Industry leaders stress need for National Quantum Reauthorization Act passage
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Major tech players hoping to scale their quantum technologies for the commercial market told Congress that the NQI Reauthorization Act is “critical” to these efforts, citing its promotion of partnerships and agency funding.
Representatives from U.S. tech companies told House lawmakers that the funding provisions and collaborations offered by the National Quantum Initiative Reauthorization Act are integral for the U.S. to maintain its competitive edge in quantum information technology and science.
Testifying before the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology on Wednesday, experts offered a range of perspectives on the current state of the U.S. quantum technology landscape and what is needed on the government side to bring these breakthroughs to market.
Leaders from Microsoft and Google in particular said that Congress should not only pass the NQI Reauthorization Act, but expand federally-funded quantum sciences research efforts and collaborations.
“We must prioritize our research funding institutions, particularly the [Department of Energy], [National Science Foundation], [National Institute of Standards and Technology] and NASA, along with the [Department of Defense] and the intelligence community,” said Charles Tahan, a partner with Microsoft Quantum and former director of the Biden administration’s National Quantum Coordination Office. “These agencies create programs that bridge the valley of death from the lab to the markets. America's great scientific institutions are unmatched in the world, and there is no private sector substitute.”
Tahan noted that the diverse perspectives each of these agencies offer are assets when working in tandem on scaling fault-tolerant quantum technologies.
“One of the great strengths of the United States, really, one of its superpowers for science, is the federal approach to science funding,” he said. “We have to continue to support that.”
Charina Chou, the chief operating officer and director at Google Quantum AI, added that Google’s work in advancing quantum computing systems is largely born of a consortium-like approach. She specified that components of Google’s quantum technology — namely its superconducting integrated circuits — were born from a deep collaboration originating from the National Institute of Standards and Technology and manifested in hardware at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
To keep innovating at its relatively fast pace, Google works with over 100 partners between government, academia and the private sector, including international partners.
The original National Quantum Initiative Act was passed in 2018 during President Donald Trump’s first administration. It lapsed in September 2023, leaving a void in U.S.-backed quantum sciences research programming. The reauthorization bill focuses heavily on the partnership aspect that Chou and Tahan emphasized as important for the future of QIST discovery in the U.S.
“Quantum computing is still a nascent industry, and we must collaborate together across sectors,” Chou said. “The National Quantum Initiative has helped to develop this technology, and its reauthorization is critical to continued U.S. leadership.”
Beneficial collaborations to advance the U.S. quantum-readiness posture also involve preparing the workforce for quantum industries. Tahan said that during his time working in the White House, one goal was to implement more quantum physics education in schools to cultivate a stronger domestic workforce.
“There's still a tremendous need and tremendous value in government putting some money on the table to crystallize these partnerships,” he said.
Congress has been trying to advance the NQI reauthorization since last year. A bipartisan group of senators introduced it late in the 2024 legislative session, with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle voicing support for its passage.
Should federal funding for quantum technology research decline, Chou outlined three separate risks to the U.S. quantum tech landscape that could jeopardize the country’s leadership in quantum system and technology development. The first –– and most important, per Chou –– would be a failure to get the workforce ready to address the problems facing the emerging industry.
“Building a quantum computer is an ambitious task, [it] doesn't just happen by accident,” she said. “We've got to have the skilled workers, everything from PhD researchers to engineers to two year community college technicians.”
Supply chains fueled by strategic partnerships domestically and internationally will also suffer without adequate funding, along with integral basic research into the science that will push commercialization efforts further; a specialty of the U.S. national laboratories.
“I can't stress enough, our qubits come out of fundamental research that happened in national labs and academia and others supported by the government,” Chou said. “This needs to continue. There's a lot of unsolved problems, including all the applications for how a quantum computer will be used.”
In his second term, Trump has said that funding quantum technology and science research and development will be a priority, seen with its continued inclusion in the FY2026 budget request and his direction for OSTP to focus on accelerating work in quantum information sciences.