Stunning milestone or risky gamble? Startups and economists react to Labor's $1b quantum bet
Australia is home to some of the world's most renowned quantum researchers and companies, yet the government chose an American startup to invest $940 million in.
The government’s $940 million investment in Silicon Valley startup PsiQuantum has created concerns about picking winners, but also raised hopes that Australia’s own quantum computing companies will see a piece of the action.
The pledge to PsiQuantum by the federal and Queensland governments isn’t just one of the biggest public sector investments in a startup. It is also far more than has been spent on any of Australia’s quantum startups.
“It’s welcomed that the government are investing, but I hope very sincerely that the government will not consider this the end of the story,” Diraq founder Andrew Dzurak said.
“Australia has a number of companies, including our own, who are enormously well positioned to deliver error-corrected quantum computing.”
