In a bid to make France the center of gravity of the global quantum industry, the government has launched a French National Strategy for quantum that included projected investments of €1 billion ($1.1B USD) from the government over a four year period with additional investments being made by the private sector. France has made considerable progress is enjoying significant quantum startup activity and private funding in the country as well as gains in attracting and developing talent.
To further accelerate progress in French quantum technology, the government has launch the PROQCIMA program to achieve two prototype fault tolerant quantum computers of French design with at least 128 logical qubits by 2032. A follow-on goal would be to have fault tolerant quantum computers with at least 2048 logical qubits by 2035.
The PROQCIMA program is structured as a competition that will occur in three phases (concept, maturation, and industrialization) over the next several years. The program will start with five teams developing their technology for the first four years. The teams selected for this first phase includes Alice & Bob, C12, Pasqal, Quandela, and Quobly with a total funding of €500 million ($546M USD). At the end of that first period three teams will be selected to continue on for the next four years in the second phase. And after that, two teams will be selected for continued development and commercialization in the final phase.
The French government has posted an announcement (in French) regarding the launch of the PROQCIMA program on their website that can be accessed here. Another press release from Alice & Bob can be seen here.
March 8, 2024
