Public support for quantum computing
SCALE
- The 2021-2025 national quantum strategy (SNQ) committed EUR 1.8 billion in investment, of which EUR 1.5 billion in public funds and EUR 1 billion earmarked for quantum computing specifically; EUR 597 million had been committed by 31 December 2025 across 40 projects.
- The PROQCIMA public-procurement programme is a framework contract with five selected start-ups initially capped at EUR 500 million, targeting a fault-tolerant quantum computer of 128 logical qubits by 2032 (extended to 2,048 by 2035); the target was revised in May 2026 to 1,024 logical qubits by 2032.
- The QuanTEduFrance training programme received EUR 56.7 million; France 2030 funded 124 postdoctoral researchers and 255 doctoral theses on quantum computing between 2021 and 2025 (within the National Research Agency's scope), and 37 master's programmes (13 of them quantum-specific) enrolled 1,061 students in 2024-25 across 23 partner universities.
- On 21 May 2026 the US Congress voted a USD 2 billion support package for quantum computing targeting nine companies; the following day the French President announced a further EUR 1 billion for quantum technologies through France 2030, on top of the funds already committed.
PERFORMANCE ASPECT
Economy
- Public support for the private sector still relies more on grants than on repayable advances, even though the Cour recommends shifting the balance toward advances and greater use of public procurement (PROQCIMA) so that firms are pushed to consolidate financially rather than remain dependent on subsidy; only one specialised French venture-capital fund exists to finance quantum technologies, so firms struggling to raise private capital to scale up have few domestic alternatives to public money.
Efficiency
- Financing for quantum computing is dispersed across many channels - France 2030 grants and advances, ANR and Bpifrance schemes outside France 2030, regional subsidies, EU project calls and tax credits - with no single consolidated view of the totals by origin and destination; the Cour itself could not fully collect or verify all higher-education and research spending within the time available and had to rely on estimates from the main institutions instead of a detailed consolidation.
Effectiveness
- Despite a decade of sustained public investment, the domestic industrial ecosystem remains fragile and dependent on public funds, because the market for quantum computers is not yet large enough to make the sector profitable on its own; France has not yet made the explicit strategic choice - between maintaining, increasing or redirecting its funding, and between specialising, positioning itself as a hub, or accepting dependency on a dominant foreign partner - that its sovereignty objective requires as the sector enters a consolidation phase marked by predation risks from better-funded foreign competitors.
1. Public support instruments favour grants over repayable advances, weakening firms' incentives to consolidate financially
Finance Guidance
The Cour recommends that, "in the support provided to the private sector, the weight of repayable advances relative to grants be increased, and greater use be made of public procurement through the PROQCIMA programme, in order to facilitate the consolidation of companies" (Recommendations, no.2, p.13). Firms' difficulty in raising private capital to scale up makes them vulnerable to being acquired by better-funded foreign actors, and only one specialised French venture-capital fund finances quantum technologies (Synthese, p.11).
- Domains: technology, capital-investments
- Function: finance, strategy
- Quality: Cost control and value for money
2. Consolidated tracking of the many public funding channels for quantum computing remains incomplete
Data management Monitoring
The Cour recommends reinforcing "the consolidated monitoring of all financing, which is cross-cutting by nature, both in its destination and in its origin" (Recommendations, no.3, p.13). Consolidating the totality of financing allocated to quantum computing was hampered by spending dispersed across institutions managing their own funds, so the Cour could not collect and assess all higher-education and research spending within the time available and instead estimated these amounts from the main actors' feedback (Procedures and methods, p.6-7).
- Domains: technology, public-finance
- Function: dataProcessing, monitoring
- Quality: Reliable, integrated information base
3. Most public funding for quantum computing is temporary, and France has yet to decide whether it will be secured beyond 2025-2030
Goal-setting Finance
Because its resources are limited, France will have to choose between three budgetary paths: maintaining current funding and securing it beyond 2025 or 2030, increasing the funds allocated to sustain the "war of attrition" underway, or redirecting resources toward other deeptech priorities and accepting a loss of sovereignty over the quantum computer (Synthese, p.12). Almost all of the EUR 1 billion committed to quantum computing under the 2021-2025 national quantum strategy comes from the time-limited France 2030 investment plan rather than a permanent budget line.
- Domains: technology, capital-investments, public-finance
- Function: strategy, finance
- Quality: Sound risk management
4. Uncertainty over funding beyond 2027-2028 threatens the durability of the quantum training offer
Guidance Goal-setting
The Cour recommends that, "from the start of the 2027 academic year, the training offer be reinforced on the 'architecture', 'error correction' and software-stack components, as well as on the interface between classical computing and quantum computing" (Recommendations, no.4, p.13), noting that "uncertainty over part of the funding from the start of the 2028 academic year weighs on the durable adjustment of the training offer" (Synthese, p.11).
