China’s Private Quantum Efforts
This piece has some informative graphics at the source. A picture is worth a thousand word. Because Quantum is Coming. Qubit.
Mapping the Chinese Private Actors Race to Quantum
Excerpts and salient points ~
+ Using exclusively open source information in both Chinese and English, we found that only the first three of the famous BATX (Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent, and Xiaomi) had declared strategies and actions in the quantum world. After Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent, we examined Huawei, as well as Quantum CTek, as actors of the Chinese private quantum effort. Finally, we also looked at the Chinese supercomputers manufacturers and did not find any open evidence of investment in QIS.
Worldwide, for the race to quantum, the divisions public-private and research-commercial are blurred, if not misleading. This disappearance of classical categorisations is, actually, a striking feature of the global quantum ecosystem. It will most probably also impact the future quantum-powered world.
+ Tencent appears to specialise itself in experimenting and developing applications for QIS. Its main focuses are pharmaceuticals and finance, notably communication and security, and potentially simulations. Tencent thus contributes to spread QIS in the real world. It will ease early adoption of QIS and their applications.
+ Baidu is especially strong in venture capital. This strength is still only a potential as far as quantum technologies are concerned. Indeed, Baidu venture capital is currently mainly targeting artificial intelligence, but quantum is also underlined as a field of interest. As a result, Baidu should be able to invest rapidly in any promising quantum technology or application. This could prove a crucial advantage for China in the future, notably once efforts towards quantum computing increasingly bear fruits.
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