UK Government to Invest £153 M in Quantum Computing Development

(EandT) Britain’s Prime Minister Theresa May has announced that the UK government will invest heavily in the development of quantum computing, and said that global tech companies have pledged to invest more than £1bn in the UK.
Opening London Tech week–the annual celebration of London’s technology sector–May said, “British tech is growing over one-and-a-half times faster than the rest of the economy, adding more than £130bn to our economy every year,” she said. “But if we are going to maintain our position as a global leader, our challenge is how we develop British tech and make it even better. We want this to be the place everyone thinks of – and comes to – first when they want to develop their world-changing tech ideas. This is a challenge shared between industry and government.
May announced that global companies have pledged to invest more than £1bn in the UK, while the government will invest £153m in the development of quantum computing, adding up to an investment of over £1.2bn. An additional £205m investment has been pledged by industry to develop quantum computing technologies, with a focus on how these could accelerate drug development.