A Good Morning to be Finnish in New York 🇫🇮 🇺🇸
FACC-NY President Joanna Willott and Board Member Janna Salokangas represented FACC-NY at the U.S.–Finland Quantum Technology Diplomacy Roundtable — hosted by Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen and the Finnish Consulate in New York.
Minister Valtonen opened the morning by framing Finland’s emergence as a global quantum leader: world-class research, sovereign technology development, and a thriving ecosystem of quantum companies. With the recent signing of Pax Silica, Finland is quietly building one of the world’s most coherent quantum frameworks — and helping shape the architecture of the quantum era through international partnerships and strategic cooperation.
The conversation focused on where the industry actually stands today. Demand for quantum is real. Commercialization is still early.
Three questions kept surfacing:
→ How do we reduce the risk profile enough for capital markets to stop treating quantum as a speculative bet — when it’s already being applied across finance, logistics, and energy?
→ What does the legal and regulatory framework for quantum look like, and how does it extend into legacy sectors like oil and gas that are watching closely, waiting for software readiness?
→ How do we build the ecosystem — hardware, semiconductors, talent, and funding — in parallel, when each piece depends on the others and none of it comes cheaply?
Geopolitically, China is moving quickly. The window for the United States and Europe to build quantum infrastructure together will not stay open forever.
Quantum breakthroughs happen where academic excellence meets startup speed. Finland’s combination of deep research, entrepreneurial agility, and strong government support for early-stage innovation makes it a compelling model — one worth paying attention to.
The takeaway: build quantum as a community, not a competition. And make sure the ecosystem is ready before the technology outpaces it.
A heartfelt thank you to Minister Elina Valtonen, the Finnish Consulate in New York, Juhani Sirén, panelists Javad Shabani, Norma A. Padrón, Sammy Moseley, Zia Mohammad, Ron Bewtra, Nate Moulton, and Joshua Blume, and moderator Fikriye Selen-Okatan for an important, thoughtful, and timely discussion.
