White House Outlines Priority Areas to Strengthen U.S. Quantum Leadership

The White House will focus on five priorities to grow the nation’s quantum leadership and stay ahead of adversaries, Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) Director Michael Kratsios said at the Quantum World Congress on Wednesday. The priorities support the Trump administration’s goal of advancing U.S. quantum leadership.

Under the plan, the White House aims to create innovative programs to grow the domestic quantum workforce, push quantum technologies from research to commercialization, maintain the quantum technology material supply chain, strengthen relationships with public and private partners and ensure sensitive quantum research is protected from foreign adversaries.

“We know adversaries will try to steal our technology and use it against us. [The U.S. and its partners] can find common-sense measures that empower researchers to secure their work in a manner that will not hinder our ability to out-innovate competitors,” Kratsios said.

Building on the First Trump Administration’s Quantum Efforts

Kratsios championed quantum initiatives during Trump’s first administration, doubling federal government research and development spending on quantum and spearheading the 2018 National Quantum Initiative Act (NQIA).

The NQIA is authorized until 2029, but a December 2024 reauthorization bill introduced by the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation calls for extending the deadline to December 2034 and focusing efforts on the development of practical applications for quantum.

“The quantum community has grown and the field has matured astoundingly in the last decade, and an updated NQIA can support the next steps for this ecosystem,” Kratsios said at the event.

Since January, Kratsios said OSTP has met regularly with international quantum leaders to discuss partnerships and other efforts to advance quantum use by the U.S. and its allies. Kratsios added that investments from industry and research programs have kept the U.S. at the forefront of quantum leadership. Now, it’s time for the federal government to continue that success, he added.

“It is our great privilege in government to carry on the partnership with academia and the private sector that is nurturing this emergent technology,” Kratsios said.

During Trump’s first administration, Kratsios also helped launch the national quantum centers to advance research and development and bolster the future quantum workforce. The Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation are in the process of renewing the five national quantum centers to meet the Trump administration’s calls for quantum leadership.

“The recent rate of progress in quantum computing has been breathtaking … [and] this administration is excited to renew government focus on quantum preeminence,” said Kratsios.