COLLEGE PARK – Gov. Moore is pledging to make Maryland the “quantum capital of the world,” proposing a significant investment into the industry of super-fast computing amid a budget crisis in the state.
Speaking at the College Park headquarters of IonQ, a leading quantum computing company, Moore said Tuesday he believes quantum is one of the industries in which Maryland has a competitive advantage, industries that could help grow an economy he said has been stagnant for too long.
“I refuse to have, in this moment, with the talent we have in the field, for Maryland to be a state that is just simply going to manage decline,” Moore said. “Maryland, if we grow, we win. We’re going to grow.”
In his address to the crowd, which included representatives from IonQ, the University of Maryland and other industry leaders, Moore announced a $27.5 million investment in the new “Capital of Quantum” initiative. Moore described the project as a joint venture between the state, the University of Maryland, IonQ and “other partners in the quantum computing space.”
Moore described the goal of the investment as a simple one: “to make Maryland the capital of quantum of the world.”
The announcement of the initiative follows a week of financial volatility in the quantum industry. Stock for IonQ and other companies in the field have seen dramatic rises and falls over the past several days after figures like Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg questioned the idea of quantum computing being ready in the near future.
Despite this, Moore believes investing in the industry is a good short-term bet, and an even better one in the long-term.
“I think this is actually a smart bet for our GDP growth early,” Moore told CNS in a gaggle with reporters, “and I think it’s an incredibly smart bet for our long-term prospects of having something that Maryland can really pride itself on as having one of the leading spaces in the industry.”
Quantum computing, a rapidly-emerging industry in the technology space, involves using quantum mechanics to produce answers to problems far faster than current computers can. The applications of such technology are wide-ranging, including artificial intelligence, pharmaceutical research and cybersecurity.
“Quantum computing doesn’t just bend reality,” Lt. Gov. Aruna Miller said at IonQ headquarters. “It redefines it, solving problems in ways we never, ever thought possible.”
Along with the focused spending in quantum computing, Moore also announced a larger $750 million investment in “economic growth and workforce development,” with a focus on leveraging the assets that Maryland has to grow the state’s economy.
“Oftentimes,” Moore said, “we have been asset-rich and strategy-poor. We haven’t prioritized the areas that need to be prioritized. Well, today that changes.”