Europe wants to build its first quantum computer within the next five years

The European Union (EU) wants to massively invigorate its semiconductor industry to be able to make its first quantum computer in five years, according to a key vision document.

Reuters has managed to get its hands on the document titled 2030 Digital Compass that will be presented by European Commission Vice President, Margrethe Vestager and EU industry chief, Thierry Breton.

“It is our proposed level of ambition that by 2025, Europe will have the first computer with quantum acceleration paving the way for Europe to be at the cutting edge of quantum capabilities by 2030,” says the document according to Reuters.

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Towards self sustenance

EU’s document argues that the Covid-19 pandemic has exposed the bloc’s reliance on China and the US for several key technologies, primarily semiconductors. As a result, it proposes to step up the production of semiconductors within its boundaries to “at least 20% of world production in value” by the end of the decade.

Chinese officials too have recently presented a five-year plan to increase investment in key technologies to end its reliance on the US.

According to Reuters, the EU plan stresses on increasing the production of semiconductors since they are used in everything from smartphones and IoT devices, to high performance computers and AI. 

It also called for pumping up investment in quantum computing calling them a “game changer” in fields such as medicine research and genome sequencing.

The plan also calls for setting up 10,000 green data centre facilities by 2030 to enable the EU to build its own cloud computing infrastructure, and hopes to cover all “populated areas” with a 5G network in the same time frame.

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Via: Reuters