Inside Quantum Technology

Germany’s Additional Coronovirus Stimulus Package for €50 Billion Includes Construction of ‘At Least Two Quantum Computers’

(ScienceBusiness.net) Germany has unveiled another coronavirus stimulus package with €50 billion for projects addressing climate change, innovation, solar and wind power and digitisation. The money is part of an overall €130 billion injection to boost consumer spending and cushion the country from the dire impact of the coronavirus outbreak. The measures were agreed by chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union and its coalition partner, the centre-left Social Democrats.
Inside the package, a stimulus for “future technologies” includes funding for the development of quantum computing, artificial intelligence, offshore wind, hydrogen energy and electric cars and buses.
“We want to get out of the crisis with a bang,” finance minister Olaf Scholz said in a statement.
Planned investment in AI projects rises from €3 billion to €5 billion, with some of this money for upgrading supercomputers. The government will also “immediately commission” the construction of “at least two” quantum computers. Co-financing obligations for companies involved in large application-driven research projects will be reduced.
This announcement follows a €750 billion rescue package agreed in March, and brings Germany’s corona spending substantially above any other national emergency programmes in the eurozone.
The goal is to get out of the “extremely difficult situation” together, said Merkel. The country, which came out of lockdown in April, entered recession during the first quarter of the year, and is expected to go into a deeper downturn.

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