White House Bets Government Demand Can Accelerate Quantum Industry

The White House is using a new executive order to accelerate commercialization of quantum technologies, expanding the federal government’s role to help move quantum computing from research laboratories into the commercial market.

One of the two executive orders President Trump signed in June directed agencies to update the national quantum strategy around commercialization, establish public-private partnerships and encourage broader industry participation in developing quantum computing, sensing and networking technologies. It also called for new procurement models, including advance market commitments, to help emerging quantum technologies reach the commercial market.

“The government is often this forcing function or an early customer. They can put money into programs that help do the non-recurring engineering work to develop a product,” Quantum Economic Development Consortium (QED-C) Director Celia Merzbacher told GovCIO Media & Research in an interview. “There’s this sort of sunk cost that takes money right at the front — before you even have a market — that’s going to generate revenue that you can plow back into more R&D, and that is kind of where we are right now.”

The order builds on the 2018 National Quantum Initiative Act, which established the federal government’s long-term quantum strategy, by shifting focus toward deploying practical quantum capabilities.

The act “helped unleash billions of dollars of private investment in America’s quantum industrial base, promoting significant scientific and technological progress like we’ve never seen before,” said President Donald Trump at the order’s signing. “We want to keep that positive momentum going in America.”

QED-C, born out of the NQIA and federal quantum strategy, found that government investments might already be translating into commercial growth. Its 2026 report noted that more quantum startups were founded in 2025 than in 2024 along with a growing number of end users.

Merzbacher said demand for quantum computing continues to grow even as private investment has yet to fully accelerate, making continued government support essential.

Defense Investments in Quantum

A cornerstone of the executive order is the creation of the Quantum Computer for Application Development and Discovery Science (QC-ADDS) effort, which directs the Energy Department to pursue a fault-tolerant quantum computer capable of advancing scientific discovery while supporting commercial and national security applications.

Merzbacher said the initiative represents an important step toward making quantum computing a practical technology rather than an experimental research platform.

“That research will spill into understanding that you can actually use [quantum computing] for a different kind of modeling problem,” said Merzbacher. “Then somebody can make that into a user-friendly application. That’s why this investment in scientifically relevant quantum computing is a really smart next step for the government.”

Examples of those real-world applications are already beginning to emerge.

Earlier this year at QED-C’s Quantum Summit, IBM officials highlighted how quantum computing impacts industries including aerospace, automotive, electronics, energy, healthcare and financial services. Harry Munroe, IBM engagement lead, pointed to the company’s work with the Cleveland Clinic, where researchers used quantum computing to simulate protein complexes as an example of the technology’s growing scientific potential.

“We can’t hold an entire protein in a quantum computer yet. But we divide it, and we can show representations of it. Being able to represent proteins allows us to understand disease better, what causes it and how doctors might be able to intervene,” said Munroe.

Defense Drives Early Adoption

While healthcare and scientific research represent significant commercial opportunities, defense remains one of the federal government’s most immediate priorities for quantum technology.

Specifically, quantum sensors can detect and measure magnetic fields with extreme sensitivity, which could have significant implications for both biomedical research and national security. Quantum sensors can provide more accurate and consistent readings than classic sensors, which are found in many everyday technologies like thermometers, fuel gauges, medical devices and GPS.

The executive order directed agencies to develop quantum sensors and networking technologies and tasked the War Department with identifying at least three next-generation quantum sensor projects by Sept. 30, 2028.

The War Department’s Defense Innovation Unit launched an initiative that could invest up to $200 million over the next year to transition mature quantum sensing and timing technologies into operational military capabilities. DIU said the effort sends a “clear demand signal” to industry for commercial production of quantum technologies to field into systems.

“In the defense world where you’re flying a jet at high speed and all of a sudden your GPS isn’t working, that’s a critical mission-relevant issue,” said Merzbacher. “The announcement shows that DIU sees the technology as being ready for their acquisition ecosystem. They’re ready to step in, grab it and take quantum to the next level.”