- Domains: higher-education, science
- Function: training, planning
- Quality: Adequate resources and competences
5. The domestic industrial ecosystem remains fragile and dependent on public funds because private investment is scarce
Finance Outlook
The French quantum-computing sector "also suffers from a deficit of private investment, as European private actors have a greater aversion to risk than their North American counterparts"; while public support was essential to launch the sector, "the amounts needed to move to the industrial phase now exceed the State's financial capacities", making the mobilisation of private financing a critical issue (Synthese, p.11).
- Domains: technology, capital-investments
- Function: finance, strategy
- Quality: Sound risk management
6. No exhaustive, up-to-date monitoring of companies in the strategic quantum sector exists, despite sovereignty and predation risks
Monitoring Data management
The Cour recommends ensuring "exhaustive and up-to-date monitoring of companies in the strategic quantum sector, in coordination with the SGPI" (Recommendations, no.5, p.13), against a backdrop in which the sector's "phase of concentration, and sometimes of predation, of these companies has begun" (Synthese, p.11).
- Domains: technology, public-finance
- Function: monitoring, dataProcessing
- Quality: Functioning oversight and governance
7. France has not yet made the strategic choice its quantum sovereignty objective requires
Goal-setting Guidance
Beyond the funding-level choice, France must also decide its strategic positioning - specialising in a particular segment as the Netherlands or Finland have done, positioning itself as a hub as the United Kingdom has chosen, or accepting technological dependency on a dominant foreign actor as several countries are doing with respect to the United States (Synthese, p.12); "any support will have to pursue a clearly identified strategic objective so that public financing devoted to the emergence of a sector is not captured by other powers" (Synthese, p.12). The Cour recommends building, by 2028, "targeted industrial partnerships at European scale, where appropriate with country specialisation" (Recommendations, no.6, p.13).
- Domains: technology, public-finance
- Function: strategy, governance
- Quality: Clear objectives and goal-setting
Control focus
| ICS phase | Control function | Cases |
|---|---|---|
| Entity in its environment | Finance | 1. Public support instruments favour grants over repayable advances, weakening firms' incentives to consolidate financially<br/>3. Most public funding for quantum computing is temporary, and France has yet to decide whether it will be secured beyond 2025-2030<br/>5. The domestic industrial ecosystem remains fragile and dependent on public funds because private investment is scarce |
| Outlook | 5. The domestic industrial ecosystem remains fragile and dependent on public funds because private investment is scarce | |
| Initial phase | Guidance | 1. Public support instruments favour grants over repayable advances, weakening firms' incentives to consolidate financially<br/>4. Uncertainty over funding beyond 2027-2028 threatens the durability of the quantum training offer<br/>7. France has not yet made the strategic choice its quantum sovereignty objective requires |
| Goal-setting | 3. Most public funding for quantum computing is temporary, and France has yet to decide whether it will be secured beyond 2025-2030<br/>4. Uncertainty over funding beyond 2027-2028 threatens the durability of the quantum training offer<br/>7. France has not yet made the strategic choice its quantum sovereignty objective requires | |
| Organic elements of a process | Data management | 2. Consolidated tracking of the many public funding channels for quantum computing remains incomplete<br/>6. No exhaustive, up-to-date monitoring of companies in the strategic quantum sector exists, despite sovereignty and predation risks |
| Work processes | Monitoring | 2. Consolidated tracking of the many public funding channels for quantum computing remains incomplete<br/>6. No exhaustive, up-to-date monitoring of companies in the strategic quantum sector exists, despite sovereignty and predation risks |
Compliance focus
- The SNQ (2021-2025) is steered by an inter-ministerial governance structure and coordinated by the Secretariat-General for Investment (SGPI), consistent with the fact that most of its funding comes from the France 2030 investment plan, whose budget programmes SGPI itself manages.
- Support instruments include a dedicated PEPR research programme (EUR 142 million, led by the CNRS, CEA and INRIA), specialised operators channelling grants, repayable advances and equity stakes to public research (the National Research Agency, ANR) and to companies (Bpifrance), and the PROQCIMA public-procurement competition (EUR 500 million) among five selected firms.
- Supplementary financing comes from regional subsidies, European Union project calls, and corporate tax incentives (the CIR research tax credit, the JEI young-innovative-company status and the CII innovation tax credit), though each represents a much smaller share of the total than France 2030 funding.
- The inquiry was run as a cooperative audit with Germany's Bundesrechnungshof; the draft report was deliberated by the Cour's third chamber on 20 May 2026 and approved by the Cour's report and programmes committee on 2 June 2026.
osie/domains_publicActivities.xml, osie/portfolio_CUBE.xml, osie/control_ICS-AuditingIC.xml, osie/functions_organizational.xml, osie/qualityConditions.xml) and the internal-control terminology of INTOSAI's Guidance on Auditing Internal Control (ICS), drafted by the Internal Control Standards Subcommittee, which NIK (Poland) chairs. Underlying data: alg_soutienITquantique.xml (dokAAPp.xsd instance). All readers are encouraged to consult the original report (linked above).