China’s already a player but the US, where IBM will hit the 1,000-qubit mark this year, will help the Indians

China and India, the world’s two largest populations, are competing against each other by developing their own 1,000-qubit quantum computers, a goal that will be achieved by the United States’s IBM this year.

In terms of making quantum computers, India is a latecomer when compared with China.

The Indian government in April this year approved a US$730 million funding package for the country’s National Quantum Mission (NQM), which aims to deliver intermediate-scale quantum computers with 50-1,000 physical qubits by 2031.

In June, the US and India established a joint Indo-US Quantum Coordination Mechanism to facilitate collaboration among industry, academia and government entities, and also the two countries’ work toward a comprehensive Quantum Information Science and Technology agreement.

But right now, the Defense Research and Development Organization, the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research and Tata Consultancy Services are still developing a 7-qubit quantum computer in India.

Back in May 2021, Chinese scientist Pan Jianwei and his team at the University of Science and Technology of China in Hefei launched the 66-qubit Zuchongzhi 2, which has remained the fastest quantum computer in China.

In September of the same year, Origin Quantum, a Hefei-based quantum computer maker, vowed to pass the 1,000-qubit mark by 2025. However, it has been struggling to launch its 72-qubit quantum computer Wukong, named after Chinese mythology’s Monkey King, so far this year. Its last product, Benyuan Wuyuan 2, launched in 2021, has a speed of 24 qubits only.