Communications of the ACM
China's Race for the Mother of All Supercomputers Just Got More Crowded
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Quantum computing is poised to move on the fast track in China as the mainland's Internet giants pour new investment into this field, boosting efforts by the country to become a high-tech innovation powerhouse.
Online search company Baidu said on Thursday (March 8) that it will launch its own institute for quantum computing, a research initiative that will focus on software applications in this field. That followed separate quantum computing programs previously launched by Alibaba Group Holding and Tencent Holdings.
While the United States government has largely kept its quantum computing efforts under wraps, major technology companies like Google, Microsoft, and IBM are years ahead of their Chinese high-tech counterparts in operating laboratories geared towards the commercial applications of this field.
"Whoever can build a fully functioning quantum computer will rule the world," says Manas Mukherjee, an assistant professor in the physics department of the National University of Singapore and a principal investigator at the country's Centre for Quantum Technologies. "There are only a small number of companies with deep pockets [to make quantum computers]. Even if there are just four or five companies to achieve this, they would already dominate."
From South China Morning Post
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