Quantum News Nexus

The US and China are not the only horses in the race for quantum leadership. Canada created its own national quantum strategy about three years ago, and numerous start-ups, research efforts, and regional quantum projects have popped up across the northern latitudes from Montreal to Toronto to Calgary to Vancouver.

This week, Canada took another step with its quantum ambitions, announcing the first phase of the Canadian Quantum Champions Program (CQCP), including an initial $92 million CAD ($66.8 million USD) in funding to help accelerate the work of four Canadian quantum firms–Anyon Systems In Montreal, Quebec; Nord Quantique in Sherbrooke, Quebec; Photonic, Inc., in Vancouver, British Columbia; and Xanadu Quantum Technologies in Toronto, Ontario. This is just the first step in a broader $334.3 million CAD ($242.6 million USD) million investment over five years laid out in the nation’s Budget 2025 to strengthen Canada’s quantum ecosystem.

The press release announcing the CQCP, issued by the office of Evan Solomon, Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation and Minister responsible for the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario, stated that the goal of the program is to “anchor top Canadian quantum companies and talent at home, helping Canada stay ahead in this transformative field and ensuring the benefits of quantum computing reach all Canadians.” 

More specifically, the CQCP calls for the National Research Council of Canada to establish a Benchmarking Quantum Platform initiative to assess progress toward fault-tolerant quantum computing and work closely with the companies involved in the program. If this sounds a bit like the DARPA Quantum Benchmarking Initiative in the US, that may not be a coincidence. Though the CQCP announcement did not position the program as a reaction to the DARPA QBI, some of the CQCP media coverage portrayed it that way, with a betakit story describing the CQCP as a “rival” to DARPA’s project.

It is also worth noting that three of the first four companies getting financing from the CQCP–Nord Quantique, Photonic, and Xanadu–were among the initial DARPA QBI Stage B qualifiers announced last month. (Only five of the 11 were US-based companies for those of you tracking “America first” KPI.) 

Given US tariff hijinks and a generally heated geopolitical environment this year, it’s hard to blame Canada for being a tad protective of the country’s burgeoning quantum ecosystem, and its increasing importance to Canada’s economy and national security. Of course, the companies themselves will maintain an equanimous attitude, taking funding where they can get it and pursue business opportunities wherever they may arise.

As far as the broader global quantum “space race” is concerned, there has been a lot happening in Europe, Israel, and elsewhere lately. Individual countries and unified regions are realizing that quantum represents both an economic opportunity and a security threat, as as they are watching their universities fill up with quantum PhD candidates and ground-breaking research, they see a lot that is worth leveraging and protecting.

Image from freepik, generated by AI.

Quantum News Nexus is a site from freelance writer and editor Dan O’Shea that covers quantum computing, quantum sensing, quantum networking, quantum-safe security, and more. You can find him on X @QuantumNewsGuy and doshea14@gmail.com.