On January 6, 2024, Taiwan’s National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) announced its goal to produce the country’s first domestically developed quantum computer by 2027. Luo Meng-fan, head of the NSTC’s Department of Natural Sciences and Sustainable Development, described quantum computing as the most anticipated next-stage development for computational power, according to the Taipei Times.
Luo said the NSTC’s collaboration with the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Academia Sinica, and other research organizations was working toward a component supply chain for quantum computer construction. Four cloud software computational platforms were already using quantum cloud services offered by IBM, Amazon, and other international companies. Taiwanese researchers were also in discussions with Finnish quantum computing hardware company IQM to establish testing platforms in Taiwan.
Luo noted that quantum computing technology still faced high error rates and would need approximately six more years of research to reach maturity, making early investment essential for Taiwan to retain a foothold in critical technologies.