Trump administration announces $6B quantum and AI plan

The initiatives include the Quantum Genesis Q Competition, which offers up to $215 million to companies developing fault-tolerant quantum computers. Such systems are designed to detect and correct errors that can disrupt calculations.

The Department of Energy on Thursday identified eight scientific applications for the competition. The research areas include chemistry, materials science, subatomic physics and applied mathematics.

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The program, first announced in September, will provide milestone-based awards and incentive prizes. Companies will receive funding as they demonstrate progress in building and testing increasingly powerful quantum systems.

More advanced quantum computers could affect blockchain-based assets and financial transactions that use public-key cryptography. On Sept. 23, three European Union financial watchdogs warned that future quantum systems could weaken cryptographic technology used to protect blockchains and financial transactions.

A sufficiently powerful quantum computer could potentially derive a private key from an exposed public key. An attacker could then use the private key to control funds. No existing quantum computer can carry out such an attack.

The White House announced that 11 technology companies had pledged $2.4 billion in artificial intelligence tools and computing credits for research at 15 federal agencies. The commitments include $1 billion from Nvidia, $500 million from AMD, $200 million from OpenAI and $150 million each from Anthropic and Google.