It’s been hypothesized that quantum computing will one day revolutionize information processing across a range of military and civilian applications – from artificial intelligence to supply chain optimization to pharmaceutical discovery to cryptography. Prevailing predictions are that it will be decades before fully fault-tolerant quantum computers capable of solving important problems are available. As various quantum computing research and development efforts advance globally, however, DARPA wants to rigorously assess any quantum research claims that a useful fault-tolerant quantum computer could be built much sooner.
DARPA announced the Underexplored Systems for Utility-Scale Quantum Computing (US2QC) program. US2QC aims to determine if an underexplored approach to quantum computing is capable of achieving utility-scale operation much faster than conventional predictions.