EU seeks to reduce fragmentation among quantum startups - Techzine Global

Europe is home to many quantum startups, but this fragmentation threatens to hinder its international competitiveness.

The European Commission therefore sees room for consolidation. The planned Quantum Act is intended to stimulate collaboration and scale, but will not receive its own budget. This was reported by TNW. Thomas Skordas, Deputy Director-General of DG CNECT at the European Commission, spoke with remarkable clarity about the structure of the European quantum sector during a meeting at the European Parliament. According to him, Europe cannot afford to have 78 startups all continuing to operate independently. He pointed out the contrast with the United States, where major technology companies such as Microsoft, Google, and IBM have the financial resources and infrastructure to invest in quantum computing on a large scale. According to Skordas, Europe wants to maintain competition but will simultaneously need “some consolidation at some point.” Quantum act without its own funding The European Commission is currently working on a Quantum Act, which is expected to be presented by the end of 2026. However, a delay until 2027 is possible. Unlike, for example, the AI Act, Skordas says the new law should not primarily impose rules and obligations. Rather, it is intended to provide a framework that enables the European quantum sector to collaborate more effectively. There will be no separate European budget. “The law isn’t about the budget,” Skordas said. According to him, the main goal is to bring stakeholders together and steer the sector’s development in the same direction. This is relevant because European investments and expertise are currently scattered across different countries, companies, and technical approaches. As a result, Europe produces a great deal of research and prototypes but has fewer companies large enough to, for example, build up production capacity on their own. Tommaso Calarco, secretary of the European Advisory Board on Quantum Technology, summarizes the necessary approach as creating “critical mass.” According to him, this requires funding, speed, and collaboration. The latter, in particular, remains a problem: member states are still not pooling their resources sufficiently or strategically. Strong position in components At the same time, Europe is not starting from scratch. According to Cecile Perrault, director of the European Quantum Industry Consortium, approximately 80 percent of the components in European quantum computers are also produced in Europe. She says this gives the region a stronger starting position than with many other digital technologies. New production capacity is also emerging. For example, the Novo Nordisk Foundation in Copenhagen is building an open production facility for quantum chips. In this way, the market is partly anticipating what Brussels aims to achieve with the Quantum Act. The Commission also wants to explicitly link quantum technology to other sectors. Skordas mentions, among others, semiconductors, photonics, cloud infrastructure, and end users. By better connecting these areas, quantum computing should ultimately move beyond the research environment and become part of a broader European technology sector. The exact details of the Quantum Act are not yet known. There is no draft text yet, nor is it clear what tools Brussels intends to use to promote collaboration and consolidation among quantum companies.