Incremental Progress for China’s Commercial Quantum Computing Sector

In late January of 2021, Origin Quantum (OriginQ), China’s first domestic quantum computing (QC) start up, successfully raised US$15.4 million in a Series A round needed to continue development of its full-stack QC system capability. Its current QC system, the Wu Yuan, incorporates OriginQ’s inhouse developed quantum processor, the KF C6-130, that has six superconducting qubits. Despite such examples of progress, continued advancement by the small number of commercial Chinese QC developers is not assured. China’s significant and broad base of government funding for QC research and its resulting world-class capabilities primarily resides within Chinese government facilities. Improved mechanisms for transferring or independently fostering those same skills within the nascent Chinese QC commercial sector may be needed if Chinese commercial QC vendors are to close the technology and product development gap with leading-edge US and European commercial QC counterparts.