NQIAC Report Highlights Strategic Investments and Recommendations to Secure U.S. Leadership in Quantum Networking and Communications

Insider Brief:

• The National Quantum Initiative Advisory Committee (NQIAC) released a report emphasizing the strategic importance of quantum networking for U.S. national security and economic growth, calling for sustained investments in research, development, and workforce training.

• According to a recent Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) report, global competitors, such as China, have invested over $15 billion in public quantum funding making it essential for the U.S. to increase funding to remain competitive.

• Investment in quantum technologies, supplied by the Quantum Insider, include $668.9 million in quantum computing and $319.6 million in hardware components in 2023, and reflect growing interest in quantum networking infrastructure and related fields.

• The NQIAC report outlines seven key recommendations, including increasing federal investment, developing standardized metrics, encouraging industry collaboration, promoting international partnerships, and ensuring diverse workforce development to secure U.S. leadership in quantum networking.

The National Quantum Initiative Advisory Committee recently released a report on quantum networking, outlining key findings and recommendations to promote U.S. leadership in the field. The report supports the strategic importance of quantum networking for both national security and economic growth, calling for sustained investment in research, development, and workforce training.

A recent Information Technology and Innovation Foundation investigation breaks down how global competitors such as China are investing over $15 billion in public quantum funding and the U.S. must match this commitment to remain competitive. Investment trends in quantum communications, computing, and hardware components, extracted from The Quantum Insider data intelligence platform, highlight a growing emphasis on these technologies, as seen in the nearly $670 million allocated to quantum computing and over $300 million to hardware components in 2023 alone. The NQIAC report offers a roadmap for continued U.S. leadership in quantum networking through strategic investments, cross-sector collaboration, and the development of a diverse workforce.

Collaboration and International Context

The NQIAC is a federal advisory body comprising leaders from academia, industry, and federal laboratories, and established under the National Quantum Initiative Act. The committee is responsible for providing independent assessments and recommendations on quantum information science trends and developments. The report itself is the result of collaboration between government agencies, research institutions, and industry experts beyond the NQIAC. Additional contributors include the National Quantum Coordination Office, responsible for coordinating QIS activities across the U.S. federal government, and insights from various U.S. and international stakeholders, including consortia like the Quantum Economic Development Consortium.

Notably, this report arrives as the U.S. faces increased competition from countries like China in the quantum space. As noted by ITIF, China has already invested more than $15 billion in public quantum funding—far more than U.S. public investments—allowing it to secure a leading position in areas such as quantum communications. While the U.S. dominates in high-impact areas like quantum computing, China’s leadership in quantum communications, as demonstrated by its development of the 1,200-mile Beijing-Shanghai Quantum Key Distribution network, emphasizes the need for the U.S. to maintain and expand its leadership across all quantum technologies.

Strategic Importance and Investment Trends in Quantum Networking

The NQIAC report primarily speaks on the importance of quantum networking in areas such as national security and economic growth. However, it highlights that the true magnitude of quantum networking’s impact will only be realized through sustained investment and research.

The report highlights that quantum networking will be pivotal to the U.S.’s national security and economic strategies. However, further research and development are needed to fully understand its potential applications. Quantum networking is closely linked to related fields, such as quantum computing and quantum sensing, and advancements in one will likely influence the others. The report also stresses the need to differentiate between testbeds, prototypes, and demonstrators, with testbeds—platforms designed for the rigorous testing of quantum technologies—being key ingredients for progress.

Investment trends reflect the growing importance of quantum networking technologies. According to the Quantum Insider, between 2020 and 2023, funding for quantum communications and security—a key component of quantum networking—steadily increased from $66.3 million to $94.3 million, with a peak of $243.2 million in 2021. Despite a slight dip in 2023, these investments underscore the rising interest in developing secure quantum communication infrastructure. At the same time, quantum computing received the largest share of investments in 2023, totaling $668.9 million, demonstrating that the broader quantum technology ecosystem, including computing, is benefiting from substantial financial backing. Investment in hardware components, critical for quantum repeaters and network infrastructure, also surged, reaching $319.6 million in 2023.

These figures, along with the projected growth in 2024, further exemplify the important of the U.S. maintaining its strategic investments across multiple quantum sectors, ensuring that quantum networking evolves alongside related fields. The accompanying graph (see below) from the Quantum Insider visualizes this upward trajectory, reinforcing the report’s call for sustained funding and collaboration to drive U.S. leadership in quantum networking.

NQIAC Report Recommendations

The NQIAC presents seven key recommendations to position the U.S. as a global leader in quantum networking. These recommendations focus on encouraging innovation, collaboration, and workforce development while ensuring the strategic use of resources.

• Sustained Research Support: Continued federal investment is fundamental to pursue research in quantum networking and identify areas where quantum networking offers a clear advantage over existing technologies. Progress is still needed in components such as quantum repeaters, memories, and transducers.
• Develop Metrics for Progress: In order to quantify advancements in quantum networking, the report calls for the development of standardized metrics. These metrics will provide a framework for measuring the effectiveness of quantum networking technologies to assess when these technologies are ready for real-world applications, such as distributed quantum computing.
• Establish a Coordination Model: The report highlights the need for a coordination model similar to the Open Systems Interconnection model used in classical networking, to help categorize the different functional layers of quantum networks.
• Strategically Sized Testbeds: Appropriate federal funding for quantum networking testbeds that matches the maturity of the technologies being tested can focus on clearly defined objectives and demonstrate scientific or economic promise.
• Facilitate Industry Participation: Collaboration with industry is practical for scaling quantum networking technologies and ensuring their commercial viability. Involving industry partners in testbed development can accelerate the transition from experimental research to practical deployment.
• Promote International Collaboration: Funding to support R&D collaboration with international allies can help the U.S. remain competitive.
• Train a Diverse Quantum Workforced: Quantum networking testbeds should be accessible to a wide range of academic institutions, including non-R1 universities and Historically Black Colleges and Universities, to ensure a diverse talent pool is prepared to lead the next generation of quantum advancements.

Strengthening U.S. Leadership through Strategic Investment and Collaboration

The NQIAC report brings to light the ways in which quantum networking may change how we communicate, compute, and sense the world. However, realizing this potential will require not only a clear strategy but also sustained investment in research and development, industry collaboration, and workforce development. The report’s recommendations lay out guidelines for growth, particularly in advancing quantum networking testbeds, developing standardized metrics, and nurturing international partnerships.

As demonstrated by recent investment trends in quantum technologies, significant financial backing is flowing into quantum communications, computing, and hardware components, all of which are essential to building a quantum networking infrastructure. With the U.S. competing globally, particularly against countries like China that have made substantial investments in quantum communications, it is imperative for the U.S. to continue prioritizing funding across these sectors. By doing so, the U.S. can secure its leadership position, not only in quantum networking but also in related fields like quantum computing and quantum sensing.