Insider Brief
- The Chicago Quantum Exchange and Barnes & Thornburg LLP released The Quantum Law Navigator, a two-part report mapping the U.S. legal and regulatory landscape shaping the quantum industry.
- The report identifies four key challenges—national security, funding, workforce, and supply chain—and provides practical guidance for stakeholders navigating related laws and compliance requirements.
- It warns that without broader legal literacy and access to compliance tools, the U.S. quantum economy risks concentrating advantages among large institutions while smaller innovators fall behind.
- Image: The Quantum Law Navigator initiative kicked off in April with a panel discussion at the University of Chicago Law School. From left: Robert W. Karr, Jr., a partner at Barnes & Thornburg and co-founder of the firm’s Quantum Technology Industry Practice Group; David Awschalom, director of the CQE and the University of Chicago’s Liew Family Professor of Moelcular Engineering and Physics; Lior Strahilevitz, UChicago’s Sidley Austin Professor of Law, and Aziz Huq, UChicago’s Frank and Bernice J. Greenberg Professor of Law. (Lloyd DeGrane)
There is a growing sense that quantum technologies are nearing commercial reality and with them comes a tangle of laws that could either accelerate or stall America’s leadership in one of the century’s most consequential industries. A new report from the Chicago Quantum Exchange (CQE) and law firm Barnes & Thornburg LLP argues that without deliberate coordination between scientists and policymakers, the nation’s quantum economy risks concentrating power in a few large institutions while small innovators fall behind.
The 2025 Quantum Law Navigator aims to bridge what its authors call the “quantum-law gap” by translating dense U.S. policies and regulations into practical guidance for researchers, founders, executives, investors, and policymakers. Structured as a two-part, ten-chapter reference, the report maps the intersection of emerging quantum technologies with the country’s overlapping systems of export controls, investment screening, intellectual property and funding oversight.
CQE Director David Awschalom announced the Quantum Law Navigator during the opening of the 2025 Chicago Quantum Summit.
“We need to close the gap between the quantum sector and the law to ensure a robust, sustainable quantum economy,” said Awschalom, who is also the University of Chicago’s Liew Family Professor of Molecular Engineering and Physics and a senior scientist at Argonne National Laboratory. “Without a common language among quantum technologists, the business community, lawyers, and lawmakers, we risk losing innovators to the layers of law and regulation that grow from our sector’s scientific complexity, uncertain timelines, and relevance to national security. This is an important step forward as we accelerate the transitions of scientific discovery to technology and work collaboratively to create a competitive industry.”
The document arrives as the global race for quantum leadership intensifies. China, Japan, the United States, and European nations have collectively spent more than $50 billion building domestic capabilities in quantum computing, communication, and sensing. But as the report emphasizes, technology alone does not secure leadership — nations must also align their legal and economic infrastructures to enable diffusion of innovation across the broader economy.
Four Challenges Define the Landscape
The Navigator organizes the U.S. quantum policy environment around four cross-cutting challenges: national security, funding, workforce and supply chains. Each reflects tensions between innovation and control that have come to define the early quantum era.
The first, safeguarding national security while fostering innovation, underscores the dual-use nature of quantum technology. Quantum encryption, sensors and computing could strengthen defense systems, yet the same capabilities can threaten them if deployed by adversaries. The report details how export control regimes, such as the Export Administration Regulations and International Traffic in Arms Regulations, restrict the transfer of quantum hardware and knowledge abroad. It warns that researchers and startups — particularly those engaging foreign partners or investors — face significant compliance risks without legal guidance.
The second challenge, securing adequate funding, reflects the extended horizons of quantum development. The report indicates that building utility-scale quantum computers and national quantum networks requires “patient capital” and multiyear coordination between public and private investors. Federal programs under the National Quantum Initiative, CHIPS and Science Act, and National Defense Authorization Act have directed more than $1.2 billion into the field through agencies like the Department of Energy and National Science Foundation. But fragmentation across agencies and inconsistent support for mid-stage demonstration projects leave gaps that private investors are hesitant to fill.
The third obstacle is workforce scarcity, according to the report The U.S. faces a growing shortage of quantum professionals, from physicists and engineers to policy specialists who can manage security and regulatory compliance. Universities are producing too few graduates to meet industry demand, and complex visa requirements make it difficult for startups and labs to hire international talent. The report warns that without streamlined immigration pathways, “foreign talent remains essential but hard to retain,” putting U.S. competitiveness at risk.
