Countries in the world, led by the United States, have invested a lot of money and resources in the field of quantum technology.
The competition for the “second quantum revolution” has entered a critical stage. Countries around the world have put forward quantum strategies or quantum projects to promote the development of quantum scientific research. Companies such as Google have also made important progress on quantum computers. In order to win this competition that no one can afford to lose, and to win “quantum hegemony”, countries around the world led by the United States have invested a lot of money and resources in the field of quantum technology.
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United States: Make a strategic layout in advance
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Government departments, especially the military, have been developing quantum technology in the United States Play an important role in At the end of the last century, the US government listed quantum technology as one of the key support topics of the “Maintaining National Competitiveness” program. In recent years, the United States has paid more and more attention to quantum technology. The U.S. Department of Defense listed “quantum information and control technology” as one of the six disruptive basic research areas to focus on in the future in the “Five-Year Plan” for scientific and technological development from 2013 to 2017. In June 2018, the White House officially launched a subcommittee to guide the federal government to play its due role in the field of quantum technology and to coordinate research on quantum technology by the public and private sectors. In September 2018, the US government formally proposed a quantum strategy, announcing that it will establish a number of national laboratories and invest a lot of money in quantum technology research projects. In December 2018, the U.S. Congress formally passed the National Quantum Program Act, which proposes that the United States should formulate a 10-year “National Quantum Program” to accelerate the development of the United States in the field of quantum computing. To this end, the United States will establish a “National Quantum Coordination Office” to coordinate relevant policies and authorize the Department of Energy and other departments to invest approximately US$1.3 billion in quantum research.
With the support of the government and the military, American universities and enterprises have jointly carried out a number of research work on quantum technology, and achieved a series of breakthroughs in quantum technology research. In 2018, a group of scientists in Chicago announced that they were building the prototype of the first quantum internet in history. In the field of quantum computers, Google announced the latest generation of 72-bit quantum processor Bristlecone with an error rate of only 1%. Microsoft also announced the realization of a “semi-electronic” state in a section of wire, saying that it will play a key role in the company’s quantum computer research and development. At the beginning of 2019, IBM showed the world the only quantum computer “IBM Q System One” that runs out of the laboratory environment.
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Europe: Launch of the flagship quantum technology project
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As early as the 1990s, the European Union was aware of quantum technology The huge potential of the company continues to provide key support for quantum technology research in Europe and the world. However, although Europe started early in the field of quantum communication and achieved more results, it is facing a situation of being overtaken by other countries in quantum technology research due to fragmentation and other reasons. Therefore, in April 2016, the European Commission issued the “Quantum Declaration (Draft)”, planning to launch a 1 billion euro quantum technology flagship project in 2018, hoping to promote the development of quantum technology in the EU. The quantum technology flagship project will focus on quantum technologies in four areas: communication, computing, sensing and simulation. After the project started, Hungary, Austria and Germany also gave support. Among them, Germany intends to launch a 10-year quantum research program with a total investment of about 300 million euros, named “QUTEGA”. However, the EU’s quantum technology research program faces two major difficulties. First, the graphene flagship project and the human brain project initiated by the European Union have not been satisfactory and have been unable to prove its value, resulting in insufficient confidence in the quantum technology flagship project by member states and enterprises. The second is the impact of Brexit. The UK’s quantum technology research, both in terms of research results and capital investment, ranks in the forefront of EU countries. Once Brexit, it will undoubtedly have a relatively large negative impact on the EU’s quantum technology research.
As a leader in the field of quantum technology research in Europe. The British government has long delineated a number of “future technologies” that have the potential to promote economic development and are worthy of deep cultivation. Quantum technology is one of them. As early as the 2013 government autumn budget report, the United Kingdom announced that it would invest 270 million pounds in quantum technology research in the next five years to support the first “5-year plan” of the British national quantum technology project. The project includes 4 research centers, which are hosted by Oxford University, Birmingham University, York University, and Glasgow University. In 2016, the British Government Science Office released the quantum technology report “Quantum Era: Technological Opportunities”, which proposed to attach importance to five areas of quantum applications and promote competition in the quantum field. The five major areas are atomic clocks, quantum imaging, quantum sensing and measurement, quantum computing and simulation, and quantum communications. Close cooperation with industry is a major feature of British quantum technology research. The British National Quantum Technology Project clearly stated that a “quantum technology community of government, academia, and industry” should be established. Currently, the Quantum Information Technology Center led by the University of Oxford has established cooperative relationships with nearly 30 companies.
As another large country in Europe, the Russian scientific community is also actively carrying out quantum technology projects with government support. In 2011, the Russian National Research University of Technology created a “superconducting metamaterial” laboratory, which focuses on the interaction of light and matter. In 2016, the Russian National Research University of Technology and the Russian Quantum Center announced the launch of a large quantum technology center. In 2018, scholars from the Moscow State Institute of Steel and Alloys and the Russian Quantum Center of the Russian National Research University of Technology, together with the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, the Russian “Skolkovo” Foundation, and researchers from British and German universities, New qubits are manufactured on dense superconducting nanofibers, laying the foundation for the production of quantum computers. Sergey Garbuk, deputy director of the Russian Advanced Research Foundation, said that Russia may develop a multi-qubit quantum computer in the fall of 2021.
