Global Quantum Forum Opens in Chicago Amid Encryption Countdown and $9B Park

The second annual Global Quantum Forum kicks off today with an opening reception in Chicago, convening heads of state, Fortune 500 CEOs, defense officials, and quantum hardware companies against a backdrop that has shifted dramatically in the 29 days since President Donald Trump signed two executive orders that set legally binding deadlines for how quickly the federal government — and every contractor that serves it — must abandon the encryption protecting today's most sensitive data. Those orders arrived because the threat they address is not a future problem. Adversaries are intercepting and storing encrypted government, financial, and intelligence communications now, with the explicit strategy of decrypting them once a sufficiently powerful quantum computer exists — a technique security researchers call "harvest now, decrypt later." The Global Quantum Forum (GQF26), hosted by Chicago nonprofit P33 and the Illinois Economic Development Corporation (Illinois EDC) and running July 22–23 at the Radisson Blu Aqua Hotel, is designed precisely for the executives and policymakers who need to understand what that threat means and what they must do before a deadline that is now four years away. Main programming begins Wednesday morning with a fireside chat between Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and technology journalist Kara…