Pritzker touts quantum future, state senator urges caution for taxpayers

By Jim Talamonti | The Center Square
The Center Square

(The Center Square) – Gov. J.B. Pritzker is touting Illinois as a destination for quantum computing companies, but a state senator says it’s important to be conscious of taxpayers and ratepayers.

The governor spoke Thursday at the Quantum World Congress in Virginia and encouraged attendees to relocate to Chicago and Illinois.

“We have Duality, which is the nation’s first quantum startup accelerator,” Pritzker said. “We have the second-highest number of Fortune 500 companies, the customers for quantum, of any region in the nation.”

Pritzker said key quantum computing stakeholders are collaborating at the Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park in Chicago.

“Fortune 500 businesses and startups, government agencies, world-renowned researchers and scientists are coming together to do foundational work on quantum hardware and software applications,” Pritzker said.

State Sen. Sue Rezin, R-Morris, said quantum is incredibly important, but elected officials must be careful.

“It all depends on how the deals are negotiated,” Rezin told The Center Square. “We want to be conscious about the costs, especially on the ratepayers, on the taxpayers, very important.”

Illinois has given tens of millions of dollars in state tax incentives to quantum corporations.

Brian DeMarco is professor of physics and Director of the Illinois Quantum Information Science and Technology Center at the University of Illinois’ Grainger College of Engineering. He also serves as director and chief technology officer at Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park in Chicago.

DeMarco said quantum computers can solve problems that would take too long on any other supercomputer that could be built.

“Some of those types of problems are the types of problems related to balancing the energy grid and predicting what capacity is needed in what parts of the state,” DeMarco told The Center Square.

Rezin agreed that the quantum movement has arrived in Illinois.

“It is fair to say that, once it is built out, that many of the problems that we’ve been trying to solve in the past for decades might be able to be solved with quantum computing,” Rezin explained.