)
- Singapore (0.12%)
- Israel (0.12%)
- Finland (0.11%)
How much private money is spent for every public dollar that goes to quantum technologies?
It is clear that Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa are severely lagging in investments. Since quantum advantage (i.e. when quantum computers become strategically important to companies and countries) is likely a decade away, now is the perfect time to invest in a quantum-ready workforce. Investments can be anywhere in the stack: hardware, software, or services. But they must happen soon.
For software and services, access to computers and the internet are key, as quantum computers and educational materials can be accessed online. Here, Africa lags most, though that situation is improving. Latin America, especially South America, and the Middle East, however, need not miss out on the quantum revolution at all. While inflation plagues many an economy in Latin America, these countries’ governments need only have the courage to invest whatever they sensibly can in a future that is unlikely to materialize under their own administrations but is coming nonetheless.
Such investments can happen in schools: to prepare the next generation of young people to be able to take advantage of quantum computers as soon as they enter the labour market. The innovations they come up with thanks to the unique capabilities of fault-tolerant quantum computers may very well give their countries’ economies a much-needed boost. Countries that fail to invest in the next few years risk losing out on the quantum computing paradigm altogether, and they may fall behind even more.