President Trump has signed orders directing the United States to develop a quantum computer, setting a target of 2028, according to Bitbo.
A second part of the effort is defensive. According to CoinDesk, Trump signed orders both to build a quantum computer and to protect against the kind of quantum machine that could one day break encryption.
That dual framing is the heart of the story. Quantum computers process information in fundamentally different ways from today's machines, and a sufficiently powerful one could, in theory, crack the encryption that currently protects banking, communications, and government secrets. So the same technology being pursued as a national asset is also treated as a national threat if a rival builds it first.
The 2028 target, reported by Bitbo, signals that the administration wants results on a defined timeline rather than treating quantum as open-ended research. Pairing a build mandate with a protect mandate, as CoinDesk describes, suggests the policy is meant to address both offense and defense at once.
The source items do not detail funding amounts, the agencies involved, or specific technical milestones, so the practical scope of the orders remains to be seen.
Why it matters: if quantum computers can eventually break today's encryption, whoever gets there first gains an enormous security and economic edge — which is why a presidential directive with a hard deadline is significant.