Opening Address by Minister Josephine Teo at the National Quantum Federated Foundry (NQFF) Industry Day

Professor John Martinis,

Mr Heng Swee Keat,

Professor Tan Chorh Chuan,

Distinguished Guests,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

1. I am delighted to join you for the National Quantum Federated Foundry (NQFF) Industry Day.

Our Early Investments into Quantum Have Led to Niche Capabilities

2. Two decades ago, Singapore made a bet at a time when quantum technologies were at a nascent stage of maturity.

3. Nevertheless, we recognised the potential of quantum technologies to revolutionise critical sectors like financial services and pharmaceuticals and decided to invest in their development.

4. We set up the Centre for Quantum Technologies in 2007, which drives upstream research as our national research centre for quantum technologies.

5. In 2024, we doubled down, with the launch of our National Quantum Strategy. We committed S$300 million, to the development and deployment of quantum technologies.

6. This includes the set-up of our National-level Quantum Programmes (NQPs), to consolidate our expertise and capabilities, to drive translation of quantum research into practical applications.

7. Today, we are beginning to see the fruits of our early efforts in quantum.

8. The National Quantum Federated Foundry, or NQFF, is one of our National-level Quantum Programmes.

9. As the name suggests, NQFF “federates” Singapore’s cleanrooms, accessing the existing network of cleanrooms.

10. NQFF is building capabilities, in designing, fabricating, and characterising micro- and nano-devices, that are essential for quantum technologies.

11. It delivers for Singapore niche capabilities that support Singapore’s role in quantum hardware development.

12. Today’s Industry Day highlights the return on our early investment. NQFF is an example of our effort to drive downstream research translation, and I want to congratulate the NQFF team on the results delivered to date.

Importance of Global Collaboration at the Frontier of Technology Development

13. An important benchmark of the progress of our National-level Quantum Programmes, is how they enable Singapore to partner with global quantum companies, and collectively advance the development and translation of quantum research.

14. I was most happy to reconnect with John after our first meeting at Davos a few weeks ago.

15. I told John, at that time I didn’t realise he was quite so tall, because we were seated on the stage, and I felt like I was the oddball. On the panel, were some of the world’s most distinguished thinkers on quantum technologies, and here I was, this policymaker from tiny Singapore.

16. But what caught my biggest surprise was, in the middle of explaining why Singapore was taking an interest in quantum technologies, John shot his hand up and said, “I’m coming to Singapore, because we have a research collaboration, and that’s because you have a base of semiconductor companies and an ecosystem we want to plug into.”

17. So, John, I am very happy that you came to Singapore to deliver this very important lecture, so that our community here can learn from the best and sharpen our own thinking in this area. Thank you very much for being here.

18. John co-founded Qolab, a superconducting quantum computing start-up. Qolab develops superconducting qubits and associated components, through semiconductor fabrication processes, where we had a very good discussion this morning about what can be done in this field, together with Alan Ho.

19. That Qolab and NQFF will sign a Research Cooperation Agreement today to collaborate on the development of novel components for quantum computers, is testament to the value global quantum companies see in our ecosystem.

20. It also speaks to the capabilities we have built up, not just in quantum and nanofabrication, but also in its synergies with our traditional strengths in semiconductors and advanced manufacturing and specifically in advanced packaging within semiconductors manufacturing.

21. The collaboration brings together complementary strengths leveraging NQFF’s nanofabrication capabilities to fabricate the devices, and enabling scalable manufacturing through wafer-scale foundry processes, which will ultimately be what helps the quantum technologies to take off in a bigger way.

22. This collaboration opens a path towards denser integration of hardware components with qubits, allowing quantum computers to handle higher numbers of qubits, bringing us closer to quantum computers that can address practical use cases.

23. I am glad that NQFF’s network of partners will also present their work today in hardware development and their collaborations with NQFF.

24. These include global companies like Quobly, which NQFF will collaborate on testing and characterising qubit chips with.

25. These also include our local start-ups like SpeQtral, which NQFF is co-developing integrated photonics chips with.

26. Global collaboration will be critical to advancing quantum technology development, to unlock value for society and solve real-world problems.

27. The increasing exchanges demonstrate the growing confidence in Singapore’s quantum ecosystem, and NQFF’s role as a receptacle for global collaboration.

28. I thank John and all of the industry stakeholders here today for their partnership with Singapore.

29. I hope that even more global quantum companies will find pathways to collaborate with our local ecosystem.

Singapore’s Next Steps in Quantum

30. Whatever the progress that our national-level programmes have been able to achieve, we believe that they set a foundation for us to do more. We will continue to invest into public research.

31. We will continue to scale the capabilities of our National-level Quantum Programmes, to develop deep capabilities in key technologies, and to translate cutting edge research into impactful solutions that create value for Singapore and the world.

32. Beyond continued investment in upstream research and downstream translation, we are reviewing our National Quantum Strategy.

33. Part of the reason is that the chairman of the NRF sets a very high bar, which is a good thing, and spurs us to continuously think of ways to do better.

34. We will strengthen our value proposition as a quantum hub, by looking across our research, industry, and security domains.

35. We will encourage more collaborations between our ecosystem and frontier quantum companies in areas of global interest, such as the design, fabrication, and packaging of quantum processing units, and qubit-agnostic controls.

36. Singapore will continue to work towards becoming a constructive node in the global quantum value chain, providing critical components and hardware for quantum technology to the world.

37. Thank you for inviting me, and I look forward to all of us working together to carry out meaningful research translation and industry activities in Singapore, that enable quantum technologies to benefit Singapore and the world.