This likely has much more to do with the U.S. government wanting to break encryption than say...find cancer treatments. Quantum computer efforts were probably a

This likely has much more to do with the U.S. government wanting to break encryption than say...find cancer treatments. Quantum computer efforts were probably already funded in a much smaller way through the NSA's black budget, but they must of thought they might as well make it public and give it a much bigger budget.