The competition in quantum computing is playing out not only in chips and algorithms but also in ecosystem building. On October 26, news emerged from Anhui's quantum computing chip laboratory: Origin Quantum has donated computing hours on its self-developed superconducting quantum computer, Origin Wukong, to three universities in Pakistan, the United Kingdom, and Kazakhstan.
Donating Hours, Cultivating an Ecosystem
The mechanics of the donation deserve a close look. What the universities receive is not hardware but cloud hours: users book time on Origin Wukong machines through the company's quantum cloud platform and program them in Origin's self-developed quantum programming language.
Turning real machines into cloud-accessible resources and building a developer community around them is a proven playbook in quantum computing: the more people use a platform, the more likely its toolchain and language become the default in teaching and research — and the switching costs built over years become the moat.
The Full-Stack Bet
Origin Quantum is China's first dedicated quantum computing company and claims full-stack independence across quantum chips, operating systems, programming languages, and software tooling. According to public figures, the Origin Wukong series now serves cloud quantum computing in 192 countries and regions, with 1.3 million computing tasks completed to date. Domestically, the company has built joint teaching-and-research platforms with nearly a hundred universities and opened free machine hours to dozens more.
The path from free domestic university access to donations abroad is consistent: grow the developer base first, then turn quantum computing power into a standardized export product. Commercial quantum computing remains distant, but the contest for developer mindshare has already begun.