Interviews | Economy | East Asia

The China-US Quantum Computing Contest

Insights from Matt Kinsella.

The Diplomat author Mercy Kuo regularly engages subject-matter experts, policy practitioners, and strategic thinkers across the globe for their diverse insights into U.S. Asia policy. This conversation with Matt Kinsella – the CEO of Infleqtion, a leading U.S. quantum technology company – is the 531st in “The Trans-Pacific View Insight Series.”

Briefly describe U.S. advancements in quantum computing technology.

The United States is moving from experimental quantum systems toward logical, fault-tolerant computing. The key measure is no longer the number of physical qubits, but whether those qubits can be organized into reliable logical qubits and used for meaningful applications.

Infleqtion is at the forefront of that shift. Our neutral-atom platform has demonstrated 12 logical qubits with error detection and loss correction, a 99.73 percent two-qubit gate fidelity, and arrays of up to 1,600 neutral-atom sites. With Nvidia, we published a materials-science demonstration in which logical encoding reduced error approximately sixfold compared with physical-qubit execution.

Our roadmap achieves 30 logical qubits later this year, 100 by 2028, and 1,000 by 2030. We see approximately 100 high-quality logical qubits as the threshold for outperforming classical systems on selected valuable problems.

Hardware alone will not get us there. As our CTO, Pranav Gokhale, has emphasized, hardware-aware software can force-multiply quantum performance. Infleqtion is developing the complete stack – from atoms, photonics, and control systems to error correction, Superstaq compilation, resource estimation, and integration with GPU-accelerated computing. That full-system approach is how quantum computing becomes useful.

In what ways is the U.S. collaborating with partners in the Asia Pacific in developing quantum computing technology?

The United States is building a trusted quantum ecosystem with Asia-Pacific partners through joint research, technology development, workforce training, and access to advanced systems.

Japan provides a strong example. Japan’s Science and Technology Agency selected Infleqtion as the first foreign company – and the only foreign quantum-computing partner – to participate in its Quantum Moonshot program. In a consortium led by Professor Kenji Ohmori of the Institute for Molecular Science, we are contributing neutral-atom technology, photonics expertise, and systems engineering to the development of a large-scale, fault-tolerant quantum computer based on atomic qubits.

This is more than a research exchange. It combines an American commercial platform with Japanese leadership in ultrafast atomic control and aligns both countries around a shared technical objective. To this end, Infleqtion has delivered neutral-atom systems, helping researchers build the practical experience required to operate and develop applications for advanced quantum machines.

In Australia, Infleqtion has established an Asia-Pacific presence at Swinburne University of Technology and worked with the Australian Army and Australian industry on trustworthy quantum computation. One collaboration with Australian quantum company Diraq explored quantum physically unclonable functions intended to help verify the identity and integrity of remotely accessed quantum computers.

We are also engaging Australian leaders on the future use of quantum computing in energy and infrastructure. This application-led approach is essential: allied programs should begin with consequential problems and jointly determine the hardware, software, and classical resources required to address them.

These partnerships expand the talent, facilities, test environments, and applications available to the United States. Our alliances are not simply diplomatic relationships; they are a practical technology advantage.

Analyze the scope and scale of the U.S.-China quantum computing competition.

The U.S.-China quantum competition is not a single race. It spans computing architecture, logical reliability, software, photonics, manufacturing, talent, supply chains, data-center integration, and applications.

China can concentrate substantial state resources behind selected national programs. The United States operates through a more distributed system of companies, universities, federal laboratories, private capital, and international partners. That diversity supports several technical pathways while creating strong pressure to demonstrate practical results.

Infleqtion represents the strength of the American model. We are advancing a vertically integrated neutral-atom platform while expanding........

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