The 2023 China Quantum Computing Industry Alliance Conference was held on May 21 in the city of Hefei – capital of East China's Anhui province – when 34 enterprises, institutions and universities signed up to join the alliance to bring the total membership to over 80.

New members sign up to join the China Quantum Computing Industry Alliance on May 21 in Hefei. [Photo by Zhang Jun/chinanews.com.cn]

The alliance, the first of its kind in China, was launched in 2018 by Origin Quantum, a Hefei-based quantum computing company.

With the commercialization of quantum computing industrial applications, it's attracted partners from various industries. The 34 new units joining this time operate in such fields as finance, aerospace, big data as well as advanced computing.

"The overall prosperity of the quantum computing industry is impossible to be achieved by only one or a few institutions – and it takes a long cycle and the combined efforts of the upstream and downstream of the industry chain from technological breakthroughs to mass production, applications and the market," said Zhao Xuejiao, deputy director of the Anhui Quantum Computing Engineering Research Center.

The launch ceremony of China's second quantum finance class was also held on the day. It aims to promote the application of quantum computing in the finance industry.