(IsraelNews) Israel’s innovation and weapons research and development authorities will soon publish the first tender for building an Israeli quantum computer, as part of a massive project intended to give Israel “strategic capabilities” in the nascent field. The Israeli quantum computer – intended for the defense establishment and tech scene – is a national security project to give Israel ‘quantum’ independence: ‘We see China and U.S. racing’
The project by the Israel Innovation Authority and the weapons and technological infrastructure research body will result in a computer owned by the state and will be funded with a budget of about 200 million shekels ($61.9 million). The goal is to establish a consortium of companies working together to build an Israeli quantum computer for research and development for the academic world, local high-tech industry and the security establishment.
The program will operate on two tracks. One, which will be led by the Innovation Authority, is to build a quantum computer within about a year with a processor of approximately 20 qubits.
Because Israel has no entity or past knowledge in constructing such a computer from scratch, the expectation is that foreign companies with expertise in the field ( and there are a number of such companies abroad, such as IQM and IonQ) will participate to provide domain expertise.
Talks have already been held with a number of companies. The Innovation Authority says that it does not intend to purchase a “black box” model of quantum processors from these companies. What that means, is that Israel wants to develop the computer and the process itself, and not buy a ready-to-use product whose inner workings are known only to its creators.
Israel national security project developing quantum computer for ‘quantum independence’