The fourth challenge, supply chain vulnerability, covers America’s dependence on imported materials such as isotopically pure silicon, rare-earth elements, and precision optics. Trade policies meant to secure domestic production — like tariffs on ultra-pure metals and cryogenic components — can inadvertently raise costs and slow progress. The report calls for coordinated federal and state action to strengthen domestic manufacturing and harmonize rules that now differ across jurisdictions.
The Need for a Common Language
The report argues that scientists, entrepreneurs and lawyers often operate in “different spheres and languages,” slowing the nation’s ability to adapt its legal frameworks to quantum’s rapid evolution. Many researchers, for example, remain unaware that even a conversation with a foreign collaborator can trigger export-control scrutiny, a rule known as a “deemed export.” Likewise, lawmakers unfamiliar with quantum science may draft policies that unintentionally restrict legitimate research or collaboration.
The Navigator proposes building a shared vocabulary and practical playbook to lower barriers for smaller institutions. It offers examples tailored to the realities of the sector, such as: when to seek patent counsel before filing internationally; how to classify a device under export control lists; and how to navigate venture capital agreements that involve foreign limited partners. Each of the eight legal chapters — covering intellectual property, export controls, foreign investment, trade policy, immigration, government funding, venture capital, and financial risk — explains why the issue matters to quantum stakeholders and outlines compliance strategies.
Beyond legal literacy, the report carries a broader warning: without equitable access to knowledge and compliance resources, the U.S. quantum economy could become top-heavy, favoring large corporations and elite research universities that can afford specialized legal teams. Smaller startups and regional institutions, the authors note, may avoid cross-border partnerships or advanced R&D altogether out of fear of violating complex rules. That dynamic, if unaddressed, could limit the diffusion of quantum technology across sectors and regions. That, the report warns, could weaken national competitiveness.
The CQE and Barnes & Thornburg team describe the publication as a “living document,” reflecting U.S. law as of October 2025 but designed to evolve alongside policy changes.
It complements CQE’s broader mission to strengthen the Midwest’s role in the national quantum ecosystem through initiatives like the Bloch Quantum Tech Hub and the National Science Foundation’s Regional Innovation Engines program.
Bridging Science and Law
The Navigator emerged from a multi-disciplinary collaboration that began at a 2025 panel at the University of Chicago Law School, chaired by CQE Director David Awschalom and legal experts from Barnes & Thornburg. Contributors included attorneys specializing in export controls, venture capital and intellectual property, along with advisors from the Quantum Economic Development Consortium and the University of Chicago’s law faculty. The report explicitly avoids advocacy, positioning itself instead as a neutral resource for industry and government stakeholders navigating an evolving legal frontier.
Robert Karr, Jr., the Barnes and Thornburg partner co-leading the Quantum Law Navigator, said in the statement that the report addresses the growing legal interest in quantum technologies.
“Lawmakers and regulators have increasingly turned their attention to quantum because quantum technologies have the potential for seismic impact on many sectors of industry and society,” Parnes said. “The Quantum Law Navigator provides a foundation for understanding the legal and regulatory landscape for the development of quantum technology and will be an invaluable asset for innovators across the quantum ecosystem.”
Its release could be seen as a marks of a maturing phase for the U.S. quantum sector, as discussions shift from scientific feasibility to governance, regulation and market structure. For quantum technologies to achieve their projected $1 trillion in economic value by 2035, the report concludes, the nation must align scientific ambition with legal clarity. The rules of the quantum economy, it implies, will determine who gets to build it — and who gets left behind.
“Illinois continues to lead the way in building the quantum future — giving researchers, entrepreneurs, and policymakers the tools they need to navigate this rapidly evolving space,” said Governor JB Pritzker, in the statement. “The Quantum Law Navigator will help innovators turn complexity into opportunity and strengthen the foundation of a growing quantum economy. This effort underscores the kind of leadership that keeps Illinois at the center of global innovation.”
Download part 1 here and the entire report here.
The Quantum Law Navigator is intended as a first edition, and the QLN team welcomes feedback. Please reach out via email, visit the CQE website to subscribe for updates, and share insights to guide future work by the Navigator team.
