Quantum Race in the USA: Decrees, Billions, and Unpreparedness for Post-Quantum Security

In 2026, the US sharply accelerated the development of quantum technologies. On June 22, Donald Trump signed two orders: No. 14413 on the QC-ADDS program and No. 14412 on protection against advanced cryptographic attacks. The latter set deadlines for key federal systems to transition to post-quantum cryptography – by December 31, 2030, for key agreements and by December 31, 2031, for digital signatures, whereas the previous target was 2035. Technically, the standards are ready: NIST approved ML-KEM, ML-DSA, and SLH-DSA in August 2024, and in March 2025, selected HQC.

Funding and Competitions

On May 14, NSF introduced X-Labs with planned funding of $1.5 billion over ten years. On May 21, the Department of Commerce signed nine letters of intent for $2.013 billion: IBM – up to $1 billion for the Anderon plant in Albany, GlobalFoundries – up to $375 million, and the remaining seven companies – $638 million.

On June 23, the Department of Energy announced Quantum Genesis with the goal of achieving a fault-tolerant computer by 2028; on September 17, the Q Competition was launched for $215 million. The task is to present a system with at least 100 logical qubits and hundreds of millions of operations with error correction by September 2028. The first stage offers up to $1.5 million for interim results, the second – a share of the $100 million pool, and an additional $50 million for 150 and 200 qubits. On September 8, the Department of Commerce finalized agreements with D-Wave, Rigetti, and Quantinuum for $300 million, of which $153.5 million is available immediately in exchange for minority stakes; on September 16, it approved $1 billion for Anderon. On August 25, NSF allocated over $290 million to eight Quantum Leap Challenge institutes – five to continue work and three new ones.

Unpreparedness for Post-Quantum Protection

On October 6, GAO published an audit: none of the 24 agencies completed the three key stages of preparation for post-quantum migration, only one closed at least one practice, and none tested PQC in their environment. Auditors issued 89 recommendations, noting a lack of cryptographic specialists and incomplete accounting of vulnerable systems. On October 7, DARPA moved Atom Computing, Diraq, IBM, and IonQ to stage C; along with Microsoft and PsiQuantum, six companies are undergoing independent verification. On October 8, the Department of Energy identified eight priority QGPA tasks in chemistry, materials science, subatomic physics, and applied mathematics. Applications for the Q Competition closed on October 19, and the first participants will be announced no earlier than November 13.