By Charlotte Ormond
Capital News Service
RIVERDALE — State and business leaders promoted the growth of quantum computing companies in Maryland at the opening of Microsoft’s new quantum center in Riverdale, advancing the state’s goal to become the “Capital of Quantum.”
“Quantum is sort of an emerging technology, so it has a lot of promise,” Gretchen Campbell, the associate vice president for quantum research and education at the University of Maryland, told Capital News Service.
Campbell joined others at the Microsoft center’s grand opening last Tuesday. The center will house technology designed to advance quantum research and bring together global partners to collaborate in Maryland. Unlike traditional computers, quantum computers use quantum physics to process information much faster and solve complex problems. While many quantum computers are still in the prototype stage, the technology is rapidly advancing, experts say.
Campbell said she hopes the new center will advance quantum science and give University of Maryland students opportunities to work with scientists and learn about the developing technology.
Gov. Wes Moore, who spoke at the opening, said Microsoft’s decision to build this center in Maryland is a major accomplishment for the state and will attract quantum researchers and business leaders to the area.
“The world has descended upon College Park,” Moore said. “They came here because they believed. They came here because they saw the future being written in College Park.”
The opening of the center comes a year after Moore’s announcement of the partnership with Microsoft at the 2025 Quantum World Congress.
Campbell said other major technology companies have announced plans to establish headquarters in Maryland. In September, Riverlane, a developer of quantum error correction technology, said it will locate its U.S. headquarters to Discovery District Maryland. The district is a 150-acre research park in Prince George’s County that houses more than 60 research organizations and federal agencies, including Microsoft’s new center. QuEra Computing, a neutral-atom quantum computing company, also said in September it will open an office in the Discovery District.
Moore said that in under two years, partners at the University of Maryland, in the private sector and across all levels of government have pledged over $500 million in investments to support the growth of quantum research in Maryland. The initiative aims to raise $1 billion in investments over the next five years.
“This is international. This is real,” said Rep. Glenn Ivey, D-Md., who also spoke at the opening. “This is a major piece putting us on, not just the map, but the globe…It’s not an overstatement, really, to say that the direction that the world takes, maybe even the fate of the world, is going to hinge on what happens in these areas.”