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Japan and South Korea: Development of Sub-Computer Field
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As an important country in the development of modern science and technology, Japan is also very concerned about quantum information technology. Both government departments and private enterprises have advanced and developed vigorously in the development of quantum information technology. First of all, the Japanese government strongly supports and encourages. Japan’s Ministry of Posts has been developing quantum communication technology since 2000, and has made this technology one of the national high-tech research and development plans. It will invest about 40 billion yen in 10 years to advance through the joint research of industry, academia and government. On April 21, 2016, the Comprehensive Science and Technology Innovation Conference under the Cabinet Office of Japan decided to launch the Public-Private Research and Development Investment Expansion Plan (PRISM) in 2018, and designated innovative physical space basic technologies, including photon quantum technology, as public-private research One of the target areas of development investment. In October 2016, the Agency for Science and Technology of the Government of Japan, together with the National Institute of Information Research of Japan and Nippon Telegraph and Telephone, announced the development of quantum computing solutions such as quantum neural networks. On November 20, 2017, with the support of the “Quantum Artificial Brain” project of the Cabinet Office of Japan, related Japanese scientific research institutions and institutes jointly announced the launch of a quantum neural network (QNN) device, and achieved long-term stable work and research The staff also successfully developed a cloud system that can experience the new computer QNN on the cloud, and launched Japan’s first domestic QNN prototype on November 27, 2017. NEC continues to invest in research and development of the basic circuit equivalent to the “brain”, and plans to invest billions of yen to develop physical machines by 2023. Japan’s Fujitsu plans to invest 50 billion yen (approximately US$450 million) in related technologies in three years to promote quantum information technology research. Recently, Japan’s National Institute of Informatics, telecommunications giant NTT and the University of Tokyo have jointly developed the country’s first quantum computing prototype, becoming a new member of the international quantum competition. In theory, the calculation speed of this prototype is 100 times that of a traditional supercomputer, while its energy consumption is only 1/10.
In June 2017, SK Telecom, one of the three largest communications companies in South Korea, successfully developed a quantum repeater for the first time in South Korea, making South Korea the third country to implement next-generation security technology after China and the United States. In the field of quantum computers, in March 2018, the Korea Academy of Science and Technology announced that the quantum computer research group of the institute and the research group of Pohang University of Technology have jointly developed a new method that can effectively detect the calculation process of quantum computers. The research results will be research and development Quantum computers help.
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Multinational Quantum Information Technology Development Direction
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According to the “National Quantum Project Act” signed by US President Trump In fiscal year 2019-2023, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Energy will be authorized to obtain a budget of US$1.275 billion for the development of quantum information technology research. Among them, the US National Institute of Standards and Technology is responsible for formulating the standards required for the development of quantum technology, the US National Science Foundation supports the construction of human resources, and the US Department of Energy will establish five quantum information research centers to accelerate breakthroughs in scientific and technological achievements.
In addition to the national quantum program, large technology giants have also begun to develop their layout in the field of quantum computing. According to a Morgan Stanley report, quantum computers will change many industries in the next 10 years. The high-end quantum computing market is estimated to reach tens of billions of dollars by 2025. Companies such as Microsoft, IBM, and Google have invested heavily in research and development in recent years. , I hope to achieve the goal of “quantum hegemony” in the future.
Europe hopes to continue to promote the development and application of quantum information technology through the implementation of the “Quantum Flagship” program. The main measures include: First, to provide support for the growth of scientific activities related to quantum technology; second, to create good technological innovation and The ecosystem of business innovation; the third is to promote the collaborative cooperation between academia and industry to realize the efficient transfer of quantum technology from the laboratory to the industry; the fourth is to focus on science, engineering, business and interdisciplinary fields, and cultivate a new generation of quantum technology experts and professionals; The fifth is to coordinate public investment and public policies in quantum technology across Europe; the sixth is to promote the participation of member states that currently do not have strong quantum technology research programs. However, the EU’s “quantum flagship” plan is also facing a real problem, namely Brexit, which will have a major impact on the implementation of the plan.
The UK is one of the world’s major investors in quantum information technology research, and subsequent investment will further promote the growth of this emerging industry. In the “Quantum Technology National Strategy” and “British Quantum Technology Roadmap” issued by the British government in 2015, the importance of quantum technology in the future was highly emphasized, and five key tasks for the development of quantum information technology in the UK in the future were determined: The second is to promote the transformation and application of quantum information technology; the third is to train professional quantum information technology talents; the fourth is to create a good social and regulatory environment; the fifth is to encourage and support international cooperation.
Japan’s quantum computing field has moved from the previous “hiding one’s capacity and biding one’s time” to a strategy of “revealing the edge”. The research direction is also very clear, and it will focus its efforts on the current annealing road to strive for breakthroughs. On the road to realizing quantum computing, Japan’s industry, government, and academia each perform their duties and promote each other. At the same time, the Japanese government puts forward a long-term strategy with a new generation of quantum communication technology as the research object, and plans to build an absolutely secure and confidential high-speed quantum communication network from 2020 to 2030, so as to achieve a qualitative leap in the application of communication technology. In addition, Japan’s National Institute of Information and Communication Technology plans to implement quantum relay in 2020 and build an unconditionally secure wide-area optical fiber and free-space quantum communication network with extreme capacity by 2040.
On January 7, 2019, India announced an investment of US$525 million (about 3.6 billion yuan) to establish 20 physical network centers for research on artificial intelligence, machine learning, the Internet of Things and quantum computing; December 3, Israel It is planned to invest 1.2 billion shekels (about 2.43 billion yuan) in quantum computing research in six years. In addition, at the 2017 Supercomputing Conference, Canada’s D-wave Company and Japan’s Toyota Tsusho signed an agreement to jointly promote quantum computing cooperation, mainly using quantum computing technology to carry out high-speed optimization projects and continuously expanding quantum computing technology. Application areas.
