Physicist John Martinez’s warning is echoed in Nvidia CEO’s statement in November
physical John Martinezwinner Nobel Prize 2025 and responsible for leadership Google Which achieved so-called quantum supremacy in 2019, North American authorities once again warned of accelerating progress China In this sector.
He mentioned in recent interviews that the technological gap, which was previously estimated at three years, has practically disappeared. “China is certainly very competitive in this area. People should be concerned that there is a real race,” he said. Bloomberg In Tel Aviv.
Martinez stressed that Chinese research has achieved results equivalent to those in the West at an increasingly shorter pace. “I have read their articles, and they understand what they are doing very clearly,” he said. “When people in the West publish articles about recent developments, within a few months they often publish research with similar capabilities.”
The physicist stressed that the United States, Europe and China are competing to build quantum computers with practical applications, something that, according to him, should take five to ten years.
According to Martinez, the window for responding to China’s progress in quantum computing is beginning to close. “They caught on quickly,” he warned. “And now we’re worried that we might be a fraction of a second ahead of them.”
This warning comes at a time of strong geopolitical competition in the field of quantum computing, which is considered strategic for sectors such as energy, materials science, cryptography and medical research. Martinez’s comments echo similar concerns raised last month by the company’s CEO Nvidia, Jensen Huangwho also reiterated that “China is nanoseconds behind the United States in AI” and that the United States will only maintain its lead if it “accelerates.”
In recent years, China has doubled its investments to strengthen its leadership in this sector. In 2025, Chinese researchers will introduce Zuchongzhi 3.0, a 105-qubit superconducting quantum processor, which they say will perform 10 to 15 times faster than classical supercomputers on specific tasks. The country has also implemented the largest quantum communications network in the world, with a length of more than 10,000 kilometers, linking 17 provinces and 80 cities.
China’s progress contrasts with more fragmented investment on the North American side. Recent reports indicate that Beijing has committed US$15.3 billion to quantum projects in 2023 – more than double the total of US public and private resources combined. Given this, Martinez raised the alert level directly to the White House. “They are now moving toward quantum,” he said, commenting on the change in focus of the Trump administration, which initially focused only on the dispute over leadership in artificial intelligence.
Behind the scenes in Washington, this issue has become a national security priority. For fiscal year 2027, the federal administration has placed quantum science at the top of the research agenda, with guidelines for balancing fundamental studies with applied engineering. The White House is also working on executive actions related to the development of quantum technology and the transition to encryption standards resistant to future quantum computer attacks.
This institutional concern gained support from a November report by the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission. According to the document, “quantitative superiority will be a critical national asset,” with the potential to unleash transformative progress in multiple sectors of the economy. The committee recommended that Congress adopt a national “quantum first” goal by 2030, as the country tries to accelerate its innovation capacity.
In addition to the technology race itself, experts point out that the growing gap could affect the United States’ global competitiveness. The worry is that if China masters large-scale functional quantum systems first, it could impact everything from production chains to the cybersecurity of Western governments and companies.