South Korea Accelerates National Quantum Strategy With New Five-Year Plan and Major Investments
At Quantum World Congress 2025, the National Research Foundation of Korea detailed the country’s rapid quantum expansion—from new national legislation and a comprehensive five-year plan to major investments in R&D, QPU development, workforce growth, fabrication facilities, and deepening international partnerships.
Delivering the National Quantum Update: South Korea at Quantum World Congress 2025, Soon Park, Director at the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF), outlined the country’s sweeping national strategy to accelerate quantum science, technology, and industry. He emphasized that Korea has rapidly established the governance, investments, infrastructure, and international cooperation needed to become a major global player in quantum.
Park began by situating the NRF’s central role. As Korea’s primary R&D funding agency, NRF manages an annual budget of approximately $10 billion, representing 36% of total government R&D spending.
Over the last five years, Korea has launched a series of major initiatives to promote quantum science and build a full national ecosystem. In 2023, the government announced its first national quantum vision, followed in 2024 by the passage of the Quantum Act, landmark legislation establishing a governance framework and requiring continuous investment and long-term planning for quantum research and industry.
A new five-year national plan for quantum technologies—covering R&D, workforce, fabs, industry development, and international cooperation—will be released this year. The plan includes $2.3 billion in national investment and aims to train 10,000 researchers and industry professionals across every quantum domain.
Investment Surge and Strategic Priorities
Korea’s government investment in quantum technology has risen sharply. In 2024, the total quantum budget reached $140 million; for 2025, it is expected to exceed $250 million, a growth of more than 50%.
Current-year allocations include:
$80M for R&D
$30M for quantum fabrication (“Q-PAB”) infrastructure
$30M for international cooperation and workforce development
Starting this year, the government is launching a portfolio of major national projects across computing, sensing, and communications. The flagship Quantum Project will invest $46M over eight years, targeting superconducting and neutral-atom QPU development as well as advanced communications and sensing systems suitable for commercialization.
Korea is currently developing a 50-qubit superconducting QPU, with the long-term goal of scaling toward thousand-qubit systems through sustained device and system-level innovation.
An IMQ quantum computer is planned for installation in 2024 or 2025, integrating quantum and supercomputing resources to accelerate algorithm and use-case development.
Korea is also launching global supply-chain initiatives, including testbeds designed to meet international standards and expand superconducting QPU manufacturing capacity.
Expanding National Quantum Fabrication Infrastructure
A major focus of Korea’s national strategy is building fabrication depth to support both domestic research and the global supply chain. Three quantum fabs (“Q-PABs”) are already established or under construction.
A superconducting-focused quantum fab in Daejeon, expected to evolve into a full commercial foundry.
Two open-access quantum fabs at KAIST and UNIST, specialized in photonic integrated circuits and diverse QPU modalities.
These facilities represent Korea’s strategy to leverage its industrial manufacturing strengths—positioning the country as a vital contributor to the international quantum hardware value chain.
Korea is also establishing new national institutions, including the Korea Joint Quantum Institute, and expanding collaboration between national labs, universities, and industry to accelerate core technology development.
Building a Quantum Workforce at Scale
Korea is investing intensively in training high-end talent. Quantum graduate programs at KAIST, POSTECH, and Korea University are projected to train 540 advanced researchers over the next five years.
About 100 Korean quantum companies are active today—still an early-stage ecosystem, but one expected to expand rapidly as new use cases emerge and as national fabs and hardware capabilities mature.
Global Partnerships and International Cooperation
International collaboration is a central pillar of Korea’s quantum strategy. The government has established two regional centers for international cooperation—one in Washington, D.C. for North America, and one in Belgium for Europe. These serve as direct contact points for global partners and coordinate with NRF and the Korean government.
Korea runs both bilateral and multilateral programs with the U.S. and Europe and plans to expand partnerships to additional like-minded nations.
“South Korea plans to train 10,000 quantum researchers and professionals over the next five years.”
A major milestone this year: Korea became the first Asian funding agency to join QuantERA, opening a new chapter of cooperation with European partners and deepening Korea’s participation in global quantum initiatives.
Park emphasized that Korea will leverage its strengths—world-class manufacturing, advanced materials, and a highly skilled workforce—to grow its role in the global quantum supply chain and accelerate the development of new quantum applications and algorithms.
He closed by reaffirming Korea’s commitment to global collaboration and to advancing quantum technologies across computing, communications, sensing, and industrial deployment.