Beijing Launches Program to Connect Quantum Companies With Industrial Customers
Insider Brief
- Beijing launched a program connecting quantum companies and research teams with prospective industrial and government customers across six application areas.
- The initiative includes proposed projects in transportation, energy, finance, materials research, underwater sensing and quantum-secured communications.
- The announced projects are early demonstrations and customer-matching efforts, with no evidence yet that they provide a quantum advantage over conventional systems.
- Image: Photo by mayns82 on Pixabay
Beijing has launched a program to connect quantum technology companies with prospective customers in transportation, energy, finance and other industries, part of a broader effort to move the sector from laboratory research toward commercial applications.
The “Scenario Handshake Plan” will match quantum companies and university research teams with businesses and government bodies seeking solutions to defined technical problems, according to the Beijing municipal government, according to an English-language version of 36Kr’s conference report. The program was announced during the 2026 Industrial Future Conference, held Sept. 9-10 in Beijing’s Yizhuang development district.
Officials also presented six prospective applications spanning macroeconomic forecasting and tax-compliance modeling, underwater sensing and imaging, quantum-secured communications for vehicles, electrical substations, crude-oil transportation scheduling and materials simulation.
Early Uses for Quantum
The announcement provides an indication of where Chinese officials and businesses are searching for early uses of quantum computing, communications and sensing. Because quantum technology has yet to outperform conventional systems in any of the six applications, the projects should be viewed as proposed demonstrations and customer-matching efforts rather than evidence of quantum advantage or completed commercial deployments.
“Quantum computing is the most typical deep-water industry in this era,” Feng Dagang, CEO of 36Kr, said in his opening speech, according to the report. “Its return cycle is measured in decades, with no quick money to be gained, and today’s hype has nothing to do with it. It bets on the computing paradigm 20 years later. The capital from the government, the technology from scientific research, the scenarios from industries, and the patience from capital must be combined together, none of them is dispensable.”
Under the program, designated coordinators will identify customer requirements, match them with technology providers and support testing and demonstration projects, according to the report. The effort will also cover procurement introductions and the development of technical standards, according to the municipal government.
The program is based in the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area, also known as Beijing E-Town or Yizhuang. Officials said the wider district has attracted more than 60 companies working across quantum computing, quantum communications and quantum sensing.
Those companies represent several technical approaches, including superconducting, trapped-ion, neutral-atom and photonic systems. The district is seeking to create a supply chain extending from materials and components to complete machines, software and application services.
Separately, the district’s “Quantum Constellation” industrial community signed agreements with 10 companies during the conference. The government identified Yupan Quantum Intelligence, Yunmao Quantum and Zhongke Huguang Quantum Software among the participating businesses.
More than 30 quantum companies have now signed agreements to enter the industrial community, according to the municipal government. That is distinct from the more than 60 quantum-related companies officials say are operating across the wider development area.
Beijing Quantum-Classical Integration Innovation Center
The event also included the formal unveiling of the Beijing Quantum-Classical Integration Innovation Center, an organization registered earlier in 2026. China Telecom Quantum Group controls the center, which was formed with companies working in quantum software, hardware, telecommunications and conventional computing.
The center plans to build computing infrastructure supporting multiple types of quantum hardware, develop a domestically produced quantum software stack and explore combinations of quantum computing, artificial intelligence and conventional high-performance computing. It is initially targeting applications in finance, energy, biomedicine and weather forecasting.
The initiative reflects a broader Chinese strategy of using government-supported industrial clusters to bring together research institutions, startups, established companies and state-backed capital. It also illustrates a demand-led approach in which prospective applications and customers are identified before the underlying quantum systems have reached maturity.
The conference was guided by the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area Administrative Committee and hosted by 36Kr and the Quantum Constellation community. That relationship is important because 36Kr’s account of the event also served to promote the conference and the district’s industrial-development program.